After the
death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday 8
September, our organiser Dorrie received an email from
the County HCT to say: "In accordance with the
guidance that whilst we are in national mourning
celebratory events are not allowed, quiet community
activities are. Many of us might welcome a chance for a
quiet reflective walk or cycle ride and the opportunity
to visit churches for moments of silence". This
removed any confusion or worry that churches may have
felt about whether they should go ahead, and some
Striders visiting St Matthew’s did express concern and
were gratified to hear this.
Many thanks to those who volunteered to be Recorders for
this year’s event on Saturday 10 September – Tony, Carol
and Liz – it was much appreciated, and to make it even
more enjoyable for them Dorrie drew up a rolling
rota so that everyone did a two-hour stint but just one
hour with the same person! This allowed her as the
organiser to do one hour with Tony from 10am till 11am,
then hand over the seat to Carol, who sat with Tony and
then Liz till she got back at 1pm to do the final hour
with Liz. It was good to be able to welcome people into
St Matthew’s (visitors were drawn by the Heritage
weekend too), and in the two hours ‘off’ Dorrie ticked
off a few churches as a ‘Strider’.
Having visited several of the Northampton churches
taking part on previous occasions, and with no-one else
volunteering to stride this year, this was a ‘get them
in’ exercise! So having been recorded by Tony she
hot-footed it to Abington Park and the Church of St
Peter and St Paul. In previous years our Striders had
followed a route into town via the Kettering Road,
clocking in at a good number of churches as they went,
but this year St Michael’s and Queensgrove Methodist
Church weren’t taking part, nor St Giles in the town
centre, where they used to take their lunch break. So it
provided an opportunity for a change!
From Ss Peter and Paul it was straight on to
Christchurch on Wellingborough Road, where she did
linger awhile as she met Sue, who used to worship at St
Matthew’s for many years; she wanted to ask how people
were, and they shared a bit of gossip… Then as time was
getting on, it was straight down the Wellingborough
Road, through to Billing Road and up to Victoria Road
Congregational Church, where a coffee morning was in
full swing. But it was home to a welcome mug of tea and
a ready-prepared sandwich before the 1pm stint with Liz.
When Liz locked up at 2pm there was more ‘striding’ to
be done – the bus into town to walk round the town
centre churches, first to Holy Sepulchre, then back and
down Gold Street and Marefair to Castle Hill United
Reformed Church and then St Peter’s, before finishing at
All Saints. Tiredness was now beginning to take over,
but the end was in sight…
It was the bus back to Kingsley Park Terrace and the
last port of call – KP Methodist Church. Phew. There is
nothing in the rules (what rules?!) to say you
have to walk from your home and back to your home, but
transport to a group of churches is surely ok for an
‘officially’ elderly pensioner with dodgy knees… Anyway,
by the time Dorrie did get home she could not have
walked another step and felt that between the Recorders
and her, St Matthew’s had done their bit to earn their
sponsorship money!
So to the lovely people who did sponsor, seventeen
individuals/couples – thank you so much! This year we
raised £375 for the Trust, which means that half of it,
£187.50, came back in due course to St Matthew’s.
So why do we do it? Ride+Stride, annually on the second
Saturday in September, raises money for the Historic
Churches Trust, all over the country. This is such a
worthwhile charity to help — Churches and chapels
throughout the UK are in desperate need of help, just as
we were when St Matthew’s received the very substantial
amount of £10,000 from the Trust a few years ago for our
major building works. So it’s good to show our thanks by
helping others out. |
