Great Totham Garage
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2 St Peter’s Church Contact Details Parish Contacts: Priest in Charge Rev. Tracey Caswell 07742 999633 Email: [email protected] Associate Priest Rev. Sue Godsmark 01621 891513 Email : [email protected] If you are unable to contact the Priest or Associate Priest please speak to the Churchwarden: Churchwarden Karen Tarpey: 01621 892122 Services Details of services can be found on page 6. Baptisms For enquiries about baptisms, please contact Rev’d Sue Godsmark. Magazine: Enquiries: Helen Mutton: 01621 891067 Adverts: Pauline Stebbing: 01621 892059 Email: [email protected] Website: www.achurchnearyou.com/church/6657 3 Church News Ministry Team Message Thoughts from a member of the Ministry Team It’s been a funny old year for farmers and growers, even without the current pandemic. Looking back, the weather over the past year has not been kind. Following last year’s harvest, we then had the wettest of autumns, a lot of land was either flooded or water-logged and many planned winter crops could not be sown; the ones that were, were ‘muddied in’. Farmers, being optimistic, took the view that it would come right in the spring, winter crops could be safely sown until March. It didn’t come right until quite late on, then the change was drastic, drought and heat persisted. It certainly gave the farming community cause to worry and begin to doubt whether God’s covenant with Noah after the Flood, had come to an end! ‘As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’ Genesis 8.22. Of course, it hadn’t. Sitting on the combine harvester proved that! It also reminds us his covenant with Noah is only one of his many gifts. He gives us enquiring minds, ingenuity and resourcefulness. These gifts meant farmers were able to change their cropping plans to more suitable spring crops, use fertilisers, plant protection and stimulants, and use irrigation to get the best result possible. Water is such a blessing, without it nothing could survive, but, conversely, as in the Great Flood, it can be very destructive. With careful use, at the right time, irrigation water can bring a stressed crop to a fruitful harvest. Realising in May that some of our wheat crops were very stressed, and possibly dying, we watered them which kept them going until a downpour in June brought them through to harvest. God, in His wisdom, has given us the means to produce a bountiful harvest. We thank God for that. In the words of the refrain of a familiar harvest hymn All good gifts around us Are sent from heaven above, Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his love. /continued on page 5 4 Church News /continued from page 4 We must also, however, reflect God’s love by thinking of those parts of the world that are not as fortunate with their harvest, for the displaced and for refugees and pray that humankind can see the way to share Gods wonderful gifts. George Bunting. Authorised Local Preacher at Goldhanger, Churchwarden at Goldhanger Farmer Service of Thanks for Sue Godsmark at Little Totham Church Sunday, 13th September In your prayers at home this month, please include: Our ‘Friendship Church’ - Bragernes Kirke, Drammen, Norway; Adam, Keith, Mick, John, Pat, Sylvia, Dennis, Laura and David. 5 Church News Online Worship at St Peter’s Church Rev. Tracey and others within the Blackwater Benefice are regularly broadcasting a ‘Morning Prayer’ on our Facebook page at approximately 10am each day. You do not need a Facebook account to view, as, where practicable, we will be providing a link to these broadcasts from our website under the heading ‘Morning Prayer for Today’: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/6657/ https://www.facebook.com/StPetersChurchGreatTotham/ North Blackwater Parishes have produced pages specifically for young children, which may be found by downloading their page on our website. In addition, the Church of England is providing a ‘Daily Hope’ line which offers music, prayers and reflections, as well as full worship services, at the end of a telephone line. This may be found at: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-covid- 19-guidance-parishes/daily-hope-phone-line Services at St Peter’s Church, Great Totham 4th October 8am Holy Communion Seventeenth 11am Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday after Trinity Followed by picnic lunch 6pm Evensong 11th October 8am Morning Prayer Eighteenth Sunday 10am Family Communion (Rev. Sue) after Trinity 6pm Evensong 18th October 8am Morning Prayer Nineteenth Sunday 10am Morning Service of the Word after Trinity 6pm Evensong 25th October 8am Morning Prayer The last Sunday 10am Morning Service of the Word after Trinity 6pm Evensong 6 Church News “The Peace” at St Peter’s Church During our Communion Services at St Peter’s church, at about 10.30am on Sundays, we have always shared The Peace. It’s our way of sharing our certainty of God’s blessing with all our fellow worshippers, whilst keeping in mind a far wider group of people that we care about deeply. Even though we can now do this face to face, we would like to say to you (with a virtual handshake or hug) “The Peace of the Lord be always with you.” God Bless you and your family from the whole church of St Peter’s, Great Totham. If you would like your name added to the list of those receiving this message by e-mail, please let me know: [email protected] Rev. Sue Photographs On many occasions, photographs are taken of adults and children for the Parish Magazine, Church Website and Church Facebook page to record the life and work of the church in Great Totham. If at any time you would prefer that a photograph was neither kept nor used, please indicate this to the photographer who will delete the image. If you are considering baptism for yourself or your children, confirmation, weddings, funeral arrangements, Holy Communion at home, or you would just like a visit, please get in touch with Rev. Tracey Harvey, Rev. Sue Godsmark or the Churchwarden (see page 3 for contact details). 200+ Club Draw Winners August 1st Prize: Isobel Doubleday 2nd Prize: Ivy Coker 3rd Prize: Helen Marvin If you would like to join the scheme, whose proceeds benefit the church, please contact Roger Allen on 892334. 7 Church News Letter to the Parish As you will be aware 2020 was not quite the year any of us had planned. As lockdown began, shops, pubs, beauty salons etc., shut and many events, outings and holidays cancelled. Many found themselves working from home, children were being self taught or tutored by members of their family. Some were furloughed and this provided them with time to catch up with all those jobs they had been “meaning to do”, others found it a time to reflect and take life at a slower pace. Some decided it was a time to “get fit” as bikes quickly sold out and YouTube took over from gyms/classes. Unfortunately, others found themselves unemployed. NHS staff were put under immense pressure as more and more people became ill and hospitals were full to overflowing. Care homes struggled from lack of equipment and support. Neighbours waved to each other across the road as we all took part in the clapping on a Thursday night to thank and recognise the work of the NHS. How would we have coped without social media. Family, friends and companies relied heavily on facetime, Zoom and Team to name just a few. Places of worship also closed which was hard as St Peter’s Church, Gt Totham no longer had its doors open for those who wanted to find solace there. Our church is not just a place for our regular services and Sunday Club. Many other activities were also forced to close, lunch club, rainbows, Edward Bear, knit and natter, bible study group, community choir practice, Mother’s Union, bell ringing practice and coffee mornings. St Peter’s Church had already experienced change this year. We had been a benefice of three churches for many years the other two being Goldhanger and Lt Totham. This has now been extended to seven churches in total. Earlier this year we joined Tollesbury, Salcott, Tolleshunt D’Arcy and Tolleshunt Major and are known as the Blackwater Benefice, as the logo at the top of this letter reflects, 7 churches coming together around Jesus who is represented by the cross. We are all under the leadership of Rev Tracey Caswell who was due to be licensed in June but due to Covid-19 the licensing service was arranged in May via Zoom. This was not the only date that Tracey has had to change. Tracey and David, her new husband, had to move the date of their wedding to August this year. /continued on next page 8 Church News /continued from previous page Many events are held during the year by St Peter’s Church both as social events and fund raising. We have so far cancelled our coffee mornings (as previously mentioned), our flower festival and summer fete and it is looking likely that we will not be holding our St Nicholas Fayre. Unless the Government announce changes, our nine lessons and carols service along with our very popular Christingle services will also not go ahead. Even though these events have been cancelled we still have to find ways to finance the upkeep of our beautiful church along with the churchyard. The family purse, an amount of money every church is required to pay to the Diocese for the running of the wider church, including contributing to clergy salary, this year for St Peter’s is £32,385.