PARISH MAGAZINE All Saints’ with St Cedd’s Shrub End , Colchester July 2020 Price 35p or £3.50 per annum - 1 - CLERGY AND OFFICERS Vicar Vacant Churchwarden Robin Webb 10 Stuart House St Peter’s Street Colchester Tel: 860900 Sacristan Vacant PCC Secretary Brenda Pettit PCC Treasurer Brian Waller 16 Devon Road Colchester Tel: 540449 Gift Aid Officer Iain Hay 47 Gainsborough Road Colchester Tel: 545352 Electoral Roll Officer Frances Poulter 22 Halstead Road Colchester Tel: 532066 Parish Office Tel: 765145 SUNDAY WORSHIP As you are aware by now, we were not able to hold any services in our two churches, but this hopefully will change on Sunday 5th July. - 2 - Under the direction of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. With the buildings fully closed, the Prayerslips and Services will now be online only. LECTIONARY We are currently using Year A on Sundays and Year 2 on Weekdays. SUNDAY READINGS FOR JULY 2020 EUCHARIST EVENSONG 5th July – Trinity 4 Genesis 24, 34-38, 42-49, 58-end Psalm 56 Psalm 45:10-end 2 Samuel 2:1-11, 3:1 Romans 7:15-25a Luke 18:31-19:10 Matthew 11:16-19, 25-end 12th July – Trinity 5 Genesis 25:19-end Psalm 60 Psalm 119:105-112 2 Samuel 7:18-end Romans 8:1-11 Luke 19:41-20:8 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 19th July – Trinity 6 Genesis 28:10-19a Psalm 67 Psalm 139:1-11, 23-24 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:16-28 Romans 8:12-25 Acts 4:1-22 Matthew 12:24-30, 36-43 26th July – Trinity 7 Genesis 29:15-28 Psalm 75 Psalm 105:1-11, 45b 1 Kings 6:11-14, 23-end Romans 8:26-end Acts 12:1-17 Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 SICKNESS LIST AND THE REGISTERS We continue to pray for all who are remembered on our Prayerslips – Rev Tony Rose, Ethel Munson, Angela Marsh, Gillian, Aidan Cooke, Angela, Dawn and her family, John Barker, Christopher Browne, Ron Harden, Margaret, Chris Parkes and his family, Amy, Pat Rickard, Louise, Rachel and Shareen Rouvray, John Swinburne, Tabitha, Geoffrey Webb, Edward Wiles, Emma, Shirley and John Hall. There is nothing to report from the register. - 3 - HOME WORSHIP Thanks to the good work of the Ray Sams, a weekly service sheet is being prepared for us and this is now being shown on the church website – www.shrubendparish.co.uk - This is under the Home Page heading “Home Worship”. A similar heading can also be found for the Prayerslips prepared by our Parish Administrator Also online are some special prayers, particularly for the current COVID19 virus. FROM THE CHURCH WARDEN Dear Parish Friends, Now is our Spring of pestilence turned to Glorious Summer With the beginning of July All Saints Church building has now been open intermittently for private prayer since the Government allowed this in mid June. I feel sure that everyone has acted sensibly and with care for others in visiting the church. As I write, the expectation is that all churches will be allowed to open for public worship from the 6th July and that the Covid 19 lockdown for the old and vulnerable will be lifted by the 1st August. I am therefore contacting our volunteer priests to see who will be willing and able to undertake services during July and August. The usual arrangement to hold Evensong in churches from Wivenhoe to Lexden has, however, already been cancelled due to mutual consent between the parishes. We have been approached by the Foodbank to open a distribution centre for Colchester South in St Cedd’s Church. The plan is to start volunteer training at St Cedd’s on the 6th July and open for distribution every Monday morning thereafter. If you know of anyone willing and able to volunteer to help in the distribution centre please encourage them to contact the Foodbank at [email protected] or Colchester Foodbank, 33 Moorside Business Park, East Gates, Colchester, Essex, CO1 2ZF or Tel: 01206 621 998. As I am in the group required to be in lockdown until 1st August, I do not expect to return to the parish until some time after that. Until I am back with you, do stay safe and continue to help your neighbours in need with love and understanding. May God be with us all Robin Webb - 4 - NEWS FROM THE REVEREND RAY SAMS HEDGEHOGS AND HASSLES Wildlife has benefitted very greatly from the Corona virus lockdown. Hedgehogs have done particularly well. Hedgehog mortality rates are well down on pre-lockdown levels, because there have been far fewer cars around to run them over. No one bets on the hedgehog in a car v. hedgehog contest. Apart for being so much smaller and slower, they have poor eyesight and, being largely nocturnal, they (like rabbits) find oncoming headlights dazzling. So they tend to freeze, when running away would definitely be a better plan. You’d think that, somewhere in the wiser counsels of the hedgehog community, someone would be telling the youngsters, “Roads don’t end well for us. Stay off them.” But no. As well as being half-blind and quite cute, they are a bit thick. Not as dim as pheasants, though. Later in the year, they will be all over our country roads, lurking in hedgerows, then suddenly rushing out and stopping in the middle of the road. Last Autumn, I was almost rammed by a kamikaze pheasant, flying directly at me at windscreen height. It’s a wonder they are not already extinct, given their heroic determination to remove themselves from the gene pool. If only pheasants could learn that big metal things on wheels are not nice to bump into, they would find the world an altogether more benign place. But no; every year, they say to themselves, “Hey, it’s October – let’s go out and trip up some cars.” Like hedgehogs and pheasants, people can find it hard to stop doing things which hurt us. We know about tobacco, but we keep smoking. We know about debt, but we keep borrowing. And we know about stress, but we keep looking for more ways of filling our time, more things to worry about. Some people swear by time management systems. They use diaries, priority planners, daily to-do lists and long-term goal planning tools. Their phones sound alarms about upcoming tasks or appointments. These things can help in the busiest jobs, but the danger is that they result in making yet more time available which we immediately fill with even more stuff to do. (Or, in my case, spending more time fussing over my time management system than actually doing things.) When I had a proper job, a common management slogan was “The more you do of what you’re doing, the more you’ll get of what you’ve got. If you want something different to happen, you need to do something different”. If we long for peace and stillness, if we are stuck on a treadmill with no end of things to do, what is the different thing which will break us free? The answer is simple: do less. Simple, but not easy, because it means breaking out of the habit of filling time rather using it. Each hour that passes has gone and won’t come back. - 5 - It is up to us to use time in ways which fulfil us, and this should include allowing time to do nothing at all, because doing nothing can be very therapeutic. The poet W.H Davies had a point when he wrote “A poor life this if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.” Here’s a starter for ten. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Can’t say fairer than that. Ray Sams CHURCH WEBSITE This can be found on: www.shrubendparish.co.uk PARISH FINANCE More news from our treasurer Brian on the state of the finances of our parish in the third month of no real income from our two churches – firstly I wish to express the thanks from Betty the eldest daughter of Elsie Potter for all who donated in memory of her mother. The total sum given was £260 and with other money in the church memorial fund, we hope in the future to purchase a new seat for the churchyard. Fortunately in the last month, a few people have offered their stewardship givings and we have still received our rent for St Cedd’s House. We still have regular monthly bills to pay and we did recently have a bill to repair the toilet at All Saints and of course we have had to incur costs to equip our churches with sanitisers etc and a register which must sign in and out of. In this time away from church, people may wish to either send their giving to me by cheque made payable to All Saints PCC to my address – 16 Devon Road, Colchester, CO2 9BB or transfer the money direct into our bank account sort code 20-22-67 account number 00111112, with a reference to your name please. EDITOR’S NOTE If you want anything included in the August magazine, if things are not back to normal, please email Brian on – [email protected] Items included in this magazine are with thanks to information found in various church websites and from the book written by the late Richard Cooper and Geoff Pettit, who both served this parish well over many years.