2011 May 28 « Paxtonvic’s Blog

Little Paxton Has Bell Appeal…. lift off 22 days!

After a great deal of hard work, planning and fund raising part one of our Church For Tomorrow Project ( CHUFT) now has a start date – June 20th. Part one involves anything to do with the tower – the four existing bells will be taken away to Taylors Bell Foundry in Loughborough for refurbishment, one reconditioned bell will be added to the peal and a new bell cast to give us a peal of 6. There will be a new frame introduced into the tower, a new ringer’s floor, new screen across the tower arch and much work done to the tower structure inside to make sure it can with stand the new additions. Our old tower clock will also be fully refurbished by Smiths of Derby – taken away and brought back in good working order.

All this was made possible by the offer of the £50K when we won the Peoples Millions Competition back in November.

The anticipated completion date is early November…with a dedication service near to Christmas ( obviously we shall have to sing Ding Dong Merrily on High!)

It will be business nearly as usual in St James during this time… although there will be a large screen across the arch to keep out dust etc.

Lots of people have contributed to our appeal – and the good news is that our fundraising continues… as we need to raise c £80,000 to be able to start phase 2 of CHUFTin 2012. We are still inviting people to sponsor one of our new oak chairs which will be replacing the very tired and inflexible late Victorian pewing and phase 2 also includes a new floor with under floor heating, a new gas fired boiler and redecorating and replastering along with improved disabled access.

Its a brave project…….and now I must get ready to go to Great Paxton where the new Diocesan Churches Support Officer, Scilla Latham, is coming out to talk to other brave people from our Deanery who are thinking about similar projects and how to fund them.

May 28, 2011 Posted by paxtonvic | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

About Annette

Greetings to everyone who finds ” Paxtonvic” blog.

Paxtonvic is The Revd Canon Annette Reed, Vicar of Little and Great Paxton with Diddington and since February 2014 minister-in-charge of Southoe in Cambridgeshire near to St Neot’s. I have also been Rural Dean of St Neots since 2007.

( I’m the one on the right!)

Do come in and explore Paxtonvic.

You will find information about church and village life of Little Paxton, Great Paxton, Diddington and Southoe as well as St Neots and the surrounding villages.

I have another blog just about Great Paxton: http://www.greatpaxtononline.wordpress.com

If you feel moved to do so, please leave a comment. Its easy to do that – just click on ” comment” at the bottom of each entry and a little box comes up which you can type in.

If you would rather just read about St James Church at Little Paxton, please go to :

http://www.littlepaxtonchurch.org.uk

You can also follow St James Church on Face Book at:

http://www.facebook.com/St JamesChurchLittlePaxton.

st james little paxton

St James Church at Little Paxton

A little bit about me.

I was born Annette Richings in Tuckton Nursing Home near to Bournemouth in July 1954. Building had connections in past years with Leo Tolstoy and his secret printing press and I am grateful to recent contributors who have sent me more information about this interesting piece of history.

Some of my earliest memories are of being on Boscombe sands, playing in the waves and pulling on the penny fruit machines with my Grandad Will Trimby helping me. We moved to Portsmouth when I was 9 years old and here is me at Portsmouth Grammar School c 12yrs old.

little me

In 1966 we moved to Oxford and it was there that I fell in love with the Church of England as we lived in Christ Church College where my father was a lodge porter. I used to go to Oxford Cathedral most days for Evensong sung by the Cathedral Choir and developened a deep love for english choral music and the gentle spirituality of the regular offices.

I also used to sing as a teenager at St Mary Magdalene Church in Oxford City, a church with a distinct high church tradition which also infomed my explorations of the Christian faith.

If I had to define my ” churchmanship” ( always seemed a strange word to me) I would say I am a Liberal Anglican who appreciates both the best of Ango-catholic tradtions and the passion and conviction of Evangelicals. I trained for Church of England Ministry at The Queens College in Birmingham and was deaconed in Coventry Cathedral in 1987. Priesting followed in 2004.

I served as curate at Clifton-upon-Dunsmore near to Rugby and later at Walsgrave parish, both in Coventry Diocese. After three years in Hinckley, Leicestershire, I had eight wonderful years as Team Vicar in the Bosworth and Sheepy Benefice, looking after the Sheepy Group of five churches.

In 2006 I moved to The Paxtons and became Rural Dean of St Neots in 2007.

I was honoured to be made a Canon of Ely Cathedral in May 2014.

I love all the contact we have with young families and children and one of events I most enjoy is the Tots and Carer’s group at Little Paxton every Wednesday morning and being part of Great Paxton School as a governor and taking assemblies there.

I delight in welcoming people into our church commuities who ever and however they are. I am pleased when people enjoy coming to worship of any kind, but am equally at home out about and getting involved in village life. I am passionate about church buildings – both in respect of their architecture and also in regards as to how they may be adapted/re-ordered to serve their communities better. I like to think of myself as a bit of a local historian and run two history groups in the Paxtons.

I love plants and tending the vicarage garden. I have a rescue greyhound called Polly who lives with me and often look after my son’s lurcher dog called Charlie. I have two children, Mike who is a teacher locally and Adele a student in Coventry.

Polly my rescue Greyhound.