Cleaning and Caring for our Beautiful Church – an “outward and visible sign”
The cleaning team met on Saturday morning (2nd October) , as they do on six Saturdays a year. On four of those Saturdays the team clean the Lady Chapel, the chancel, and the nave and on the other two we clean the galleries. If we can manage it , the brass gets polished, the polished woodwork is dusted and burnished, the floors are vacuumed or swept, all the painted wood (pews , window ledges and seats,) is washed down, and cobwebs and dust generally banished as vigorously as possible. We normally manage to get this done in a couple of hours. For many years we have had a habit of assigning each volunteer a particular task (a group of pews, for instance) which they take on regularly. Most of these need take no more than an hour, so if we had enough volunteers very few of us would need to devote more than six hours a year to the task. Most of team would probably actually spend a little more than a scant hour at the church each time, however, there is always tea or coffee and cake, which the vicar kindly described on Sunday as “great”, and lots of space for chat!
I am always so pleased when a visitor comes into the church while I am stewarding, and exclaims “isn’t this beautiful – how nice it looks!”. I know it wouldn’t look good if it wasn’t regularly cleaned, and I do think it is an “outward and visible sign” of a community that is welcoming and cares for people and space, which is why I clean. As George Herbert said “who sweeps a room as for thy laws/makes that and the action fine”.
Come and join us. We next meet – for a gallery clean – on Saturday 6 November. Do contact me. The parish office ([email protected]) will pass on a message or an email
