Chronicle JULY 2021 the MAGAZINE FOR
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
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 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). 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, Forden 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. 3 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.