Thackley’s Anniversary Celebrations

Our anniversary weekend on 7/8 March 2015 turned into quite a celebration!

After our Big Birthday Bash last year, to celebrate 125 years of worship at Thackley, we thought that this year's anniversary would be quite a low key affair in comparison. How wrong we were!

We were delighted that Rev Christine Hawke had accepted our invitation to preach and plans were in hand for our usual Gift Day coffee morning on the Saturday - time to sit back and relax until the weekend came.

And then ... a request came in from Brownies to book the room for a Brownie Fair and a parade service to celebrate their 50th Anniversary on the same weekend! Well, that threw us into an email frenzy with many "what if ...", "ah but..." until we finally reached "why not?" Why not share the celebrations? So we did! And what a wonderful weekend it was. The Brownie Fair provided a great opportunity for us to get to know one another and raised over £400.

Rev Chris Hawke took our request to include a Brownie parade into a service with Holy Communion in her stride. We were less sure, and somewhat baffled, when she asked for a series of tables set for a picnic, a birthday, a wedding and a fast food meal. Then, as the service drew nearer, we realised we needed also to include the Lent liturgy, the birthday box, a Brownie promise - would we ever get home for lunch?

Our fears were unfounded. Chris brought all the elements together in a fabulous time of worship, where we talked about Zacchaeus, Mary and Martha, the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus' first miracle turning water into wine, the banquet where people made excuses not to go, and the last supper. All culminating with an open invitation to eat bread and drink wine, to remember that Jesus is our very special friend.

Huge thanks to Brownies, Jigsaw, See and Know, and Monday Mums for decorating the tables, and to Chris for putting it all together. It was a service of great blessing.

Ruth W, Thackley