Our service this time was led by Val, and Gwen gave the reading.

The notices were given, and a discussion was held regarding "Summer of Hope". A donation would be sent on behalf of the branch, but members could also send their own donations. More information can be found on the Mothers' Union web site: www.mothersunion.org.

An invitation had been received from St Ann, Royton, to attend an afternoon tea. This is to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of their Mother's Union branch. 
This is to be held on the 5th of July at 12:30 pm. Names of members wishing to go are to be given to Val.

We were very pleased to welcome as our speaker for this evening, our own vicar Liz.
She began by taking us back "to lockdown" and described what a trying time it was. At the time she was vicar at St John, Hurst. She wanted to come up with an idea to keep the congregation together when we couldn’t worship together. Her idea was to do a virtual pilgrimage to Lindasfern in Northumberland, and take the parish with her, with emails and weekly updates as to where she would have got to, in real time. As we were at the time only able to do local walks, she calculated the miles to Lindasfern and each day she calculated how far she had walked and how far that would have taken her on the journey. She contacted churches along the way, and they sent her emails and photos welcoming her to their churches as she virtually got to them. It was a brilliant piece of organisation, which seemed to work very well.

At last, some of the travel restrictions began to be eased and she was eventually able to finish her walk to Lindasfern across the causeway in real time.

She showed us a picture of her shoes after walking over 300 miles. She commented they were not holy shoes, but they were certainly full of holes at the end! Liz told us of lots of different incidents that happened on the way, but the most remarkable was that she really did complete her pilgrimage and took everyone with her.

At the end of the talk, Margaret gave a vote of thanks and thanked her for her inspiring achievement.

The meeting ended at 9 o’clock with tea and biscuits. 

Our next meeting will be held on the 8th July.

Margaret Lees