When can I retire?

September 2025

Dear Friends

When I arrived in Holme and Burton 12 years ago and began to get to know the villages and the congregations I discovered that a man called Medwin Sherriff, already in his 80s, was doing a lot of things in Holme.  Nobody seemed to know how long he had had these roles but the time was measured in decades rather than years.

That applied to him serving on the Parish Council, and as Chairman of the Parish Council, but also to his editing of the Holme Parish Newsletter, a mix of church news and other village news – the rough equivalent for Holme of ‘Burton News’ in the other place.  Medwin told me that he’d been asked to edit the newsletter by a vicar who was so far back in the history of the church that (as a newcomer) I’d never heard of him.  Medwin had edited the newsletter, year after year, ever since.

We’ve got very used to the idea of retirement – both from paid jobs but also from unpaid roles.  Sometimes we have to stop, but we can also just reach a point where we say, “I’ve done my part, someone else can do this hard work now!” 

The Bible certainly teaches us that work has been frustratingly difficult right from the fall of man onwards, but Jesus also tells us that work is fundamentally good because he knows that God, his Father, is always at his work (Jn 5:17).

Medwin seems to have understood that very well, as he continued labouring to the best of his ability, in the service of others, and encouraged and supported by his wife, Molly, until he really couldn’t work anymore.

Medwin Sherriff died at home on 17 July, aged 94.  His funeral was held at Holy Trinity Holme on Friday 15 August.  I thank God for Medwin, for his steady energy and hard work, and for the great encouragement and help that he was to me, and so many others.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows