June 2004
Our special preacher and celebrant for Trinity Sunday is Canon Norman Chatfield retired canon of Gloucester Cathedral.
The Annual Easter Vestry meeting was held at St Mary’s Church Desertserges, on 18th April.
The following were proposed, seconded and elected onto the new 2004/5 Select Vestry.
Frank Jennings, Alan Buttimer, Hilda Ross, John Schofield, William Duke, Cyril Draper, Harold Shorten, Rosie Appelbe, Stephen Buttimer, Jean Buttimer, Frankie Stanley, Tom Helen.
The following were proposed, seconded and elected as Wardens:-
John Anderson, Ivan Shorten – Kinneigh
Betty Kingston, Francis Buttimer – Kilmeen
Lily Shorten, Billy Shorten – Farranthomas
Benjie Hosford, Keith Ross – Desertserges
Richard Buttimer, Henry Patterson – Glebe Wardens
At the Vestry meeting immediately after, the following were elected:
Jean Buttimer – Secretary.
Billy Duke – Parish Treasurer and treasurer for Kinneigh Church; and the following as assistant treasurers - Lily Shorten, Missions/Charities and Farranthomas with the assistance of Sara Shorten; Frankie Stanley, Sustentation/Kilmeen; Hilda Ross, Desertserges; Rosie Appelbe, Glebe Fund.
The Reader, David Bourne was co-opted as an honorary member of the Vestry.
The rector thanked everyone for their support and hard work and gave her annual report following various highlights of the year. This showed that we are a growing church – with more baptisms than funerals!
This trend is set to continue. During the months of April/May we had the arrival of four babies.
At the beginning of July (on the 3rd) we look forward to the wedding of Janet Ross and Colin Barrett at St Mary's Church, Desertserges.
At the time of writing the rector is taking in names of those interested in Confirmation training. Confirmation this year will be on 5th September. If you haven’t spoken with the rector by now – don’t worry it is not too late, but get in touch now as classes are now planned for the summer.
We were sorry to hear of Margaret Shorten’s father’s death – Frank Bailey; also of Susan Baker’s sister in law, Agnes Wolf – our sympathies go to all friends and relatives.
Our new prayer books are in all the churches, schools or at home. The church and school copies all have a distinctive Kinneigh Union sticker in them. By this time next year – hopefully before - we will all feel familiar with them.
At the Select Vestry meeting, which met on the 13th May, it was decided that we would try and have one big and really special Union Harvest Thanksgiving Service instead of trying to maintain four mediocre ones. We would ask that each church take its turn to host once over a four-year period. This means we can do something really special each time. A few months ago I was reading the inscription on a communion cup/chalice at Farranthomas and realised it was given to Murragh church exactly three hundred years ago in 1704. (Murragh was the church that fell prey to the River Bandon.) The Vestry meeting agreed we should do something special to commemorate the chalice (think of its history and all those people who have received communion from that one cup) and that the theme of the harvests over the last three hundred years – and to think of the lack of harvest some years, including famine, would be fitting.