Paxtonvic’s Blog

About Annette

Greetings to everyone  who finds ” Paxtonvic” blog.

  Paxtonvic is The Revd Canon  Annette Reed,  Vicar of Little and Great Paxton with Diddington and since February 2014 minister-in-charge of Southoe  in Cambridgeshire near to St Neot’s. I have also been Rural Dean of St Neots since 2007.

( I’m the one on the right!)

Do come in and explore  Paxtonvic.

You will find  information  about  church and village life of  Little Paxton, Great Paxton,  Diddington  and Southoe as well as St Neots and the surrounding villages.

I have another blog just about Great Paxton: http://www.greatpaxtononline.wordpress.com

If you feel moved to do so, please leave a comment. Its easy to do that – just click on ” comment” at the bottom of each entry and a little box comes up which you can type in.

If you would rather just read about St James Church at Little Paxton, please go to :

http://www.littlepaxtonchurch.org.uk

You can also follow St James Church on Face Book at:

http://www.facebook.com/St JamesChurchLittlePaxton.

St James Church at Little Paxton

A little bit about me.

I was born Annette Richings in Tuckton Nursing Home near to Bournemouth in July 1954.  Building had connections in past years with Leo  Tolstoy and his secret printing press and I  am  grateful to  recent contributors who have sent me more  information about this interesting piece of history.

Some of my earliest memories are of being on Boscombe sands, playing in the waves and pulling on the penny fruit machines with my Grandad Will Trimby helping me. We moved to Portsmouth when I was 9 years old and here is me at Portsmouth Grammar School c 12yrs old.

In 1966  we moved to Oxford and it was there that I fell in love with the Church of England as we lived in Christ Church College where my father was a lodge porter. I used to go to Oxford Cathedral most days for  Evensong  sung by the Cathedral Choir  and developened a deep love for english choral music and the gentle spirituality of the regular offices.

I also used to sing as a teenager at St Mary Magdalene Church in Oxford City, a church with a distinct high church tradition which also infomed my explorations of  the Christian faith.

If  I had to define my ” churchmanship”  ( always seemed a strange word to me) I would say I am  a Liberal Anglican  who appreciates both the best of   Ango-catholic tradtions and the passion and conviction of  Evangelicals. I trained for Church of England Ministry at The Queens College in Birmingham and was deaconed in Coventry Cathedral in 1987. Priesting followed in 2004.

I served as curate at Clifton-upon-Dunsmore  near to Rugby and later at Walsgrave parish, both in Coventry Diocese. After three years in Hinckley, Leicestershire, I had eight wonderful years as Team Vicar in the Bosworth and Sheepy Benefice, looking after the Sheepy Group of five churches.

In 2006 I moved to The Paxtons and became Rural Dean of St Neots in 2007.

I was honoured to be made a Canon of Ely Cathedral in May 2014.

I love all the contact we have with young families and children and one of  events I most enjoy is the Tots and Carer’s group at Little Paxton every Wednesday morning and being part of  Great Paxton School as a governor and taking assemblies there.

I delight  in welcoming people into our church commuities who ever and however they are. I am pleased  when people enjoy coming to worship of any kind, but am equally at home out about and getting involved in village life.  I am passionate about church buildings – both in respect of their architecture and also in regards as to how they may be adapted/re-ordered to serve their communities better. I like to think of myself as a bit of a local historian and run two  history groups in the Paxtons.

I love plants and tending the vicarage garden.  I have a rescue greyhound called Polly who lives with me and often look after my son’s lurcher dog called Charlie. I have two children, Mike who is a teacher locally and Adele a student in Coventry.

Polly my rescue Greyhound.

Please be assured I NEVER name drop in this blog or make out I’m anything special.. hate that sort of thing….

( I’m on the left!)

( April 2006 – somewhere posh in London)

See – I didnt always have grey hair!!

Below: I am not amused!

I have been known to dress up as Queen Victoria.