BENEFICE OF MILLOM WITH HAVERIGG & THWAITES One benefice - legally it’s just called Millom - with one Priest, covering two parishes - Millom (including the villages of Haverigg and The Hill, as well as the town of Millom) and Thwaites (which includes the villages and hamlets of Strands, The Green, Hallthwaites, Arnaby, Ladyhall, Broadgate and Swinside). Two parishes in one benefice - and four churches: The Holy Trinity, Millom; Saint George’s, Millom; Saint Luke’s, Haverigg; Saint Anne’s, Thwaites. Each of these is a parish church in its own right, and is used for all the accustomed services of worship on Sundays and weekdays, as well as baptisms, funerals, weddings and other celebrations and commemorations. Each church has a churchyard, but in the case of St George’s, new graves are not normally permitted. Millom Cemetery, adjacent to St George’s Church, is maintained by Copeland Borough Council. Each church has its own distinct atmosphere. It is likely that Christians have worshipped on the Holy Trinity site for at least a thousand years, and worshippers today enter the church through a doorway dating back to about 1120 AD. St Anne’s Church (consecrated 1854), St George’s (1877) and St Luke’s (1891) are Victorian buildings in different medieval styles, and all three remind us of the ambitions and aspirations of their builders for their own communities. St Luke’s Institute is available for meetings, events and other social purposes: please contact Audrey Akers (773736) Useful web sites: Our benefice: www.millomchurchofengland.org.uk Christenings www.churchofenglandchristenings.org Weddings: www.yourchurchwedding.org Funerals: www.churchofenglandfunerals.org 2 Carl’s Craich I sit writing this after having celebrated the Feast of Pentecost in two of our churches today, which has fittingly brought a weekend of celebration to a close. The weekend began with my family and me celebrating my 65th birthday; the celebrations continued into late Saturday night when my youngest daughter gave birth to my second grandson. Then the culmination of the weekend was celebrating with my church family the coming of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Church. As I sit and reflect on these very happy, but so different occasions, I am reminded of how powerful in my life God is. God the creator, who fashioned us in his own image but yet made us all unique individuals. God who has been constant in his love and support through the power of his Holy Spirit. God who brings forth new life in the shape of a baby, just as his own Son was brought forth from the virgin, again through the power of the Holy Spirit and finally the outpouring of that Holy Spirit into the lives of those first disciples. A power so strong that it was irresistible, a power that had the ability to turn those frightened men into the voice of the Gospel. It is that same power that inspired the disciples that God pours into our lives, though perhaps our reaction is not as dramatic as was that of the disciples. We are called by God to work his purpose out in our lives by taking the message of the Gospel to those that need to hear it the most. Now, unlike those first disciples, it is unlikely that we would face the same risks that they did. No one is going to lock us up or torture us for saying what we believe, but it does take a certain amount of courage, of faith, of determination to actually proclaim what we believe. I pray that, as we move further out of the restrictions that have become part of our lives, we can start to proclaim boldly in our community the power of the Holy Spirit, the unconditional love and the salvation to eternal life that is given by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let the power of the Holy Spirit loose in your lives and see how it enhances all that we do. Yours in Christ, 3 Revd Carl SERVICES FOR JUNE June 6th St George’s 10.30am Benefice Communion Trinity 1 June 13th Holy Trinity 10.30am Benefice Communion Trinity 2 June 20th St George’s 10.30am Benefice Communion Trinity 3 St Luke’s 12 noon Holy Communion June 27th Holy Trinity 10.30am Benefice Communion Trinity 4 Anyone wishing to receive Home Communion should contact Carl 774427 _______________________________________________________ Scout Monthly Update Just a quick update this month unfortunately, although hopefully next month will be different. As I write this, we are a week off the half term holidays (as someone who works in a school, I am very much looking forward to this!). The week after that is when I hope we can get back together again. The scouts are very keen to get back and keep asking when we can. I hope next month to bring you news of our meetings along with pictures. Those of you who have social media pages will know you can sometimes be reminded of your memories of previous posts on that day throughout the years. I was looking on these the other day and was reminded of a camp we went on to Ennerdale campsite 10 years ago. This was such a fun camp and I loved looking back at pictures of past scouts who I was in scouts with at the time. I am looking forward to making new memories again with our current scouts (That’s what I keep in mind whilst filling out all of the tedious paperwork). By Rebecca Brown (Scout Leader) 4 CONCISE BENEFICE DIRECTORY Associate Priest : The Revd. Carl Carter (774427) 13 Pepper Hall Walk, Haverigg LA18 4HT Email:[email protected] For Millom PCC Lay Chair: Margaret Bratley (773337) Secretary: Pamela Bell (773154) Treasurer : Geoff Brunskill (772622) For Thwaites PCC Lay Chair: Peter Foord (777928) Secretary: Louise Cox O’Shea (07876770192) Treasurer: Helen Eastham (716666) Parish Churchwardens Holy Trinity: Margaret and Geoff Edmondson (772084) St George’s: Vacant St Luke’s: Vacant St Anne’s: Peter Foord (777928) Benefice Safeguarding Officer: Vacant At the APCM the following were elected to the PCC Barbara Andrews, Pamela Bell, Margaret Bratley, Hilary Coote, Yvonne Fox, Jeg Gray, Nancy Green, Anne Maggs, Bob McFadden, Ann Norman, Rachel Pooler They will serve along side the churchwardens and deanery synod representatives: Geoff Brunskill and Jane Micklethwaite Magazine: The next edition of the magazine will be for July and August and should be available from July 1st. Please let me have any items for inclusion by June 25th. If you do not already receive a copy of the magazine and wish to do so, please contact Margaret Bratley on 01229 773337 or email me. If you wish to arrange a Wedding or a Christening you must contact Carl, not church wardens His contact details are: Tel:774427 or [email protected] 5 1+1+1=1? How can this be? We know the word Trinity well enough as we have a church named after the Holy Trinity, but what does it mean and where does it come from? ‘Tri’ means three and ‘unity’ means one so ‘Trinity’ means three in one: one God made up of three parts, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself used the idea of three different forms of God when he commissioned his disciples to ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’. The idea of the Trinity is one of the most difficult to understand. The Bible teaches that : • We must worship only God • We must worship God the Father • We must worship God the Son • We must worship God the Holy Spirit • There is only one God This seemed to put Christians in an impossible position from which they were rescued by the doctrine of the Trinity, which solved the puzzle by stating that God must be simultaneously both Three and One. Back to the equation at the top… I once read that ‘infinity’ is ‘a place where things happen that don’t!’ Parallel lines meet, and normal rules of arithmetic just don’t apply there. 1+1+1 = 1 would certainly be possible there. If we believe that God is infinite then it would certainly be feasible for God to be both three and one. Decorations in churches often include representations of the Trinity. The specific parts of the Trinity may not be specified but any threefold design, as this one in a window in St Anne’s, reminds us of the Trinity. 6 At Holy Trinity, the Archangels window includes the three separate parts of the Trinity. There, God is represented by alpha and omega, the first and last, Jesus by the cross, through which he redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit by a dove. The symbols used vary: over the altar at St George’s, God is represented by a hand, pointed down. Sometimes Jesus is represented by a lamb and the Holy Spirit by the flame of Pentecost. Funerals in our churches In the latest stage on the roadmap for returning to normality after lockdown, the number able to attend funerals is no longer limited to 30 but depends on the number who can be accommodated safely in each building, bearing in mind social distancing. For our churches the maximum numbers are: Holy Trinity Church To be decided St George’s Church 60 people St Luke’s Church 40 people St Anne’s Church 60 people Unfortunately, if more than these numbers arrive for funerals, it may be necessary to turn them away.