VICAR'S LETTER.

My dear People,

This month we lose our good friends Paymaster Captain P. d'E. Marks and Mrs. Marks. He is retiring from the Navy, and they will be making their home elsewhere. He has been our Hon. Church Treasurer for some years past, and has taken a keen interest in all the affairs concerning this parish. We shall say good-bye with sincere regret, and can only now express our warm gratitude for the work he has undertaken for us so efficiently. Our best wishes accompany them both in whatever their future may hold in store.

The electric light installation is practically finished in the Church. The faculty has been issued by the Diocese and all is approved by the Diocesan Advisory Board, who have the final say in such matters. There is a short notice about this Committee's tasks in the Diocesan Notes this month you will notice. The placing of the electric blower for the organ means an organist can now play and practice without having to secure someone to work the bellows, but we regret that it means our faithful blower for the past twenty years, Mr. Tilden Miles, will no longer have to give us his services. We cannot dispense with his past help, always so reliable, without expressing our appreciation for his work behind the scene. Some of our oil lamps have been disposed of, but there are still more we wish to sell off cheaply.

I have to thank Mr. G. Golding for taking the services for me in my absence on holiday. Mr, Golding is preparing for Ordination, and is a young man from our own Sittingbourne Deanery. He goes to Durham University next month to work for his B.A. degree, and will be ordained, I expect, next Trinity Sunday.

Your sincerely,

CECIL G. MUTTER

MARRIAGE.

Aug. 1st - Charles Henry Holmes, R.N. to Nellie Bareham

G.F.S.

Mesdames Mutter and Luck are taking the members (not the candidates) for a trip to London on Tuesday, August 16th. They are to visit the Townsend House and see other places

in Town. The G.F.S. meetings will start again at the end of September, after the hop-picking season is over.

From the Sale of Work and Jumble Sale on May 28th last it was possible to send £3 as a contribution to the great Missionary Society called the S.P.G. £1 was also sent to the Missionary Studentship Association at Canterbury. A grant of 10/0 was paid into the parish funds to get the rubbish removed over the Church ceiling. An accumulation of many years made by the owls, which nested there in past days, was removed whilst we could have a temporary light up there to see by; fixed by the electricians engaged in placing piping and wires. We had several sacks of refuse brought down, which is now buried and serving a more useful purpose. The owls seem to have left the Church after bing there for so long it time. Bats appear to be the only occupants left. It is claimed that bats destroy the death watch beetle, which can work such havoc in roof timbers.

The money balance from the sale goes to pay G.F.S. expenses in buying materials for the girls' work, and to help the members a little on the visit to London.

SUNDAY SCHOOL.

The Annual Picnic to Sheerness was much enjoyed by all on a perfect day at the end of June. The Sheerness Mothers' Union provided a splendid shrimp tea in the Mann Memorial Hall. Thanks go out to all the kind subscribers who made it possible for the children to spend so happy a time.

MUSICAL RECITAL.

It was impossible to get the account of this in the last issue of the Magazine, which was in print when it took place. A good account appeared in the "East Kent Gazette". It proved indeed a musical treat, and all who heard it expressed the wish that another might be held. Our sincere thanks go out to Mrs. Charles Hope and Mr. H. Grensted for their work in organising such. The singers and performers were Mrs. Hope, Mrs Orr, Miss Myfanwy Jones ('cellist), Messrs. Ralph Smith, A.J. Sutton, and Capt. P. d'E. Marks. Mr. Grensted was at the organ, and also Mr. Wall, a very accomplished organist and composer, and one whom we have now had the pleasure of welcoming here for several of the ordinary services, when he has come to relieve our own organist.