Reverend departs

SARK bade farewell to the Rev. Graham Leworthy – curate-in-charge at St Peter's Church – on Sunday.

Graham, who has been the island's vicar for 14 years, has taken early retirement due to ill health. A farewell matins was led by the Dean of Guernsey, the Very Rev. Canon Paul Mellor, with the sermon delivered by Mr Leworthy.

Afterwards, a picnic lunch took place on the vicarage lawn attended by some 150 islanders and friends. Graham and his wife, Sue, will be settling in Guernsey.

Church officials are now advertising for a 'house for duty priest' to take Mr Leworthy's place. The successful applicant will be expected to work four days a week, including Sundays, in return for the use of a two-bedroom ground-floor apartment at the vicarage.

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The island could soon have its own diagnostic machines for haematology and bio-chemistry.

A plan to buy or lease the equipment will be discussed at the midsummer meeting of Chief Pleas on 6 July. The move has been prompted by a recent price hike by Guernsey's Health and Social Services Department for its pathology services.

If the plan is approved, the machines will be housed at the medical centre and although patients will still be charged for their blood tests, the cost will be in line with what Sarkees were paying prior to Guernsey increasing its rates. The charge will be sufficient to allow for replacement machines in due course.

It is proposed that the £30,000 needed for the technology and its associated bits and pieces comes from The Dame Sibyl Hathaway Settlement, which currently has £51,427 in its coffers, which was part of the proceeds of the auction in 2009 of various artefacts from the Seigneurie.

The Seigneurie Gardens Trust, meanwhile, has asked the trustees of the Hathaway Settlement for £20,000 to carry out repairs to the chapel in the Seigneurie gardens so that it can be converted into a museum which, apparently, is something Dame Sibyl wanted. According to quotations submitted in support of the request for funds, the exterior stonework of the building needs repointing and the windows need restoring.

Sounds like a nice idea, but one can't help wondering if there is much stuff left to put in a museum. After all, vast swathes of interesting items from the Seigneurie were sold at the 2009 auction and hundreds more were flogged off at a rummage sale at around the same time.

Meanwhile, with the Societe Serquiaise, the Occupation Museum and the Toplis Room, Sark already has three 'museums'.

Conseillers have discontinued holding public surgeries due to a lack of interest from the electorate. The surgeries used to take place during the week before Chief Pleas meetings and it gave people the opportunity to discuss agenda items with elected representatives.

Whether it's the format of the surgeries that has put people off or whether Sark's electorate are simply apathetic, it's difficult to know. I think probably the former, because I recall when former Chief Pleas member Roger Olsen pioneered the surgery idea a few years ago, he used to attract quite a good turnout. His were held on a one-to-one basis, which was probably less daunting.

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Sark's Island Games team departed for the Isle of Wight this morning – too late, unfortunately, for me to be able to include a group photograph to accompany this column.

For a small community, the number of sports covered is pretty impressive. This year's team comprises five shooters, a runner and four archers. Good luck to them all.