Chronicle THE MAGAZINE FOR APRIL 2021 The altar and corona above at Hereford Cathedral. Like many of our churches, including our own, the Cathedral re-opens for worship at Holy Week (in fact for the annual Chrism Mass on Wednesday 31st) and for the Easter celebration. It will be good to celebrate the risen Christ back in our churches - and I love the corona above the cathedral altar, which to me speaks of the crown of thorns become a crown of glory. 1 THE CHIRBURY HILLS GROUP OF PARISHES is part of the Pontesbury Group Ministry, comprising the parishes of Chirbury, Marton, Middleton w Corndon Marsh, Trelystan & Leighton. Rector: Revd Bill Rowell (01938 552064 or 07711 298104, [email protected]). Hon Assistant Priest: Revd Eric Brazier (01938 561450, [email protected]). At each church, contact the wardens as follows: Chirbury - Tony Sheppard (01938 561268); Marton - Maureen Jenkins (01938 561645); Middleton - Kay Yeates (01938 561640 or Emma Bailey-Beech (01686 669971); Trelystan - Janet Jones (07967 312460) or Rod Stevens (01938 580645); Leighton - John Markwick (01938 555043). MORNING PRAYER - The Rector normally says Morning Prayer on Wednesdays at St Michael’s, Chirbury, and on Thursdays at Holy Trinity, Leighton, at about 10.30 am, and in each case the church then remains open in each case until 12 noon. RECTOR’S OFFICE DAY - Revd Bill normally sets aside Monday of each week as a day for catching up with the stuff on his desk. This is therefore also a good day to catch him by phone! OUR COVID PRECAUTIONS - All our churches are aiming to be as Covid secure as possible; these St Podwell’s are the rules we’re applying: As far as possible avoid touching door furniture and other surfaces as you enter and leave the church, and make use of the hand gel provided. Please leave contact details and/or scan the QR code if you have the NHS app. We need to maintain 2 metre social distance in church (and this is further than you might imagine), and wear masks unless there is a personal medical reason for not doing so. Singing is not allowed in church, so we will be listening to recorded versions of hymns. Should you experience symptoms that might be Covid within a week after attending service, or a test shows you have Covid, please “Sadly, Covid meant we had inform us straight away by contacting the Rector or to cancel the Easter Egg Hunt a church warden. These rules apply for public for this year. I wonder what worship, at funerals or if you enter church for any happened to all the eggs other reason, including for private prayer. Please though?” note that these rules continue to apply even if you have had a Covid vaccination. 2 SERVICES AROUND THE GROUP IN APRIL DAY TIME CHURCH SERVICE_______ 1st - Maundy Thursday 7.00 pm Marton Holy Communion 2nd - Good Friday 9.30 am Middleton Morning Prayer 6.00 pm The Marsh Compline 4th - Easter Day 9.30 am Leighton Easter Communion 11.15 am Chirbury Easter Communion 11th - Easter 2 9.30 am Marton Holy Communion 11.15 am Middleton Family Service 3.00 pm Trelystan Service of the Word 18th - Easter 3 9.30 am Middleton Holy Communion 11.15 am Chirbury Holy Communion 25th - Easter 4 9.30 am Marton Holy Communion 11.15 am Leighton Service of the Word This is a simplified form of services, and this month there will be no service at Chirbury on the second Sunday, at Leighton on the third Sunday, and the The Marsh on the fourth Sunday. All services will be a little shorter than normal, and 11.00 services have been moved to 11.15 to allow the Rector more time to wash and disinfect between services. The simple service made available each week as a Word document and recorded on Youtube will continue. If you would like to receive this and don’t as yet, please let the Rector know ([email protected]); he will be glad to add you to the mailing list. Or the service can be accessed from the “A Church Near You” site for each church on the web. A few copies are placed in the notice boards at Leighton and Chirbury, and at the back of Middleton Church. The Rector is now also sending out a short “Hymn of the Week” commentary, with the words of the hymn and a recording, and there will continue to be some “live” services on Zoom. Details of these will be sent round to everyone on the mailing list. FROM THE REGISTERS - Our sympathies and good wishes to the families and friends of Barry Griffin, Henry Evans and Irene Buckland, whose funerals have taken place in recent weeks, and of Blanche Edwards, whose ashes have been recently interred. 3 Nature Notes . Swans and Cygnets One of our best known and loved water birds is the mute swan. I see them often, when walking the towpath of the Montgomery Canal. They look sedate and stately as they drift across the water. Mute swans are resident in the UK, and nest in almost every part of the country. They particularly like still or sluggish water, and plenty of aquatic vegetation to eat, so our little-used and often overgrown section of canal is ideal. I was nudged into writing about swans this month because there’s a pair I’ve been watching that still have their two youngsters from last year hanging about with them. Cygnets start off fluffy and pale grey, and they remain a greyish-brown, with grey bills, until at four or five months or so they start to gain their white adult feathers and can fly. Once the young swans are mostly white-plumaged, the parents will normally drive them away - though they will be two or three years old before they breed. Sometimes the cygnets will stay longer with the parents, or perhaps travel with them to join a larger winter flock. These two were still around two weeks ago when I saw them, but the parents were beginning to get a bit annoyed, the cob (male) especially. I spent an enjoyable ten minutes or so watching him bearing down angrily upon the youngsters, plodding heavily along the towpath with neck bent well back, which is a hostile posture, and grunting and hissing at them (mute swans are not actually mute, despite the name). At last he chivvied the two of them into the water, but they were soon back! Mute swans are quite quarrelsome birds, especially in the breeding season when the male will carve out a large aquatic territory which he will defend against all comers. The next is a substantial mound of reeds and other water plants, in which four to seven eggs are laid, incubated by both parents, but mainly the pen (female). It can take a month or more for the eggs to hatch, and to begin with the cygnets are quite vulnerable to predators like pike or feral mink. The two I saw were probably the only ones to survive from a larger brood. Cygnets when small will sometimes ride on the back of a parent bird, which affords some protection. Graceful on the water, swans are somewhat ungainly and cumbersome on land, and that was certainly true of the cob I was watching, though I suspect some of the heavy stomping of his huge webbed feet may have been for effect. It takes a fair effort to get a swan into the air too, but once airborne they are strong flyers (and you can hear the steady hum of the wing feathers as they pass overhead. Whooper and Bewick’s swans, two species than visit us in winter, fly substantial distances on migration, as will our own mute swans as they search out new territories. The next time I passed the territory of this pair, the pen was inspecting a nest mound, on which she eventually quietly settled. I think the kids had finally gone, so now Mum and Dad have become “empty nesters” - at least until this year’s eggs are laid. 4 DEANERY THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH - FROM GREG FORSTER One of my favourite church chants is the ‘Easter Anthems’ - verses from St. Paul which sum up the Christian hope focusing on our Lord’s death and resurrection. You can find them in an old Prayer Book with the collects and readings for Easter. Paul affirms the truth of Christ’s resurrection and assures us that it was not a one-off for him alone. No, he was a pioneer for all who trust him - that’s what Paul means by the ‘first fruits of those who sleep.’ (I Cor. 15 v20-22) He, a human being, came through death onto the other side, and that victory gives a promise for all who trust him. We are perhaps more conscious at present of our mortality - ‘as in Adam, our human nature, all die,’ even though we do not think much about it normally. The reassurance of Easter is that death is not the last word, not the end of our story. ‘Even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’ Caught up with him through our faith we can look towards richer existence beyond physical death, whenever and however that comes. But Easter is not just about a promise of life beyond death. It is about a new quality of life before death. Paul’s picture is like a hostage situation; we were held captive, forced to go along with our captors’ ways of doing things.