This is a significant week! We are looking forward to welcoming the Reverend Serena Tajima as our new vicar, and she will be collated (that’s the technical term, if anyone was wondering!) to this post by Bishop Colin on Friday evening (17^th July) in a Zoom service at 7.30 pm - it will also be live-streamed so that you can watch it on Facebook at the same time, or view the service at a later date. 

In the seventeen months of the vacancy at St Mary’s Banbury, we have discovered unexpected blessings flowing from all who have contributed to the smooth running of our community, and special mention must go to our churchwardens, Mary and Stephen, who have wisely and collaboratively led us through everything from festivals to floods with unflappable efficiency!  And we have grown together as a team, as a congregation and as a community.  We have had large services and small services, school services and pupil visits, community events and arts gatherings, craft workshops, concerts, Heritage Lottery Funding, building works and roof repairs, new doors (nearly in), Open Days, baptisms, weddings and funerals, Zoom meetings to host discussion groups and provide mutual support, live-streamed services and a developing on-line presence – just to give a brief snapshot of recent activities.  And who could have predicted the development of our community in such a variety of ways?  Certainly 6 months ago, we could not possibly have imagined that we would be streaming weekly Compline and Morning Prayer services from April onwards.  This has been an exciting chapter in our story!

As we now look to the next chapter in the life of St Mary’s Church, we have a sense of anticipation that God continues to have a plan for us to grow with the leadership of Serena, as we come out of lockdown and prepare for the new challenges ahead.  To quote from the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament part of the Bible: ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord.  ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’ (Jeremiah 29:11)   We sense that the Holy Spirit is moving in this place, and we pray that Serena and Andrew will bring a new dimension to our shared calling which we all seek to follow, which is to grow our community and become a more Christ-like church.

For me personally, this is also a significant week as Chris and I celebrate our 30^th Wedding Anniversary and we give thanks for all that has taken place so far in our lives.  On our wedding day in Norwich Cathedral in 1990, I couldn’t have imagined that I would be taking other people’s weddings as an ordained priest in due course (there were no women priests in 1990), nor did I realise then just what a significant part Banbury would play through the next 30 years of my life.  So this week especially, for all the chapters which have so far been written, we give thanks to God and reflect on that wonderful quotation from Dag Hammarskjöld: ‘For all that has been, Thank you.  For all that is to come, Yes!’

Sarah Bourne – 15^th July 2020        sarahbourne@banburystmary.org.uk