Tony & Pat Bundock

Letter in Hallmark November 2014. from Tony Bundock

Our welcome to Lacey Green

My wife Pat and I are delighted to be making our home in Lacey Green; and we are so thankful for the very warm welcome we have received. We do so appreciate all the hard work that has gone into preparing for our arrival and the arrangements for the Licensing Service. I had always hoped to be offered a House for Duty post as a local Parish Vicar for this stage in my life so I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity.

Having previously served in Team Ministries in Borehamwood, Seacroft and Leeds City, it is a real bonus for me that the Lacey Green, Loosley Row and Speen post is part of the Risborough Team. I have always valued working collegially with others engaged in mission and ministry, both lay and ordained.

Apart from my curacy in Stansted Mountfitchet in the early 1980s, Pat and I have lived in Greater London, in Birmingham, and for the last 20 years in Leeds, so adjusting to village life will mean a very different way of life for us which we are looking forward to very much indeed.

Our son David, his wife, and their two children, live in Park Street near St. Albans, which is about 40 minutes from Lacey Green. Our daughter Jennifer, her husband, and their two children, live at Cheylsmore in Coventry, which on a day when the M40 is reasonably clear is just over an hour or so away. So, had we looked at a map and stuck a pin in halfway between where our two sets of grandchildren are located, Lacey Green is as near to a perfect location for Pat and I as we could ever have dreamed. But, apart from seeing more of our children and grandchildren which we are hoping to be able to do, Pat and | are certainly very much looking forward to becoming part of the community in Lacey Green, Loosley Row, and Speen; joining the Church family at St. John’s; and playing as full a part as we can in village life.

Here in Leeds, for quite some years, I have been part of a Ceilidh Band and a Jazz Band playing popular standards. So, of course, I do hope to have at least some opportunities of this nature now we are living here in Lacey Green. But most of all, I am looking forward to working alongside my colleagues in the Risborough Team and serving the village community as your Parish Priest