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ON CHURCH CATS AND ROOFS: Thoughts from the Pew

In a certain small town near here, all the people were very proud of their old parish church. They loved its stain glass windows, its carved pews, its fine tower its shiny brass.but there was one part of it which they didn't seem to care about at all and that was the vestry roof." So begins the delightful British children's book "The Church Cat Aboard" written and illustrated by Graham Oakley (1973). Sampson, the church cat, and two mice friends devise a scheme to raise money for the roofing campaign. After much adventure, they make their way back to St John's church where they are welcomed home. Unfortunately, they raised no money and the roof remains in disrepair. Simpson concludes, "it takes more than a leaking roof to dampen feelings of true friendship."

We at St. James are proud of our church and have found friendship and love within its walls (and under its roof). Many of us identified these as core values/attributes of our church in the recent Diocesan Mutual Ministry survey. We are also blessed with a generous and faithful community. Our "repair of the roof" collection board looks nothing like the storybook St. John's. Rather than 19 ½ pence of the 6000 pound goal, we have made and exceeded our internal goal of $85K in pledges. (I will discuss why this is important in the next newsletter.) WE ARE TRULY BLESSED! And I'm certain Pansy, our church cat, is happy she didn't have to endure money raising adventures of her own!.

I thank all of you for being people of faith and Mary Javorski for loaning me "The Church Cat Aboard." It and other Graham Oakley Church mice books are in the mid-York library collection. Perhaps, you would like to "check out" more adventures of Simpson and his mice friends

Patricia Kay Jue
September 2007