It takes a village... and a surprising amount of money...

Life in a small village has its charms, and I would be the last to argue otherwise. However, it does come with challenges, as I've noted in the past.

For example, the church needs to be maintained, and the pool of people available to provide funding is a small one. The chances are that your church costs pretty much the same amount to maintain, regardless of the size of the parish, as churches don't tend to wildly vary in size until you get to metropolis of a thousand or more. To make matters worse, with congregations in decline in some places, the strain of keeping the church heated, decorated and in good repair becomes more and more burdensome on those who do attend.

Creeting St Peter is no exception, and whilst we are extremely fortunate that our Parochial Church Council is very active, and at the heart of village life, they need the support of the wider community to support them in their efforts.

As a Roman Catholic, the church doesn't play a big role in my spiritual life, thus removing one good reason to take an interest in the survival of St Peter's. However, that said, a community such as Creeting St Peter needs a focal point, and when you don't have a village hall, or any other venue, the church provides your best, perhaps only, option.

So, the question must be asked, how badly does a community want to be a community? What sacrifice is it willing to make to maintain its cohesion? In our case, I would suggest that without our church, the village would risk being merely a place where people live, rather than a place where people come together. And all that is asked is that we support our monthly coffee mornings, the pub nights and the other social events that our Parochial Church Council go to such trouble to organise.

Put like that, it doesn't seem like I'm being asked too much. So, I'll try and get to as many events as I can in the course of the year, I'll eat cake and drink tea, have a beer or two, donate some alcohol, and just kick back and enjoy myself. There, that doesn't sound too bad, does it?