BBC NEWS | UK | McCanns mark Madeleine’s birthday
McCanns mark Madeleine’s birthday
Madeleine McCann has been missing for just over a year
The parents of Madeleine McCann have been marking the fifth birthday of their missing daughter with a low-key party at their family home.
Today is the fifth birthday of this little girl who went missing in The Algarve last year.
Let’s pray for her family and trust that she may yet be found.
Up To 250k Lottery Cash For Church Restoration Is Spurned
A church in York is putting its money where its mouth is – by rejecting lottery funding for its rebuilding work.
St Michael le Belfrey, next to York Minster, is raising money for a major restoration of its west front. But the church council has decided not to seek money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, because the fund promotes gambling. The church needs about £500,000 and says it is relying on its congregation to raise the money, without the need for lottery grants.
This is my church – and while I don’t agree with the PCC’s decision not to accept lottery funding, I believe we do have a responsibility to maintain this ancient building in working order. The congregation was delighted to move into it when David Watson was made the rector in the ’70s, so now we have to do our part in a long line of history to repair the stonework so that we can pass it to the next generation as our heritage.
What most people will find staggering is that we have pledged to raise double the sum needed so that we can give away as much as we spend on repairs. Watch this space.
Studley Royal is the deer park next to Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. It’s where I first drove a car (long private road) and the place Joan and I had a picnic at the end of our honeymoon. There’s a tranquility about this place that we love.
On this visit we picked up fish ‘n chips from the chip shop on Bondgate Green in Ripon and drove up here to eat them. This was the first day this year it was pleasant enough to eat outside. The food was delicious. The chip shop fries only fresh fish and the order was cooked as I waited. When we lived in Ripon, Bondgate Green was the best chippie in the city, and 35 years later it still is – possibly better.
We took our eldest son, Warwick, with us. After tea we walked alongside the lake for a while until the air cooled and then made short detour to take in the city centre in Ripon as we drove home. Always fond memories of our early married life and the place where our first two children were born.
If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.
– Henry Ford, industrialist (1863–1947)
A year ago this little girl disappeared in Portugal. Abducted from her holiday home while her parents enjoyed a meal a short distance away. Since then Madeleine McCann’s picture has never been far from the front pages of British Newspapers. Soon it will be her fifth birthday.
On her last birthday I blogged that we should light a candle for each year of her life and use it as a focus to pray for her return in the hope that this year she would blow out the candles at home with her parents. Sadly there’ll be an extra candle but still no Madeleine unless something amazing happens in the mean time. Never give up praying.
