[Magdalen] Please pray

[Michael Bishop]

I would be grateful for prayers for my parishes.

We have been going through a difficult time lately. Six weeks ago one of 
our churches, St Andrew's, Radbourne suffered a visit from lead thieves 
and lost the entire chancel roof. Thios is a heavy blow for a tiny 
parish which works hard to maintain its grade 1 medieval church. With a 
turnover last year of £6,000 for all purposes we are now faced with a 
bill of perhaps £15,000 for repairs with a maximum insurance 
contribution of half that. We just hope and pray that the rest of the 
roof is not stolen.

Now, yesterday, another of my churches, All Saints, Trusley suffered the 
loss of most of its roof. Cost of repairs not yet know but certainly in 
excess of £10,ooo. This for a parish with a _population_ of only 80. 
Again we will be struggling to repair this very special early 18th 
century church.

You can imagine how my congregations feel - they are devastated.

Our part of Derbyshire is suffering a whole string of these thefts, and 
we are wondering where will be next. I am just hoping that St Michael's 
Church Broughton is not hit next. We lost some lead a few years ago and 
has managed to complete repairs. If the thieves arrive here, I will 
probably have a disturbed night as the roof alarm from the church which 
is next door to me should sound and awaken me. Mind you, last time we 
had a theft, I decided to sleep in church so that I would hear any 
thieves if they called again. They did come back - but were disturbed 
by somebody else who chased them off and then came in church to wake me 
up - I had slept through the whole proceedings! (No roof alarm then though!

I wish that I could say that the police are hot on the trail of the 
thieves, but I am afraid that would be at best an overstatement. The 
theft at Trusley was reported to them yesterday evening and they have 
still to deign to call to begin investigations. (It is now 8.00p.m. - 
almost 24 hours since our phone call alerted them.

Thank you for listening to my moan!

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God bless

Michael Bishop
rev at michaelbishop.name

Rector of Boylestone, Church Broughton, Dalbury, Longford, Long Lane, 
Sutton-on-the-Hill & Trusley

Diocese of Derby, England