Rectory Notes—These times are a journey
Here’s a puzzle. We are more stationary at the moment than we’ve probably ever been: our time is corralled within our home’s boundaries. If we are permitted out, a trip to the supermarket is now an adventure to the horizon of the known world. Cross-country travel is as what inter-planetary travel once seemed.
Yet we are also on an extraordinary journey together. Like Columbus and his friends, we have bade farewell to familiar shores. The land of assumed good health (more or less), of ample supply of …
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Reverend David’s May Message
30 April 2020 By
Reverend David’s April Message
27 March 2020 By
On Boxing Day in 2004 we watched our TVs in horror, as a tsumani engulfed coastal communities. People, boats, homes, livelihoods, lives – all tossed in the air as if they were nothing.
A tsunami has engulfed our world. Not just health and lives have been overwhelmed by the coronavirus, but livelihoods and incomes, families and connections, stability and security. So much of what was normal has fled, at least temporarily. We are learning a new way of living. I write this in ‘self-isolation’ (one of so many words that have gate-crashed our …
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Church Information During Coronavirus
18 March 2020 By
St Mary’s church is open as usual during the day, for quiet, reflection, or simple escape (no belief required). there will be no Sunday services at St Mary’s or any C of E church until further notice
Funerals can still happen (with as few attendees as possible)
Arrangements for weddings and baptisms yet to be confirmed
We will be praying for the village, and for the extraordinary challenges everyone is facing - economically and practically, as well as health-wise - and being part of the caring community that is …
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Bible and Biscuit Club
26 February 2020 By
This Spring term we have been looking at the 'I am' statements that Jesus said about himself and asking what exactly we think he was meaning by them. For example, when he said, 'I am the way', did he mean there was only one way, what if you left the path could you return to it? When Jesus said, 'I am the bread of life', some of the children suggested that he was the main spiritual food that would fill you up. We had some interesting discussions, followed by making our own 'bread' in the shape of pancakes, being February and with Lent …
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Reverend David’s March Message
26 February 2020 By
Rectory notes This is the strangest ‘Rectory notes’ I have written. It is still January, and I’ve only just written February’s notes, yet I’m now writing March’s. I start a month’s mini-sabbatical tomorrow. I will be back by March, but the magazine deadline will be gone. ‘Why didn’t I delegate this one to someone else?’ I ponder.
Yet it offers a chance to reflect. The mini-sabbatical is a gift, for which I am deeply thankful. In my ten-plus ordained years, I have glimpsed the dark side of the institutional Church; this is its caring side: a …
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Reverend David’s February Message
20 February 2020 By
Love, I’ve concluded, is like a boat. A sailing boat. It’s February, Valentine’s month, so yes, that type of love included – but wider too, the full huge reach of love.
We don’t have to step on board this boat. “Love woos – it does not compel”, as one writer puts it. But it draws us in, and if we are brave we step gingerly in, the boat rocking unnervingly as we try to keep our balance. “Love isn't something that weak people do,” as the priest in feisty comedy series Fleabag said, “being a romantic takes a hell of a lot of hope.”
We feel …
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Reverend David’s January Message
6 January 2020 By
January: we turn over the page of our life story to a new chapter. What was 2019’s story for you? Who entered your story for the first time – new friends? a family baby? a close relationship? What were the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, the moments you’ll treasure – and those you’d rather forget? And so to 2020…
A short while ago I penned twelve creative stories about people’s lives. They’re written from the perspective of characters in the Old Testament: What was Noah’s experience of the flood like, when he lost his community, his …
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Church Groups – January
20 December 2019 By
8th & 22nd January
BBC 2 5-6pm at Danescroft
BBC 1 6-7pm at Danescroft
15th January
BBC Social - Film Night - more details to follow
Homegroup
6th & 20th January
8pm at Tuck Mill
yPOD
(Year 9 & 10)
15th & 29th January
7.30pm at Summerdale
Emmaus group
10th & 24th January
9.15am at Summerdale …
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Rev David’s December Message
28 November 2019 By
An early very happy Christmas!
Some years ago we had the opportunity as a family to spend Christmas with friends living in Peru. Christmas in Tropical temperatures – a wonderful prospect! But would we miss the seasonal darkness with its twinkling Christmas lights, the cosy fug of a living-room with curtains drawn, the chink of glasses fending off the winter gloom? Funnily enough, no! We soaked up the heat and savoured wearing sandals and T-shirts. We loved the Spanish-style Christmas Night celebrations which only got into full swing after …
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