St. John s Newsletter

Transcription

1 St. John s Newsletter Charity No Letter from the vicar Dear friends JULY / AUGUST 2018 Each day when I wake, I have the sense of what a privilege it is to serve as a priest. Part of that, is recognising there is a joy and trust in being able to walk alongside others, hearing others' stories - hearing your stories. Within that sharing of fellowship, it is so important we are able to encourage one another in our general day-to-day life, but also in our spiritual lives - fanning the flame of faith alive, and holding it out as light for one another when our own flame perhaps flickers. That deep connection with one another, within our shared connection with God, is what brings me the greatest joy. Some of this nurturing of faith rightly happens in church, and sometimes we need additional space to discover more about our own spirituality and the richness that awaits us in a life lived in God. Spiritual direction, as it is known, is a misleading term: it sounds like you meet with someone who tells you what you should be doing. That is not spiritual direction! Some people call it travelling with a soul friend. Really, it is spending time every couple of months, for perhaps an hour, with someone who has the capacity to sit and listen. It is the offering of a space in which thoughts and feelings may be shared, hopes and longings, aspirations and anxieties. Within that, the person listening may ask questions to help you reflect upon what may be going on in your own life, what connection that has with your spiritual life, and how you may begin to discern where God is within it all. It is a place to make sense of real life, the warts and all, to get in touch with our deepest selves, and to consider our relationship with God. I ve had a spiritual director for many years ago now, long before I became a priest - it can be the most valuable of encounters! I have learnt much about myself, as well as the God I worship. In a world that is busy and often has little time to listen, less time to understand, it can be a precious space to explore, grow and have greater understanding of the thread of divine love that runs through everything we do and everything we are, whether we know it or not. If you would like to know more about spiritual direction, please do have a word with me. I can talk you through a little more what it feels like, what it entails, and if you would like to explore further, can give you the contact details to begin to find a spiritual director who might be right for you, and yes, it is for laity as much as for clergy! With best wishes

2 Children and Families: Come and See! A reminder of our exciting events coming up for you to come and enjoy. Sunday 1 st July and 5 th August, 9am. Come and join us at Breakfast Church. We meet in the Church Hall and enjoy songs, crafts, stories and activities as we share breakfast drinks, bacon butties and rolls and croissants. Thursday 12 th July arrive from 4pm for a 4.30pm start. All the usual Messy Church fun: games, craft tables, decorating biscuits, learning new songs and stories. We end with a meal together. Advance notice of a special Messy Church picnic and games on Thursday 30 th August at 4pm. Sunday 22 nd July & 19 th August 10am Family Service: join us for a simpler service than our usual Eucharist. For all of these, please bring an adult with you who is your parent or guardian. We look forward to seeing you there! For all other 10am services on Sundays there will be children s activities available during the service in church. Schools Update What has been going on with our schools this month? Revd Helen went into First School to lead collective worship, now a monthly arrangement. We learnt about creativity and looked in particular at Michelangelo, and how he saw his job as master sculpture was to chip away all that was not needed in the final form, in order to bring out the figure s beauty that he sensed within the stone. We looked at how God s Holy Spirit works in us, to bring out the best we can be. We talked about being made in God s image and reflecting his creativity in all we do. The children were issued with paper plates to take home and decorate to enter into a competition staged at St John s Summer Fete. The theme was red, white and blue. We looked forward to seeing their creations any submitted were on display at our summer fete. The Head, Michelle Stone, is moving on to be Head of Clay Hill Priory Group School in the New Forest. We will miss her and are sure she will be a great asset to her new school. Until a new appointment is made, Dawn Wilks, Head at Middle School will take on running both schools. We look forward to working with her too.

3 Liturgy Matters: article 1 Why is liturgy important? And what does it mean? Over my years of ministry, I have found out how important it is to explore together the liturgy we use as Anglicans in the service. This is partly because people are often very interested in asking about different aspects of the liturgy, and as I have responded to their enthusiasm and questions, it occurs to me that going on a journey together here, where we explore what liturgy in our worship is all about, might be very productive. Over the next few months in the space of this regular feature, I hope that we can begin to explore what that might mean, and discover together the richness of the Eucharistic service. Liturgy is potentially a powerful combination of word, silence, music, action and symbolism. How it works, how it is put together is important because liturgy holds both us and the space for all that happens in a worship service. A good worship service will have shape, movement, flow and coherence. Good liturgy should guide us through the movement, and help inform theological understanding of God. It provides a framework which creates space to worship. The Anglican framework has four movements to it: the Gathering; the Liturgy of the Word; the Liturgy of the Sacrament; the Dismissal. Again, we will explore what each of these is about. Liturgy also has a bigger role: as we shape liturgy, liturgy shapes us, over a lifetime. George Guiver from the Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield, writes helpfully in his book on liturgy, A Company of Voices, about liturgy. He writes of liturgy and texts flowing around us like water which builds up deposits over a long time working by accumulation over years, in the same way that one immerses oneself in a foreign language, then realises one can speak it.' It is precisely because liturgy is so fundamental to formation, to our growth in understanding of our faith and in how we live, that getting it right is important. It is true to say that the impact of liturgy in our lives is sometimes like the water flowing over a stone that Guiver speaks about. Whether we understand the liturgy or not, there is an unconscious effect upon our beliefs, our understanding, our concept of God and our worship of him. However, there are also times we need to engage with what the words we say and the actions we perform are intending, because there is much richness to be reaped in getting to grips with that. I do hope you find that as we explore the Anglican Eucharistic service in this way, you will find new aspects of the service reveal themselves to you, and help to make your experience of worship in this parish a richer and deeper one. Revd Helen

4 Diary Round-up: Events at St John s July / August JULY Sun 1 st Breakfast Church 9am Wed 4 th MU Eucharist 10.30am, followed by coffee and meeting 11am. Thurs 5 th Wedding of Ben Bexon and Natalie Fowle, 12 noon. Thurs 5 th PCC meeting, 7.30pm. Fri 6 th LPA meeting, at Joyce Hull s flat, 7.30pm. Sat 7 th Gardening Party at the churchyard 9.30am 12 noon, with lunch at the vicarage. Sun 8 th Baptism at 12 noon. Sun 8 th 2pm St John s Ramble Wed 11 th Thurs 12 th Thurs 12 th Messy Church, 4pm for 4.30pm start. Sun 15 th Sunday lunch outing Wed 18 th Thurs 19 th St John s Fellowship Outing Sun 22 nd Family Eucharist Service Wed 25 th Thurs 26 th Thurs 26 th 6.30pm Ramblers Sun 29 th Baptism 12 noon AUGUST Wed 1 st Thurs 2 nd Sun 5 th Wed 8 th Thurs 9 th Wed 15 th Sun 19 th Sun 19 th Wed 22 nd Thurs 23 rd Thurs 23 rd Sat 25 th Mon 27 th Wed 29 th Wed 29 th Thurs 30 th Thurs 30 th Fri 31 st 10.30am MU Eucharist followed by coffee and meeting 11am. 6.30pm Worship & Spirituality Group meeting 9am Breakfast Church 10am Family Eucharist service Sunday lunch 12.45pm. 7pm Standing Committee Meeting Wedding of Alec Snow and Rebecca Allam, 1pm Broadstone Community Band details to follow. 6.30pm Worship and \Spirituality Group meeting. 4pm Messy Church Games and Picnic. 7.30pm Events Committee am Links Care Home Service. Service readings JULY Sun 1 st 5 th Sunday after Trinity: Wisdom of Solomon ; ; Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8.7-end; Mark 5.21-end Sun 8 th 6 th Sun after Trinity: Ezekiel 2.1-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians ; Mark Sun 15 th 7 th Sun after Trinity: Amos ; Psalm 85.8-end; Ephesians ; Mark Sun 22 nd Mary Magdalene: 2 Corinthians ; Psalm ; John , 11-18

5 Sun 29 th 9 th Sunday after Trinity: 2 Kings 4.42-end; Psalm ; Ephesians 3.14-end; John AUGUST Sun 5 th 10 th Sunday after Trinity: Exodus , 9-15; Psalm ; Ephesians ; John Sun 12 th 11 th Sun after Trinity: 1 Kings ; Ps ; Ephesians ; John 6.35, Sun 19 th 12 th Sunday after Trinity: Ephesians ; Psalm ; John Sun 26 th 13 th Sunday after Trinity: Joshua a, 14-18; Psalm end; Ephesians ; John Occasional Offices from June Baptisms 17 th June Finlay George Hamson Weddings 16 th June Jonathan Chadwick and Hannah Morley Wedding Blessings / Thanksgivings / Renewal of Vows 16 th June Brian and Michelle Kaliczynskyj Funerals 8 th June Funeral of Mr Robert Cook at St John s Church 13 th June Funeral of Mrs Doreen Ellis at St John s Church 14 th June Funeral of Mrs Alice Bailey (Chris) at St John s Church Burial of Ashes 16 th June Service for Mrs Barbara Ellis in St John s Memorial Garden May they rest in peace and rise in glory. St John s News from the Pews A more detailed look at what is happening in and around the church Receiving Prayer Blessings First Sundays We were delighted that so many went forward to receive the prayer blessing with laying-on-of-hands during our services on the first Sunday of this month. We have received very positive feedback. This will now take place every first Sunday in the same way. At the 10am you will be invited to receive this prayer after the Eucharist. At the 8am we will hope to offer it at the end of the service. Morning and Evening Prayer 8.30am on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 5pm Tuesday to Friday. Prayer & Chat Wednesdays, 7am Each week in the Lady Chapel: we pray, read the Bible, and chat about what we re reading to understand it better. We then go to Costa for coffee, a very civilised start to the day. Why not come and join us?

6 Facebook Page and Communications at St John s We are currently endeavouring to begin to update all our communications it is a gentle working towards rather than everything running efficiently overnight, so do bear with us! We re delighted the new format of the newsletter is going down so well, and want to ensure we are communicating as effectively as we can in other ways too. We are reusing our Facebook Page, which can be found on facebook.com/stjohnschurchbroadstone If you choose to like and follow this page, any news or information and photographs we post will feed into your newsstream, so you can keep up-to-date with some of the latest events at St John s. Don t forget to also check our website which we are also currently updating. Gardening Party at Church with Lunch at the Vicarage, Saturday 7 th July From 9.30am until 12 noon we are holding a gardening party at our church grounds and Memorial Garden. We hope to enlist your help to come and do a spot of gardening and church grounds tidy-up. Cake and refreshments will be available throughout the morning, and for those who can stay, you are invited to a simple lunch at 12 noon at the Vicarage (or possibly the garden if the weather is nice!). Please let Revd Helen know a) if you can come b) if you would like to stay for lunch and c) any dietary requirements. St John's Fellowship We have no meeting in July. Our outing is on Thursday,19th July - the coach leaves from Kirkway (behind M&S) at 9..00am PROMPTLY!!!!! Jean Rigler St John s Rambling Group Sunday 8 July 2018 at 2.00pm. The walk starts at Spetisbury. Drive through Spetisbury on the A350 towards Blandford. Turn left just after the St John the Baptist Church to the car park next to the school. We walk along the old trailway and on field and river meadow tracks. The walk is less than 4 miles long, with a small hill and some stiles. Roger and Jackie Williams WEDDING THANKSGIVINGS, BLESSINGS & RENEWAL OF VOWS There are many reasons why a couple decide to renew their wedding vows and have a special blessing in church. It can be a lovely thing to do as part of a significant anniversary for example, and many couples take opportunity to have a ceremony and blessing in church. At St John s we offer anything from a simple prayer after a service through to something similar to a full wedding service. If you are interested in this, do talk to Revd Helen who can give you more information and discuss costs.

7 What it Means to be a Welcoming Church Every church considers itself to be welcoming, and the welcome I received from you has been deeply special. Thank you for so quickly making me feel part of the life of St John s. It is a real delight and pleasure to serve amongst you in ministry. Yet even welcoming churches can be challenged as to what else they may do to be truly inclusive. It has been interesting to hear about the change in culture there has been, that it feels a friendlier, more welcoming place than perhaps a good few years back. That is encouraging. It is always healthy, however, to consider what we might mean by welcome and what else we might do. Our welcome is crucial as to whether visitors decide to stay and make this their spiritual home. I have always believed welcome is about turning the stranger into a friend. Until we reach bonds of friendship with those who are new, we haven t really extended ourselves, or been prepared to step out of the comfortable groups we align ourselves to, which enables us to help someone new feel part of the group. Welcome is not the domain of the sidespeople, but of us all. Our sidespeople are often the first crucial encounter someone has at church. It is more than always greeting with a smile and handing out hymn books: making eye contact and giving them our full attention is important, so each person feels they have been noticed and seen as soon as they enter. To visitors, it is easy to say, Have you been here before? Do sit where you like. Lovely to have you with us. Do join us for coffee after the service, won t you? After initial welcome, it is us as congregation members who need to do these things. Every church I have been in, I have witnessed a visitor being moved: I m sorry, you re sitting in my seat. I ve not yet seen that here (keep up the good work!) and hope I never do! We might like our favourite places, but they are not reserved, and there is nothing that puts a new person off more. Likewise, it is ensuring you guide them through the service if they seem lost, without intruding on their worship space too much. It is about not just asking them to join us for coffee, but taking them through yourself into the parish hall, so they have someone to talk to. There s nothing worse than standing like a lemon on the edge of small groups all busy nattering, because you don t know how to join in. We need to go further than this though. Perhaps we could offer to meet people for a coffee during the week, invite them to events or groups to join. Our hospitality may need to extend further: once they have been with us a few weeks, perhaps we could invite a couple of people from church along with the new person for lunch. A few final thoughts: how are children made to feel welcome? Do we need to have them in the Lady Chapel rather than the back of church, so they feel properly included? What if someone who is very needy or different from us comes to church? What if they have a different set of life circumstances, different outlook, different views? What if they look different from us? Will we still know how to show love and give welcome? That is the true test of knowing whether we have become a welcoming and inclusive church. Revd Helen

8 Out and About in Broadstone and Beyond A look at what is happening in the wider parish and community Broadstone Fun Day on Sunday July 1 st at 12 noon to 4.30 p.m. Churches Together in Broadstone take part in the Community Fun Day on the recreation ground. St John s will run a stall, and would be glad of help to erect the gazebo in the morning, and help on the stall in the afternoon. There will be a car show; donkeys; dog show; bouncy castle; food and entertainment. Please support and bring children and grandchildren. Entry is free, parking is 1. Access by Lower Blandford Road. Contact June Webber on or mikewebber@ntlworld.com if you can help. Thank-you. Broadstone Day Centre has a New Name THE TUESDAY CLUB The Day Centre began many years ago for older Broadstone residents to meet, to have a meal and to enjoy company. It is held every Tuesday in the URC Hall. The 5 Broadstone Churches run the kitchen in turn. Coffee/tea is served in the morning followed by a hot lunch for about 40 people. The team prepares the vegetables, cooks the meal and washes up. The St John s team need more helpers for vegetable preparation or washing up (dishwasher available). If you can help please contact Jackie Williams directly or through the Church Office. This is important contribution that St John's makes for the Broadstone community. Jackie Williams Tuesday Club includes: morning tea and coffee, 2 course lunch, afternoon tea and coffee, exercise with Jane (in your chair) every other week, and transport can be provided. Cost from 1 st September is 10 per day. Spotlight on Salisbury Diocese: News and Views Our new Dean will be installed at a special service in Salisbury Cathedral in September. The Revd Canon Nicholas Papadopulos will be installed as the 82 nd Dean of Salisbury Cathedral. We look forward to welcoming him. Subscription For Newsletter Thank you for your kind comments about the new newsletter. We consider this a vital communication tool, alongside our website and Facebook Page (currently being updated), not only for what we share together as a church, but for enabling information to reach a wider community. We currently do not have a subscription charge and rely on donations for printing costs. Would you consider making a donation each month in support of the newsletter? Money can be put into the box attached to the back pew at church, or you might consider making an annual or monthly donation through Gift Aid. Speak to one of the church wardens to set this up. Revd Helen DEADLINE FOR NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS Friday 17 th August. Please all items to Revd Helen at revdhelenbailey@gmail.com AND office@stjohnschurchbroadstone.org.uk as Revd Helen has taken on the newsletter.