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April 2021 April 2021

Dorset Council is considering how road closures could be publicised further afield BISHOP’S LETTER
in the hope that tourists will find an alternative destination for day trips when the
Lulworth area is closed to vehicles. The situation will have to be monitored and
any issues reported to the Police and Dorset Council.
This Joyful Eastertide

What a long journey it has been to
Pop-up campsites Easter! It has felt like the longest Lent
The Parish Council is aware of pop-up campsite planned in the parish this year. ever, not 40 days but over a year since
the first lockdown. In that time a lot of
It was agreed at the meeting that The Parish Council will attempt to establish our worship has been online. Where we
communications with the landowner to suggest some ideas to limit the effect on have been able to worship together in
the Parish of such a large influx of visitors. person we have got used to being socially distanced. Coming out of lockdown,
still distanced and Covid-safe, worship doesn’t feel so familiar or so easy.
By way of example a one-way system will help to mitigate some of the impact on Someone told me that they cried when they received the sacrament for the first
the local community but will also help campers to travel safely and more easily to time in months.
and from the site.
The Church of England has tried to do its best through the pandemic but there

have been murmurings, as there were about Moses among the people of Israel in
Dorset Local Plan the wilderness on the journey from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the
promised land. The pandemic has been really hard work. Some of what the
The Parish Council has submitted a response to the draft Dorset Local Plan
consultation. Concerns were raised about the impact on roads in the parish churches have been doing has been outstanding – worship online, community
arising from an allocation of 600 houses at Crossways. The Parish Council response care, seeking out those most in need, schools open for the most vulnerable and
also seeks to gain protection to land in the parish owned by the Erica Trust and the children of key workers and so on. Some of it has been less good – and you
raises concerns about plans to allocate land to the north of the parish for a large can make your own list here – but I’ll own up for myself that I have been less than
wind farm and the suitability of the B3390 for larger vehicles and heavy traffic. perfect. Most people know their inadequacies and we also know the relief as we
begin to see new life emerging.

The Easter Gospel stories include John’s epilogue of chapter 21, with 7 of the
Next Meeting disciples gathered again by the Sea of Tiberias. 5 of them are named, and in
The next meeting of the Parish Council will take place at 7pm on Wednesday 14 various ways they had let Jesus down. Yet here they are back where he first
th
April 2021. Please check the Parish Council section of the Community Website called the fisherman. They are feeling perplexed but getting on with life when the
nearer the time for the agenda and information about how to join the meeting risen Lord came among them. John is telling us that Jesus accepted their failures
which will be held remotely. Members of the public wishing to raise issues or make and restored them as a community of the resurrection.
representation in respect of any agenda item will have an opportunity to do so at However the pandemic has been for you and us, the task this Easter is to allow
the meeting. Alternatively, anyone who wishes to may contact the Parish Clerk in God to recall us and put us back together as a Christian community. It will take
advance of the meeting. Ideally correspondence should be received at least a weeks and months and years. There’s a big job to do. If we have been attentive
week in advance as it will not be possible to add items to the agenda once it has we will have learned lessons about what is a person, what makes a worthwhile life
been set. and how we live together in God’s creation. We don’t want it to be the same as it
was before. We want it to be different. We can do better in response to the God
who loves us, sustains us, renews us this joyful Eastertide.
+Nicholas Sarum

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