This has been a lovely week. Tuesday saw the induction and ordination of Adrian Guthrie as Rector of St. Nicholas. Bishop John of Warwick did the honours and presented Adrian to a fully packed church. The atmosphere was marvellous. Obviously this sort of ceremony does not occur often and David of course was in the position for many years. Alcester is a minster church with the parishes of Arrow with Wheethly, Great Alne with Kinwarton, Coughton with Sambourne, Haselor and Alcester. Quite a patch. We wish Adrian and Juliette his wife well in their new role.
The next major event was of course St Nicholas’s night. Again this is another super evening of entertainment and the ubiquitous food and drink! The parade of the boy Bishop, the pageant and parade, all great fun. I wonder what Adrian thought of it all!
Saturday was small business day and promoted as a family fun day with wacky things happening up and down the high street. There is of course a serious side to this in attracting people to the town centre shops. So far we are doing OK but we need to all give them our support.
Sunday we attended the Toy Service at the Baptist Chapel. This service is now a tradition and involves the congregation donating toys for the needy, normally in Coventry. It is a lovely service and one with real meaning as it does really help someone, or in fact a family, at Christmas. I was not too sure when Martin the Pastor, said the the High Bailiff and I were on Santa’s naughty list and therefore would not be receiving any presents! The mince pies afterwards were some compensation.
In between that and tea at the Malt Mill Lane centre we bought our Christmas tree. This is a serious event and one for all the family. Real Christmas trees must be in demand because one place we visited had run out! Although the artificial ones are OK, there is nothing quite like a real tree. There is also the tradition of dressing the tree, or in my case watching with a glass of wine in hand making suggestions. (I am not trusted with anything artistic) I trust you have all of your Christmas cards written and ready to send? Join the club. Ah well, I know what I am going to do now. Have a lovely week.