Selby Ward recently celebrated 30 years since it was established as a Branch in North Yorkshire. It was 11 January 1981 when Mervyn Buckingham was called as the first Branch President with around 21 other members in the congregation. Thirty years later, around 120 now attend Church services with Nathan McNee as the Bishop of the Ward.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Mervyn, Nathan and many of Selby’s current and previous members, recently attended a celebration at the chapel. Memories were tested in a quiz about world and national events in 1981 and a slide-show was presented featuring many significant events in the ward’s history including weddings, famous football matches, convert baptisms, temple trips etc. One particularly notable event in the ward’s history was the building of their current chapel which opened on Flaxley Road in Selby on 15 Nov 1998.
Of the 22 original members, 9 were at the celebration. They included Mervyn and Sarah Buckingham, Brian and Shirley Turner, Beth Cartwright, Andrew Leadley-Yoward, Marie-Claire Grimes, Ken and Jean Fanning. All were presented with a copy of the slide-show by the current York Stake President, Roy Tunnicliffe, who gave thanks for the service they had rendered.
With the reminiscing over, the children in the ward enjoyed party games and stories, and whilst unable to remember much of the ward’s history, they seemed at least to be in agreement that Selby is a great place to be!!
At the end of the night, Bishop Nathan McNee commented, “We’re grateful for all of those who have contributed to the building of the Selby Ward. It’s a privilege to be serving as the Bishop now and we look forward to many more years of growth both in the ward as a whole and in the lives of our members”.