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For me Sydling St Nicholas is all about its villagers. Here are friendships, support and encouragement: it’s a delightful Dorset village brim-full of love for our fellows.

My wife, Sue, and I with our two children came here half a lifetime ago in 1983 and were immediately welcomed with open arms. After just a few years I lost my livelihood, my career and our home in one moment. Sydling villagers stepped in and saved the day with work for me and with support for the whole family and we have lived here ever since.

In Sydling homes and gardens are thrown open in hospitality and welcome and villager ‘looks out’ for villager but there are times and events in village life when we want to celebrate our unity of purpose, to mark an event or a festival.

The village pub, The Greyhound, has its fine food, tasty ales and wines and a warm welcome. The Village Hall, where so much has recently been done to modernise it, is the perfect venue for dances and parties and weddings, and concerts and dramas and, oh, so much more.

But our church is crucial to coming together for something more reflective, or celebratory, or just plain special. And there is also an important and treasured spiritual dimension to our village; so much love makes it inevitable.

It’s crucial again, as we meet to acknowledge and mourn the passing of any one of the many remarkable and memorable folk who have ended their days here. The churchyard’s memorial stones remind so many of us of treasured family members and dear friends. As Christmas approaches we need to join in and raise the rafters with familiar Christmas Carols. We delight in our children and grandchildren showing off their presents to a full congregation on the day itself. The flowers and sparkling pews have been the setting for so many marriages down the years.

Our church building is very special indeed and has a long and fascinating history. Its fabric and its maintenance have the support of many generous villagers and grants are also available. But to function at all our church needs a steady income to meet the £20,000 a year it spends just to stand there with its doors open and fulfilling its function as a parish church.

Every year we have to dip into reserves to keep going. Every year the reserves have been there. Every year the Fete and the Marathon and church collections have taken care of the cost of Insurance or heating or the Parish Share to Salisbury Diocese. Well, not this year: Covid 19 has seen to that and we look like ending the year six or seven thousand pounds in debt. That’s unsustainable.

And so I’m climbing Sydling’s Everest in June to draw attention to the church’s plight, to say thank you to its villagers and to just record what a superb village we all live in.

Thank you…