Parish ministry

I don't normally post about day-to-day parish ministry but am very aware in this my first week back from my sabbatical of what is involved. Additionally I've had a meeting with a potential ordinand today and have therefore been talking about my understanding of ministry.

So, just for the record and as a one-off post, today, as a fairly typical day in the life of a parish priest, has involved: leading our midweek Holy Communion service; a meeting to plan interviews for the vacancy in our Playgroup; a meeting to discuss ministry with a potential ordinand; passing the time of day with centre users; two hospital visits; and one home visit. I also have a meeting scheduled for later this evening to plan a renewal of vows service for a couple on their wedding anniversary.

In the course of these activities I've met with 20 parishioners (some members of the congregation, others not), prayed about one person's carpal tunnel condition and another's MS, collected and tested a CD for playing during a funeral on Friday, passed on a message about our Contact Centre, advised a family on how to access NHS Chaplains, and listened to people unpacking issues related to landlords and caring. Unusually I've done almost no administration today other than to send an email thanking those who provided cover during my sabbatical. Most of the above was local but I've visited two different hospitals, so have driven 12 miles in the course of the day.

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The Alarm - Absolute Reality.

TASK Newsletter No. 18

Here's the latest from Chris Connelly of TASK:

England world cup football may be totally dire but there are some welcome distractions for angst- ridden fans and non footballing audiences as TASK looks towards:

• the next community walkabout on Friday 25 June from 0900 until 1200, starting from Seven Kings station. It is our regular opportunity to pick up on all local streetscape concerns, from dumping through graffiti through untidy front gardens and it can make an immediate difference to where you live, so please sign up to join in and/or let us know your hotspots. Together we can begin to turn things around.


• the first of our regular TASK supporter meetings on Monday 28 June from 7-8 in St. John's Church at the junction of St. John's Road and Aldborough Road South. All are welcome as we start a new phase in our journey to improve the area, designed to focus on new areas of interest and concern, and to involve new supporters. Come along. Meet the team. Have your say and be part of our future.

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Show of Hands - Roots.

TASK Newsletter No. 4

Welcome to our latest TASK newsletter, with stories of what's new where we are.

TASK open public meeting- date change

Sorry, due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to move our publicmeeting to Friday 7 March, starting at 7,30pm in St. John's Church, on St. John's Road. It offers a unique first opportunity for supporters to meet each other, share issues, hear about some of our early successes and plan future activity. We hope to see as many of you as possible at what we know will be a friendly and relaxed session, with light refreshments available.

Meads Lane post office on London hit list

By now, you will probably know that David Shah's highly regarded post office on Meads Lane is one of 5 borough-wide, and 169 London wide, earmarked for closure as part of so called 'cost savings'. It is particularly sad this local office is on the list since David and the team work so very hard to build exceptional links with theircustomers and the wider community through the provision of a top quality and highly personal service. For many locals, the post office is a real lifeline and we are asking TASK supporters to take part in the consultation process to register their concerns that this profitable business is on the list. Please email consultation@postoffice.co.uk or write to Anita Turner, network development manager c/o National Consultation Team, Freepost consultation team. You have until April 2 to make your points.

Local street scene walkabout: Friday 29 February from 0900

Our second street scene walkabout will take place on Friday 29 February from 0900 outside 55 Cameron Road, when we will quite literally walk the High Road, Aldborough Road South areas and around the Seven Kings Health Centre building, recording instances of dumping, damage and graffiti for urgent action by Council officers, who will be accompanying us. We also hope this time to have a representative of the borough's licensing enforcement team to further extend our coverage. Supporters are welcome to join in, but please let Ali know if you can attend so we can gauge numbers. He is contactable on email at ahai@deloitte.co.uk.

Joker Liquor Licence

As we go to press, we discover that the new owners of the Joker pub have withdrawn their late licence application until 3am at weekends. This is presumably in response to the representations made by a numberof locals, including large numbers of signatories to a petition organised by a concerned resident.

Library petition

One of our major campaign themes is to get a new library for the people of Seven Kings, and with this in mind we attach a copy of our new library petition (see above). Please sign it, get your family, friends and neighbours to sign it, and if you are part of a broader school or faith community network, please pass it around so we can maximise the response rate. When you have exhausted your contacts, please return your forms to Chris at 31 Bradford Road, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex IG 1 4AR

TASK Leaflets

We continue to make progress issuing TASK leaflets door to door and reckon we are now at around 35% coverage, with a constant stream of new supporter responses. Particular thanks are due to Paul, Padraig, Fran and Audrey for their recent efforts. If you can help leaflet your road, and have not offered yet, please contact Chris.

Right Guard

We are still concerned that the security guards at the station are only patchy in their visibility and seem to be locked away too often in the old staff office on the London bound platform. We hope to meet 'one' railway managers to harden up arrangements over the next week and would appreciate it if supporters who use the station between 1400-0200 daily and don't see any staff email our railway contact, Sailesh Siyani direct at sailesh.siyani@nationalexpress.com. The louder the collective voice, the more likely we are to get service improvements. On the railway station, we are assured that long overdue work on windows for the upper canopy is due to begin very soon. Fingers crossed!

Website

If you have not given it a glance, it's at http://www.task7.co.uk/.

That is it for this time. Our next issue is out w/b March 10.

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Echo and The Bunnymen - Rescue.