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Helen Stafford

Yorkshire born, more years ago than I will admit, I have attended a Methodist Church in Brighouse from ‘way back’ apart from 3 years in the late 50’s and early 60’s when I served in the WRAF attending the PMUB churches on each station I served. It was at Waddington Village Methodist Church in Lincolnshire I was made a member after feeling a strong call at the age of 18.

I married Tony, whom I originally met dwarfed by a Vulcan bomber, in 1961 and we attended a small (very small) church in the village of Wellingore (services once a month) where we doubled the congregation.
Our enduring memory is of a harvest social where we heard an old village song called ‘The Village Pump’ and ate pineapple in jelly with bread and butter.

Now many years later, after returning to Brighouse, the arrival of four daughters, a career in teaching (I taught Andrew Jacobs on my final teaching practice at the beginning) and retirement, I finally answered the call in 1998. I became, as the record shows, an accredited Local Preacher in 2001.
I took on the role of Secretary to the Brighouse Circuit in 2005.
I now have the role of Local preacher with oversight of Pastoral Care in the Calderdale Circuit.