The Chapel Committee met on Friday morning for a full and useful session. The most important item to report however was that there has now been a change of leadership for the Chapel. David Healey has now replaced me, Malcolm Burns, as the Chair, while I will remain as Vice Chair. Cherry Dodd has had to resign as Treasurer after a great many years and her replacement in this role is still to be completely confirmed. As a temporary measure the vital work she has overseen for so long has been taken over by Linda Butler who will now help us while we are forced into carrying out most activities online rather than using cash because our local Bank disappears from the town.
Other Committee members are Elaine Nomura, Mandy Littlejohn and Christine Thompson.
Cherry has been the centre of the congregation for more years than anyone else and is a tremendous source of information and guidance. As the retiring Chairman I recognise the invaluable role she has played, not least in ensuring that I knew what needed to be done. Her understanding of the History of the Chapel has been used extensively in our now successful pursuit of a change in Charitable Status to make us a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) independent of the umbrella support of the Unitarian Head Office in London – a change which has been requested for some years now by both GA and the Charity Commission. She has an intimate knowledge too of the financial workings of the Chapel which we may find tricky to replicate for a while. I remain deeply indebted to Cherry for all her support over the years.