at Dalton Piercy, Elwick and Hart Produced for the Villagers by Hart and Elwick Churches Revd. Janet Burbury, The Vicarage, Hart, Hartlepool. TS27 3AP
[email protected] Tel. 01429 262340 Mob 07958 131271 Dear friends, There are many outdoor events being planned for this month – not least our Bishop’s Prayer Walk in Hartlepool on June 1st, 2nd and 4th when Bishop Paul aims to meet folks in their everyday places so we’ll be walking about 6 miles a day and calling into places of industry, shops, drop in centres and ice cream parlours! Do come and join us for all or some of the walks as we certainly don’t want to be walking alone! Find the itinerary on a Facebook page Prayerwalkdurham Much of my ministry at present involves carrying out a consultation ex- ercise with all the Hartlepool parishes across the town to begin new ways of discovering how best to offer the maximum opportunity to bless and minister to our local communities. We are being asked to sit tight on structures and focus on outcomes, we are asked to build up the church and increase a variety of ministries….Now if you are thinking there must be another aspect to this agenda as there doesn’t seem to be any- thing new – well I’m afraid there is…… Given that we find ourselves re- lying far too heavily on the Church Commissioners and in order to get churches out of financial difficulties which we have been doing for the previous 10 years, we now need to serve our 12 churches with tight- ened belts by reducing the number of stipends (money priests are given on which to live - a bit like wages) from 8.5 to 7 by 2020.