Joy

It is two weeks since the Eurovision Song contest, although it may seem longer.  Even if you didn’t watch the wonderful, heart-warming success by the Ukrainian entry and Great Britain’s Sam Ryder’s achievement in gaining second place, you may have seen his comments:   "We were sat there in the green room and absolutely engulfed in the energy of that arena.  It was like being in a church because there was so much joy.”

Is this the first time that the Eurovision Song contest atmosphere has been compared with a church service?  It certainly got me thinking.  There are services during the year where we most definitely experience joy together, such as the Carol service and Midnight Mass at Christmas, our recent Mothering Sunday and Easter services.  But what about our normal, routine Sunday services?  There is plenty to be joyful about:  the Gospel story, worshipping God through hymns and other music, being with our friends and neighbours.  Last Sunday’s evensong, led by Marvin in Christine’s absence on holiday, was an example.  Although the congregation was small (we all sat in the choir stalls) it was a special experience to reunite with a few we hadn’t seen for a while and also to sing to the excellent organ accompaniment of Andy Stancliffe, substituting for Hugh who was away.

Joy is what we should all experience every time we meet together at St Martin’s! 

Happy Easter!

Thank you to everyone who attended our recent services: Compline during Holy week, ‘at the foot of the cross’ on Good Friday, the early Easter morning communion and then 1100 Festival Communion. It was wonderful to see so many families at the 1100 service. Huge thanks to our fabulous flower team who had transformed the church with spring flowers, also to Hugh and the choir and of course to Christine for leading us in celebrating Jesus’ glorious resurrection.
Special thanks to the Tinegate family for the magnificent displays in the porch, one of which is displayed here. Well done and thank you!

Happy birthday, Don!

Don Beaver, a longstanding member of the St Martin’s congregation, is 90 years old (or more accurately young) today.

As well as being a wonderful friend to so many of us in East Woodhay, Don has done so much for the church and to enrich the lives of us all over very many years. 

His professional engineering skills, knowledge, expertise and generosity have been of immense value in maintaining the fabric of the church building.  But there are so many other things he has done to preserve and enhance the life of our church. Managing the heating system, maintaining the lighting system and 100(!) candles in the candelabra which make our Christmas Eve midnight mass service so special, opening and locking the church are just a very few examples. It was only when he decided it was time to hand over some of his responsibilities that the scale of all that he has done became apparent!

Thank you, Don, for everything. We, your many friends and admirers in East Woodhay, wish you, your family and your twin sister a wonderful day and very many happy returns.  You deserve every happiness. It is, of course, very sad that your beloved Phil, who set us an equally great example, cannot join the celebrations but she will be with you all in spirit. Have a fantastic day!

Christmas and New Year

Thank you to everyone who attended our Christmas services.  It was wonderful to see so many at the Christmas Eve midnight mass which is always a special way to start Christmas Day and celebrate Jesus’ birth.  Thank you also to those who joined the choir to boost our numbers and to all who prepared the church, including our talented flower team for all the decoration and the volunteers who lit the ninety-six candles in the candelabra before Midnight Mass!

This is also a chance to thank Hugh Cobbe, our organist for some thirty-five years, who formed the current choir back in 1988.  Like so many features of our church life it is easy to take music for granted and we are all enormously grateful to Hugh for his fantastic playing and leadership.

This morning Christine led our celebration of the Epiphany, commemorating the visit of the Magi to Jesus, Mary and Joseph  -  slightly earlier than normal because of this year’s calendar, but nevertheless the first Sunday of the new year, encouraging us to look forward to the forthcoming months.  The service finished with Rev Timothy Dudley-Smith’s wonderful hymn, Lord for the Years, thanking God for the past year and seeking His continuing guidance.

Today's confirmation service

A big thank you to the Bishop of Basingstoke for visiting the Benefice today and taking this afternoon’s confirmation service, a very special occasion for six young people and their families. The candidates included Edward Bishop who, together with his family, worship at St Martin’s. The service was particularly fulfilling as it had had to be postponed several times because of the pandemic and the consequent restrictions. Thank you to St Thomas’s church for hosting the service.

It is now two months since we have been able to resume services in church although under controlled conditions, which include allowing only the choir to sing within the church. Singing outside is allowed and, weather permitting, we are hoping that the final hymn at next Sunday’s evensong service can be sung outside by everyone. So do please join us!

Candlemas 2021 - presentation of Christ

At this morning's Benefice communion service Christine, Marvin and Mary reminded us of the presentation of Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem and Joseph and Mary’s meeting with Simeon and Anna.

Because of the increased coronavirus infection risks we had to suspend services in church a few weeks ago, although the church remains open between 1100 and 1500 every Sunday. But online Zoom services have enabled us to continue to meet together, celebrate, worship and pray.  With hospital admissions falling and the vaccination programme providing immunisation let us hope and pray that life will return to normal later this year.  In the meantime we are all very grateful to Christine and the Ministry team for finding ways for services to continue since the first lockdown last March.

The pandemic has forced us to investigate the use of technology such as Zoom.  But we have also live-streamed at least one wedding as well as the Carol Service. The PCC met last week to discuss how and whether we should stream services in the future.  There are many pros and cons. The Carol Service has reached more than 600 people, enabling those who could not attend in person to participate in the service. However we need to recognise the privacy issues:  are those attending happy for the service to be broadcast?  If you have views on the subject then please let us know.

'Not the Carol Service'

Thank you to everyone who attended this morning’s service, labelled as ‘Not the Carol Service’ because of the restrictions which had to be imposed in order to comply with the guidelines in force during the pandemic. Sadly these included restricting numbers and preventing the congregation from singing. Fortunately the choir, strengthened once again by Fabian and Gabriel Reis and Francesca Ede, were permitted to sing; so we were still able to hold a service comprising the usual mix of lessons and carols. Fabian started the service with the traditional solo of the first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s city’. Thank you to our brilliant organist, Hugh Cobbe, for organising the music and leading the choir.

So that those who were unable to attend could still take part we broadcast the service via Facebook, which also shows the wonderful arrangements by our fantastic flower team.

Thank you, Christine, for leading us.

Today's feast of St Luke

Trinity is the longest period in the Christian calendar, lasting just less than six months;   that’s the only excuse I can come up with for the long delay since the last blog item…

Much has happened during this period.  Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic we have been able to reopen the church for services although with restrictions relating to social distancing, face protection and sanitisation.  All the churches in the Benefice have reopened and it has been wonderful to be able to meet each other again, despite the constraints.  Two weddings have also taken place, although with reduced attendance.  Today we celebrated the feast of St Luke at the Benefice communion service.  Thank you to all those who attended and also to Christine and Marvin who led us.

Our APCM (annual parish church meeting), postponed from earlier in the year, took place on Monday at the church.   The churchwardens were re-appointed and PCC members also elected.  Their names are published here;  so please don’t hesitate to contact any of them if you have questions, comments, complaints etc… The meeting was an opportunity for us to thank our Rector, Canon Christine, for her leadership during the past challenging seven months.  The situation is unprecedented but, despite everything, she and the ministry team have found ways for us to continue to worship and we are all most grateful.

Message from the Rector

Dear Friends,

May I assure you of my prayers and thoughts in these unprecedented times during which we have been instructed to close our church buildings and to hold no public worship for reasons of public health and safety.

If you wish to contact me or Canon Marvin you are very welcome to telephone or e-mail us. Details have been provided separately but if you would like our phone numbers or email addresses please request via the contact page.

I would like to update you on how we are working together as church communities during these days.

E-mail updates, devotional resources and prayer: As you can see we have finally organised ourselves to create electoral roll circulation lists which I hope will be both more comprehensive and more coherent going forward, and will prevent you receiving e-mails form me either multiple times or not at all! It is my intention that I will send an e-mail updates every Saturday along with a devotional reflection from the Ministry Team for the Sunday. During Holy Week I will send an e-mail every day with devotional reflections. I may send updates and resources at other times as things change and develop.

Updates on the current crisis and resources are available from the Church of England website (www.churchofengland.org) and the Diocese of Winchester website (www.winchester.anglican.org).

Facebook page: We have set up a Benefice Facebook page. I do realise that not everyone uses Facebook! It is however a useful tool to keep in touch and I will be posting regularly on the page and even will experiment with short video messages etc.
So firstly, if you are a Facebook user then I encourage you to have a look and like or follow ‘North West Hampshire Benefice’ or search for www.facebook.com/nwhbchurches/.
Secondly, if you don’t use Facebook, why not have a go? If you are not sure what to do, we have folk who would be happy to talk you through how to set up your own page. Let me know if you would like help with this. 

Keeping in touch with each other: We are working on setting up ‘keep in touch’ networking within our church families and will be in touch further about this. This is proving more complicated than I at first thought and as things have changed so quickly, I have fallen behind with it. More on this in due course.

Community support co-operation: East Woodhay and Highclere Neighbourcare have spearheaded our communities’ response to offering support for people in our parishes. This has become a terrific overlap of folk from our communities, churches, societies and parish councils and is working in close partnership with our local surgery. I and many from our churches have become involved. I encourage anyone who would like to volunteer to help others during these days, or indeed those of you who find you need help, to use this scheme. You can register to volunteer or ask for help online at www.ewhneighbourcare.org.uk. Leaflets are being distributed to all homes in our parishes giving information and phone numbers to call for help. You can also sign up via their website for a regular update newsletter.

So what is the Rector doing, is it extra holiday?

I am not on holiday! I and Marvin are keeping daily prayers in our own homes and although we can now only celebrate Holy Communion at home we will both keep a tradition of this on Sundays. We would both be glad to receive any prayer requests.

I am becoming proficient with using various video conferencing tools. School governing bodies are all meeting in this way, as is the Neighbourcare community collaboration, I have also met virtually with clergy colleagues in the Deanery. Locally I am working with the youth confirmation team to move our confirmation preparation course online – using a combination of home packs (which can be e-mailed) with video conferencing – so I hope the six young people who have begun confirmation preparation will be able to continue. When the Confirmation service can take place – well that is another matter!! I am working on developing the Benefice Facebook page as a way to reach out to share news and worship. I am keeping in touch with a number of folk by telephone and will be doing more of this as the ‘keep in touch’ networking takes better shape. I and the Ministry Team are working on devotional resources to circulate for Sundays, Holy Week and Easter – and we are also hoping to experiment with video conferencing!

Funerals : clergy at this time are able to conduct funerals at the graveside with immediate family only or at the crematorium according to the crematorium’s rules. I have two funerals in the diary on this basis, neither of which are related to COVID-19.

So I hope this has been of help to you to know more of what is happening in our parishes.

Please do join in prayer during these days. I will send a second e-mail to supplement this with our Sunday devotional reflection and prayer resources.

With every blessing to you all,

Christine

October and early November

A lot has happened over the past six weeks. Thank you to all those have participated and to the organisers.

A week after the Harvest celebration, on the afternoon of 13th October, the Benefice Songs of Praise took place . Hymns were selected from a (long) list of suggestions received during the August services. Each hymn was preceded by a short introduction by the person who chose it, mirroring the BBC Songs of Praise model, which added even greater interest. A big thank you to those who made and served the tea, cakes etc after the service.

The Parish Communion service on 3rd November included a baptism, always an exciting and special occasion. The newest member of our Christian community behaved impeccably throughout!

Then this morning we met at the East End war memorial for our annual Act of Remembrance. Judging by the number of service sheets used, over eighty people attended. Thank you to Christine for leading us and to Tim Cross of the East Woodhay Silver Band for sounding the Last Post followed by the Reveille after the period of silence. Special thanks to the Chipchase, Clifton and Brunsden families for again providing the refreshments afterwards.

The lost sheep

Very many thanks to Mary Herbert and the Reis family for their leadership in this morning’s Family Service. The Gospel reading, excellently read by Fabian, was Jesus’ parable which compares the celebration by an owner of a hundred sheep who recovers a single lost one with God’s joy over a single sinner who repents. Mary then arranged a retelling of the story, appointing members of the congregation to provide appropriate sound effects (farmer, sheep etc!), encouraging us all to look for ‘lost sheep’ in our community and encouraging them to return and come to the Benefice Songs of Praise on 13th October.
Thank you to everyone who attended and also for our wonderful refreshments team who arranged coffee, tea, juice, biscuits etc after the service.

Caring for creation

Today was the fourth Sunday in the Benefice’s August pilgrimage on the theme of caring for God’s creation. Thank you to everyone at St Michael and All Angels, Highclere, for welcoming us all this morning.
Special thanks to Suki Coe who addressed us on respect for the environment and how to avoid single-use plastic. Suki is about to start her course to become a Lay Preacher. I think we all would echo Margaret’s comments at the end of the service on how inspiring Suki’s sermon was.
The last August service is next Sunday at Ashmansworth. Looking forward to seeing everyone again…

May and June

The past few weeks have given us a mixture of sorrow and joy.  Phil Beaver died in early May and her funeral service was a mix of sadness but proud reflection and admiration for all that she, with the wonderful support of her husband Don, achieved during her long life  -  as a Churchwarden, choir member, friend, mother, and member of the community, setting a wonderful example to all of us. 

Liz Castle wrote a marvellous tribute in the recent edition of Spectrum which is just one example of Phil’s legacy:

“Phil was a founder member of the St Martin’s Kneeler Group when it was started by Miss Irene Gordon in 1979.  She was a most accomplished needlewoman and produced beautiful work. She completed nineteen kneelers, designing most of them herself.  The first one was an oak tree followed by flowers and birds in our flora and fauna scheme.  Phil loved to design commemorative kneelers so she did one for the Millennium, the Queen’s Jubilee, the Women’s’ Institute, St Martin’s Guild Centenary and another for 175 years of St Martin’s School. When we started our pew seat project Phil was the first to complete one. She suggested that we should have a design of various crosses and we have followed this on subsequent seats.  She was working on her fifth seat when she died – they are 1.5 metres long, so no mean feat.  What a wonderful legacy Phil has left for St Martin’s church and we will miss her at our meetings with her wise words and sense of humour.  If ever she or anyone else made a little mistake in their needlework she always said the same thing – ‘a blind man would be happy to see it’; so don’t bother to unpick it!”

Phil was an active participant in the annual St Martin’s Guild Fete, as treasurer, tea tent supervisor and numerous other roles over the years. I think she would have loved to have attended this year’s event, held at Stargroves for the first time for more than thirty years. Many thanks to Mr and Mrs Dalrymple for allowing us to use their magnificent grounds and to everyone who made the fete such a success.

Thank you also to all those involved in today’s Open Gardens event, particularly the five families who allowed us to enjoy their beautiful gardens and the many volunteers who helped organise the day.

Celebrating Easter

It was great to see so many in church yesterday.   Thank you to everyone who attended. My fellow churchwarden, Andrew Colville, and I had a few anxious moments when 11 o’clock arrived and there was no sign of Canon Marvin who was due to take the service.  But we need not have worried as he had been slightly delayed after the 0930 service at St James’, Ashmansworth where there was also a large congregation.

It was well worth the wait!  Thank you, Marvin, for leading us in our celebration of Easter Day.  Thank you also to all those others who contributed to the service, particularly our fabulous flower team whose decorations in the church created a wonderful atmosphere and also to our organist, Hugh, and choir for leading the singing.

Celebrating Mothering Sunday

Thank you to everyone who attended our service this morning and helped to make it such a fitting tribute to the work, love and achievements of mothers and others who care for us. Special thanks to our wonderful flower team and the pupils from St Martin's School for making the posies, which the children then distributed to all the mothers present in the congregation.

Thank you also for giving generously to the collection which raised more than £100, which will be further boosted by the Gift Aid envelopes, to the Children’s Society.

Candlemas, and All Together at St Thomas'

It was a shame that we had to cancel today’s Parish Communion service.  Although the church would have looked lovely in the sunshine and snow, sadly the approach roads were icy and probably impassable for cars.  Nevertheless it gave some of us the opportunity to attend the ‘All Together’ service at St Thomas’ Woolton Hill.  Similar in structure to the St Martin’s Family Service, it was led by the inspirational Jayne Roch who, as well as referring to Mary and Joseph’s presenting Jesus in the Temple and witnessing Simeon’s recognition of Jesus as the Messiah, also reminded us that we are celebrating Candlemas  -  the midway point between the shortest day and the vernal equinox.  Yes, despite the cold weather, the days are getting longer and spring will soon be here!