Read the Churchwarden’s general report on the church over the past year – including new services, the Lent Challenge and the return to Childerley for Christmas Day.
Proceedings of the Parish and the PCC
Services
Sunday services: In the past year we started a new service on the second Sunday of the month, which now means that we have a service every week at the same time in the church, apart from fifth Sundays, where we meet for joint worship with the Lordsbridge Team of Churches. The second Sunday service is a Book of Common Prayer matins service, led by Dona McCullagh. We also changed our fourth Sunday services from all-age to morning prayer, which uses the Common Worship liturgy in the traditional language version. Another addition was the introduction of refreshments after the services, which now that the church is warmer has been a welcome development for the church community.
Seasonal services: We maintained our usual range of seasonal services for Easter and Christmas, although this year we moved back to Childerley Chapel for our Christmas Day service, which was well attended and appreciated. We also continued the more recent tradition of a joint service on Remembrance Day in the Peace Garden with Gateways, and our Harvest Service in Childerley, at which £200 was raised for the Besom charity.
Special services: In July we held a choral evensong with the Archdeacon of Cambridge and Vox Cantab to dedicate the new stained glass window.
Interregnum and appointment
During the interregnum (the time with no vicar in place) we welcomed a number of visiting preachers to Caldecote, including the Old Testament scholar Philip Jenson and Cambridge Lecturer on Mission, Paul Weston. We also very much enjoyed the ministry of the Revd Lynda Taylor, who continues to take occasional services at Caldecote, and Ruth Bond, who is currently taking our services on the fourth Sundays of the month. Above all, we are immensely grateful to the Revd Robert Stephenson, whose dedicated service to Caldecote has been invaluable over the years and especially during the interregnum. Robert announced his retirement earlier this year and we would like to take this opportunity to note our thanks to him and to his wife Sheila, who continue to be valued members of our extended church community. In December we were delighted to welcome the Revd David Newton as our new incumbent, and we are enjoying getting to know him as he begins to settle into the role, which he combines with the care of the parishes of Toft and Comberton.
Other activities and developments
- We took part in the Lordsbridge Pilgrimage, opening up the church for a ten-day period. Our thanks to Nichola Fernandez and Mary Scholefield who set up a prayer station for visitors.
- In the late autumn we began to make sermons available online for those who missed services or would like to re-read what they heard. Links to the sermons are included in the weekly newsletter, which gives them a much wider audience.
- This Lent we ran the Caldecote Lent Challenge – a daily Lent email compiled by Dona McCullagh which gradually introduced readers to the elements that make up the BCP matins service, and its history. Each email offered a topic of the day, Word of the Day and a link to a piece of music online. Forty people subscribed to the series, including two directors of the Prayer Book Society, who are now exploring whether the idea could be rolled out nationally.