St Lawrence, Seal Chart Parish Magazine December 2014 & January 2015

Transcription

1 Services at St Margaret s Underriver during December 2014 & January 2015 In the Church, every Thursday at 08:30, Morning Prayer (said) - CW St Lawrence, Seal Chart Parish Magazine December 2014 & January 2015 Sunday 7 Dec 11:15 All Age Family Service Sunday 14 Dec 08:00 Holy Communion BCP 11:15 Matins BCP Sunday 21 Dec No Morning Service 16:00 Carol Service Wednesday 24 Dec 16:00 Crib Service 23:30 First Holy Communion of Christmas CW Thursday 25 Dec 10:30 Family Celebration of Holy Communion Sunday Sunday 28 Dec 11:15 All Age Family Service 4 Jan 11:15 Epiphany All Age Family Service Sunday 11 Jan 08:00 Holy Communion BCP 11:15 Matins BCP Sunday 18 Jan 10:30 Sunday Club meets in the Village Hall 11:15 All Age Family Service Sunday 25 Jan 11:15 Parish Communion CW Sunday 1 Feb 11:15 All Age Family Service CW Who do you know, whom you could help? This Christmas, try and give friendly support to anyone you know who is elderly and in bereavement. It seems that elderly people can literally die of a broken heart, because grief weakens the immune system. Bereavement causes stress hormones to become unbalanced in the elderly, and this can lead to a reduction in their immune system cells, according to research by the University of Birmingham. And while bereavement is bad enough, bereavement at Christmas time is probably a whole lot worse. 16 Copy for the next issue should be sent, preferably by , to the editor, Brian Sutton ( ) at manofkent99@yahoo.com to arrive by 08:00 on Wednesday 14 January 2015 The next issue of the Parish Magazine will be in Church on Sunday 25 January 2015 Edited and Typeset by Brian Sutton, 50 The Crescent, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 3QY ( ) Printed by Highland Printers, Church Farm, Seal, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN15 0AN ( ) Vicar The Revd Carol Kitchener St Lawrence Vicarage Stone Street Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 0LQ Ron Drury Garden Cottage, Raspit Hill Ivy Hatch Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 0PE Church Wardens Reader Mrs Gretel Wakeham The White House Bitchet Green Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 0NA Rob Otto 23 Hillingdon Avenue Sevenoaks Kent TN13 3RB

2 Our Vicar s Christmas Message This is the season of the year when we think about gifts. We look online for fresh ideas. We check the prices of things we think our family and friends would like, wanting to know if they are affordable. We search the shops looking for new ideas. We make lists, on paper, or on our smartphone and we gleefully cross their name off when we have our purchased their gift. We buy gifts in response to God giving this world the greatest gift of all Jesus. Jesus was the gift the world needed, he showed people what God was like loving and caring, rather than strict and forbidding. He showed the world what God wanted for its people health, hope and justice. He gave humankind the best gift of all salvation promise of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. In response to the birth of the Son of God we give gifts to family and friends to show our love for them. Not everyone enjoys buying gifts at Christmas time. For some this time of year creates anxiety, how will they pay for the gifts their children would like, the gifts their children friends might also be receiving? Some will turn to payday loans or to money-lenders to buy gifts and then struggle through the rest of the year to pay that loan off. This is the opposite of what was intended, God gave his Son Jesus to the world to set people free, not to leave them impoverished. This is one of the sad consequences of our unequal and sometimes unjust society today. This year as you are buying gifts for the people you love think about making another gift to the many charities who work with the poor, the homeless and the vulnerable so that the charities can offer help and hope to those in need. This can be another way of saying thank you to God this Christmas for giving the world the precious gift of his Son Jesus. Do come and join us in church this Christmas, you will be welcomed. Elsewhere in the magazine you will find the dates and times of our special celebration services. On January 4 th there will be All-Age Epiphany Services to celebrate the Wise Men, who brought gifts to Jesus of gold, frankincense and myrrh. I wish you and the people you love and very happy and blessed Christmas. For the Children Yours in the love of Christ 2 15

3 Children meet promptly at 09:45 in St Lawrence School Hall on the dates shown in bold They will rejoin their parents in the church towards the end of the service. 14 All children aged 3 and upwards are welcome 14 Dec Christmas Hilary & Wendy 18 Jan Candlemas Lesley & Hilary Next Meeting at Wendy s on Thursday 8 January For further information contact Hilary Darque [ ] Church Flowers Sunday 7 Dec Sunday 14 Dec Sunday 21 Dec Sunday 28 Dec Sunday 4 Jan Sunday 11 Jan Sunday 18 Jan Sunday 25 Jan Sunday 1 Feb Sheila Jackson Sheila Jackson Your prayers are asked for those recently bereaved; comfort to the lonely; food and shelter for the hungry and homeless; hope and peace for those who despair; for all Your Blessings, we thank Thee, O Lord Parish Magazine Subscriptions for January 2015 Please can we ask that everyone who subscribes to our Parish Magazine, or would like to join the list of subscribers for next year, considers paying as soon as possible, as this makes life much easier for everyone, from Collectors to the Treasurer! Despite rising costs, the subscriptions remain 7.50 per year for hand-delivered or copies collected from the Church 14 per year for posted copies. Please pay your delivery person directly or if collected from the Church or posted, send the appropriate amount to Rosemary Attenborough, Coldhanger, Seal Chart, Sevenoaks, TN15 0EJ. To save having to remember until the end of this year, you may post-date your cheque to 1 January 2015; they will not be paid in until January, but the earlier they can arrive the quicker we can close the magazine accounts for the year and hopefully, not have them dragging on until mid-summer! All cheques to be made payable to ST. LAWRENCE (SEAL) PCC. N.B. If you would like to be added to the lists of subscribers to the magazine, please contact Roz Morris. Thank you and please can I repeat the plea for everyone to pay their subscription for 2015 as soon as possible! St Lawrence Lost Sheep Trail Rosemary Attenborough I m sure that everyone who took part in the Lost Sheep Trail, both knitters and children, agreed that it was a fun activity and that seeing the sheep in church brought a smile to everyone who saw them! If you would like to purchase one of the sheep, they will be on sale at the St Lawrence Christmas Fair in Stone Street Village Hall on 22 November between 2 and 4.30 pm. Finally, a big THANK YOU to all you knitters from the church and Seal Chart who responded to the request to make sheep. At the time of writing the flock numbers 34 in a variety of shapes and sizes. They make for a wonderful flock Christmas Gifts Grandfather was talking to his grand-daughter, When I was a child all we got for Christmas was an apple and an orange. The little girl clapped her hands in joy. Brilliant! I d love a new computer and a mobile! 3

4 The Brownies entertain We (that is the Brownies) are putting on a small show in the hall for the parents, together with a display of their work this term. This is to mark the end of the Brownie Centenary year. You will all be very welcome to come along & see what the girls do and we'd love to see you. The show will start at 5.30 pm on Wednesday 3 December and we will serve tea & cake in the interval. There will also be a raffle. We're hoping to be out of the hall all cleared up by 7.30pm. Look forward to seeing you. Janet Parish Magazine - Thank you 4 Once again, it is that time of year when one says thank you to all those who have made it possible for us to have a Parish Magazine. On your behalf, I should like to say a very big THANK YOU to the distributors who push it through your letterbox no matter what the weather and to Roz Morris and Robin Kiddell who have stapled the copies and inserted flyers as necessary. Thanks to Rosemary Attenborough who sends out the postal copies (and collects the cash); to Julian Gilchrist who prints the copy that I deliver to him and who then gets it back to me so promptly. Above all I should like to thank all those who have contributed copy for publication, particularly Carol and Tim who provide several pages between them each month. During the year no fewer than 29 parishioners have between them contributed 104 items and we have also welcomed one or two new contributors. I am certain that someone out there has something they would love to share, an enjoyable weekend, a lovely holiday. I am grateful, too, to Ann Coombes and her colleagues who run the Parish Pump website upon which I rely for some of the fill-in material and one-liners. The following is the timetable to which I hope to work in the coming year: copy by 08:00 on these dates, please. Jan No Magazine May Wed 15 Apr Sept Wed 19 Aug Feb Wed 14 Jan June Wed 20 May Oct Wed 16 Sept Mar Wed 11 Feb July Wed 17 Jun Nov Wed 14 Oct Apr Wed 18 Mar Aug Wed 15 Jul Dec Wed 18 Nov A little girl went to visit Father Christmas in the local garden centre grotto. He welcomed her with a smile and asked what she would like for Christmas. The little girl gasped, and stared up at him in horror. "Didn't you get my ?!" Ed A change in baptism trends shows that adult baptisms are on the increase over the past decade - from 8,000 per year to 11,000 per year, an increase of 32% over the last 10 years. The statistics are available at: Silent Night Carols in stadiums, cathedrals, churches and pubs This Christmas sports fans and church choirs all over the country will help communities to remember the remarkable 1914 Christmas truce in the First World War. Peace broke out in the trenches. Enemies sang the much-loved Christmas carol, Silent Night, Stille Nacht! then ventured out across No Man s Land to exchange gifts some even played football. To mark the centenary of the 1914 Christmas Truce, HOPE has commissioned a new verse and chorus for Joseph Mohr s famous carol, Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! and free copies of a souvenir programme, which includes the words of the new version, are available for churches to order from HOPE s partner Tearfund. Silent Night Carols events will be held in sports stadiums, cathedrals, churches even village pubs where regulars and local residents will gather for beer and carols evenings. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, who is President of the Football Association, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby are backing the events and have written an introduction to the souvenir programme. The programme includes the words of ten favourite carols including the new version of Silent Night (Christ The Saviour Is Born) which has an extra verse and chorus written by contemporary hymn writers Nick Herbert and Ben Cantelon. Already it has caught on and is featured on the Motown Christmas album, the Ultimate Kids Christmas Worship album and a special Silent Night compilation album. The carol events are part of HOPE s Greater Love campaign, helping churches to serve their communities as the nation commemorates the centenary of the First World War. They are supported by HOPE s partners Sports Chaplaincy UK and Tearfund. The resources are available at and 13

5 New Church of England statistics for 2013 New Church of England statistics for 2013 published recently show that an average of one million people attend services each week, down about 1% on the previous year. The one million figure relates to regular weekly parish and cathedral services and does not include other core services carried out by the Church of England on a regular basis. With some 2,000 baptisms, 1,000 weddings and 3,000 funerals conducted every week it is estimated that a further half a million people attend a service conducted by a Church of England minister every week. In addition the count (which takes place in October) does not include the many carol and nativity services during Advent and many other regular services responding to community need. The services carried out by the Church of England's chaplains in hospitals, prisons, schools, universities and military bases are also excluded from the attendance totals. Figures for Christmas attendance show a stable trend, with 2.4 million people attending services on Christmas Eve and Day - where figures have hovered around the 2.5 million mark over the past decade. Speaking on the publication of the statistics, the Bishop of Sheffield, The Rt. Revd. Steven Croft, said: "These figures show the Church of England continues to serve the nation with a core of 1 million activist members who worship faithfully each week. "At a time when membership of political parties is at an historic low and in a society which feels increasingly time squeezed, it is conspicuous that the Church of England's committed weekly base of parish worshippers remains a million strong with the last Census showing many millions more identifying with the Church. "In addition to the regular worshipping core the Church continues to serve all those who look to us to mark the most important events of their life journey through weddings, baptisms and funerals. Through these services alone we estimate that a further half a million people attend Church every week of the year, many of whom will be only fringe or occasional visitors." A new part of the 2013 research reveal that nearly half of the 67,000 new joiners to churches are coming for the first time rather than from another church. This was the first time a split was introduced in the joiners and leavers section to measure those moving to or from other local churches. There was also new research on attendance at advent services including nativity and carol services - outside of usual Sunday services. Although not every church gave figures, attendance at special services during advent is estimated to be around 5 million. Wanted - Very Urgently The St Lawrence Village Hall Management Committee is still desperately in need of a Bookings Secretary. There must be at least one volunteers out there! If you would like to help your community, please contact Ron Drury on or Peter Wharton on Christmas Church Clean - A Reminder We are looking forward to seeing as many as possible to help to make our church look as lovely as possible for the Christmas season. The date - Wednesday 3 December The time - 09:30 to 11:30 Coffee (or tea) and Mince Pies at half time. Please come and join us for an enjoyable and rewarding morning. Carol McL Christmas Eve How do you celebrate Christmas Eve? It has its own customs, the most popular of which is going to Midnight Mass, or the Christ-Mas. This is the only Mass of the year which is allowed to start after sunset. In Catholic countries such as Spain, Italy and Poland, Midnight Mass is in fact the most important church service of the entire Christmas season, and many people traditionally fast beforehand. In other countries, such as Belgium and Denmark, people dine during the evening, and then go on to the Midnight Service. The English are behind some countries when it comes to exchanging presents: in Germany, Sweden and Portugal the custom is to exchange on Christmas Eve. But the English are ahead of Serbia and Slovakia, where the Christmas tree is not even brought into the house and decorated until Christmas Eve. Yule logs are not so popular since the decline of the fireplace, but traditionally it was lit on Christmas Eve from a bit of the previous year s log, and then would be burned non-stop until 12 th Night (6 th January). Tradition also decreed that any greenery such as holly, ivy or mistletoe must wait until Christmas Eve until being brought into the house. Those Jokes in your Christmas Cracker Cracker jokes are meant to entertain children and amuse adults. So says a boss of Christmas cracker factory. Apparently cracker jokes are meant not to provoke real laughter, but to be a shared experience. The kids will love the silliness and the adults love the corny lines. 12 5

6 How Father Christmas got where he is today One person you are bound to run into this Christmas season is Father Christmas. These days he seems to frequent shopping malls and garden centres. If he looks tired, just remember that he has been around a long time, and gone through a lot of transformations. Father Christmas wasn t always the red-suited, white-bearded star of the retail trade that he is today. He began life as Nicholas, born way back about AD260 in Patara, an important port on the southern coast of what is now Turkey. When his parents died and left him a fortune, Nicholas gave it away to the poor. He became a bishop of the nearby city of Myra, where he almost certainly suffered persecution and imprisonment at the hand of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Nicholas was a serious theologian: he was a participant at the First Council of Nicaea, which formulated the Creed which we still say today. He even, reportedly, slapped another bishop in a squabble over the exact nature of the Trinity. Nicholas died in Myra about AD343, but the stories of his generosity and kindness were just beginning. One enduring tale tells of the three girls whom he rescued from certain prostitution by giving them gold for their dowries. When the father confronted him to thank him, Nicholas said he should thank God alone. In the UK, Nicholas became the basis for Father Christmas, who emerged in Victorian times as a jolly-faced bearded character. Meanwhile, Dutch and German settlers had taken him to America with them as Sinter Klaas and Sankt Nicklas. It was in America that Nicholas received his final two great breaks into real stardom. The first was when the Rev Clement C Moore, a New York Episcopal minister, turned from his life-work of writing a Hebrew/English lexicon, to write a fun poem for his children one Christmas. His The Visit of St Nicholas is now universally known by its first line: T was the Night Before Christmas. From Clement Moore we discovered that St Nicholas is round and pink-cheeked and white-bearded, and that he travels at night with sleigh, reindeer and a sack of toys on his back. It was Clement Moore who also revealed that St Nicholas enters houses down chimneys and fills children s stockings with toys and sweets. So how did we find out that Father Christmas wears red? That was the US Coca- Cola advertising campaign of 1931, who finally released the latest, up-to-date pictures of Father Christmas: wearing a bright red, fur-trimmed coat and a large belt. These days, it is good that Father Christmas uses reindeer and doesn t have to pay for petrol. In order to get round all the children in the world on Christmas Eve, he will have to travel 221 million miles at an average speed of 1279 miles a second, 6,395 times the speed of sound. For all those of us who are exhausted just rushing around getting ready for Christmas, that is a sobering thought. 6 Might you be interested? The village hall has some short mat bowls facilities (viz 2 carpets, trolleys, and four sets of short mat bowls). The Village Hall Management Committee is keen to hear from anyone who may be interested in starting a club, or just hiring the hall and using these items. If you are interested, please contact Ron Drury on or Peter Wharton on Ron Securing the Future a Joint Benefice? The November magazine introduced the subject of a possible change to the way the two parishes I serve as vicar might come together as a Joint Benefice. On Saturday 8 th November 25 people from the two churches came together to consider this possibility. Both churches had held PCC meetings in September and a joint Standing Committee had met twice, so this was an opportunity for people not on the PCC to offer their thoughts. I asked people to think about what the Joint Benefice might be like, people had a lot of suggestions and quite a few things were held in common. Here are a few areas they considered: Pastoral issues setting up a joint pastoral group to think about pastoral needs and to share good ideas; Young people sharing with each other the good things each church is doing at the present; Service timing of services, special services; Magazines; PCCs maybe having an observer at each other s PCC meetings; a joint PCC once a year. There were lots of other suggestions, all of which will help the PCCs decide what might happen next. Decisions, one way or the other, will be made in the first part of 2015 and more information, once it is available, will be given in the magazine and in other ways. Carol Why Rudolph really does have a red nose Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer celebrates his 75 th birthday this month, and researchers in Sweden have used thermal imaging cameras to capture the heat from reindeer as they graze, and discovered that while most of a reindeer body is well insulated, their noses glow bright orange, due to the large amounts of heat that they release. The reason is simple: reindeer have a high concentration of blood vessels in their nose and lips to help keep those areas warm and sensitive as they rummage through snow, looking for food. 11

7 Thank Dickens for Christmas as you know it! Ever wonder where many of our Christmas traditions come from? A surprising amount can be traced back to the well-loved story of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. When you read A Christmas Carol, you discover almost a template of the ideal Christmas which we still hold dear today. Dickens seems to have selected the best of the Christmas celebrations of his day (he ignored some of the odd excesses) and packaged them in such a way as to give us traditions that we could accommodate and treasure more than a century later. So, for instance, in A Christmas Carol, Christmas is a family day, with a familycentred feast. In a home decorated with holly and candles the characters enjoy a roast turkey, followed by Christmas pudding. They give their loved ones presents. Scrooge even gives donations to charity (!). And all the while outside, there is snow and frost, while church bells ring, and carol singers sing, and hope for mulled wine. In A Christmas Carol there is even a Father Christmas in the shape of Christmas Present. Only the Christmas tree itself came later, when Prince Albert imported a pretty German toy that won the heart of the English court, and hence the rest of Victorian society. 10 Christmas Carol Singing We shall meet at 5.45 pm on Tuesday 16 December in the barn at Foxbury Farm to sing and enjoy Mince Pies and Mulled Wine It is then on to Chart Farm Shop to sing again and enjoy more Mince Pies and Mulled Wine (courtesy of the Peterson Family) Come and join us, help to swell the ad hoc choir, and above all enjoy a good evening The Collection during the Evening is for The Children s Society The Cover Picture The cover picture for the Christmas/New Year issue of the magazine each year is drawn by the Brownies, the Y5/6 children or the Sunday school. This year it was the turn of the Brownies and from a large number of submissions that drawn by Lily Ellis, age 8, was judged to be the most suitable. Lily, will, of course, be suitably rewarded. Thank you, Lily. Ed In December 1914 On the 16 th German battleships shelled the port towns of Hartlepool and Scarborough. On the 21 st Germany made its first WW1 air raid on Britain. A German plane dropped a bomb in the grounds of a rectory in Dover. No one was injured. On 24 th and 25 th the WW1 Christmas Truce took place. British and German troops observed an unofficial ceasefire at several points along the Western Front, singing songs and exchanging greetings from their trenches and even crossing into no man s land to exchange food and souvenirs and play football. Remembrance 2014 It was following a memorable day in November that the children of our play school and primary school remembered the debt we all owe to those who died in the service of their country. The children each made a poppy and placed it in a display which was then laid at the villlage war memorial in Church Road. Thank you, children. 7

8 Services and Events at The Church of St Lawrence Seal Chart during December 2014 and January 2015 Every Tuesday at 08:30, in the Church Morning Prayer (said) (CW) Sunday 7 Dec Second Sunday of Advent 08:00 Holy Communion BCP Isaiah 40: 1-11 Mark 1: :45 All Age Family Service Mark 1: 1-8 Thursdy 11 Dec Prayer Time at 50 The Crescent, Sevenoaks 10:00 Lasts about an hour, all are welcome Sunday 14 Dec Third Sunday of Advent 09:45 Family Communion (with Sunday School) CW Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-end John 1:6-8, Sunday 21 Dec Fourth Sunday of Advent 09:45 NO MORNING SERVICE 18:00 Carol Service Wed day 24 Dec Christmas Eve 17:30 Crib and Christingle Service Luke 2: :30 First Holy Communion of Christmas CW Isaiah 62: 6-end Luke 2: 8-20 Thursday 25 Dec Christmas Day 09:45 Family Celebration of Holy Communion CW Luke 2: 8-20 Sunday 28 Dec First Sunday of Christmas 09:45 All Age Service Galatians 4: 4-7 Sunday 4 Jan Second Sunday of Christmas 08:00 Holy Communion BCP Ephesians 3: 1-12 Matthew 2: :45 All Age Family Service for Epiphany Matthew 2: 1-12 Tuesday 6 Jan Prayer Time at the Vicarage 10:00 Lasts about an hour, all are welcome Sunday 11 Jan Epiphany - Baptism of Christ 09:45 Family Communion (with Sunday School) CW Acts 19: 1-7 Mark 1: 4-11 Sunday 18 Jan Second Sunday of Epiphany Start of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 09:45 Family Communion (with Sunday School) CW Revelation 5: 1-10 John 1: 43-end Thursday 22 Jan Prayer Time at Shepherd s Cottage, Heaverham 14:00 Lasts about an hour, all are welcome Sunday 25 Jan Third Sunday of Epiphany 09:45 Matins BCP Revelation 19: 6-10 John 2: 1-11 Sunday 1 Feb Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Presentation of Christ in the Temple 08:00 Holy Communion (said) BCP Hebrews 2: 14-end Luke 2: :45 All Age Family Service Luke 2: Monday 2 Feb Prayer Time at The White House, Bitchet Green 14:00 Lasts about an hour, all are welcome BCP = Book of Common Prayer - a service using traditional (17th C) language and form - CW = Common Worship - a service using contemporary (21st C) language and form 8 9