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Sword July 2019 St Michael & All Angels SSWWOORRDD Mildred Avenue Parish Magazine Watford ISSN 2397-2211 JULY 2019 Price 75P CONTENTS 3. Pastoral Letter from Father Geoff Editorial Team Rob White 4. Bike & Hike 2019/Foodbank Sylvia Moring Father Geoff 5. Stewardship 2019 Vicki Matthews Subscriptions 6. Trek 26 for Alzheimer's Society Valerie Alvarez Diary and Rota 8. 17th Watford Brownies Sylvia Moring Crossword 9. The Treasurer Goes on Holiday Peter White 10. Diary of Events Distribution Dennis Beach Duncan Turton 12. Sung Eucharist Duty List Sylvia Moring 13. Trinity Sunday Service Cover Illustration Martin Matthews 15. From the Mission Committee Contributors 16. Elizabeth Ferard, Deaconess Robert Bilson 18. Crossword Paul Chandler Sue Ellison 19. Calendar of Feasts & Holy Days Father Geoff Sylvia Moring Marilyn Tozer Duncan Turton Elizabeth Watkin Deadline for August edition of SWORD Printers DPD Printing Ltd Sunday 21st July 2019 35 Market Street Watford WD18 0PN Please submit copy or email to: [email protected] A Pastoral Letter Dear All, It is the evening of June 17th, the sun is shining (at last, but for how long?), and I have just arrived in Barrow in Furness on the third leg of my journey, following stays in Boston and Lancaster. You may have seen on the news that Lincolnshire was badly hit by rain and flooding while I was there, and my sat-nav took me down some flooded roads, but I still managed to see the churches on my list. On the way from there to Lancaster, I stopped at Sandbach (no, not the M6 Services, but the town itself) which has a pair of Anglo-Saxon crosses standing in the market place. The crosses are very moving to see and reflect on, particularly as there is a very nice little cafe with a splendid view of them! Lancaster has the impressive Priory, which I visited twice to take it in. Saxon sculpture there and in the Museum shows the ancient roots of the site. On Sunday morning I went to worship at Heysham, a lovely little Saxon church, containing one of the best preserved Viking 'hogback' tombstones on the country. Sometimes the best way to take in the spirituality of a church is to worship there. Heysham is right on the coast at Morecambe Bay, and its setting is also magnificent. The Vicar was very lively and very Australian! The way he took the service would give some people at St. Michaels palpitations, others perhaps not! After church, I have to confess I drove to Sedburgh, 'Town of Books', but I got some treasures. On the way to Barrow today, I stopped in Kendal, where the church has a nave, two North aisles, and two South aisles; five in all and a forest of columns. Barrow is a good base for the West Coast of Cumbria, and I hope to get to Gosforth and St. Bees tomorrow, where there are churches with significant Anglo-Saxon sculpture. Another day will be Furness Abbey, then Cartmel Priory and some other churches with Anglo-Saxon and Viking sculpture. Then on to Carlisle. 346 and just over 1000 miles so far! Love and prayers, Fr Geoff JULY 2019 Page 3 The purpose of this early note is to advise that this year’s venture will take place on Saturday 14 September. As usual, it would be good if we can enlist volunteers either to cycle or hike - locally or further afield. It is open to use other means of transport. Further details will be given in due course at which point choices can be made. I expect to receive the appropriate documents some time in June. Last year, we raised £362.00 for the Beds & Herts Historic Churches Trust and that was based solely on supporting Church Helpers, having no cyclists or hikers available on the day. I think we could raise more if we have cyclists or hikers available on 14 September. Hopefully, there will be a frantic search through diaries to check availability, and a risk of my being trampled underfoot by a rush of volunteers. Robert Bilson Foodbank This month the Parish donated 32.4 kgs to the Watford food bank. They also sent their thanks to all who donated plastic bags as they were very pleased to receive these as well. Page 4 SWORD On Sunday 28th April Fr Geoff preached about how we can think about our time, talents and funds. How can we put this into practise? Here are some thoughts we all need to consider. The Annual Parish Report was published recently and in it the Financial Report showed a deficit of over £8,000.00. The projections for the next 5 years are in excess of £10,000.00. The first question is how can we increase our income? How can we do more? It is not for me to tell you what to do. It is for each of us to decide what we can do. Many of us give in envelopes, usually weekly. Could we just squeeze another pound into the envelope? Many give by Direct Debit, often monthly. Could we add another £5.00 each month? Does anyone have ideas for a fundraising event? How about a sponsored event? Something in the daytime? Something in the evening? Indoors? Outdoors? Has anyone a connection with a group that needs to rent a hall to meet? Not too big, not too small, just about the size of Littlebury Hall. This would be a great help. Can you spare some time? Remember the days when people would ask what you were going to do in your spare time? We don’t seem to have ‘spare time’ anymore. However, there is a saying that says if you want something done, ask someone who is busy. So, do you have a little bit of time? Could you help with one session of Childrens’ Church? Could you come and join a Committee (the sign-up sheets are at the back of the church)? Could you come and join PCC? Bring your thoughts and ideas and help make decisions about what we are doing. We have a beautiful building and a congregation of interesting individuals. How can we care for the building and care for each other? This is our church. This is our challenge. This is our responsibility. Elizabeth Watkin JULY 2019 Page 5 Page 6 SWORD TREK 26 for Alzheimer’s Society, 1 June 201 9 Hooray, we did it! 26 miles around London on the hottest day of the year so far! To date, we have raised over £1550 with promises of more to come, for the work of the Alzheimer’s Society in its research to combat dementia. Neither Rebecca nor Paul suffered too much from the experience but Rebecca did say at one point that Dad was definitely fitter than her!! As the route went through many tourist ‘hot spots’ we probably walked several extra miles weaving in and out of the meandering swarms. We both thank everyone at St Michael’s for your generous support and encouragement for our endeavour in the termination of this terrible disease. Paul Chandler and Rebecca Sells JULY 2019 Page 7 Our visit to Rock Up, in the Intu Centre, was great fun. The safety talk first was useful and clear, and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful. Quite a lot of the girls had been before and were quickly climbing up and down the various walls. The ones who hadn’t been before all had a go and most of them took to it straight away, just one or two needing more encouragement. It was all great fun. One of the unit meeting activities that the girls chose was “First Aid in the Field”. This challenged the girls, in pairs, to create some sort of sling to support an injured arm, using whatever was around. There was good use of jackets and sashes, as well as skipping ropes and scarves. We even had a couple of splints made from tennis rackets! The injured person then had to go over an obstacle course. We were looking to see whether the arm was supported and whether it was held still. They were obviously watching carefully, (they had to give the successful slings a thumbs-up) because when the pairs swopped places, some of the better ideas were widely used. Some of our older girls went to visit Guides, and were involved in an activity about camp fires and camp fire songs. Our latest Skills Builder is “Happy Feet”. It’s about the importance of looking after your feet and making sure you have dry clothes to change into if you get wet while hiking or camping. The girls have to wrap a spare pair of socks and a jumper or similar in a bin bag, and then water it using a watering can. Then after a short walk they will clean their feet using hand gel, dry them, and then unpack their bag and hope they have dry socks to put on. If the clothes are damp, the moral is, pack it more carefully next time! (and put your other socks back on). Marilyn Page 8 SWORD The Treasurer Goes on Holiday Every year in summer my wife and I head off to Macedonia to see my parents in law. It’s not always an easy place to go to. It is a long journey, especially with a small child, and the Balkans tend to get to forty+ degrees in July and August. Relaxing on the beach it is not. But it is always worth it.
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