The Revd. Mark Bennet was inducted  and installed at St Mary’s on Thursday 1st September at 7.30 pm. It was a service of great celebration!
Please also remember Mark, Sarah Judith and Naomi in your prayers as they get used to life in Thatcham.

We are so pleased that Tom and Emma have returned safely from their placement in De Aar.
The blog feed has now been removed from the sidebar – as this blog is not being updated..
However, the link is here, for if you wish to look at their adventures over the last six months, (and of course the wonderful photographs too).
We wish them all the very best, and our warmest love as they begin the next phase of life back in the UK.

I just love the Muppets – every time I see them a smile comes to my lips, maybe I’m just a big kid but I still get a kick out of watching The Muppet Christmas Carol every year!  In the Muppet Movie there is a song called “Movin’ Right Along” and it echoes the sense of journeying onward (physically and spiritually) that we have been feeling in the parish these last months.  There has been so much change and challenge among us that it may have felt we were getting …

These are interesting times that we must hold onto.

Friday 18th February.
This is the day that interviews will be held for the post of Rector within the church.
We are inviting everyone to join with us in prayers for both those applying, plus all of those involved in the interview and deliberation process.
The Church itself is open from 10am to 1pm, but please try to take some time in the day wherever you are – walking the dog, mid-shopping, working, etc.

This weekend we reached the final and emotional farewell to Tom and Emma.
It was a time of joyful thanksgiving to celebrate two people who have both given so much to the community over these years…
It was also a time of poignant farewells to say goodbye to good friends… and to wish them all the very best for their coming adventures in Africa.
Tom and Emma’s Africa Blog can be found here.
Norman Jones blessed us all by taking some great photographs of both the evening celebration, and the Eucharist the following morning, …

So it has arrived at last. The final “Vicar’s letter” from my desk. Like lots of things in life, writing the monthly epistle was never easy to do but worthwhile when you have done it and now after over 300 or so of these letters I come to that bitter sweet moment when I will be glad not to have to do it anymore but sad that I no longer have the people to write to! All part of the very fluctuating emotions I am feeling at present about no …

I am sure we all know by now that Tom and Emma are leaving us at the end of October to spend six months working in South Africa before taking a well-earned retirement (and possibly rest?). So, what are we doing about it? Where do we go from here?
The PCC has been very active in seeking advice and preparing the way for a new Rector to lead us in the future.
Firstly, we issued questionnaires, asking for input from everyone in the our churches and outside, about what we would like …