February 2016
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February 2016 1 The Dun Valley Churches are members of The Clarendon Team THE CLARENDON TEAM MINISTRY OF CHURCHES TEAM RECTOR Revd Nils Bersweden, The Rectory, The Plantation, Winterslow, Salisbury SP5 1RE Tel 01980 862231. Mobile 07960 321355 E-Mail: [email protected] TEAM PRIEST Post Vacant TEAM CURATES Revd Cynthia Buttimer Tel: 01980 862017, [email protected] Revd Jane Dunlop Tel: 01794 884793, [email protected] TEAM LAY LICENSED MINISTERS Mrs Gill Morgan, Mr Bill Thompson, Mrs Debbie McIsaac, Mr Michael Barratt OTHER CLERGY Canon Roger Sharpe, Canon Jeremy Davies, Revd Anthea Cochrane, Revd Gordon Mitchell CLARENDON TEAM WEBSITE – www.clarendonteam.org - an informative website covering Worship services, notices and activities throughout the Team Team Worship Rota – www.clarendonteam.org/rotacurrent.htm, or to download in MS Excel www.clarendonteam.org/rotacurrent.xls TEAM ADMINISTRATOR Clarendon Team Office, St. John’s School Room, Gunville Road, Winterslow, Salisbury SP5 1PP Tel 01980 863635 (Mon-Fri 9-11 a.m.) E-Mail [email protected] WEST DEAN WITH EAST GRIMSTEAD CHURCHWARDENS Mr Bob Trott, Oakley, East Grimstead (Holy Trinity) 01722 712685 Mr Mike Marx, The Old Vicarage, West Dean (St. Mary’s) 01794 340271 FARLEY WITH PITTON CHURCHWARDENS Mrs Sara Bossom, Stockbottom House, Pitton 01980 611133 (Acting) Mrs Jane Bawden-Jones, The Barn, Farley 01722 712854 WEST DEAN WITH EAST GRIMSTEAD FARLEY WITH PITTON LAY PASTORAL ASSISTANTS LAY PASTORAL ASSISTANTS Mrs Jenny Cotter, East Grimstead, 01722 712316 Mrs Gill Morgan, Farley 01722 712438 Mrs Sara Bossom, Pitton 01980 611133 TREASURER Ms Jane Higgins, 01794 340536 TREASURER Ms Mandy Kerley, 07971 679466 SECRETARY Gill Sowerby, 01722 712665 ORGANISTS Mr Barry Cooper, 01722 712350 Ms Janice Brown MAGAZINE EDITOR Rod Coppock, Timbers, Beeches Close, Pitton, SP5 1EF Tel 01722 712469 E-Mail: [email protected] ADVERTS EDITOR Tim Hawkes, Lodge Farm House, Elm Close, Pitton, SP5 1EU Tel 01722 712577 E-Mail: [email protected] 2 JULIAN MEETINGS Julian Meetings are groups of people who meet regularly in order to grow in the practice of contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition. Please find more information at www.thejulianmeetings.net. Pitton Methodist Society The Pitton Methodists worship together with the Anglicans at St. Peter's Church and have a Methodist led service there once a month (currently the 3rd Sunday). Acting Superintendent - Rev. Bryan Coates [email protected] 02380 252960 Steward - Mrs. Sarah Sankey 01722 712581 EAST GRIMSTEAD HOLY TRINTY Once again we had a packed church for our Carol Service. It was great to see so many people there and that so many enjoyed the service. Thank you everyone who did readings, especially the young. Ladies as always you did wonderful work on the flowers. Many compliments have been passed! Thank you. Wishing everyone all good wishes for 2016 PathFinders@Pitton 2016 is meeting next on Sunday 7th February. Mothering Sunday is the 6th March For more details contact Sara Bossom on 01980 611133 3 I wonder what feelings that word ‘discipline’ stimulates for you? Perhaps it calls to mind the effort that dieting or exercising requires of us to do what feels counter to our natural inclination? It’s a word we often shrink away from, reminding us of past failures, or as being too difficult, and yet it can bear such excellent fruit if we only had the determination and will it demands to turn it into a good habit! On Wednesday 10th February the season of Lent begins again with a special service of ‘Ashing’, (7.30pm Winterslow Parish Church) in which we are reminded that we are ‘dust and to dust we shall return’, and that if we are to make something of our lives (or more correctly to allow God to make something of our lives) before we do return, there is some effort required of us to counter the default tendency to let everything that is good and admirable in us to dissipate from our lives! It urges us to discipline ourselves and serves to re-engage us with all that is most important in our lives beyond the temporal and sometimes insignificant aspects of our existence; so that forty days and forty nights later when Easter is celebrated, our lives will have been re-calibrated to face the right spiritual direction, where we can again see the miracle of life. The giving up of things such as chocolate or alcohol has its physical and maybe even altruistic benefits (if we decide to contribute the money saved to some good cause), but the exercise of discipline itself can serve to create stronger spiritual muscles to withstand the temptations that lead us 4 astray. By strengthening us through the small and apparently unimportant matters, these muscles enable to recognise and deal with the bigger challenges too! In our churches, as well as inviting people to observe some personal daily discipline, I will also be encouraging us to engage together in some corporate study and reflection (which you may think of as either a pleasure or a discipline, or maybe even both - for it can be both). These ‘Lent Groups’ can help us to see that we are not alone, and so strengthen our resolve to persevere in our decided course of discipline and benefit from the fruit it will produce in our lives. I invite you therefore to the observance of a holy Lent, and you are very welcome to join one of our Lent Groups. For more information on our groups see www.clarendonteam.org You may also like to look at www.40acts.org.uk/ By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Brothers and sisters in Christ, since Lent, by self-examination and early days Christians have observed repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self- with great devotion the time of our denial; and by reading and meditating Lord’s passion and resurrection and on God’s holy word. prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting. (from the Anglican Liturgy for Ash Wednesday) 5 From the registers Baptisms Imogen Sophie Alica PITKIN at All Saints, Farley on 6th December 2015 William Thomas Geoffrey RYAN at All Saints, Farley on 13th December 2015 Funerals Ann Greville WILLIAMS at Holy Trinity, East Grimstead on 8th January 2016 Frederick Gordon MANSTON at All Saints, Farley on 15th January 2016 THE AMOUNT COLLECTED DURING THE RECENT POPPY APPEAL IS £4093.65p The collection was taken up in Alderbury, East and West Grimstead, Farley and Pitton and my thanks go to the collectors who gave their time and to the residents of these villages for their generosity. Pat Sheppard, Poppy Appeal Organiser for The Alderbury and District Branch of the Royal British Legion. 6 What are you giving up for Lent? At the end of the vicar’s pre-Lent sermon he suggested, as an example to the rest of the community, that the congregation should worship in an unheated church for the whole of Lent. As they made their way into the chill Sunday air the vicar addressed one member of the congregation, asking what she had decided to give up for Lent. “Church,” she replied firmly. George Manston and his family would like to thank all those who attended his father's (Jim) funeral at All Saints, Farley on the 15th January. Also, we would like to thank everyone for their kind donations towards the All Saints Farley Church Fabric Fund. At the time of writing the total achieved is in the region of £300. This is a valuable contribution towards the upkeep of the Church building. Wiltshire Council meeting the people Wiltshire Council will be hosting a series of interactive and informative meetings to discuss the challenges of 2016 and beyond. The council currently spends £900 million each year on more than 350 services. The changing demographics, rising demand and reduction in funding has meant they have had to find substantial savings which will continue into next year’s budget and beyond. Their priority continues to be to help the most vulnerable in our communities, as well as taking action to boost the local economy, safeguard and create jobs and to work with communities to help them to do more for themselves. Cabinet members will be attending each meeting to join the discussion and would like to hear your views and suggestions. The meeting in Salisbury is on 10th February, at 5.30pm in the Guildhall. If you wish to attend, please email: [email protected] to confirm a place. 1acre field to let in East Grimstead, annually or shorter term. Newly fenced. Suitable for pony grazing. No water available. Please contact Annie Standen 01722 712736, or Gill Sowerby at [email protected] Field is the property of West Dean with East Grimstead PCC 7 Where are people getting married these days? In the year 2000, some 270,000 couples were married in England and Wales. Almost half these weddings took place in a Registry Office (47%), and over a third (36%) in a church, with a sixth (17%) taking place in an Approved Premise. But the dislike of people marrying in Registry Offices in the 21st century has grown hugely, while the popularity of Approved Premises has boomed, so that in 2015, when some 280,000 couples married, only 5% took place in a Registry Office and over two-thirds (68%) in an Approved Premise. A quarter (27%) still took place in a church.