The Parish LANTERN The magazine for Kenwyn with St Allen, Zelah, Allet and Shortlanesend October - November 2020 Church Directory Vicar: Rev Chris Parsons 01872 263015 (day off Friday) email: [email protected] Ordained Local Minister (retired): Rev Bob Humphries 01872 862827 email: [email protected] Reader: Tess Dean: 01872 279794 email: [email protected] Worship Leader: John Dean: 01872 279794 Churchwardens: Kenwyn: Martin Wright: 01872 222264 email: [email protected] St Allen: Adrian Hare: 01872 540307 David Burgess: 01872 263935 Parish administrator and PCC Secretary: Helen Perry: 01872 277117 email: [email protected] Bell ringing: Norman: 01872 242569 Choir and organist: Angela Gilbert: 01872 277725 email: [email protected] Mothers’ Union: Tess Dean: 01872 279794 email: [email protected] Wednesday Fellowship: Jean: 01872 271658 Flower arrangers: Val: 01872 222037 To hire the Lychgate room please contact Helen Perry: 01872 277117 email: [email protected] Parish Magazine editor: Jenny King: 01872 225661 email: [email protected] Please submit items for the December2020/January 2021 magazine by November 15th thank you A Reflection from the Mothers' Union They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’ Luke 24.32 Jesus told stories. When the two disciples walked the road to Emmaus on the day of resurrection, Jesus joined them and ‘beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself’. As Jesus re-told the story of God’s people the disciples’ hearts ‘burnt within them.’ This week in our Sunday lectionary readings, we heard from the story of Moses and his preparations for the first Passover. Moses inaugurated this worship in Egypt, which involved slaughtering a lamb and daubing the blood on the door-posts and lintels. The blood was a sign of protection, that the angel of death would ‘passover’ their house without bringing death within. ‘Passover’ continued to be celebrated annually. Because Jesus, another ‘lamb’, the lamb of God, was killed during the annual Passover celebrations, Passover took on a whole new meaning for the first Christians. Jesus began to explain this new meaning to the disciples on the road to Emmaus by re-telling the story of God’s people. As he did so, the disciples experienced the power of story. Their hearts ‘burnt within them.’ Has your heart ever ‘burnt within you’ when encountering Scripture? I am fascinated by the power of story to touch lives deeply. During lockdown, I have been unable to tell the stories of God’s people to the pre-schools and primary schools I usually visit. Instead, I have told the same stories through a weekly youtube StoryBox. It is welcomed and viewed by all ages. Even adults tell me how much they enjoy the stories. The timeless story of God’s people is taking on a whole new meaning for them as they listen and engage with the stories. Clearly there is power in story-telling. As we re-tell God’s story today, God’s story and our stories intertwine. Hearts are touched, lives impacted. I am discovering this through the many comments I receive from simply ‘telling the story’. Join me and share your story and God’s story with those around you. I am sure you will find, like me, a deep hunger for God’s story. Hearts will burn! God bless you, Mother Alison. On Sunday 25th October clocks go back one hour The idea of summer time or daylight saving time was mentioned in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor, scientist and statesman. However, it wasn't until 1907 that a serious proposal for daylight saving time was made in Britain by William Willett. Angry at the waste of daylight during summer mornings, he self- published a pamphlet called "The Waste of Daylight". In 1916, a year after Willett’s death, Germany became the first country to adopt daylight saving time. The UK did the same a few weeks later, along with many other nations involved in the First World War (1914- 1918). Within a few years of its introduction, many countries across the world adopted Daylight Saving Time. However, the benefits of it have been an ongoing debate since it was first introduced. During the Second World War (1939-1945), British Double Summer Time - two hours in advance of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) - was temporarily introduced for the period when ordinary daylight saving would be in force. During the winter, clocks were kept one hour in advance of GMT to increase productivity. With the war over, Britain returned to British Summer Time except for an experiment between 1968 and 1971 when the clocks went forward but were not put back. The experiment was discontinued as it was found impossible to assess the advantages and disadvantages of British Summer Time. Campaigners have sought a return to British Double Summer Time or a permanent British Summer Time to save energy and increase the time available in the evenings. An attempt was made by backbench MPs to change BST but The Daylight Saving Bill 2010–12 was not passed by the House of Commons. Coronavirus Update We are thinking of you all in these difficult times, and hope you are safe and well. In line with government advice, we made the difficult decision to cancel or postpone events and volunteer activities at present. Those of you already booked onto events should have been contacted already. You are welcome to walk through our grounds, but please keep any dogs on a lead and observe the current safety guidelines to stay 2 metres away from other walkers to help combat COVID-19. Road Closure The road leading to Epiphany House from Kenwyn Church is currently closed. Please use our front entrance via Higher Trehaverne. You may already be aware that we are fundraising at present to restore and renew Epiphany House. We have a major project under way to extend our facilities and improve accessibility, and to restore some of the historic features of this beautiful building. We’re really excited! There will be ensuite bedrooms, universal access facilities, more and better meeting rooms. To carry out all of the work, we need to raise £1.5 million in total but will be spreading the work and the fundraising over three phases. We’re raising some of the money through grants, the Epiphany Trust is putting funds towards the project as well and for the remainder we are seeking donations. We want to be good stewards of both our spiritual and our physical heritage and this work will help to secure the future of the House – but we need your help! Please would you pray for our fundraising, and consider whether you could make a donation to our Restore & Renew fund. More info: http://www.epiphanyhouse.co.uk/news/ Gardening As the garden starts to slow down for the winter, in the parks department we seem to be getting really busy. Taking up our time at the moment is the winter/ spring bedding. I always say how important it is to get your plants established as soon as you can and that is definitely true. But we all know that this is not always possible. Delivery of certain plants being later with events, short staffing due to the current situation and such like has all delayed planting for us. We always try to get everything done for the early part of November, so the next two weeks are going to be very busy indeed. If you are buying plants now and planting them at home this is fine and with the mild weather at the moment you still have time to spoil your plants, which will give them a little boost before the winter. Winter bedding plants don’t necessarily like our winter weather, they are just resilient plants that can tolerate most of what is thrown at them. However prolonged cold and particularly wet spells will take its toll. Wallflowers for example, naturally grow on scree slopes, cliffs and walls, which gives them their name. So, obviously these areas are well drained and what do we do? We plant them into our rich, water holding soil in the parks during the wet winter months. Yet during March through to May they still give us a wonderful, sweet smelling display, very strong, resilient plants indeed. In your garden try to find a free draining position or maybe add some horticultural grit to encourage more air around the roots. Wallflowers also don not like too much acid in the soil, so maybe do a soil test and talk to someone about controlling soil Ph. As for your other plants in pots maybe give a balanced feed to push growth on and try to position away from any cold breezes. There is still time to spoil your plants and the weather is favourable at the moment. The wind is always a problem through the winter, so now that the weather is starting to blow it might be time to batten down the hatches. Look around your garden and see where the wind tends to catch things. If you decide to put up some form of wind break, choose an option that will filter the wind. A solid break can cause the wind to go over the top making it swirl around catching the plants below. My last garden was a real struggle to keep going in windy weather and it had a six foot solid fence all the way around. If the wind is filtered it does a lot less damage.