The church below is the one of the two churches where I've been placed for my main placement at St Helen's, Selston and St Mary's, Westwood, where I'll be almost every Sunday until Christmas.



The church serves the twin communities, Jacksdale and Westwood - not even the locals can tell you for certain where one begins and the other one ends! Jacksdale and Westwood are former mining communities, with industries in coal, clay and iron.

The setting of St Mary's church is idyllic.  The church building, as you can see, is lovely, it has an open graveyard and is located set up a small lane.  Although its setting is picturesque, the church's location is less than ideal as its remoteness means that people could conceivably live in Weswood for years without knowing the church is there!

Inside, the church has been recently redecorated and the pews have been removed, which makes the space welcoming, bright, flexible and children friendly.



The weekly congregation is about 30, made up of a mix of ages.  Music is lively and up-to-date and the church members are incredibly friendly, at least they have been so far!

My first Sunday service was a joint cafe style service with St Helens.  Breakfast was superb - with bacon, sausages, doughnuts and caramel squares and cake on tap.  The atmosphere was friendly and it seemed that both church communities mixed well.  It was great to worship with them and chat to people (we didn't leave the church until nearly 2 - over an hour and a half after the service ended!) I'm looking forward to spending more tine getting to know people and, seeing as we've received multiple invitations for dinner, I think we'll be able to fairly quickly!

I'm really excited about the next few months.  It'll be challenging, not least because the journey there will take half an hour each way, but I anticipate that the time will also be incredibly rewarding too.  I'm looking forward to learning from Fi (the vicar) and all the church members and to spend time "practising" the calling I feel I've had for the last decade.  I hope you enjoy the journey with me.