All creatures great and small on Possett Green

Sunday evening's open-air Songs of Praise on Possett Green drew our biggest congregation of the summer, plus several uninvited but very welcome extras.

Around eighty of us gathered on the green with deckchairs, picnic rugs and, in one impressively prepared case, a folding table laid with a full tea service. The singing was led by the circuit music group, competing gamely with a light breeze and the church clock, which struck seven halfway through the second verse of How Great Thou Art and declined to apologise.

Proceedings took an unexpected turn during All Things Bright and Beautiful, when a small delegation of sheep from Mr Farrow's field arrived through a gate somebody had left thoughtfully open. They joined the back row without fuss, listened politely to the sermon, which was, by happy coincidence, about the Good Shepherd, and left shortly before the collection. Rev'd Paul Thompson declared them the most attentive congregation he has had all year, and has asked us not to read anything into that.

Refreshments followed, at which Doreen Pickles' tea urn, fresh from its triumph at the Strawberry Teas, once again performed faultlessly. Thank you to everyone who carried chairs, poured squash and shooed sheep. A retiring collection raised 187 pounds for Action for Children, and there is already talk of making the evening an annual fixture, ideally with the gate shut.