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Welby’s message for county town


THE Archbishop of Canterbury used a visit to Maidstone to high- light the millions of pounds’ worth of volunteering delivered to soci- ety by faith groups. The Most Reverend JustinWelby referred to figures for 2015 provided by the Cinnamon Network’s Faith ActionAudit. Almost 260 projects in the county


town account for 2,650 volunteering roles with the result of 399,391 vol- unteering hours. The Archbishop said that “the Cinnamon Network highlighted around £4m of volunteering work done in this time”. Most RevWelby was attending a


dinner organised to celebrate the launch of the Waypoint Project on March 24, in which local Christian churches are joining to connect more effectively with Maidstone residents.


Cinnamon’s audit nationally has


uncovered £3bn worth of time and resources devoted to “social action projects”. An executive summary shows £3,893,683 of financial value pro- vided by the church community in Maidstone.


Prayer for Maidstone Creator God, giver of all good things, You long for all people to live freely together, pour out your blessing on Maidstone. Bless all who live and work, love and serve, struggle and celebrate, relax and thrive here. Open our eyes to see each other as gifts from you. Father, Son And Holy Spirit Amen


The Most Reverend JustinWelby with Charlie Dyer, from Langley


It reads: “This shows at a time


when budget cuts, changes to bene- fits and rising housing costs are af- fecting many communities, there are groups of committed and faith- driven individuals who are step- ping into the gap.” The Archbishop spokewarmly of “friendly” Maidstone and how he had “fallen in love” with Kent. Healso referred to the terrorist at-


tack atWestminster a few days ear- lier, in which five people died. Two members of his London staff


were narrowly missed by the ma- rauding 4X4 onWestminster Bridge, but “pitched in to help people” be- fore returning to work a few hun- dred yardsaway. Rather than accept offers of taxis home, they insisted on working to the end of their shifts. Maidstone Borough Council


leader FranWilson joined the arch- bishop in a prayer for Maidstone. There was also a series of histori-


cal enactments, one of which fea- tured Archbishop Courtenay, played by former Leeds & Broom- field Primary pupil and Langley res- ident Charlie Dyer, who is pictured with the archbishop. Waypoint Project director Heather


May told Downs Mail last month: “Our research indicates that people in Maidstone are open to opportu- nities to explore faith, providing there is no expectation or pressure.”


Power cut for county town


HUNDREDS of householders in Maidstone found themselves sud- denly without power on April 7. Lights went out and electricity supplies were lost in properties in town just before 4pm due to a fault with an underground electricity cable on the high voltage network. The blackout affected Buckland


Hill, St Peter’s Street and Lesley Place.


Traffic lightswere also reported as


out order. Engineers from the energy firm


UK Power Networks were sent al- most immediately to the scene of the outage.


A message on UK Power Net-


workswebsite said: "Our engineers are working hard to fix it as quickly as possible. “We are sorry for any trouble this


may have caused you." The social media networks were


soon buzzing with the news of the blackout. Some complained their children


were unable to usehomecomputers orwatch television. Also on April 7, electrical works


shut Forstal Lane in Coxheath while UKPower Networks carried out es- sential. Thework lasted untl the fol- lowing Monday.


Maidstone May 2017 15


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