DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Saturday 16th July Village Show Sunday 17th July Ipplepen Village Show Songs of Praise in the marquee at 6.00pm St. John the Baptist Saturday 23rd July Coffee Morning at the Church Hall, Ipplepen Thursday 28th July PCC at Ipplepen St. Mary the Virgin Tuesday 2nd August PCC at Woodland St. Andrew’s Thursday 4th August Quiet Day at Denbury Church Cottage. 10.00am - 4.00pm Sunday 7th August Ipplepen Carnival Songs of Praise. 6.00pm WOODLAND, IPPLEPEN & DENBURY Trinity 2011 Saturday 20th August Coffee Morning at the Church Hall, Ipplepen Saturday 10th September Historic Churches sponsored Bike Ride Sunday 25th September Harvest Thanksgiving at Woodland. 6.00pm A MESSAGE FROM THE RECTOR Sunday 2nd October Harvest Thanksgiving at Denbury, Torbryan and Ipplepen Sunday 9th October Bishop of celebrates the Mission Community It's now three years since Woodland came We will be having a lunch that day in the and joined us and we formed a mission church hall so that we can continue the community. celebrations over a meal. Look out for the invitations cards that will be available soon Many people have commented that this has As always we are grateful to the Editor and been an enriching experience. All three production team of this great Magazine, churches have learnt much from each other, JAM, which keeps us all informed of what is we have developed close friendships and it going on in our villages and I know people has been good to share resources. But a enjoy reading it .This is another example of mission community is like a good marriage: how enriching it is being in a mission you have to give time and effort to community. maintaining the relationship. The three PCC's have been working on their mission action Also in October we are hoping to start Messy plans. This is important to keep us focussed Church which is especially aimed at young JAMCONTACTS on what we are trying to achieve and where families and their children. Tessa Amies is we want to be in five years time. When we going to lead on this and I know her great Rector: The Reverend Ian Eglin 01803 812215 started work on our mission action plan all skills of working with children will be a huge Hon Asst Priests: three churches were amazed at how much asset. Messy church will be for all in our The Reverend Tony Meek 01803 814370 we are already doing in serving God and the mission community so look out for details. I Canon Tom New 01803 813775 community in this part of Devon. hope you all have a great summer. The Reverend Anne Burden 01803 813520 Reader: Tessa Amies 01803 813993 It is now time to celebrate what we have The Reverend Ian Eglin Church Wardens : achieved so far. The Bishop of Plymouth, The StJ ohn the Baptist: Norman Buckle 01364 652472 Right Reverend John Ford will come to Jane Usher 01626 353454 celebrate the mission community. His visit is StA ndrew's: Madeleine Fedrick 01803 814134 on Sunday 9 October at 11.00am at St Jane Outhwaite 01803 812897 Andrew's Ipplepen. This will be the only StM ary the Virgin: Sue Day 01803 812752 service in the mission community that day in Steve Bassett 01803 812537 the hope that everyone will make an effort to be with the Bishop. There is much to Newsletter Production: Charles Quartley 01803 812238 celebrate and give thanks for and we look Newsletter Editor: Michael Price 01803 813472 forward to the future with confidence. Please put this date in your diary and make very For more information visit the new web pages at www.missioncommunity.org.uk effort to be present. Rector and Churchwardens NEWS FROM DENBURY A VISIT TO NARNIA

Rachel Belringer, our correspondent from St Mary the Virgin reports on the activities in the Our Lent course this year was based on the ideas of C. S. Lewis church from Easter to Trinity. especially on “The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe” (the first of the “Chronicles of Narnia”). With Easter so late this year and the Royal Wedding extending the annual May Day festivities weekend, it was truly a time of celebration. It all fitted. New life: through the returning spring Lewis lived 1898-1963, and was an Oxford don. (My late wife, Joy, (wonderful this year), through young love, through Christ's Resurrection and triumph at Easter. heard him lecture during the war.) He wrote many serious books Christian, Pagan, or Not Sure you can't deny the sense of hope and expectation that comes about Christianity, as well as the Narnia fantasies. It's a bit with the time of year. controversial as to whether the Narnia characters are fully Christian symbols! We were able to see a (more recent) film version of “The The Church started May with a Songs of Praise in the May Fair Marquee on Sunday 1st , at 5pm. Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” before the course, and extracts On 19 May there was the Archdeacon's Visitation at Kingskerswell. This is where our Church during the sessions. wardens are commissioned for the following year. They work so hard for the Church in Denbury. Apart from our involvement in May fair, there was one other event this month, a Social conditions have changed a lot since Lewis's time. In the film coffee morning on behalf of Christian Aid on Wednesday 18th May in the Church Cottage there is a youngster called Lucy (played by a girl with a very expressive face!), who meets a male faun, Mr Tumnus, and spends time with him. (“Ooh! Health and safety!” we think, these June began with Ascension Day, celebrating Christ's return to Heaven, and which marks the days.) Lewis's sexuality must have been a bit repressed. His mother died when he was 9 (as end of Easter. This was on Thursday 2nd , with the service at 10.15am. This coincided with that happened to me). He didn't marry until he was in his fifties. His wife, like mine, was called week's coffee morning, which was held in the Church Cottage. Joy. But she was an American divorcee with two sons. Lewis found her a pleasant intellectual companion, and agreed, first, to a civil marriage so that she could stay in . She was The Children's Time on June 5th focussed on Baptism. The following Sunday was Pentecost, already dying of cancer when Lewis arranged a Christian marriage at her bedside in 1956, and and in the afternoon the annual Church yard service for friends and loved ones of those at rest she died 4 years later. We saw a film, “Shadowlands”, about this relationship. Lewis seems to there was held at 3pm with tea in the Cottage afterwards. The following Sunday (Trinity) there have invented Shadowlands to describe this world, with a life not fully lived, in contrast to the was a Mission Community service at Torbryan, with NO service at Denbury. Heaven to come.

There was a Gift Day for St Mary's held in the Church, on Saturday 11th . The Gift day was well In the first session we discussed what Jesus meant by “having life to the full”. We went on to supported, with nearly £2380 coming in on the day. Thanks to all who came think about equally fundamental questions dealing with the unexpected, with suffering; do we recognise God's gifts to us, and how do we use them? Does God sometimes seem absent? We A Quiet day in the Church Cottage on 15th gave a chance to recharge spiritual batteries. discussed in small groups, then paused for guided meditation together. In the fifth session, with Holy Week approaching, we also thought about death and resurrection. There will always be a Puddings Evening in the summertime! This much anticipated event will happen on July 2nd , at 7pm, at Shute House. Puddings to dream about, as previous participants We had the benefit of good teamwork by the Rector and his wife Caroline. I was a little will confirm! disappointed by the attendance, especially from St. Andrew's. There was a keen group from Denbury, and Woodland was always represented. There were even one or two non-Anglicans! We have one of our special Family services on July 3rd , where the Mass is still celebrated but We made four or five little groups for the discussions, which went well, but it was a small the service is more “child-friendly” (simpler prayers; activities; familiar hymns). This starts at proportion of our membership. How can we convince more people that it is worthwhile 9.15am, and all children and adults are welcome. thinking more deeply about our faith, and getting to know each other better? Arthur French There is a Deanery Confirmation service at Kingskerswell on Mon 4th July, with the Bishop of officiating. We welcome Ann Toler from Denbury, who will be confirming her Faith at SNIPPETS 3 - by Stephen Bryant …and another mission for the community…. that service. After a May Evensong at Woodland the following exchange took place during the notices: Finally, here is advanced notice of a Quiet Day to be held on Thurs 4th August at the Church Cottage, 10-4pm. Please book with Caroline Eglin (812215). Reader: “A number of gravestones in our churchyard are leaning and next Saturday the Rector has arranged for 20 young cadets from Britannia Royal Naval College to come and put them right.”

Excited female voice from the back: “O Goodee!! That's two for each of us!!”

Reader: “I think the Rector had cakes in mind as a reward if anyone would like to make one.” SNIPPETS 2 - by Stephen Bryant EDITOR'S CORNER

Mission Community with a difference Here comes summer and welcome to the and grow together. It has now been nearly Trinity edition of JAM. I am grateful to all our two years since the old St. Andrew's News On Sundays the clergy have a difficult time driving between parish churches to lead services, contributors who make the magazine metamorphosed into the present “JAM”. sometimes in bad weather conditions, sometimes held up by traffic, livestock, always racing possible. against the clock. But spare a thought for past Vicars. Since that time it has grown with the benefit This edition includes two relevant articles. of the activities of St. Mary the Virgin and In an idle moment I was reading the Churchwardens' accounts for Ashburton for the years St.John the Baptist being regularly reported 1479-1580 - one of a very few sets of complete records in the whole country to survive. The Reverend Anne Burden who has moved and giving valuable insights into the to Ipplepen tells us about wanting a “lively” Christian work and ethos from two of the From these accounts I found that William Holcombe who was our Vicar in Ipplepen sometime church and her thoughts about what this community churches. The format from St between 1469 and his death in 1499 was at the same time Vicar of Ashburton and Precentor of might be. Andrew's has historically been different. Church, so even with someone to deputise for him, he was a busy man on Might it be the time for this to change with a Sundays! Moor Road in Ipplepen, which was the way between the parishes, must have been Madeleine Fedrick who has done sterling regular report of activities in St Andrew's to hard travelling on horseback on a winter's morning. work with the church wardens of all three be similarly reported for the benefit of our churches that makes up our Mission Community as a whole? May be readers are Mr Holcombe had previously been a prebendary and Vicar of Probus in Cornwall, but Community writes on how we continue to more than happy with the present format. obviously had a soft spot for his “Mission Community” in Ipplepen and Ashburton because in grow and evolve our community to keep this What are your views? his will in April 1499 he left six shillings and eight pence a year to the poor of these parishes to “liveliness”. Her enigmatic title reminds me pray for his soul. We seem to have let this drop! of the dinosaur which despite its massive Of course a “reporter” would have to come He also left 7 pence a year for three years to his successors in Ipplepen and Ashburton “to pray size became extinct because it could not forward. Is this a role for you in the “lively” for him on Sundays from the pulpit”. adapt and evolve church and community? . I hope our present churchwardens are keeping good records so that Ian will feature in We shall be celebrating with Bishop John in The next edition of JAM will be for Harvest something like this “JAM” magazine in 500 years time! It may depend on the six shillings and October the setting up of our mission and the Bishop's visit and celebration of our eight pence of course……….. community and its development and growth Mission Community. The dateline for articles over the coming years. and letters is 23rd September. Why not put pen to paper? JAM magazine should be a tool to enable our three church communities to communicate Michael Price ROYAL WEDDING SUNDAY

Always wear a hat to a wedding! The Ladies in their finest at Ipplepen EASTER CROSSES

Denbury

Woodland

Ipplepen NEWS FROM WOODLAND

Helen Pearse, our reporter from St. John the Baptist, writes

As usual, many of the village turned out this year to help clean and decorate the church for You may know the hymn which starts: Easter. The unusual weather patterns this Spring and very late Easter meant that there wasn't a wide selection of flowers in bloom to choose from, but the bluebells felt just right in our little “Brother, sister, let me serve you, rural church and I was amazed how many different colours of lilac grew in our parish gardens. let me be as Christ to you; The church looked lovely. For the younger inhabitants of our village though, the annual Easter pray that I may have the grace Egg hunt was, perhaps, of greater importance. The Rector conducted a small service outside in to let you be my servant too.” the sunshine, before the children were organised into groups and set age-related challenges to search for rapidly melting chocolate eggs. Mutual service and care for one another is important, because as the community of the church, Our parish does not fall into the catchment area of just one particular school and as a we are called to reflect Christ's love for the world in the way that we live our lives. More than consequence our children do not necessarily have regular contact with each other. Easter is that we are called to represent Christto the world to be Christ to each other, as the hymn says. also a time when extended families tend to visit each other, which means that the Easter egg People will judge the nature of God by what they see in us. It's a huge and scary task, and we hunt has become such an important and special social event for us, bringing together not only can only face it if we help each other. the village children, but also the visiting grandchildren and their parents, in such a way that many friendships are made and maintained year after year. St Teresa of Avila had a very literal understanding of what it means to be the Body of Christ and I'm going to finish with a well known saying of hers:- On Sunday June 26th, our church held its Patronal festival, celebrating not only the Saint's day of St. John the Baptist but also that the church is 475 years old. Over 50 people attended a “Christ has no body now but yours, lively service, with strawberries and cream afterwards in the village hall. no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which An acquaintance of mine has just visited the church for the first time, to see her great Christ looks compassion into the world. grandfather's grave, and was particularly struck with how cared for our church and graveyard Yours are the feet are looking, with the grass nicely trimmed and the hand-stitched kneelers. She was very with which Christ walks to do good. tempted to stay to the service, but shyness prevailed and she didn't. What a shame! I hope our Yours are the hands church will continue to look cared for over the next 475 years. with which Christ blesses the world”

Strawberries and Cream after the Patronal SNIPPETS 1 - by Stephen Bryant Festival "Mother", said a boy, "I opened the gates for the Duke today" "Did you?" What did the Duke give you?" "Nothing" "What did you say to him?" "Nothing" "You should have said "Your Grace"" "I will next time mother"

The wished for next time arrived in a few days, when the boy, true to his promise, held the gates open for the Duke to pass through, saying "For what I am about to receive may the Lord make me truly thankful"

The story ends with the Duke giving the pious lad five shillings. The Reverend Anne Burden retired and chose Ipplepen like many of us as a place to start her WOODLAND GRAVESTONES STANDING new life. Part of her article was in an address she gave at a Lenten compline service. TO ATTENTION It seemed extraordinarily relevant at the time to me as an individual and on reflection to all of Woodland is very fortunate to have its churchyard us as “churches” and a mission community that it is good to publish it here to a wider beautifully cared for voluntarily by the Lentern and readership. Skedgel families in the village. Since the year Angie Editor and Andy were married in the church, three A Lively Church generations get together regularly to cut the grass and it always looks immaculate. Anne writes- The old churchyard is also an area where children I caught a snippet from one of the property programmes on the TV recently I think it was play from time to time and it takes little imagination to realise that leaning tombstones are a “Escape to the Country” and one of the things the couple required as well as four bedrooms, potential danger. detached, with period features was to be close to a “Lively Church”. What was needed was the strength that youth could provide and this came in the form of 20 What are the qualities of a 'Lively Church', I wondered and it made me remember that not so young officer cadets from Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth on Saturday morning 21st long ago, I was looking for property to retire to and the local church was important in my of May. The College is always looking for community projects undertaken on a voluntary basis. search too. I wanted the church to be 'alive' but I have to say not necessarily lively that might The churchyard project was viewed as task where the young men and women could be a step too far for my advanced years!! What I really wanted was a place where I could demonstrate how they could work as a team under a commanding officer.They are not allowed belong where the people would be genuine and friendly and where I would be accepted for to use power tools but, PCC members provided sufficient sledge hammers, spades, lengths of who and what I was. iron and rope for the job under the guidance of Fred Christophers who kindly supplied angle irons to drive into the ground in front of each stone once it had been set upright. We all want something like this, I think, because it's a basic human need to belong and to be accepted. And when Christian faith is a central part of who we are belonging to a church The cadets worked so enthusiastically and efficiently that they also found time to remove huge having a place to call 'home' is important regardless of how much we have in the way of laurel hedge roots (in a tug of war) and to cut back brambles and ivy covering the churchyard family and friends around us and how satisfying these relationships are. wall.

We want our churches and by this I mean, of course, the people rather then the buildings to At coffee time we rewarded them with a generous variety of homemade cakes and biscuits and be warm and caring and accepting. But more importantly this is what God wants too. A not a crumb remained! frequent prayer of Jesus was that his disciples should be one reflecting that bond of unity and love which he had with his heavenly Father. Jesus didn't set up churches and organisations Grateful thanks go to all who participated. Woodland churchyard looks better than ever. and systems that came much later. But he laid down the ground rules for his followers when he said in John's Gospel “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have Gillie Byrom loved you.”

St Paul often talks about the nature of the very early churches in his letters. He had some tough Putting some effort in! words to say about the squabbles in the Corinthian church and he introduced a challenging image of the church as the Body of Christ many equally important parts, making up a whole, working in harmony, built on the foundation of Jesus Christ Christ crucified and resurrected. Paul was talking to particular groups of Christian converts a very long time ago, but with care, we can still draw on some of his wisdom and even his language.

Those of us reading this magazine are part of the Body of Christ in Denbury and Ipplepen and Woodland. We worship in our Churches and together as a Mission Community, partly at least, because we know that we can't be the Body of Christ alone. We're too weak and frail and sinful, and know, if we're honest, that we can be stronger together than alone. We can share our gifts and talents and we can encourage one another as we seek to grow in faith and to live it out in our world today. We have Jesus as our pattern, the scriptures to guide us, and the Holy Spirit to keep us strong. This can help us to love and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ as our God amazingly loves and serves us. 'Which 'E ' word will you choose?'

''What is an 'E word' I hear you say, I've heard of 'E numbers'- those additives that are put into Our 'Vision' statement sets out the ideals we have as a Christian Community. foods. Now there are two very important words I will be using in this article, which happen to 1. We will work together to increase our knowledge and understanding of the begin with the letter 'E'. They are:- teachings of JESUS CHRIST through prayer, reading the Bible and other Spiritual works. VOLUTION AND EXTINCTION. The two words have something in common as they express two opposite ideas. 2. We will offer Christian Hospitality to all so that we have the opportunities to get to EToEVOLVE means to develop, to change, to grow and to become EXTINCT know each other and in a practical way show that we are followers of JESUS CHRIST. means to die, to vanish. By our example we may assist regular members and visitors to have a greater understanding and belief in the message of CHRIST. Why have I used them? The words can be used to voice an opinion of the state of something and its present situation. With this thought in our minds, I ask the following questions, is the 3. We will reach out to all identified groups in our Mission Community through our size of a church congregation growing, is its spiritual life developing and how much support, religious and social gatherings. Our groups include: children, young people and their care and hospitality is provided to everyone, irrespective of them being a regular church goer? families, single adults, the elderly, the bereaved and villagers including other If all these positive things are happening we could say that this church isEVOLVING. We are denominations. very aware that the opposite situation has and does exist and many churches are now redundant and possibly there are no practising Christians left in an area. We could not have created the Vision Statement nor the Mission Action Plan without ideas and suggestions coming from you - the members of our congregations. In our Mission Community we share the same problems that many churches are experiencing. We have dwindling numbers, very few young people and their families attend and there is a The Mission Action Plan or MAP has ten points for development based on the Vision shortage of clergy so we must share the Rector among three parishes. We cannot continue to Statements. They include: - hope that new people will suddenly come through our church doors. The prospects could Adult Religious Education which we hope will include other Christian faith groups look bleak. The question has to be asked 'are our individual church communities likely to and people in our three villages who are not regular church goers. EVOLVEor become EXTINCT in the next five years, ten years or twenty years? (There is recent data about church attendance (2009) on page 8 of the June edition of the magazine 'Church of We want to encourage more people to join and or support the work of the Mother's England DEVON'.) Union as part of our social awareness and action.

We hope that each of our churches will have a group of Christians worshipping in our current To improve contact with other health professionals and to give spiritual support so as to church buildings for many years to come because they areevolving . The future is in our hands assist people in our identified groups. to a great extent. At the moment we have a choice and we are able to influence the future. We have to make good plans and we have to ensure that everyone helps in carrying them out. To support each others' Patronal festivals and religious and social events. However small our contribution is in time and effort, whatever age we are, we can all help to To have the personnel and organisation to be able to liaise with young people and their build up our future congregations. families so that we are able to provide the styles of services which will attract them e.g. Messy Church? To help us plan for the future development of our communities, in 2009 saw the launch of 'The Bishops in Mission' programme. This was part of the 's programme to help As a Mission Community to fund raise annually for a charity that works in the third world. church communities toEVOLVE having begun in 2003 when it published the report Moving on in Ministry. On October 9th 2011 the Bishop of Plymouth will be celebrating Our Mission Community. Ideally we It was after the annual service for the induction of churchwardens in 2009 that the Rector and would like everyone to be aware of our Vision statement and become involved with activities linked to the MAP. We hope that the Christian communities in our three villages will be able to develop, to the churchwardens ofJAM decided to work together to create our Vision Statement. grow, to- EVOLVE Madeleine Fedrick