I want to give next Sunday’s service over to this issue. We expect the boundary changes come into effect the end of this month. This means that all the homes on this side of Thamesdown Drive, the four schools and the Orchid Vale Care Home are going to be in our parish.
What will it mean for us?
St Francis School is a church school. It operates in a very different way from secular schools as far as faith is concerned. It will have very different links with this church, and we will have responsibilities towards it which we do not have towards, for example, Haydon Wick school.
There is currently a small service which meets on Sunday afternoon at 4 PM once a month. There is going to be a handover service on Sunday, November 26 at 4 PM, when St John’s Haydon Wick will take over responsibility for that service from St Andrew, North Swindon. It would be wonderful if members of St John’s were able to join us for that service. It would give you more of an idea of what it all looks like.
We will be running our first service there on Christmas Eve at 4 PM.
In addition, we have already made contact with our first couple from North Swindon requesting baptism. This is yet another sign that we’re going to be in a very different position in 2018 than we were in 2016.
So it’s important to talk about it. And we will do that next Sunday.