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How St James' Church came to run the Post Office (Nov '03). There has been a long-held vision among the congregation of St James church to see the Parish Centre, in the village High Street, as a place that villagers would come to regularly. Early attempts to run a café every day of the week were reduced to just one day when the Post Office opened. This was a popular venue for local residents and tourists alike.
Our vision was re-focused as we sought to be ‘a community of faith in the community.’ That means finding practical ways of making that happen. During the early summer of 2003 our young people demonstrated how it could be done with ‘The Shout’, practical help in the form of gardening,
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painting, litter picking and many other things besides. Like the bigger national initiatives through Soul Survivor this has had a lasting impression. “What would you think of running the Post Office?” was a question sometimes asked of the church leaders. It sounded like a nice idea but the practical implications were a little daunting and at the time our funds were limited.
The retirement of the then sub-postmaster was only months away and no one came forward to take on the franchise. An approach was made to the Rural Re-location Office at the Post Office about the idea of providing the services of the Post Office as means of serving the community. We would not be looking to make profits, though we would expect to be able to cover our costs.
Hearing that government funds were available and once we had established that our toy cupboard was large enough to house a single counter post office, we offered the facilities. As a Grade 2 listed building there were technicalities to overcome but we believe that in so many |
instances God smoothed the way in overcoming bureaucratic hurdles. Having a half-time, though fully committed Parish Administrator was the crucial provision of God in a person able to manage the business on behalf of the PCC as a non-profit making service to the community. After the official opening by the Bishop of Huntingdon, John Inge, on Monday November 10th 2003 the Parish Centre has have never been so busy. The challenge now is the long haul of building relationships. This is being aided by providing a Parish reception desk in the same room as the Post Office, which makes the office facilities, already used by the local community, more readily accessible.
Our prayer is that our serving the community in this practical way will bear the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of many.
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