Many, many thanks to all those who, in any way, contributed to the tremendous success of the Celebration of Marriage Weekend at the beginning of May. A great deal of work went into the planning and then the preparations and the actual three days themselves. The churches looked wonderful! The flowers in St Mary's were absolutely stunning and the displays of wedding dresses and Christening gowns in both churches were beautiful as well as being fascinating indicators of changing fashions (and waist lines!). The crafts at St Nicolas' attracted a lot of interest and people were very grateful for the excellent refreshments. Over 90 people attended the service in St Mary's on the Saturday afternoon, many couples taking the opportunity to renew the promises they had made to each other on their wedding day, which could have been anything from a year ago to almost 55 years! We then celebrated with traditional 'fizz' and a lovely 'wedding' cake.
In many ways, the amount of money we made for the St Nicolas' Renewal Appeal over the weekend is incidental. It was so good to have the churches open and to be able to welcome so many people - lots of whom were local, but had never been inside before! It was also such a wonderful 'joint effort' and it was good to see so much expertise being drawn together to such effect. And lastly, it was good to celebrate the institution of marriage, which although we must acknowledge is difficult for some people, is still, to quote from the Marriage Service, 'a gift of God in creation and a means of his grace'. A wonderful celebration - thank you all!
Fr Michael
