Ombersley & Doverdale Parish Magazine February 2021
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Ombersley & Doverdale Parish Magazine February 2021 This on-line edition supports the printed version. Please see the printed issue for full advertisements. A list of advertisers plus their contact details is at the end of this on-line issue. Worcestershire Seven Parishes Service Rota for February 2021 Due to the current lockdown the following services will be held via Zoom. February 7th 11.00am Holy Communion ZOOM service February 14th 10.00am Family Service ZOOM service The pattern of services will be reviewed after February 14th. The Zoom ID and passcodes are likely to change fairly regularly. If you do not receive the weekly message with this information please call Nicolas Wright on 07968 531216 who can provide it. Thoughts from the Rector at New Year 2021 I write these words at the beginning of this New Year as I hear that the Prime Minister is due to address us all at 8 o'clock this evening. I would like to wish you all the happiest of years, but I recognise that if your year is to be happy then you and I will have inner work to do. I suspect that the Prime Minister's news will make us do this work. I tend to watch a little more television than usual at this time of year. The days are all too quickly over and the nights are long. There has been a particular treasure on early evening television which I confess to have missed the first time around and that has been the travels of Michael Palin. I suspect that I missed it because for about ten years or so I was without a television set at all. I remember that when I was a parent at the school gate waiting to pick up my children parents would come up to me and ask, “Is it true?” “Is what true?” I would reply. “Is it true that you don't have a television set?” And I would have to confess that it really was. Well, I am making up for this time with some pleasure and I want to share a particular moment in his journey across the Sahara Desert that has had a profound effect upon me. Palin arrives at a mining complex at the edge of the desert in Mauretania, a country that I know almost nothing about. And there he meets a family who live in a shelter constructed out of the sacking that at one time contained the explosives used to blast iron ore from the ground. In his somewhat hesitant French he asks the woman who lives in this bleak place with her family sitting about her, “What gives you happiness?” She replies with a smile of an almost transcendent loveliness. “Whatever God gives makes me happy.” Whatever God gives. Is she a living saint? Well, I for one would be honoured to enter heaven while carrying her luggage. Her radiance and the answer she gave surely points to an inner beauty. And I do not think that I will ever forget her words. “Whatever God gives makes me happy.” If we are to receive the gift of a happy new year then we too need to learn to treasure all that we have as a gift from God. And if a woman, struggling to survive in a shelter made of explosive sacking on the edge of the desert can achieve such astonishing happiness then surely so can I, surrounded as I am with so much prosperity. PRAYING THE PARISH If you have a particular need or things to be grateful for, please let us know Rev Stephen Winter 07773 760899 or [email protected] Angie Randle 01905 620753 [email protected] or James Homer 01299 851637 [email protected] [lay reader with pastoral responsibility for the Worcestershire Severn Parishes Areas for February: Sunday 7th February – Apple Tree Walk, Holt Fleet Road, Parsonage Lane Sunday 14th February – Sinton, School Bank, Ombersley School, Hawford, Hawford School Sunday 21st February – Boreley, Mutton Hall, Comhampton, Dunhampton St Andrew’s News Welcome to 2021! We have left what is probably going to be the strangest year of our lives with a Christmas season that was certainly not what we had hoped or planned for. It wasn’t all bad though, we did have a lovely afternoon with Carols in the Car Park on the Sunday before Christmas and I certainly enjoyed the chance to sing outside with over 130 other people, and to have the Christmas story told in bite sized pieces with the carols. A thank you to Rev. Winter and the SAS for making it possible, and also to people who were so good about keeping spaced out. Our final service of the year was a beautiful wedding; more about this elsewhere in the magazine. What a joyful way to say goodbye to 2020 and thanks to our zoom facility, the bride and groom could share with friends around the country. The New Year starts slowly as no physical services will take place before the next government review. Please keep an eye on the notice boards or website after that in case changes come after the magazine deadline. Our latest family service was based on Thankfulness, and referenced Pollyanna’s ‘Glad’ game, a book most of us have heard about, but may not have read (yet!). We had an opportunity during the service to share our blessings, which were many including: the digital technology that has allowed us to keep in touch with family and friends; living in a beautiful rural village with easy access to the countryside; a community that has worked hard to look after each other; a surgery that has been ahead of the game giving us access to the vaccine; being retired; box sets; having the chance to slow down and think. I’m sure you will have ideas of your own, and perhaps this month as the days get longer and lighter it is time to focus on all the good in our lives. Happy New Year! THE PARISH OF ST ANDREW’S OMBERSLEY St Andrew’s Parish Register for December 2020 31st Felicity Hunter and Paul MacDonald Wedding St Andrew’s Association Sadly, our plans for 2020 rather fell apart, but we are up and running for 2021! Talks at 3pm on Sunday Afternoons We started on January 10th with an illustrated talk on the Holy Land by Howard Robinson. A man who has successfully tackled the complexities of the computer world and took us through their 2017 trip with photographs, maps and postcards clearly showing the story of Jesus’s life and country and the places you can visit…some cleverly photoshopped so we could actually imagine the people who used to live there. If you are planning a trip (in time), I would thoroughly recommend hearing this talk first, and don’t miss Hezekiah's Tunnel in Jerusalem, if you don’t mind confined spaces! Our next talk will be on February 14th at 3pm: ‘Our Beautiful Planet’ This will still be a Zoom event, and you need to supply your own Tea and Cake…. Details will be on the website www.st-andrews.church and allaboutombersley, or contact Howard on 620995 or Fiona on 621176. There are no tickets as such, but we are asking for donations to help cover the cost of the streaming equipment we now have for the church. Please ask for bank details. VILLAGE NEWS Plaque for “Olga’s Path” In June this year we sadly lost villager Olga Allen. Despite being one of our older residents, Olga had campaigned for some time to replace a muddy track, which went from opposite the Hamptons to the Main Road, with a substantial footpath. Eventually, Olga achieved this and the path has been used and applauded by local residents. Olga’s friend Rosemary Humphreys organised a collection for a plaque and arranged for it to made and sited on the pathway. Friends can now remember Olga as they tread the path. Many thanks to Rosemary and all those who contributed to the collection and Chris Colley at Fortis who gave permission to site the plaque. Jan Mitchell Please Note: All copy needs to be sent to the editors by February10th for inclusion in the March magazine TOAD To ensure that you have your say on the future of your local area and are kept up to date with developments, please visit the website www.toad.works and sign up to receive updates and don't forget you can also now follow us on allaboutombersley, Facebook and Instagram Contact Susan Collier Email [email protected] or Judy Goodman Email [email protected] Let’s get the Community together and have some fun in 2021!!! Events and Activities for Everyone to enjoy Saturday 4th April - Family Easter Egg Trail Saturday 26th June - Veteran Car Show Saturday 16th October - Themed Evening Meal Saturday 4th December - Craft Fayre & Father Christmas In addition to the above we have in the pipeline a Fashion Show, Shindig and Gin Tasting Evening Look out for further details in the March Magazine and the Ombersley Memorial Hall and All About Ombersley websites NOT A COVID WEDDING It was the Saturday before Lockdown 2 when my daughter and her fiancé decided to end the year with love and joy by choosing 31st December 2020 to marry. All systems go, three dresses arrived in the post, one was chosen, job done. Calls and emails to St Andrew’s Church and Sunbury on Thames Church for banns to be read, job done. Next flowers, reception and numbers (at this point 15 guests were allowed), tier restrictions adhered to, menus chosen, job done.