Newsletter - June 2025

I write this on the cusp of June, when in the Church’s calendar we are waiting between Ascension Day, when Jesus was taken up into Heaven, and Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. A week after that is Trinity Sunday when we recognise that God is three-in-one and one-in-three: Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit.

June sees the anniversary of the announcement of my appointment as vicar, and I’ve now been in post 9 months, so have had my first Christmas and Easter and baptisms here, but until last month we hadn’t had any weddings. That changed in May when we had not one but two marriages, a week apart!

The 24th May saw the wedding of Isabelle Grant and Anthony Haynes and on 31st May we celebrated the marriage of Harriet Cox and Luke Collet. This was very much a family affair with a long and ongoing history with St Philip’s. Luke’s grandfather Jack, was vicar here from 1973-1982. Luke’s parents, David and Sharon were married here by Jack, and Luke was baptised here. David has been attending St Philip’s for over forty years and is soon to take on the role of Churchwarden once again. We are hugely grateful to him and Sharon for all they do for the church. 

Our Quiz Night was a huge success and a thoroughly enjoyable evening for all who came. Huge thanks to our Quiz Master, Roger Hillier, who must have spent hours preparing such a smooth running, varied and engaging set of rounds, and to the Blatt family who served as scorers, and to Michelle, who organised the raffle and refreshments.

Congratulations to the winner, the “Sues etc” who beat the other six teams to be pronounced the champions. Over £325 was raised which will go towards the much needed new boiler for the Church Hall.

Please come along to our summer celebration for Gift Day on 6th July and please help if you can with running stalls, serving refreshments, and collecting donations. Traditionally Gift Day has been a day when parishioners would donate, to their local church, a cash sum in addition to the weekly offertory. We are grateful that we can now receive your gifts in so many ways – cash, cheques, contactless payments via the card machine, one-off donations via the QR code and even monthly giving by Direct Debit via the Parish Giving Scheme. Thank you in advance for your generosity!