Goring Parish News
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Goring Parish News October/November 2016 Issue number 49 St Mary's and St Laurence's Churches, Parish of Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex . Registered Charity 1131418 Website – http://goringbyseacofe.org.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StMaryAndStLaurenceGoringBySea This edition includes: 3 Father George writes 4 Warden’s Warblings 20 Coffee Time 5 News from the Diocese - Bishop Mark of Horsham 21 News from the Social Activities Committee 6 Diary and Lectionary Readings for October 22 Presentation to St Laurence’s 7 Diary and Lectionary Readings for November 22 Goring Parish Facebook page 8 Sonnets of Faith: Thanksgiving 23 St Laurence’s Services 8 Singing for Fun 24-25 Celebrating St Laurence’s 80th Anniversary 9 St. Mary’s Music Group/News Extra from the Diocese 26-27 The Venerable Andrew Tremlett - Dean of Durham 10-11 Parish Mission Support at St. Mary’s 28 4th Goring Guides - Part 2 - Backwoodsman cooking 11 Churches Together in Goring 29 St. Mary’s Social Circle News 12 Christian Breadcrumbs 9: Remembrance, Sacrifice, Hope 29 Latest update from 4th Goring Guides 13 Parish Mission in Focus: October - AIM 29 St Mary’s Church Hall - Venue for Hire 13 Christian Aid 30 Baptisms, Marriages and Funerals 14-16 The Story of Goring and Highdown - Part 11 30 Worthing Theological Society 16 The Children’s Society - Box Opening 31 Family Services 17 Parish Mission in Focus: November - St Francis High Sch. 31 Sussex Gruffs Male Voice Choir Concert 18 4th Goring Guides - Part 1 - Canoeing Regatta 31 And Finally….A Dog’s Life…...Bill Tree 19-20 Nature Watch 32 Parish Contacts - New format with email contacts 1 Parish Office opening hours..... The Parish Office is open Monday to Thursday: 10:00am to 12:00 noon. It is staffed by volunteers. If you have anything that needs to be handed in, a phone call in advance may avoid a wasted journey. Money should not be put through the letterbox. If you have money to pay in and are unable to get to the office, it may be handed to the Churchwardens or Treasurer after services on a Sunday. See the back page for Parish contact information. Editorial.... Memories of summer months are now receding. Our hopes for August did indeed see sunnier days. We hope you found some time to relax with your family. Your Editorial Team of Malcolm Chilton, Roland Silcox, Robert Eden, Janet Annis and Graeme Richardson certainly did. Yes, that good weather did lift our spirits once again. Our Editorial Team hope you will enjoy this, the October/November issue of Goring Parish News. GPN will, in future, be published every other month, to allow the Editorial Team and contributors sufficient time to compile each issue. Any subsequent changes to the dates/times published in GPN will be notified in the weekly Pew Sheet, the Facebook page or the Parish website. In this edition, we offer you 32 pages, packed with interesting articles and news items. Your comments, suggestions and articles are most welcome. Especially, we thank those of you who have supplied photos for inclusion. These are appreciated and, we hope you agree, make GPN more attractive to read. Please keep them coming, but please bear in mind that GPN is printed in Greyscale for those who cannot receive emails. If you do not wish for your photo, or that of your child, to appear in GPN or on the Parish website, please contact one of the Clergy, Churchwardens or a member of the Editorial Team to have that request formally recognised. We apologise to anyone whose contribution to this edition of GPN has had to be held over to a later issue. We are really grateful to the many contributors who make our job such a joy. Preferably, articles should be sent electronically, to [email protected] Alternatively, handwritten or typed articles should be sent to the Parish Office. Our next issue, the December/January edition, will be published on or before 24th November 2016. Will contributors please ensure that events up to the end of January 2017 are notified to us by the Press Copy date for this edition ~ Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 latest. Articles received after this date will only be included if time and space permit. If possible, please send copy well in advance of this date: it will help preserve our sanity and prevent us burning too much midnight oil! If you would like to receive the email version of Goring Parish News, please send your email address to [email protected]. For security reasons, please state your connection with the Parish, provide your postal address and phone number. To be sure it arrives in your inbox each month, please add this email address to your contacts list. GPN, including back issues and supplementary articles, can also be found on the Parish website: http://goringbyseacofe.org.uk/ Items for the weekly Pew Sheet should be sent to reach the Parish Office by 10:00am on Thursdays. Email to: [email protected] Please do not send them to Goring Parish News. Goring Parish News is published by Goring PCC Parish Office, 12 Compton Avenue, Goring-by-Sea, Worthing, BN12 4UJ Goring Parish News is printed by West Park School whose support we gratefully acknowledge. The Editorial Team 2 Father George writes: When I was vicar of St Saviour, Folkestone in the 1990s Archbishop George Carey was at Canterbury. He had only been at Bath and Wells for about three years when he was called to be Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a fan of the Revd. Roly Bain who died recently aged 62. Roly was both a priest and a clown, and Archbishop George used him to bring humour and a particular take on the conferences and services to which he was invited. Roly was the “fool for Christ”, the one who could speak truth to power and authority through his humour. He had a brilliant gift for telling the story of faith whilst being the clown during his own spot on the agenda, and also for interrupting when he thought it right to pierce the bubble of churchiness or lighten a heavy moment. There is a wonderful video on the internet of him doing his “Slack Rope Walk” at a Rotary Conference. It is very clever and very thought provoking. If you put “Roly Bain” into the search engine you will find it. As we read the scripture we take it so seriously. Rightly so, we look for what God is saying to us. We very rarely look for the humour amongst it. We need someone like Roly who can help us see that God has a sense of humour. It is his gift to us to help us through life. A prayer from Iona begins: God’s gift of humour is to help us when we take ourselves too seriously. It can hurt but the joy of the fool is that he/she can speak the truth which hurts and make us see the reality in it. Oh yes, the “Slack Rope of Faith”. Roly ends by telling his audience, “You have to let go, take risks and keep going.” That sounds like a good mission statement for a growing church. What do you think? The Revd. Roly Bain 18 January 1954 – 11 August 2016 RIP May God bless you. 3 Warden’s Warblings There is much activity in our parish at the moment and an additional complication was that Barbara went away for two weeks on the day that I was finishing my holiday. We agreed that she would update me by email and it was quite a long one! So what is this activity? Many of you have, I hope, noticed an improvement in the churchyard. We have contractors clearing the scrub and undergrowth in both the Molson Garden and the churchyard before the tree surgeons start their work, hopefully in mid- September, if the appropriate planning permission has been received. At the time of writing we can see a number of graves that have been hidden by undergrowth for years and years. As we have a closed churchyard, some basic maintenance is the responsibility of the local authority whilst some falls to us. We hope to bring our grounds up to a standard whereupon volunteers can form teams to address our ongoing maintenance role. Fr George is hopeful that we shall encourage parishioners who do not attend church regularly to become involved as well. Matters are not as simple and straightforward as one might hope. We have two Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) to be mindful of. So far as we are concerned, one, for St Mary’s (No 13 of 1985), covers 59 trees on our grounds plus others situated by the Library, The Court House and rear of 15 Mersham Gardens. Additionally three trees at St Laurence’s are subject to a TPO (No 65 of 1995). Also on the go is the resurfacing of the carpark at St Mary’s; but alas it is not a straight forward issue. To our horror (and cost) being in a conservation area means that not only do we have to obtain planning permission but we have to comply with the latest regulations which means digging a soakaway and providing acceptable drainage. Barbara has won one battle with the planners over the resurfacing material. Originally they were against us using tarmacadam but our architect has persuaded them otherwise and currently is obtaining quotations on our behalf. We are very grateful to the two members of our congregation who have kindly offered to make a financial contribution to our costs and would welcome other offers.