Greetings from Hoe and Worthing
(included in the parish magazine which includes Hoe)
Our meetings always have a full agenda with a lively exchange that includes the views of anybody attending. Our last meeting in October was no exception with 26 parishioners and both our county councillor (Bill Borrett) and district councillor (Robert Richmond) in attendance. We also had an interesting talk from Chris Curtis, the team leader for local planning enforcement before our meeting started. The full meeting minutes are now published on our parish web site (see below) and so as this year draws to a close I thought it might be useful if I took the opportunity to say some things there has been no time to say before.
Our new parish room extension has created a hive of activity. There is a new management committee and Sue Malt is the person to contact if you wish to hire the hall (tel. 860237). The hire cost is £30 per day, £15 per half day or evening or £5 per hour. We have an already thriving art and crafts group on Mondays (from 10.00am) and a group of singers who meet on Thursdays (from 7.00pm). Just turn up or give Sue a call for a chat about either thing.
The two Churches of St Margaret’s (Worthing) and St Andrew’s (Hoe) demonstrated with an incredible harvest supper that our parish room and kitchen can easily seat and cater for 50 people.
Our series of talks that were established in the jubilee year have continued so that we have one each month. The next one will be from 7.30pm on 11th December (Christmas in the Workhouse) followed by our choir. Please think about coming along for some toe-tapping songs to welcome in the festive season and share in some traditional refreshments. As with all of the jubilee events the evening is free.
I have had the privilege of chairing our meeting for a number of years but this year, in particular, has brought home to me just what an exceptional community we are. It really is quite incredible that so many people have generously given their time to make so many things a success. Thanking everybody individually here would be impossible but I must draw attention to two things: our parishes have a quite extraordinary website: http://www.hoeandworthingarchive.org.uk. We now also have an amazing new site http://www. hoeandworthingarchive.org.uk which holds all of our very popular photographic archive. Danny Danson and Dick Malt compiled and maintain both of these amazing sites. Please take the time to look at them and you will find both Danny and Dick’s details if you want to contact them.
Looking ahead our always well-supported litter pick will take place in early March and I will be in touch about that. Also we will be selling the half-size snooker table which has lived in the parish room well beyond anybody’s memory. It will be tidied up before it is advertised but will also need some other attention. As well as being useful to play on it would sit very well in the right room as a piece of furniture. Please let me know if you would like to have a look at this piece of local history and perhaps make an early offer.
Returning to our jubilee talks, our last speaker was our team rector. As she addressed a very full room with an interesting talk about Kurdistan, I remembered a very different ecclesiastical encounter several years ago. I was introducing a bishop who was to speak at a university conference at the same time that a renowned and popular author was speaking in the next room. When very few people indeed turned up to hear the bishop speak I suggested he might like to have some of the empty seats taken away before he began. With some resignation he said “Trevor I am a churchman; I’m used to empty seats”.
Our parishes wish everybody a very happy Christmas.
(Trevor Wood, tel. 860326 or email. woodumail@btinternet.com)