THE Mayor of Malvern has held his Civic Service.

The service, which took place at Christ Church in Avenue Road was well attended and was led by the Rev James Williams.

The service included musical contributions from pupils of the Chase School and Malvern St James.

The Mayor, Coun Clive Hooper, in his address, welcomed everyone to the service, and thanked those who had been involved in putting it together, particularly Christ Church and Malvern St James School for providing excellent musical contributions.

As the Mayor’s charity is St Richard’s Hospice, Coun Hooper had invited Jenny Cowpe, who chairs the Foundation, to speak about its work, focusing on the hospice’s community services, at the core of which are their Community Nursing Team, their Hospice at Home Team and their Families Support Service.

After the service, Coun Hooper said: “I had chosen three readings for the service which had some common themes, and which might be summed up by saying that our purpose in life should be to do the best we can for our neighbours and to work for them and our community through the service that we might be able to give.

“I talked about that and said that I believed it should be the essence of what we are about, and particularly what our various tiers of councils – county, district, parish and town – should concentrate upon.

“By and large, through our engagement with our communities, I believe we do keep that objective in mind, although very often there are hurdles in our way to achieving what we want to do. We have to strive through perseverance to get over those hurdles.

“In my concluding remarks, I referred to Mahatma Gandhi who spent much of his life dedicated to serving humanity and finding ways to contribute selflessly to the wellbeing of others.

“That concept of service to others was summed up by the ideas of volunteering, donating, or simply lending a helping hand with acts of kindness: acts of kindness no matter how small can make a difference. I think we can all remember that. We can start with small steps and over time they become part of our character and of those organisations to which we belong.”

Coun Hooper said that he was delighted to see so many people attending the service, and how much everyone had enjoyed the musical contributions, particularly the lovely setting of the Lord’s Prayer sung by the Prep Choir from MSJ. He also praised the volunteers at Christ Church for providing the delicious homemade cakes which were enjoyed by all at the end of the service.