Page | 64 Page | 1 GETTING IN TOUCH www.tlcchurch.co.uk Canfield, MolehillPriors Little Green Green, Takeley, MINISTER CHURCHWARDENS Revd. Rob Burles 01279 870214 tlcchurches Park Takeley Street, Green, Bambers Takeley [email protected] All Saints, Little Canfield The Rectory, Parsonage Rd Stretch Fulcher 01371 872168 Takeley, CM22 6QX Holy Trinity, Takeley LAY MINISTER Alan Parkinson 01279 879373 GRAPEVINE Hugh Mascetti 01279 871606 [email protected] The Monthly Magazine for CHURCH ADMINISTRATOR Lisa Chambers 07766 444873 [email protected] Church and Community For enquiries about baptisms, weddings, funerals, visits, church groups & activities please contact the administrator. FROM THE CHURCH REGISTERS Sun 25th Oct Interment of ashes, Ken & Edna Harrison All Saints Mon 26th Oct Funeral & cremation, Sheila Campion 3 Counties Crem. The next Grapevine will be an online edition in February 2021. Contributions to the editor please by Wed. 12th January to [email protected] The situation with advertising is still being considered and any Parish of Takeley Canfield Little with Takeley of Parish opportunities for advertising will be advised in due course. The new editor is Barbara Mascetti on the email shown above. Courtesy National Trust Church of England | Diocese of Church of England Chelmsford | Grapevine ensures that, as far as possible, information in the magazine is correct. Nothing anonymous is published. Publication of an article does not imply any form of approval or recommendation. Grapevine cannot accept responsibility for any product December 2020 December 2020 December 2020 Page | 2 Page | 63 GRAPEVINE Published by: PCC of Takeley with Little Canfield (TLC Church) Grapevine is also available as a pdf file on our website: www.tlcchurch.co.uk EDITOR: Peter Granger 01371 879959 2 Mill Field, Barnston, Dunmow, CM6 1LH Please submit articles for inclusion to: [email protected] Articles should be sent as a Word document, images JPEG, PNG, not PDF ADVERTISING: Please submit adverts for inclusion to Pat: [email protected] Adverts should be sent as a Word document or JPEG or PNG file, not PDF CIRCULATION: 2,650 copies delivered free to all homes and businesses in the parish 10 times a year The parish includes: Takeley, Priors Green, Little Canfield, Molehill Green, Takeley Street, Bambers Green & Takeley Park PRINTED BY: TP Print, Cullen Mill, Witham, CM8 2DD 01376 513999 www.tpprint.co.uk COMMUNITY NEWS News from Brian Hockley Wishing you a Rodings Showtime Everything is up in the air at the moment. The Race Night on very ... December 11th at High Easter Village Hall is OFF. The Troubadour show is OFF at High Easter Village Hall in June, due to the group entertaining on a cruise ship, but Jimmy Jemain and The Knight Shadows ( Cliff Richard & The Shadows Tribute Show ) and the group Shindig want to come back to High Easter Village Hall, and put on another show, dates to be sorted. If we are still in lockdown in January, the High Easter - Easter Egg Hunt will also be called off. The Thursford Christmas Spectacular in November 2021 and the Cliffs Pavilion Panto at Southend in Jan 2022 are still on. December 2020 December 2020 Page | 62 Page | 3 ADVERTS CHURCH SERVICES At the present time, the Government has decreed that churches should be closed again for public worship. When we are allowed to reopen, we will be holding a said service at Holy Trinity Church, at 9.30am each Sunday, alternating between Communion and a Service of the Word. Hugh Mascetti, our Licensed Lay Minister, and Helen Flack, Curate at Stansted, have been discussing how they can support one another in maintaining this pattern once Rob has left, given that Paul (Vicar of Stansted) will also have retired at the end of November. Meanwhile, All Saints Church is open every day for private personal prayer. Using both our buildings in this way means we avoid having to engage in a vast amount of cleaning, for which we neither have the effort (volunteers) nor the money (paid cleaner). We have a weekly sheet of thoughts and prayers based on the main Sunday Bible reading – if you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please let us know by email at [email protected] or by phone 07766 444873. For those who cannot or do not wish to attend in person at the present time, we continue to join with Stansted Church for a Zoom service at 9.30am on Sunday mornings – you can find the direct link for that in our weekly email and on our website www.tlcchurch.co.uk. And we are also posting a video on our Facebook page at 11am each Sunday: tlcchurches. PLEASE NOTE that this information may well change as Government guidance dictates and as the Church Council responds - the latest information will always be on our website: www.tlcchurch.co.uk and our Facebook page: tlcchurches. Church - Social media Takeley with Little Canfield Church now have a Facebook page, so please look for us online. It would be good if you could “like” us too and even better, share what we are doing or invite other people to our events. If you have Facebook friends who are local it will enable them to find out what is going on. If you wish to advertise church events just email [email protected] and this can be organised. Please note though that we will only put pictures of children on the page if we have written permission from a parent or guardian. December 2020 December 2020 Page | 4 Page | 61 FROM THE MINISTERS HEATING & CARPET CLEANING It feels very strange, planning a retirement and a move in the middle ‘ of a lockdown. However, a number of people have counselled us saying, ‘better to retire when you still have some energy to make a new home, make new friends, and still have something to contribute to your new community and church.’ So, my last Sunday in Takeley & Lt Canfield is planned to be 10th January. Whether we can mark that in person or not remains to be seen. God bless Rob & Tina Burles Ten years passes in the blink of an eye. So does twenty, it seems. It seems no time ago that we were welcoming Rob to the parish and Laurie before him. Elsewhere in this Grapevine there is a long “thank you” to Rob and Tina, so I am not going to repeat that. I must add however my own thanks to Rob for he has been my mentor as I explored my vocation to ministry in the church. He has always been totally supportive of me, often presenting me with new challenges when he thought I was ready, even if I didn’t ( he was almost always right!). Rob accepted me fully as, in his words, “a partner in the Gospel”, for which I am very grateful and feel particularly blessed. Thank you, Rob. As I write this there has been a lot in the press about a desire to make Christmas as normal as possible. I don’t know yet whether we will be in lockdown or not. Will we be able to celebrate Christmas as usual? Will Christmas be ruined? As some of you will know; I love Christmas. I love every minced pie, every carol, every reindeer and the ho ho ho. Every donkey, shepherd and angel. Every event, visit and party. I will really miss them if they can’t go ahead. Two years ago Netflix brought out a Christmas film, “The Christmas Chronicles”, in which a couple of “pesky kids” almost “ruin Christmas” for the whole world and then save it. At one point Father Christmas says the words “Christmas must endure”. Christmas must endure. Yes, it must and it will. No matter what we cannot do this year, whether we are in full lockdown, tier one or two or three, or have other restrictions, Covid 19, the government or anyone else puts on us, Christmas will carry on. Even without parties, without shopping, without relatives around the dining room table, Christmas will continue. December 2020 December 2020 Page | 60 Page | 5 ADVERT From the Ministers cont’ Even without 9 lessons and carols – although we are hoping to send that out on Zoom - even without the crib service, without midnight mass or Christmas day communion, Christmas will continue. All the presents, all the food, drink, decorations and traditions old and new get their meaning because they form what I once called a “liturgy of love” surrounding the central vital fact that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. It is the first act of the drama of his life on earth, his death and his resurrection, which form the central point of creation as God poured his love into the world in the person of a little baby boy. Christmas cannot be ruined. Christmas cannot fail, because the birth of the baby at Bethlehem changed the world for all time. Nothing could prevent his coming; and nothing can keep us from the love of God shown through Christ Jesus that night. Nothing can stop the coming of the Lord. Nothing can stop Christmas. We may be in lockdown; we may face travel restrictions. Others, in some countries around the world may not be allowed to celebrate openly; In China two years ago they confiscated the Christmas trees! Christmas will still be Christmas. For Christmas is not one night, one morning, one Christmas dinner. Christmas is as eternal as the love of God from which we cannot be separated; not even by a pandemic or a lockdown. And I have just discovered that Christmas Chronicles 2 is coming out! That has made my Christmas! Merry Christmas! Hugh Mascetti, Lay Minister Grapevine Once more, a very big ‘thank you’ to our Grapevine team: Peter for editing the magazine Pat for handling all the adverts Our wonderful team of volunteer deliverers Everyone who has contributed articles over the years.