Chronicle JUNE 2021 THE MAGAZINE FOR Find us via https://www.achurchnearyou.com The first fundraiser after lockdown! Getting ready to serve teas and cakes at the Open Garden last month at Rorrington Lodge. It wasn’t the best of days, and at times the rain was torrential, but there was a good turnout, and the teas raised over £600 (with the sale of a few plants) for Middleton and The Marsh churches. We are very grateful to Samantha and Adrian for inviting us to take part, and to everyone who worked so hard on the day (and, of course, to everyone who came). --------- Getting ready to serve! Cowslips in Leighton churchyard - see page 7, “Valuing our Churchyards”. 1 THE CHIRBURY HILLS GROUP OF PARISHES is part of the Pontesbury Group Ministry, and comprised of the parishes of Chirbury, Marton, Middleton w Corndon Marsh, Trelystan & Leighton. Rector: Revd Bill Rowell (01938 552064 or 07711 298104, [email protected]). Hon Assistant Priest: Revd Eric Brazier (01938 561450, [email protected]). At each church, contact the wardens as follows: Chirbury - Tony Sheppard (01938 561268); Marton - Maureen Jenkins (01938 561645); Middleton - Kay Yeates (01938 561640 or Emma Bailey-Beech (01686 669971); Trelystan - Janet Jones (07967 312460) or Rod Stevens (01938 580645); Leighton - John Markwick (01938 555043). CONFIRMATION CLASSES - Revd Bill is hoping to hold confirmation classes beginning in the autumn, for children aged at least 11 next birthday and for adults. Confirmation admits the candidates to communicant membership of the church congregation, as they personally confirm the promises made for them by parents and godparents at their baptism. Those who have not been baptized can also come to confirmation classes, and would then be baptized prior to (or at) the service of confirmation. Please ask if you’d like to know more. St Podwell’s OUR COVID PRECAUTIONS - All our churches are aiming to be as Covid secure as possible; these are the rules we’re applying: As far as possible avoid touching door furniture and other surfaces as you enter and leave the church, and do make use of the hand gel provided. Please leave contact details and/or scan the QR code if you have the NHS app. We still need to maintain 2 metre social distance in church (this is further than you might think), and to wear masks unless you have a personal medical reason not to. Until we’re allowed to sing during worship, we’ll continue to use recorded versions of hymns. Should you experience symptoms that might be Covid within a week after attending service, or you have a positive Covid test, please “I’m getting a bit tired of our inform us straight away by contacting the Rector or Vicar’s laissé-faire attitude to a church warden. These rules apply for public worship, at funerals or if you enter church for any our need for roof repairs!” other reason, including for private prayer. Please note that these rules continue to apply even if you have had your full Covid vaccinations - and some restrictions are sure to remain in place as things begin to open up. 2 SERVICES AROUND THE GROUP IN JUNE DAY TIME CHURCH SERVICE_______ 6th - Trinity 1 9.30 am Leighton Holy Communion 11.15 am Chirbury Holy Communion 13th - Trinity 2 9.30 am Marton Holy Communion 11.15 am Chirbury Morning Worship 11.15 am Middleton Family Service 3.00 pm Trelystan Holy Communion 20th - Trinity 3 9.30 am Middleton Holy Communion 11.15 am Chirbury Holy Communion 11.15 am Leighton Morning Worship 27th - Trinity 4 9.30 am Marton Holy Communion 11.15 am Leighton Holy Communion 3.00 pm Trelystan Service of the Word 6.30 pm The Marsh (See below) The simple service sent round each week and recorded on Youtube will continue. If you don’t yet receive this and would like to, please contact [email protected], and the Rector will be glad to add you to the mailing list. The service can be accessed from the “A Church Near You” site for each church on the web. The Rector will also continue to send a “Hymn of the Week” with a short commentary to everyone on the list. Forest Church . at Midsummer The Rector writes . Our Forest Church series of worship activities this year began with two services on ROGATION SUNDAY (9th May), at 11.15 am at Middleton, in the “Family Service” slot, and at 3.00 pm at Trelystan. The weather was a bit mixed, to say the best of it, but we were still able to leave the confines of the church building in order to pray together as we looked across the fields and listened (especially at Middleton) to the birdsong. Forest Church this month will be our long-established service at Mitchell’s Fold stone circle. This will take place on Sunday 27th June, at 6.30 pm, and replaces the normal “4th Sunday” service at The Marsh. Everyone is very welcome! MORNING PRAYER Revd Bill will continue to say Morning Prayer in Chirbury on Wednesdays and Leighton on Thursdays, both at about 10.30 am. You will be welcome to join him if you’re around. Through the week he will be saying the daily office in the other churches of the group, but not at set times. 3 Nature Notes . A Stroll along the Severn After what may have been the driest April on record, we seemed to have encountered the wettest May! But on one Friday afternoon halfway through the month, I happened to be in Shrewsbury on a wonderfully dry and sunny afternoon, ideal for a walk along by the river. It didn’t last, of course, and by evening we were back in monsoon conditions, but it remained bright and sunny for the whole of my stroll. There’s always plenty to see by the river - and to hear at this time of the year, as the birds were all singing to the sun. In the past I’ve seen kingfishers right in the middle of town, but there were far too many people about for that. Ducks quacked and moorhens peeped, and the house sparrows were chirping and chirruping energetically from the bushes by the path; there were blackbirds everywhere, too. I walked down to the weir, where despite the rush of the water a song thrush could be clearly heard. Continuing on, and passing under the ring road, I came to a quieter stretch, not so much walked. The sun after so much damp weather was raising a heady scent of may blossom and cow parsley, enough almost to take your breath away, and among the songs were willow warbler, chaffinch, blackcap and chiffchaff, while just ahead of me a bullfinch alighted briefly on the hawthorn, with his deep pink breast, slate grey back and black head and tail looking almost tropical in the bright sun. A mute swan had kept me company for some distance as I walked. I was walking fairly briskly, but he was doing no work at all - the river was reasonably high, and moving at a fair lick. Eventually he decided that, even so, it wasn’t fast enough, and he took off, splashing his way into the air then just flying a hundred yards or so downstream before settling back on the water. Before that, though, he had passed close to a cormorant sitting on an overhanging bough and looking absolutely resplendent in his Spring clothes. Cormorants can at times look a bit tatty, but this one was so bright and glossy he might have come straight from the spray shop. Along this section of river is a section of sandy bank cut away by winter floods, where I’ve seen sand martins nesting previously. There were none this year, though - sand martins seem to move quite frequently to new suitable nesting sites as they open up, which they do. The river is always changing; every Spring it has a new geography. I walked up from the river bank to turn back along the line of the old Shrewsbury Canal, now little more than a damp channel filled with marsh plants. There were more people here, but still plenty of birds, including a bold swallow the flew fairly low over our heads as I was passing a family group, and a heron that lifted from a nearby patch of pasture. There were butterflies too - orange tips (only the male has the orange, and they are very active as they search for the shyer white females) and speckled woods, mid-brown with buff spots. All too soon, though, I was back at the busy roadside, still smelling the may blossom, but no longer able to hear the birdsong. WKR 4 DEANERY THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH - FROM MARK HACKNEY Writing this in the week of Ascension I am drawn towards Matthew 28: 19 & 20 where Jesus gives His disciples their final instructions before leaving them. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Part of my role as Intergenerational Missioner is to make disciples which for me means growing. On Tuesday evenings 25 of us meet together on zoom to grow as disciples, and we are growing towards becoming a group of disciples that will grow new disciples. The great thing is that we do this together, helping each other and being a support to one another in the process.