Chronicle JULY 2021 THE MAGAZINE FOR

Find us via https://www.achurchnearyou.com

Two great events this month - both will be carefully risk assessed for Covid compliance. 1

THE HILLS GROUP OF PARISHES is part of the Pontesbury Group Ministry, and comprised of the parishes of Chirbury, Marton, Middleton w Corndon Marsh, & 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).

BIBLE STUDY - A Bible Study and discussion group will begin in September. The emphasis will be as much on fellowship as on study, and the Rector for one fully expects that cake will be involved! Details and dates will be posted in the August magazine, but in the meantime the Rector would be pleased to hear from anyone interested in coming along to the meetings. Prior knowledge of the Scriptures is NOT essential, and there’ll be no tests or quizzes . . . but it is our book, and it would be good to get to know it better, and to reflect on how it applies in our daily lives.

OUR COVID PRECAUTIONS - All our churches St Podwell’s 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 a 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 fully allowed to sing in worship, we will continue to use recorded versions of hymns. Should you expoerience symptoms that might be Covid within a week after “Mrs Punnett, your attending service, or if you have a positive Covid test, carnivorous plant appears to please inform us straight away, by contacting the Rector have eaten my or a church warden. These rules apply for public churchwarden!” worship, at funerals or if you enter church for any other reason, including for private prayer. Please note that All our churches are now part of these rules continue to apply even if you have had your the Parish Giving Scheme - an full Covid vaccinations - and some restrictions are sure easy way to support your church to remain in place as things begin to open up. by Direct Debit. To know more, contact the Rector or treasurers. 2

SERVICES AROUND THE GROUP IN JULY

DAY TIME CHURCH SERVICE______

4th - Trinity 5 9.30 am Leighton Holy Communion “THANK YOU DAY” 11.15 am Chirbury Holy Communion

11th - Trinity 6 9.30 am Marton Holy Communion 11.15 am Chirbury Morning Worship 11.15 am Middleton Family Service 3.00 pm Trelystan Holy Communion

18th - Trinity 7 9.30 am Middleton Holy Communion 11.15 am Chirbury Holy Communion 11.15 am Leighton Morning Worship

25th - Trinity 8 9.30 am Marton Holy Communion 11.15 am Leighton Holy Communion 3.00 pm Trelystan Service of the Word 7.00 pm The Marsh Holy Communion

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 Lammastide The Rector writes . . . Our Forest Church service at the stone circle was quite possibly our best attended ever! We had lots of visitors from elsewhere, including a good number from the Ford group, led by their new Rector, Greg Roberts. It was nice to see folk from Longden, Montgomery, and Bishop’s Castle too, among many others. The weather was cloudy, a bit windy, but not too bad overall, and of course we were allowed to sing! Thanks to Philip for bringing his piano accordion. Our next Forest Church service will be at Leighton on Sunday 1st August, the traditional “Harvest First-Fruits” day of Lammas. We shall meet at 4.00 pm. Everyone is very welcome!

MORNING PRAYER Revd Bill normally tries to say Morning Prayer in Chirbury on Wednesdays and Leighton on Thursdays, both at about 10.30 am. Sometimes meetings and other services (like funerals) get in the way of this . . . but you will be welcome to join him if he’s around.

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Nature Notes . . . Whinchats and Stonechats

The chats are a small group of birds formerly classified among the thrushes, but now recognised as more closely related to the Old World flycatchers. British members of the family include the nightingale, wheater and redstart, but it’s the two members that actually have “chat” in their name that I’d like to write about this month. A walk in June on Corndon and Stapeley hills allowed me good views of both of them, especially among the old and battered gorse bushes on Stapeley.

These are both small, robin-sized birds found predominantly on gorse and bracken covered uplands (whin, of course, is another word for gorse). They both have a fairly upright stance, slender bills and a short stubby tail, and dark backs and pink breasts. The male stonechat has, though, a dark black head, with a splash of white on the neck, and a white rump visible in flight. The female has less colour contrast, and upper parts of a streaky brown. Outside the breeding season, the male adopts fairly similar dress.

They chat, hence the name, being quick to advertise their presence and to scold intruders from a vantage point like the top of a bush or maybe a fence post. The main call has been likened to two stones being bashed together. The male also has a twittering courtship song as he flies. He may well have more than one female consort, but will join his mates to help feed the young. Food for chats consists mostly of small invertebrates, though they will also take seeds. Stonechats are present all year round in the UK, though they are more widespread in the winter.

Their close relative the whinchat is, however, a summer visitor, having wintered in Africa. They arrive in April, and leave at the end of summer. This allows only one brood, or occasionally two, compared with the often three broods managed by a stonechat. Whinchats, both male and female, look not unlike the female stonechat, but have a distinctive white eye-stripe, a little more white on the wings, especially visible in flight, and white on the sides of the tail. Like the stonechat, they’re hard to miss, as the male will perch somewhere conspicuous and advertise his ownership of his patch. He also has a pleasant twittering flight song. Though his plumage is similar to the female, there is a little more contrast, with the upper parts and the pink breast just a shade darker.

I was able to see both together on Stapeley, but neither bird is as common is it used to be. At the end of summer last year, again on Stapeley, I observed a stonechat catch a red admiral butterfly as it basked on the path ahead of me. They take much of their insect prey from the ground, whereas whinchats will also fly from a prominent perch to take insects on the wing, rather like their allies the flycatchers. Their nests, made from moss, grass and hair, are generally low down but well concealed, within gorse bushes, or in thick grass or bracken. Both chats are found quite widely across the UK, but tending towards the north and west in the main. WKR 4

DEANERY THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH - FROM REVD DAVID MOSS

Over this last year we have all been confronted with a new reality. We have had time to re-discover these simple things - what is important in life, like making time to go for a walk, listening to the bird song or rejoicing at the sight of clear skies and the feeling the warmth of the sun. At the same time we have seen how fragile life is, the faith that we had before in science, security, medicine has been severely shaken. Nature itself can be wonderful, and yet at the same time it can be cruel and heartless – and it has made us all feel pretty insignificant and vulnerable. As humans we naturally desire to have certainty in our lives; answers.

The problem is that, as humans, we can only focus on the here and now, which is like looking at a single piece of a one thousand piece jigsaw. Whereas God sees the whole completed jigsaw. As you probably all know, I play (not very well I might add) a trombone in various bands; when I practise (mmm, which is not very often) I tend to practise the parts that I would play if I was in the full band, so it is a very incomplete sound and my neighbours must wonder what on earth I am playing. Jazz music at the individual level sounds chaotic – but at group level is wonderful. It is as if God was saying ‘the world is bigger than today, bigger than you.’

In the Bible there is a story about a man called Job, he was very rich but his life began to fall apart and he sadly lost everything. Job laments, but lamenting is not a sign of wavering faith but in fact quite the opposite, it is a response of faith – the opposite to despair. The story is well known because Job had three friends who at first just sit in silence with him and were probably a great support. But sadly, they then begin to offer troublesome advice, making his situation worse. They slowly wear Job out. The tradition in those days was the belief that such misfortune must be as a result of Job’s behaviour or sin. Their poor advice gives them the nicknames of ‘Job’s comforters.’

Job remains faithful and God eventually appears and restores Job’s fortunes. In some ways, at first glance, the story seems to paint God in a bad light, and we wonder why it has been included in the Bible at all. But in reality the story was written to expose and challenge the poor theology of the day – that is the belief that bad things only happen as a result of sinful lifestyles. Tough times and challenges will always be with us, and sometimes nature can prove to be cold and heartless, in fact it can often deliver a devastatingly bad lot. One day, someone asked Jesus - “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Life is what it is. It is over a year since Covid hit us, and we hope that we are now coming to the end, at least the end of the worst of it. Our calling and place today is to be reassurance for those around us. God calls us to be a people of faith; faith and prayer in this world needs the capacity to live with and function in times of great 5 uncertainty. When everything appears out of control, when the seas rage all about us, that’s when we can see Jesus appearing out of the storm. That’s when we can hear those reassuring, immortal words: ‘Peace, be still!’

God looks at the eternal not just at the temporary, not just at today. He sees the complete and perfect picture. If we listen closely, we could probably hear him saying ‘can you see what it is yet?’ We just need to trust him, trust that this single piece of a big jigsaw that is today, will one day make a perfect picture.

Lord Jesus, help us to trust you when life seems difficult; help us to be heralds of your kingdom, here on earth, today, reflecting your light into our communities, announcing peace, proclaiming the news of happiness – that ‘our God reigns.’ Thank you Lord, that in you, all things will be well.

From Bishop Richard

I’ve lost count of the number of times politicians have told bishops to keep their noses out of politics. We are meant to be concerned about spiritual matters, but we should leave the business of government and politics to trained professionals. I’m not sure what they would have said to Jesus. He often spoke about matters to do with money and justice that would appear to be firmly in the political realm. In fact, all of the Bible writers, particularly the prophets, saw our spiritual lives as integral to our political and economic ones.

In Isaiah’s day there was a spiritual revival with very intense worship and fasting going on in the Temple. Unfortunately, it seemed to have had no effect on the way people behaved, leading him to make the pronouncement, “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free.”

Someone once said worship without justice is self-indulgence. If worship doesn’t make us more concerned about the unjust structures of society or determined to exercise better stewardship of the earth, it’s probably not the sort of worship the bible envisages.

To truly worship is to tune our hearts to God’s heart. If our hearts are tuned to his, they will beat to the same rhythm. God doesn’t measure people’s worth by the colour of their skin, the size of their bank balance, their educational attainment or their social status. The basis for justice is that we are all created in the image of God, and that creative diversity of colour and culture is a crucial part of the way God reveals himself to us. The basis for humility is that we have all fallen short and all alike need God’s forgiving love.

Our problem is we get so used to being beneficiaries in the dynamics of power that we can’t even see there’s a problem. It’s hardly surprising that our BAME brothers and sisters call our commitment to representative leadership into question when frankly, most of our senior church leaders look like me. There is a long way to go in achieving genuine justice in our society, and we need to be part of both the conversation and by our actions the solution as well. 6

SECRET ART SALE - A reminder that Emma Bailey-Beech is still collecting pieces of art and craft work to include in her sale this Autumn. Lots of great things have been given or promised, but she’d still like more! The exhibition is now scheduled for the week of 24th October, in Chirbury Church. Contact Emma on 01686 669971. OPEN GARDEN - Caroline Slowik's wildlife garden at Homeleigh, Lower Lane, Chirbury is open by appointment until September in aid of Historic Churches and St. Michael's, Chirbury. This is a well established verdant organic garden with plenty of roses, herbaceous flowers and a pond. Also a small woodland area. Lots of wild birds and there is a parrot, too. Entrance £7.50, which includes tea and cake. Please ring 01938 561 658 or email [email protected]. TRELYSTAN CAR PARK - The car park at Trelystan has now been re-surfaced, the existing surface having been so covered in mud and grass in places that you wouldn’t know it was there! It is now a much safer and easier place to park, but please take care driving and parking while the surface is still bedding in. Work should begin shortly on renewing the black and white paintwork of the church exterior, which has taken quite a battering from the weather since it was last done five or six years ago. PARISH OFFER - All our churches are asked to review our parish offer for 2022 by the middle of August this year. While times are hard, and Covid hasn’t helped, we are asked to try very hard to increase what we give. Why? Three simple reasons :- • What we offer as churches is entirely used to provide the ministry leadership of our churches - in other words, it’s just as vital and essential as what we spend on maintaining the buildings themselves. • At present we are not managing to pay for the full complement of clergy we now have in our deanery, and across the diocese as a whole we have a shortfall this year of some £900,000. As a diocese we can bridge this gap for the time being, because we’ve sold off some assets and made some significant savings on (for example) central staff, but this is using money that was earmarked for mission and growth, and it will run out before too long. • We do tend to think of giving OUR money to THEM down in Hereford. But the diocese isn’t THEM, it’s ALL OF US. We need to think in terms of using God’s money to further God’s work . . . and that work done HERE, which is where that money is really spent! WORK AT CHIRBURY - Through June a lot of work has been carried out at St Michael’s to ensure roofs and gutters etc are in good order, and hopefully to correct the falls of plaster that have been happening in a couple of places. This work has been funded by a Covid grant, and recognises the importance of St Michael’s as a historic building, which is Grade 1 listed. We are very grateful for the support given.

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NEWS FROM THE DEANERY AND DIOCESE

A meeting is planned on 12th July to look at producing a booklet to make clear the rules for churchyard memorials in the deanery, and also to offer support to bereaved families.

Diocesan Synod meets on 17th July by Zoom, and opening worship will be led by our Deanery. This is the last meeting of the present Synod, but elections will not be needed, as we don’t have more candidates than places.

ALPHA starts in September in Money from teas and the deanery - on Tuesday plant sales will benefit 21st: a lunchtime session, Marton Church and probably at Pontesbury, and Village Hall an evening session using Zoom - OPEN TO ALL!

Please support the open garden above, at the home of Steve and Caroline Cox. This is a delightful riverside garden, with lots to see and do! FROM THE REGISTERS - Our congratulations to Alex James Hornby and Amy Jessica Dawson, who were married at Trelystan on 29th May. Our sympathies and good wishes to the family and friends of Dilwyn Evans, whose funeral took place on 23rd June at Emstrey Crematorium chapel. CHANGES OF SERVICE TIME - The 9.30 service at Leighton on the first Sunday of the month will cease after this month. On 1st August it is replaced by a special service at 4 pm (see page 3), then from September it will move to 10.15, using a slightly shorter form of service, to finish at 11 o’clock. We hope the change of time will make it easier to attend. A new family service is planned from September at Chirbury, on the fourth Sunday of the month, probably at 4 pm. NEXT MONTH’S MAGAZINE - Notices, ideas and articles to the Rector by Sunday 18th July, please. It would be good to have more material from around the parishes! 8