The evening of October 16th saw the licensing service for Revd Lynda Davies, the new rector of All Saints’ Cottenham and All Saints’ Rampton.
It was a lovely and memorable occasion with a full church and some rousing hymns. The organist said delightedly, “That was the best congregational singing I’ve ever played for: I got to pull out all the stops.”
The Rt Rev David Thomson, Bishop of Huntingdon, led the service with his characteristic blend of grace and gentle good humour, and Iain Campbell from her former parish commended her to us warmly.
Members of the Cottenham and Rampton community welcomed Lynda, asked her to make sure the church tower doesn’t fall down like it did 400 years ago, and invited her to do crafts with the Brownies. The service was followed by a fantastic spread of refreshments from the All Saints’ Cottenham team (pictured below). We are all very much looking forward to Lynda’s ministry with us.
Lynda is joined in Cottenham by her husband Martyn (below), and their two cats. They join us from the neighbouring FiveFolds benefice which includes the villages of Willingham, Longstanton, Over, Swavesey and Lolworth.
Lynda has led everything from Messy Church to Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion and loves the variety that parish ministry brings. Martyn currently works part-time at Peterborough District Land Registry, and he and Lynda have two children and very recently became grandparents! They are both looking forward to getting to know Cottenham and Rampton.
Lynda joins us in a season of building work. The much-needed roof repair project continues now that bat nesting season is over, and our beautiful new altar rail (two panels shown below) will be in place in time for Christmas.
In the new year, the work on the refurbishment process begins in earnest. The church building will not be usable during this time, so our regular services will be held in the hall. We hope the church building itself will be open again for Easter, at which point we will hold an open event to celebrate the completion of the works.
In amongst all this, the regular life of the church in the community goes on. Our fundraising work has continued with the Come and Sing and regular quiz. We also filled many hundreds of shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child! There are also weekly Sunday services at 8:30 am and 10:30 am, of course, but also a fortnightly after-school service on Tuesdays for families with primary age children, baptisms, small house groups that meet in the week for study, funerals, services in care homes, weddings, fellowship teas in Franklin Gardens, personal visits from Lynda and the lay ministers and more.
We are looking forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus this Christmas with the Christingle service, Nativity service, Christmas Eve carols, Midnight Communion and more, so look out for the list of upcoming services elsewhere in the newletter. You are, however, always more than welcome to join us, whatever time of year it is and whatever your season of life.
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