I AM grateful to L. M. (Dear Star, June 22) for the opportunity of explaining the great difficulty under which the members of Christ Church labour to maintain Christ Church graveyard in its normal prim condition, which it will be again by the end of summer.

Our graveyard is one of the largest in St Helens and is maintained by a group of six volunteers, all pensioners. They normally meet on Thursday mornings from 10am to 12.30pm and do a magnificent job in keeping the graveyard up to standard.

A problem occurs when it rains on Thursday mornings and when we have heavy rain during the growing months of summer. Not only are they unable to cut the wet grass, but the effect of the rain is to cause accelerated grass growth. This makes it much more difficult and therefore time-consuming to cut.

The whole process of course would be greatly helped by additional volunteers and perhaps through your columns I could invite anyone with a few hours to spare, to help each week, to be in touch with our Parish Office on 01744 451385.

In the meantime perhaps I could underline my gratitude to the six members of our graveyard maintenance team for all the incredibly hard work which they do.

Canon Clarry Hendrickse, Vicar of Christ Church.