With many years of service to the community and to the church, Gillian Geraghty can certainly be counted among the comparatively small number of willing helpers who constitute the backbone of our parish.  Currently, and for some time now, secretary of the Hale DCC, Gillian probably knows as much about what goes on in the parish as anyone, and she is always ready to use this knowledge to smooth the wheels of parish life.

Rita Newell has been praising the Lord in song with her clear, true voice pretty well all her life, and she has been doing this very much in our part of the world. Born in Aldershot, educated in the town and married to a local man, Rita is as much a native of this area as it is possible to be. 

A Surrey man through and through, Peter Haines was born in Sheen, moved to Farnham nearly forty years ago, and has lived in the home he shares with Elizabeth in Oakland Avenue ever since.  In fact, Peter and Elizabeth have been close to each other all their lives: as children they lived in neighbouring streets, then they attended the same church youth club, and now they are a permanent and well-loved feature of the parish scene.

This month we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  We will recall the giving of God's Holy Spirit to the first Christians, the disciples in Jerusalem, and pray for the gift of that same Spirit for us.

There are not many parishioners who would readily visualise our Parish Treasurer working in a coal mine.  It is among the more surprising aspects of Jim Miller's long and busy life that that is what he did. Born and bred in Essex where he spent the first half-century of his life, Jim left his grammar school at the age of 14 and went straight into civil engineering, a field in which he was eventually to build a life-long career.

"Ha!"  Pinky gave a strange laugh.  "Ha ha!"  He had been practising all week.  He had practised at his mother until she had asked him where he hurt.  He had practised in front of a mirror, sucking in his cheeks until his eyes popped.

"Percival," his mother called.  He wished she wouldn't.