APCM – A thank you to Jeremy
There is the custom that the church wardens ask a member of the congregation to do a short thank you to the vicar. I have never been asked to do this, so I thought this year I would do the vote of thanks to Jeremy.
These are just a very few of my personal memories that I would like to say thank you for-
- I am a bit prone to having new ideas! I was always grateful to Jeremy for his willingness to embrace new ideas and then give his support. He supported Hampstead Parish Church becoming a community sponsorship church, both within congregation and in the wider community. We didn’t know any other church that had done this, so we didn’t know what to expect, but he still went along with it.
When John Barker and I were promoting community sponsorship to other churches we met so many people who said they wanted to become community sponsors but their vicar just didn’t support the idea – so they couldn’t – but we did
I was always grateful to have Jeremy with me at meetings with the Home Office and Camden. I was nearly always anxious to show that we were doing the right things and he was always calm and reassuring. And he was lovely with the family. They knew he supported them and wanted the best for them. I remember him restringing Monther’s guitar when Monther had musical aspirations; having his bicycle repaired so he could give it to Monther to explore London; and then teaching Hamoudi to balance a spoon on his nose. I have tried it – It’s not easy.
- He embraced the project “What is Hampstead Parish Church to you”. He was willing to wait and see how it evolved, when even I didn’t know how it would. And then he wrote a very moving personal reflection saying what a privilege it was to stand in the pulpit and how he used to remind himself of this every time when he was in the pulpit and he held on to the old candle holders.
- He wanted us to be involved in social action programmes and I remember how pleased he was to welcome back Traidcraft and the Night Shelter after the covid pandemic.
- He is a practical person and during covid he always seemed to be clearing the bins – when I suggested possibly a rota of people to do this he said “no”. He did it around 3 in the afternoon when the schools were coming out and it gave him an opportunity to engage with young families – and they loved him.
- He was as passionate about decluttering as I am – so if going forward we can’t find anything I can always say “Jeremy probably threw it away!”
- Jeremy has a super voice and as you know loves music. And for those of us lucky enough to go to the Jazz Café – who can forget his rendition of ‘Hound Dog’! Do you remember during covid when we weren’t allowed to sing and instead we had the creative choir relaying the music on screen – sometimes it didn’t work and I remember with pleasure when Jeremy had to step in and sing the hymn instead.
- And remembering covid – when it happened, thanks to Jeremy, we hit the ground running and were online almost immediately. This helped to keep us together as a community. So many other churches weren’t as lucky
- These are just a few of things I remember and want to say thank you for.
- Jeremy wanted us as a community to be the best we could be – the love and support that Martin and I have received since Jeremy left is testimony to this.
- Oh and finally – Thinking back to Suzanne’s vote of thanks last year – yes we are a dog friendly church – I think I counted 6 or 8 dogs on Easter Sunday morning!
We were very blessed to have Jeremy and Julia with us for six years.
Thank you.