Stewards

The Parish Church stewards have continued to do their jobs during the year, willingly and faithfully, and I am very grateful for their magnificent and dedicated service.  The church has been kept open every day except Christmas Day.

I have continued to encourage volunteers to give priority to actively welcoming visitors, and not just because it’s the most natural thing to do, to want to say a friendly ‘Hallo’.  To visitors we are the public face of our worshipping parish:  in some cases we could be the only contact they may have with a Christian community, and we want to give a good impression.  Although we get questions about the church’s history, occasionally there is an opportunity to explain the reason why some feature of the building is the way it is, and the faith behind it.  There is a huge variation in visitors’ backgrounds, which makes our job so interesting.

We have had two late-summer parties: one tea party at our house for new stewards, where we managed to find enough bone china for about 40 people!, and one bring-and-share evening do for everyone in the Parish Centre, and both were great successes. 

A one-sheet newsletter with a quiz was produced, which seemed to be of interest as much to parishioners in general as to stewards, and was a fun way for me to emphasise certain guidelines to all our volunteers, which normally only new stewards receive when I take them round the church for the first time.
 
e now have 119 stewards on the list, of whom 104 do regular shifts, and 15 are available on call; compared with 99, 89 and 10 respectively a year ago.  Despite the increase, we still have vacancies, especially at weekends, when several people who have been doing solo shifts for years would like some company!  It is a very rewarding job.  Please call if you would like to join us.