ST PETER’S CHURCH, ADDINGHAM: We sang, we prayed, we talked, we listened, and we pondered. The flesh was made comfortable in the pleasant surroundings of, and the spirit was quickened and encouraged as a way forward for St Peter’s church began to be discerned. This was the Parish Away Day last Saturday. Facilitated by the Rev Dr Canon Robin Greenwood we spent the morning reflecting on the work done by the after-church groups and the Mums’ Group a few weeks ago. Out of this emerged four themes which we looked at in groups after lunch. These themes – worship, lifelong learning (continuing spiritual development was the phrase used by those familiar with CPD in their professional lives), pastoral care, and communication – and all the prayer and thinking that has gone on under these cryptic labels, will form the basis of our mission action planning in the coming months. And then to Mothering Sunday, celebrated in a new pattern of worship this year, with the children and their parents (or grandparents) beginning with their own ‘Hands On’ church in the hall while the rest of us enjoyed worship in the church itself. We all came together for communion and the distribution of pots of primulae to all mothers and other carers in the congregation. Today, Teddies and Toddlers have their time in church at 11am and there will be the monthly men’s meeting in the Swan from 8pm this evening. On Friday at 2.30pm is a service of thanksgiving for the life of Laurie Walton. Next Tuesday evening St Peter’s joins with All Saints in Ilkley in response to the ‘letter’ written by the House of Bishops to all members of the church ahead of the general election. The letter asserts our duty to vote and identifies key issues and ideas about which church members should have a view, summed up in the title they have chosen for their letter – ‘Who is my neighbour?’ The Right Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, will introduce the letter, and Ann Cryer, erstwhile MP for Keighley, and Professor Canon Arthur Francis, retired dean and professor emeritus at Bradford School of Management, will reflect on it in the light of their own experience of politics and social issues on the one hand, and the economy and the business world on the other. All are welcome. It is at All Saints Church at 7pm.