Recollections of My Time as Vicar of Helmdon

Recollections of My Time As

Vicar Of Helmdon

an article by John Roberts

St Mary Magdalene Parish Church.

I started to take services in Helmdon church while I was still teaching at Sponne School in Towcester in 1991-2. The church was in interregnum and I was very happy taking services and ministering as and when I had time. After a year or so Jenny, my wife, and I ‘sort of looked at each other’ and thought we could make it work on a permanent basis. I had been teaching in Towcester for 14 years or so and was happy to consider a change. What we all thought was a good idea took the Diocese of Peterborough a little longer to accept, especially as I planned to stay in my own house in Pimlico which was situated ‘centrally’ to the new Benefice and I could treat all the parishes in the same way. Eventually we all found a way and although people couldn’t really tell the difference I was Licensed and Installed as Priest in Charge in January 1993, not as Rector as I didn’t live in the Rectory! (Things have moved on now!).

John Roberts. Then began a very happy period in my life and in the end of the day any reminiscences I might have about Helmdon are all about the people there and what we ended up doing together. It would be invidious of me to name anybody in particular as there were so many. There was the Sunday School – and people wouldn’t believe it now but we had in the region of 30 children on the role and a regular attendance of 20 or so. The vestry room was constructed in order that we could have two separate groups meeting; one in the belfry and the other in the vestry while the main Sunday service was taking place. The regular meetings with the Sunday School teachers were really creative sessions when the future events were planned; whether it was picnics in the days when we could take trailer loads of children from a church to a farm behind a tractor; then there were the Christingles which we made – in the end 300 or so of them – which became a real social occasion with a meal included in the ‘making’. There was the Choir of course which started with a dedicated nucleus and then grew to the time when we would regularly be having 20 or 25 to the weekly choir practice and we could boast a 4 part choir in the region of 30 or so with lots of young children all part of the Royal School of Church Music training scheme. We sang lots of different things (some better than others!) and joined in annually with the choirs throughout the Diocese in the Cathedral for their choral festival. Christmas was always a special time and with the choir leading we went round the village singing carols with loads of people joining in with mince pies and mulled wine being offered to keep us going. We started the Christingle service on Christmas Eve rather tentatively but it grew! Those were in the days when we had children walking round the church with lighted candles!! There was the odd singed lock of hair but nothing serious.

Carol services were always full affairs and I remember saying to a colleague at one point when we were discussing church attendance that I had lost count of the number of times we had had over 100 in church to our various services. Another tentative beginning saw us move from church to Manor Farm for the first Rogation Sunday service and that was another service which grew! Harvest Festival was always a joyous time and then there was Whitsunday when we walked from church to church. I suppose I did have quite a lot to do with the young people of the village, whether it was with the newly formed youth club, the under Fives service to which I always looked forward or my time in school. I shall long remember a collage that we made one year in school which was a big ‘roundel’ depicting the school and the village. In the centre was the viaduct (no prompting from me I assure you) and there was a train crossing it, and it was a steam hopefully allowed some of the youngsters to develop a love for music. Whilst there train! And this from children who had never even seen a train crossing the viaduct let alone a steam train! I also had great fun teaching recorder in the school for many years and was always a great of administration especially when I had to take responsibility for Lois Weedon and Wappenham and also there were my Diocesan responsibilities as Rural Dean, but the part when I really felt I was fulfilling the role that I was here for was when I was out round the parishes visiting people in their own homes. Sadly this seems to be something that is missing these days either because of pressures of work or because of the “Safeguarding” issues.

But things change and move on. It all came to an end for me when I very happily handed over the reins to Will Adams in 2005. He and I had worked together for a number of years and had the same pastoral approach the ministering to people and I knew that the parish and the benefice were in safe hands.

John Roberts
2020

Editor’s note: John was vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church from 1993 – 2005