HAPPY EASTER! Quernmore Link Village Churches School Sports dqowbenefice.co.uk ST. PETERS CHURCH MAGAZINE SERVICES AT ST. PETER’S Sunday 24th March – 3rd Sunday of Lent 9.30am Eucharist Sunday 31st March - Mothering Sunday 9.30am Mothering Sunday service Sunday 7th April - Passiontide Begins 10am Family Service Sunday 14th April - Palm Sunday 9.30am Palm Sunday Eucharist Sunday 21st April - Easter Day 9.30am Easter Eucharist Sunday 28th April - 2nd Sunday of Easter 9.30am Eucharist Sunday 5th May - 3rd Sunday of Easter 10am Family Service Sunday 12th May—4th Sunday of Easter 9.30am Eucharist Sunday 19th May—5th Sunday of Easter 9.30am Morning Prayer For more information about St Peter’s please log on to dqowbenefice.co.uk The website contains a calendar of services and events and you can access the weekly pew sheet even if you miss the service! Next edition of Quernmore2 Link—June 2019 From the Editor I hope that you enjoy the Spring 2019 edition of the Quernmore Link. Please feel free to share it with friends and neighbours. The Link is also available in glorious colour on the Church website . If you haven’t discovered it yet you can find the website at Dqowbenefice.co.uk You will find lots of up-to-date information on the website about church services and events . Make sure you look at the ‘Blog’ section to access the weekly Pew Sheet. You can subscribe to the Pew Sheet with a single click! The schedule of publication for the Link for 2019 is Summer/Pentecost edition - early June Autumn/Harvest edition - early September Winter/Advent edition - mid November Particular thanks for contributions in this edition to Stephen and Audrey Potter Margaret Standen David Curwen Cindy The cover displays the banner ‘Village Churches School Sports’ and all contributions, written pieces, photographs, reviews, adverts, notices, will be gratefully received and there will always be space……. Graham [email protected] 3 View From the Vicarage Dear Friends A few years back I tried to buy some mini eggs on Easter Sunday but was told by the shop keeper that 'Easter is over', as if I was some sad hanger on! This particularly drives me a bit crazy with Easter because the run up to Easter is, of course, Lent. As soon as the moment of celebration and indulgence arrives on Easter Sunday, it is pronounced as over by society. How unfair is that? Weirdly enough church sort of does that too and I've never really understood it. We spend forty days, quite rightly, thinking about the journey of Lent and reflecting on some of the tougher points of life as we follow the story of Jesus on his way to the cross. This is all incredibly meaningful. But the story doesn't end there and the overwhelming story of Christianity is one of hope. Jesus doesn't stay locked in the tomb and we don't have to stay locked in our darkness. There is light, there is life, there is joy, there is hope, there is beauty - and celebrating Easter is all about that. The Easter season actually lasts right up until Pentecost but it rarely seems to be marked that much. I get so excited about it and find it such a refreshing time that I wander round with a spring in my step and a big old grin on my face. And for me Easter really is about that, about life. The story of the resurrection is about the unwavering, unstoppable, unquenchable power of life. And being a person of faith is about seizing that life, loving it, upholding it in all that you do. So even though the rest of the world might think it is over I still say Happy Easter! right up until Pentecost and may the season bring life abundant to you! Wishing you a joyful Easter, when it comes! Cindy & Family xx 4 Spring was definitely in the air last week albeit a little early! The flowers may be regretting their decision to poke their heads through the ground so early. At Christmas we had a break with traditional and had a disco rather than the usual Fair which the children thoroughly enjoyed. In addition, children were invited to design their own Christmas Cards and we also held the obligatory raffle. All events were organized by parents and we continue to be extremely grateful for their support. The 3 events combined raised in excess of £1400 – WOW!! Year 6 raised £159.25 at their fair which they donated to CancerCare. We donned our Christmas jumpers once again, raising £80 for Save the Children. The staff donated £60 to the Alzheimer’s Society instead of sending cards to each other (a charity very close to some staff members’ hearts!). School really was fundraising heaven this year, the whole school took part in the Elf Run for St John’s Hospice. Children and staff donned their elf hats and completed the run, raising a whooping £875.23. Swimming lessons continue at 315 Fitness for Years 3, 4 & 5. Keith Singleton continues to run his football clubs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with additional ‘Good sportsmanship’ clubs at lunchtimes. Andrew Pye runs Multi-Skills on Mondays and Golf on Wednesdays, we remain hopeful that a future British Open Champion may be in our midst!! Thanks go to David Kent of Progressive garage who will welcome Class 1 once again. This visit really is a school tradition. Class 4 visited the People’s Museum in Manchester, Class 3 visited Leighton Moss, are going to the RNLI in Morecambe and participated in a tag rugby event in Cockerham. The whole school was entertained when M&M Production Theatre visited school and performed ‘A Little Princess’. An exciting time was had by all. Class 1 visited the Grand Theatre to watch a performance of ‘Tabby McTat’. 5 Music continues to play a big part in the school day with woodwind, guitar, ukulele, piano and singing lessons available. We have competed in a few sporting events, including the EFL U11 6-a-side Cup, a 7-a-side Cup at Fleetwood and a football event for girls only at the University of Cumbria. We may not have been triumphant but it really is the taking part that is important! Winning may be nice too, we can dream….Update – the swimming team won the cup in the Small Schools Swimming Gala – congratulations to all the children who participated! As well as all the above we continue to provide all the children with a terrific learning experience and environment in which to do it. Hopefully Spring will soon reappear for us all to enjoy, fingers crossed. All in all, life at Quernmore School continues to be as interesting and varied as always 6 St Peters Building Project We are very excited to announce that plans for upgrading the church building are well advanced and approval has been given to start work after Easter. The purpose of this upgrade is to make the church more welcoming and accessible for both young and old and make it a building fit for the 21st century not only as a worship space but also for the benefit of the wider Quernmore community. What does the Project consist of? Starting with the present outer door which is in need of repair we want to improve the welcome into the church with a new door and handrails to assist people entering the building. Inside we are building a new internal Lobby which will exclude drafts and improve the entrance and include much needed storage rooms. We have been trialing the use of chairs in the side chapel for some time to create a space which can be used for Family Service Worship, children’s crèche, coffee mornings, café church and harvest suppers. This will be enhanced with new radiators to improve the heating and a new carpet to make this an area which can be used by both church and community for meetings and social events. The Tower and Kitchen area is to be blocked off with a partition which will extend above the present wooden screen. This will create a sound proof meeting room suitable for PCC and other church and community meetings. More importantly it will provide a sound proof room for use by the Children’s Church during church services. The storage rooms created within the new Lobby will allow us to clear the Tower room and with a new floor covering make it a much more comfortable space. 7 Finally, in order to build the partition and make the Tower room sound proof we need to move the existing organ pipes to a new position above the new Lobby. This will allow much needed refurbishment of the organ and improve the organ acoustics. Funding the work The main source of funding for this work has been the gift of a legacy from the late Rev Chris Sparks but we still need to raise funds in order to complete the work. We have applied for a number grants but we would also like to give people in the community who have a connection with St Peters the opportunity to donate to this important project. We have set a target of £20,000 for Gifts, Donations and Fundraising. This is a big project for a small rural church community like St Peters and we need to get everyone on board. The Vicar and Church Wardens would be very grateful to receive any gifts for the Church Building and Restoration Fund in strictest confidence either by cheque or paying direct into the church’s bank account (please use your name & ‘Restoration’ to enable us to identify your gift) Please pay to: NatWest Bank plc Lancaster Branch Sort code 01-54-90 Account no: 02747332 Account name: St Peter’s Church Quernmore Payee Reference: Name (or anon) Restoration If you would like your gift to be acknowledged we are planning to create a Donation board in the new lobby and tower room recognising the names of sponsors.