Wivey and the Hills Magazine March 2020 Price 50p Contents and about the magazine Wivey and the Hills magazine is published 10 times a year by the Benefice of the seven parishes of Wiveliscombe, Brompton Ralph, Clatworthy, Chipstable, Huish Champflower, Raddington and Tolland. Its purpose is to promote the life of all the Christian churches in this area and that of the wider communities which they serve. Contents Contents and magazine information 2 Letter from the Rector 3 What’s Been Happening 4-7 New Subscribers: Would you like to Looking ahead - Wivey and the Hills 8-23 receive regular copies of the magazine? If Regular Events 24 so please email The Wivey community office 25 [email protected] Quick view - Events for March 26-27 with your name, address, contact number ‘and email, along with your BACs payment Growing in Faith 28-30 A year’s subscription is £5 (50p / copy) and Adverts for local businesses 31-49, 52 runs from January to December. Useful Contacts 50-51 BACS details are ‘WHOF’ 09-01-29 20101213 Or ring 01984 629423 for more details. Welcome to your March edition of the Wivey and the Hills magazine! Spring is in the air this month as our gardens start growing again and we look towards Easter. We hear from Jono Smith in Lancashire, Rector Martin is planning ahead and there are lots of musical and cultural events to enjoy. There are Lent challenges, an invitation to become an ‘Anna Friend’, choral evensongs and much more. Enjoy! Lorna Thorne, Peter Pearson, Acting editorial team Articles and events, comments and feedback: [email protected] Advertising: Lorna Thorne [email protected] 01984 629423 Magazine Distribution: Janet Hughes, 12 Lion d’Angers, 01984 624213 Deadline for April 2020 edition: 15 March 2020 Cover photo: Clatworthy church by Lorna Thorne 2 Letter from the Rector March, as the daffodils on the month’s cover show, is a time to start looking forward and planning. Our churches are well poised to do just that, having spent February holding their annual meetings, and asking themselves “How did last year go, and where are we heading this year?” Those questions can’t be answered without asking “What will our plans cost? “ Every family in Wivey and the villages is probably making such calculations as they start to plan what they want to do this summer. Some of those plans will include important family events such as forthcoming weddings and baptisms, and others will include key activities such as playing or singing in a concert or a dramatic production, involving not so much the spending of money as a lot of time in rehearsals. One of the best things about living here is the warm relationship between local people and their churches, and it is a joy to welcome bands like the Wivey Town Band, choirs like Taunton Deane Male Voice Choir and Somerset Opera, and theatre groups like The Oddments Theatre Company into our churches so that the whole community can have their spirits lifted and lives enriched, hopefully at very reasonable cost..We also value the opportunity to welcome everyone to our Remembrance, Christmas and Harvest services, which mean so much to us all. And it is precisely because we do want to do more to welcome everyone that we need your financial support. Beautiful historic buildings are inspiring, but they come at a price, and the only way to keep them open to all is to ask everyone to give whatever they can afford to help us keep serving you as we aim to do.. In St Andrew’s, the monthly bills amount to some £6,000 per month, of which £3,600 go straight to the Diocese to help with the legal, training and clergy costs not only of our own benefice but also of poorer churches in Somerset. St Andrew’s have much that they want to offer Wivey this year: a new audio-visual system will help us all to enjoy our visits, especially the schools who are welcome throughout the year, and we are aiming to welcome more elderly people to enjoy services and socials, but they will need keeping warm next winter! In the Hills, many churches are planning how to re-order their interiors so that they can be more useful spaces for young and old alike, and make their churchyards oases of wildlife, which our countryside will need in future years. So please reflect on how valuable your churches are to your family and community, and join our congregations in offering them as much financial and personal support as you can afford this year. Langley Marsh are doing great things for St Luke’s, and I’m sure they will enjoy knowing that others are following their lead. Please contact me or your local churchwardens to find out how you can help keep these vital community resources thriving. All the best, Martin 3 What’s been happening - Jono Smith in Capernwray My name is Jono. I’m 19 years old and am currently serving at a place called Capernwray Bible College in Lancashire; some of you may have heard of it. I write this article as a means of sharing my experiences with you. (In Wivey I attended St. Andrew’s and the Congregational). My gap year based on my opinion that experience is more valuable than going out into the working world and earning. My role as a Pool and Sport volunteer includes interaction with both the public and the students that make up Winter Bible School. As part of the role, our team (consisting of 4) were trained offsite as lifeguards at a hotel in Blackpool, which allows us the responsibility of running the indoor swimming facility. We also organise and host sporting events for the students throughout the week. Ranging from the American favourite volleyball, to the British classic football. I either coach or take part. Our slogan is “Where God Changes Lives” – He most certainly has done over the past four months. I have learnt a lot from the few lectures I can sit during free time, through other people and their stories/testimonies, and through personal prayer. I have met many people from all over the world, the majority here being Canadian and American. They like to call the main building a “castle”, but it’s more of a manor house than anything. Being in a diverse community of young Christians has been very encouraging for me and has showed me how He works His wonders in each life. Over New Year’s, I took a trip out to Israel with a group of five other students. If you have been there in the winter months, you’ll know the climate isn’t much different from the UK (minus the rain perhaps). This experience was both necessary and eye opening to the conflict that occurs there every day. We toured the Old City in Jerusalem, stepped inside the “Last Supper” room, and saw the place where Jesus was born. As part of the trip we stayed in Hebron, Palestine. Being in a Muslim community gave us insight into their beliefs and a whole new experience of another culture. Our guide and host ‘Akram’ took us to local shop owners and families, where we heard their stories. The most intriguing was one of a shop owner who still to this day refuses to give up his shop to Jewish settlers, even though they have offered millions (converted to pounds), and even an open cheque! Having the opportunity to be immersed in this culture was another blessing, and an experience that I’ll remember throughout my life. I will thus far be here till the summer. Thank you for reading! Jono Editors’ note - Jono is volunteering with very limited funds: if you would like to support what he is doing you can do so through either the Rev Martins. 4 What’s been happening "IN DAFFODIL TIME" The heady scent of daffodils fills my living room with the promise of Spring and at only £1 a bunch from our Wivey Co-op they are a double delight! Watching the buds unfurl and turn into splashes of sunshine yellow, I am taken back many years to my mother's flower garden in Jersey where she cultivated huge, creamy King Alfred daffodils grown obscenely fat on manure begged from the Rectory stable opposite our house. On days when the March winds blew softly, we kids scrambled over the cliffs and climbed the precipitous and often south facing fields, known as cotils, that sometimes sloped nearly down to the sea itself. These steep cotils are still where the earliest and most expensive Jersey Royal Potatoes are grown organically with the help of a kelp seaweed known as vraic, and then dug by hand and sold to top restaurants in London and Paris for wealthier palates to savour. What’s been happening - Cuttings from the Garden Wild daffodils grew there in abundance too. These were a dainty and delicate species that formed shining golden chains which lined the boundaries of the cotils. Their delicious perfume mingled enticingly with the pungent smell of decaying vraic in the unmistakable tang of salt air. It seemed to be the very smell of life itself! How exciting the beauty of God's creation was then and the memory is still as fresh as ever. Perhaps you have a memory to share with us? Maybe something visual or a smell that triggers your memory too? Or a piece of music? A special song? Or even a favourite meal? Anything that makes your senses sing! And if you don't feel up to writing, tell someone about your special memory and ask them to write it up for you and share it with us.