The Cake - Spring 2022

LOCAL COMMENT
Vicar says goodbye to
her beloved chickens!
Farewell with love
from Revd Ann
In the words of Peter Cook
and Dudley Moore:
‘Now is the time to say
goodbye.
(Goodbye)
Now is the time to yield a sigh.
(Yield it, yield it)
Now is the time to wend our
way-eee
Until we meet again
Some sunny day’.
And so, six years and three
months after I became Vicar of
Cranbrook, it’s time for me to say
goodbye to all you lovely people
of this parish. I am retiring on
5 March after nearly 20 years of
ordained ministry.
“I will miss you all, I have really enjoyed
my stay here and loved the house and
garden, but as I was told at theological
college, vicars are in a way ‘resident aliens’
in the parish they serve”
It has been a great privilege to
enter into your lives at sad and
happy times and to enter into
the life of the community and
town of Cranbrook. I will miss
you all, I have really enjoyed my
stay here and loved the house
and garden, but as I was told at
theological college, vicars are in a
way ‘resident aliens’ in the parish
they serve. We come and reside
amongst you, for a few years or
for many, and we go and make
way for someone else to enter
that role.
The word Goodbye is, I seem to
remember reading somewhere, a
shortening of the phrase God Be
With You, and this is my prayer
for all of you, whether you have
faith or not. God be with you in
all you do in your community,
school, church and business
here in this wonderful town
of Cranbrook in the Garden of
England, sometimes called Kent!
Over the time I have been here,
I rather hope I have built bridges,
encouraged us ‘churchy folk’ to
get out of the church building
and get on with the community
building, by being a presence
in the High Street and at
community events with our stalls
selling cakes, books and plants,
and by inviting community
20 The Cake • Spring 2022