Every 6 years all Church Parishes need to completely revise their Electoral Roll. This means that we start from scratch, with all names removed, and people need to sign up again.  

There are four parishes that are part of the Burnham Benefice: Burnham Thorpe (All Saints Church), Burnham Overy (St Clement’s Church), Burnham Sutton with Ulph (All Saints Church), and Burnham Market - which includes both Burnham Norton (St Margaret’s) church and Burnham Westgate (St Mary’s Church).

Being on the Electoral Roll means you can stand for election to the Parochial Church Council or vote at the church parish AGM. The Electoral Roll form is available in our churches or is available online at www.parishresources.org.uk

If you are over 16, are baptised and are either resident within a parish or are a regular worshiper and would like to go on the Church Electoral Roll (not to be confused with the local parish council on which all residents are automatically on the electorate) then you need to complete the form by the end of April. 

Choose which church's Electoral Roll you want to be on and write this at the top of your form. It's usually the church closest to where you live. If you worship at all the churches, you can choose which of the churches you consider your 'own'. You can however be a member of as many Church Electoral Rolls as you wish.

If you would like to go on the Church Electoral Roll, please download and print the form, scan and send the completed forms to burnhamchurches@gmail.com, or bring them to church on Sunday or post to The Rectory, 4 The Pound, Burnham Market PE31 8UL

We are delighted to announce that Rev Canon Malcolm Rogers was licensed as Priest in Charge of the Burnhams Benefice on Sunday February 9th. 

Malcolm writes, 
It is a huge privilege to have been invited to serve as the new vicar of the Burnham Churches, particularly as I have had a life long association with the area. My parents bought a holiday home in Burnham Market in 1970, my father Alan Rogers served as a lay preacher in the churches, and for a while lived here; and the Burnhams became our permanent home when Alison and myself returned from Moscow, where I had been serving as chaplain from 2017 to June 2023. Although I have been helping out with services, it has taken me a little time to hear God's call to come and serve here, but it does now seem very right. 
I have been a vicar all my working life. I was a curate in Ipswich where Alison and myself met. We were then sent, in 1993, to St Petersburg with the Church Mission Society, tasked with building up mission links with the Russian Orthodox Church. We returned to the UK and I was vicar for 10 years in Islington, and then 12 years at St Mary's Bury St Edmunds (the civic church next to the cathedral), before we went back to Russia. For the last year I was based part time at Lambeth Palace serving as Prior of the Community of St Anselm. We have three boys, two of whom are journalists in London and Andrew, who is local. Alison is a teacher by profession, but currently is developing a colour analysis business and also paints icons. 
The appointment is meant to be part time, which will be quite difficult to work out! My working days will usually be Sunday to Wednesday, but of course there are weddings etc on other days, and it does not mean that people cannot contact me, although you may not get an immediate response.
We owe a great debt to Brenda Stewart, Alison Massey, Andrew Davey and other ministers who have stepped in to support the churches over what has been a long vacancy, and particularly to the wardens and other non-ordained ministers who have done so much to make things run smoothly. 
At the licensing the Bishop likened me to a vintage car, which had quite a bit of mileage on the clock but still ran well! But this is new: I have never done rural ministry and it will be very different, especially having 5 remarkable mediaeval churches. So please pray for me, and I will pray for you. My deep passion is that each of us (lifelong resident, more recent resident, part time resident or visitor) is given the opportunity, as we hear the good news that the Bible teaches, to meet with the living God, and I believe that that encounter sets people free to become who we were created to be. 
I look forward very much to working with our churches, village communities and getting to know you. 

You can download Alirae Bunkle's remembrance Sunday talk to read here: Remembrance Sunday talk 2023

Our service details can be found on the Services page.

Please join us on Feb 25th at 7.00pm at St Mary’s Burnham Westgate for the installation of the Rev’d Steve Wood as Priest in Charge of the Burnhams Benefice and afterwards at the village hall for refeshments.

The Bishop of Lynn, Bishop Jonathan, is pleased to announce the appointment of the Rev'd Steven Wood, currently Vicar of Streatley, near Luton, in the Diocese of St Albans, as Priest in Charge of the Burnhams Benefice. The Bishop thinks that we can look forward to welcoming him and his wife Frances, probably some time in February.

For further information please visit www.stmargaret-streatley.org.uk or St Margaret's Church Streatley Facebook page

The period during which there is no rector for the benefice is called a vacancy.  During this time a search and selection procedure takes place; the length of this period is enormously variable but a national average is about 6-9 months.  During this time initial enquiries can be directed through the churchwardens (see the Contacts link, above).  

A vacancy can be quite an exciting time for a worshipping community, when Anglican Christians can know the reality of St Peter's notion of the "priesthood of all believers" and look to a future which progresses the mission of the Church in this place.  Do feel that we can all be part of this.

(In fact, the season isn't really over until 2 February - Candlemas.)  

More importantly for now, we have the usual services at All Saints', Burnham Sutton cum Ulph this Sunday, known in the church year as Christmas 1 - and, this year, also New Year's Eve.  As usual, we'll be popping over the road for coffee at the Nelson after the 10.30 service.  This time you might want to make an evening of it back at church at 18.30 for evensong, into the Nelson again afterwards for an evening with Nelson's Shantymen and seeing in the new year.

So, let's keep celebrating Christmas...

One of our worshipping community here in the Burnhams has made her commitment to a fuller membership of the Church.  Although our Holy Baptism gives us this membership in the first place, there's something really special about an adult who recognises the calling of God to do something further about it.  Mozeltov, Carole, on your Confirmation today in Norwich Cathedral!

All change in the rectory, that is.  The current rector, Graham Hitchins, will be retiring in early January.  There will be interim arrangements for baptisms and funerals; any weddings currently in the benefice diary will be coordinated by a churchwarden of the relevant parish.  The rural dean of the Burnham and Walsingham Deanery, and archdeacon of Lynn will respectively have direct and general oversight of the Benefice.  A new rector will be appointed in due course, after consultations, evaluation, and selection procedures.

As has become our custom, we will hold a short service in All Saints', Sutton cum Ulph (opposite The Nelson, Burnham Market), for the commemoration of anyone we want to remember, whose lives here with us on earth have ended, for whom we pray to God that (in the words of Julian of Norwich) "all manner of things shall be well."  

People who have been bereaved in the last year can find this a particularly useful time to give thanks to God for their loved ones who have died; everyone, however, is most welcome to come, should you need to stop and pause and remember the life that someone has shared with you.  The service does not require a great deal of active participation by those attending - eg, there are no hymns, just contemplative music.  There is nonetheless an opportunity to light a candle (which we supply) and place it in the sanctuary as a symbol of the Divine spark we all have returning to God.  Names of the deceased are read out loud in memoriam from a list you can find near the church entrance, should you wish to add someone to it.

Even if you can't you can't get there in person, the rector will be only too glad to have details of anyone you want remembered either by candle, name, or both; please feel free to leave a message on 01328 738317.

Well, the approach to contact was slow motion - the actual contact was as sudden as an explosion.  Such was the battle of Trafalgar.

SUNDAY 1ST OCTOBER - THORPE'S TRAFALGAR COMMEMORATION 2017

21st October, Trafalgar Day, there will be the short commemoration in the crypt of St Paul's, London, around Nelson's tomb; the following day the Sea Cadet Corps parades in Trafalgar Square on behalf of the Royal Navy to commemorate the victory led by Victory.  

However, and as usual, Burnham Thorpe gets the country's first Trafalgar commemoration of the year on Sunday 1st October.  Quite right, too - it's here Nelson was born.  Our service commences at 10.30 in All Saints', Burnham Thorpe, and naturally everyone is welcome - but of course especially all naval and sea-faring types.

FOR THE RECORD!

Following a composite "quote" in the EDP taken from extensive chit-chat with their reporter, this is what the rector (who, btw, said Nelson's church was in Burnham Thorpe!) actually sent to the EDP reporter in response to the recent debate about taking down Nelson's column:

Putting as simple an argument as possible, I would say that the statue has never been seen as representing anything other than the key naval event of the 19th century.  Afua Hirsch seems to miss the point that it simply does not have any connotations of pro-slavery; neither does she seem to give the general public of this country any credit for knowing how despicable a thing slavery was - and still is.  

I have never heard anyone mention Nelson in connection with this until now, which isn't to say that Hirsch's research is unfounded, just that she is mistaken in thinking that pulling down Nelson's column would make a difference to issues of slavery and bigotry. Nonetheless, her provocative piece has indeed got British history into the limelight, although my own observations after a lifetime of military service, is that learning from history is what individuals do, but not governments brought forth from those individual people, for some strange reason!

Graham Hitchins
Rector
Burnhams Benefice

PLEASE!

Having completed some refurbishing at St Clement's and St Margaret's, we want to sort out St Mary's and make it more of a resource for the community - as well as it being a church, of course.

The trouble is that rich wool merchants stopped backing their local churches around 400 years ago.  So, if you have a spare £200,000 and the tax man is breathing down your neck, we would gratefully accept it as a gift...

(As you can see, my skill set does not include clever fund-raising gimmicks!) 

STAND FAST THE HOLY GHOST!

The Holy Spirit (aka the Holy Ghost) came to the disciples shortly after Jesus' ascension to heaven.  We still celebrate that every year because the Holy Spirit will come to anyone who truly wants to receive him (male pronoun for convention and convenience only!).

The headline reference?  The Royal Navy, during the days of rum issue (ended early 1970s) used to pipe (a ship's internal signal) "up spirits," to which sailors would often reply, "stand fast the Holy Ghost!"  A useful theological reference - if only they'd known it! - to the power of the Holy Spirit being the greatest to stand fast against all that is not good.  Wood's Navy rum is currently the only commonly available spirit with 100% strength by proof (57% by volume); the Holy Spirit, however, is 100% by volume.  Try both and see - but be warned: whereas Wood's might blow your head off, the Holy Spirit will blow your mind!

PENTECOST - THE FEAST OF THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.  THIS YEAR, 4TH JUNE AT ALL SAINTS', BURNHAM THORPE

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