When I said in a recent interview that Yaxley was a close-knit community I was challenged by someone (not the interviewer) to support this comment.
I thought I would record here just two of the things which came to my mind in support of what I had said.
Firstly, just before Christmas we gave out hampers from the Food Bank to 29 families. These hampers had a combined weight of 1,138kg – all of which was donated by the local community. I am aware that some of this was donated from people living outside Yaxley. Thank you to everyone who so generously donated in order to enable us to support these families in Yaxley and the surrounding area.
Secondly, there have been three recent and tragic deaths in Yaxley where the costs of the funeral have been largely or wholly covered by “crowd-funding”. What amazing generosity has been displayed by both those who knew the families and those with no connection at all – other than wanting to reach out to a local family in distress. In addition, I know that an enormous amount has been done in and by the local community to support the bereaved families.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he responded by encouraging us to love God with all our heart, body, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Jesus’ response is the focus of our sermons series throughout February and into March. Whether you have a Christian faith or not, and wherever you live, my prayer is that we would all love our neighbour as ourselves and continue to build our local communities. Through this may we come to know the real love of God.
It would also be wrong of me to let the month of February pass without mentioning Valentine’s Day. My congratulations to all those of you who have recently got engaged and who will do so on February 14th. If you would like to get married at St. Peter’s I would love to hear from you. Please contact me as soon as you can – we already have around 25 weddings booked for this year and 12 for 2018.
With my continuing prayers,
Jon Randall (Vicar) 01733 240339; vicar@saintpeters.co.uk
Read this article in the Yaxley Gazette.