The Parish Church of St Andrew's, Medsteadwelcome | faith | services | events | news | people | church | village | friends | location |
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The Parish Church of St Andrew's, Medsteadwelcome | faith | services | events | news | people | church | village | friends | location |
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On Female Bishops
Champions Challenge
Parish Plan Published
Jeyapaul's Visit
Communication
Medstead WI
Medstead To Paris Ride
Hog Roast
Village Fête
Beaver Scouts
Social Events
Communications Group
April-June 2008
January-March 2008
October-December 2007
July-September 2007
April-June 2007
January-March 2007
October-December 2006
July-September 2006
April-June 2006
January-March 2006
October-December 2005
July-September 2005
April-June 2005
January-March 2005
October-December 2004
July-September 2004
April-June 2004
January-March 2004
November-December 2003
Anglicans Online
BBCi: Christian News
The Church of England Gazette
The Church of England Newspaper
Church Times Online
Diocese Of Winchester
Ekklesia
Ship of Fools
St. Andrew's website is:
I was asked, on the Sunday before the General Synod vote on Women Bishops, whether I shouldn't have preached on the subject that day. Actually, it had crossed my mind that it would, perhaps, be better to wait until after the vote and address the issue once it was known which way the Church of England had decided to go.
In actual fact, my view is that the outcome had effectively been decided back in 1986, when General Synod approved legislation to ordain women as Deacons. (The priesting of women followed in 1993). Without doubt, a train was set in process in 1986 which, however long it took, had inevitably to lead to the step taken by General Synod in July. There would have been implications for the Church of England, whichever way the vote had gone.
The Church has always regarded itself - still does, for that matter - as part of the Catholic Church. If that confuses you, I must state immediately "Catholic" and "Roman Catholic" do not mean precisely the same. "Catholic" is a term which has come to mean the universal Church, especially those Christians who share an agreed historical and continuous tradition of faith; for example, that its leaders have been ordained by a bishop whose own ordination follows on in unbroken succession from St. Peter (known as 'apostolic succession').
The C of E regards its succession as unbroken despite separation from Rome at the Reformation, since those bishops in office at the time had themselves been ordained as Roman Catholics. Hence, in the Creed, we are able to say "I believe in one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." The Orthodox denominations, by the same token, form part of the Catholic Church.
The breakaway, however, from Papal supremacy has led the Roman Catholic Church to doubt our catholicity. Our decision to ordain women as Deacons in 1986 added to Rome's difficulties; succeeding steps have just piled on the agony! Both the RC and Orthodox Churches have struggled with these developments. We are not alone, however. Other parts of the Anglican Communion (USA, Canada, New Zealand &c) are ahead of us in ordaining women as bishops. Many Anglicans would now see the RC and Orthodox Churches as lagging behind; the role of women in society, they would argue, is now so different from biblical times that the steps taken to permit their ordination are now simply logical.
There was a very interesting Thought for the Day on 9th July on BBC Radio 4. The speaker, the Revd. John Bell, stressed how closely Jesus had worked with women, without, as he put it, "the familiar accompaniments of seduction or exploitation". Women were present and active at key moments in Jesus' time on earth, including being the first to witness the Resurrection. In Mr. Bell's opinion, the C of E needs that "feminisation of communities of faith until they are as representative and nurturing of the giftedness of women as Jesus was."
Well, whatever your view or mine, the legislation has been passed. Now we await the "Code of Practice" to see how those who cannot accept the decision will fare. This show will run and run...
Ben Flenley
Comments? email
Thanks to the huge efforts of a whole team of people, Champions' Challenge, our Olympics-themed Summer Kids' Club for primary school children, is now almost upon us!
The club, which will be held at Bentworth School, runs from Wednesday, 30th July to Friday, 1st August, with each day having a special theme: Jesus and His Disciples: choosing the team, Working with Jesus: everyone plays a part and Jesus is Alive, he is a champion.
The outline programme for each day is:
With over forty children already confirmed as attending, there are only a few places left. If your children would like to attend, then simply complete this application form and return it to Kerry.
Alternatively, you may collect a form from one of the Benefice schools or Churches. We are limited to 50 places so apply soon to avoid disappointment.
Everyone is invited to a Champion's Celebration at St. Mary's Bentworth on Sunday, 3rd August at 11.00am where you will be able to find out what the club has been getting up to! Join us for a bring & share picnic which will follow the Celebration.
We would welcome contributions of a variety of materials which the children will use in the planned activities. There is a box in each Church to place items such as material, ribbon, card, paper, cardboard tubes from kitchen rolls, Pringles tubes, lids from photocopy boxes and shoe boxes.
The JAM Team:
Emily Prior, Kerry Magennis Prior, Alexander Yarnley, Cate Baynton, Charlie Shaylor, Paul Newton, Debbie Jones, Michele Rankin, Antonia Goor, Jo Holliday, Jane Shervell, Andrew Jackson, Ann Maltby, Catherine Grassi, Maria Fordyce, Liz Gilbert, Betty Plant, Yvonne Haigh, Gill Nash, Jane Parkin, Elizabeth Parkin, Alison Bates, Kathryn, Ben, Lizzie & Rachel Flenley.
Our Sponsors:
Ellis Campbell Foundation, Avenue Nurseries, 381 Overhead Reductions, The Royal Oak, Interlink Express, Thomas C Hampshire Ltd, Lasham Woodland Training Centre, The Handy Stores, The Castle of Comfort, The Star Inn, Peter and Rosemary Andreae, Clementines, Nancy Gordon Clarke, Nigel and Mary Chesterfield & Shaylor Lettings.
Thirty volunteers from all our Benefice villages are lined up and ready to go, and thank you to them all for their commitment and endeavours so far.
We are also very grateful to the Church of the Good Shepherd for making our club part of their year of mission of a hundred blessings.
Their vicar, Howard Wright, has a wealth of experience in organising holiday clubs and is spearheading our Music and Entertainment team. It has also been encouraging to have the expertise of Elaine King-Smith, who has given us much valuable advice and will also be with us during Champion's Challenge.
We have also been fortunate to benefit from the many skills of Gill Scott from Beech who has been inspirational on the craft elements of the club and whose quiet confidence has given us much support.
We should also like to say thank you to all our generous sponsors without whom this whole initiative would not have been possible.
Thank you, all, for your support and your prayers for our success.
Charlie Shaylor, Kathryn Flenley & the JAM Team
Related Links:
Summer Kids' Club
Our Child Protection Policy
Downloads:
Application Form
Right click on the link, select "Save Target As..." to save the file to a local directory. The form is in Adobe pdf format, compressed using Winzip.
After an eighteen month journey Medstead's Parish Plan was published on Monday, 7th July and has been distributed to all residents.
The journey started with the formation of the Medstead Parish Plan Committee (MPPC) by the Parish Council in January 2007. Consultations with local associations and distribution and assessment of a Love It / Hate It survey followed, before developing questionnaires which were delivered to all residents in October 2007.
The questionnaires were analysed and a draft Parish Plan developed, which was presented to the Annual Village Meeting in April 2008. An updated version was adopted by Medstead Parish Council in May 2008, subject to minor amendments which are included in the final Parish Plan.
The MPPC are indebted to a number of people and organisations. So, thank you to:
However, all of this good work - and the Plan itself - produces no consequences. Implementation of the Plan is what matters and this requires individuals to put effort into making things happen.
You can volunteer your time and talents to help implement the Action Plan, for example, by:
If you would like to participate in any way, or for more information, please contact:
Errol O'Farrell, Parish Clerk, Medstead Parish Council
Email:
Telephone: 01420 564231
Address: Paxfield, Paice Lane, Medstead, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 5PR.
Related Links:
Medstead Parish Plan - For further information, including a downloadable version of the Parish Plan.
The Reverend Jeyapaul and his wife Annamuthu have now completed their visit to the UK and have returned to Devakottai. As result of their visit, more than 40 people have become new sponsors including five from the Benefice.
We would like to thank you for making them so welcome whilst they stayed at the Rectory. Their programme here included school visits, tea at St Lucy's Convent, meals and visits with sponsors and supporters and preaching at various services. From the Coffee morning on their first day here to the Chicken Biriani Evening at Medstead they were met with open-handed friendship and extraordinary generosity.
During their visit, Jeyapaul was able to provide an update of the project. At present, the Kathryn Mercy Home and Joan's Grace Home provide accommodation for 40 boys and 70 girls who all attend school in Devakottai. In addition, 130 children aged between 3 and 11 attend the Nursery and Primary School, which occupies the Boys' Hostel during the day. Fifteen elderly, unsupported widows are given food and lodging in return for light housework duties in the Girls' Hostel.
Three or four times a year a medical centre operates from the Girls' Hostel, providing free medical care for poor people from a very wide area. Local women are given tailoring classes in the Joan's Grace Home, allowing them to learn a skill that will provide them with an income.
The latest initiative is to sponsor teachers to go into the surrounding villages in order to supplement the primary education which the local children receive, to equip them for secondary education as the village schools only provide a rudimentary syllabus. At present, 200 children are benefiting from this scheme. The next phase of building on the land we helped to purchase will enable more boys to be given hostel accommodation.
While they were in the Benefice, Jeyapaul told us that he really needed a laptop to assist him in the running of the Mercy Home. His Parish Church, where he spends half the week, is some 15 miles away from Devakottai and, because the project is growing so quickly, he needs to be able to have computer access in order to keep in touch.
We made an appeal during the Biriani Evening - a huge success with 50 people enjoying Annamuthu's cooking - but could not have imagined, by the end of the evening, we were able to pledge £700. Jeyapaul will be able to buy a laptop as soon as he gets to India, thank you so much!
If you are contemplating a visit to India and would like to see the project in action, Jeyapaul and Annamuthu would be so pleased to welcome you. An option for students who leave school or college next year is to visit the Mercy Home as part of a Gap Year project and join in with the teaching programme. Please contact Kathryn for more details.
Thank you for your continuing support and your prayers.
Kathryn & Ben Flenley
Related Links:
Faith In Action: Kathryn Mercy Home
Jeyapaul's Benefice Visit
I'd like to begin this month by placing on record my thanks to the so many people who are working to make our holiday club activity, JAM, a success. There has been a kernel of volunteers meeting regularly, working hard and organising what promises to be a great experience and I am in no doubt at all that this will prove to be a very popular event.
We have been ably supported in this by members of the parish of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Four Marks, who have been running holiday clubs like this for some years. I would like to place on record my thanks to them, and to all our parishioners who will be helping throughout the duration of the activity. Thank you to you all.
After a service recently, one member of the congregation then present suggested, as, it was made clear, a compliment, that my sermons were "too Christian". What was meant was that there was no doubting the Christian basis behind my preaching; that no-one could have failed to detect the presence of Jesus' teaching and understanding as the foundation of what was being said.
It is easy to criticise the Church's leaders for being 'wishy-washy' or of failing to give a lead: I hope that could never be said of me! But neither would I ever wish to be thought 'fundamentalist' or unsympathetic either. Anyone who relies heavily on communication skills - and that's a good many in the world of work generally - knows how difficult it can be to get the message across as intended. Every preacher and speaker, I'm sure, will recognise the problem that what we think we've said and what people sometimes hear can be very different. Our politicians face the same difficulties on a daily basis.
The next meeting of the General Synod, in July, provides ample opportunity for speakers to think they've said one thing while listeners hear another; for the Synod will be debating, among other things, proposals concerning the possible Ordination of Women as Bishops.
Whenever a contentious issue arises, in any walk of life, the possibilities for engendering controversy, even hostility, increase exponentially. My prayer for this meeting of Synod would be that all present would hear and debate these important issues gently, respecting others' strongly-held convictions; that, whatever outcomes emerge, we would all maintain our continued debating in an atmosphere of Christian love. Here, surely, lies an opportunity for the Christian Church to set an example - debate doesn't have to be angry, speakers constantly interrupting each other or shouting the other down. One hears quite enough of that at PMQs!
Ben Flenley
Comments? email
July was a very special meeting as over 70 members and guests assembled to celebrate Medstead WI's 90th birthday. Among the guests were HCFWI Chairman Pat Marshall, who was welcomed along with the three WI Advisers: Gillian Thomas, Yvonne Kilburn and Jean Johnson who have looked after Medstead in recent years.
Everyone was greeted with a glass of Pimms on arrival, before taking their seats to enjoy a super buffet lunch which had been prepared by a team of members, guided by Cherry Messenger who is to be congratulated for organising such an excellent lunch.
By this time everyone was feeling replete and it was time to sit back and enjoy the entertainment, provided by two delightful ladies, Gillian and Kay, who make up the cabaret duo Kaleidoscope, and they soon had everyone's feet tapping and hands clapping as they went through a complete range of music from the forties right up to the present day.
During one of the songs from the shows two of the audience, Pam Kercher and Yvonne Kilburn were persuaded to join in with the routine and very ably did they accomplish this role entering fully into the spirit of the song, much to everyone's delight.
By then it was time for a welcome cup of tea which was accompanied by a slice of delicious birthday cake which had been cut by Norah Blunden who, having joined in 1952, is the longest serving member of Medstead WI.
To celebrate the 90th birthday a new tablecloth for the President's table had been made by Sandra George. This was on show for the first time and will now be brought into monthly use. Also on display was the quilt made to celebrate the 75th birthday.
A minimal amount of business was carried out and President Jean Penny thanked everyone who had helped with the catering, serving and all the other tasks necessary on the day. Finally it was time to draw the raffle before everyone went home having enjoyed a special and very enjoyable 90th anniversary meeting. Medstead WI now looks forward with confidence to its next big celebration in ten years time!
Visitors and new members are always very welcome. The next meeting is on Thursday, 14th August at 2.00pm in Medstead Village Hall, when the Selborne & Headley Workhouse Riots will be the subject of the speaker. Don't miss out on the fun and friendship of being a WI member - come along and join in!
Also keep a look out for a programme on Channel 4, possibly on Saturday, 2nd August in which Medstead members may be seen...!
Gill Siddall
Related Links:
Medstead WI, Apr-Jun 2008
Twenty-three members of Team Star Inn are cycling 550 miles in six days from Medstead to Paris and (some of them!) back again, departing on Tuesday, 22nd July. The aim is to raise £30,000 for Broadlands Riding for the Disabled, Medstead and Action Medical Research.
Some may have seen members of the team in training, sporting our new team strip, rushing around the byways of Hampshire, some doing over 100 miles a week including a 50 mile ride each weekend.
There are 12 cyclists from Bentworth, including four husband and wife teams: Diane and Phil Blatchford, Kathryn and Keith Cullen, Jenny French, Steve Gray, Veronica Parker, Sally and Toby Stevens, Karen and Matt Williams and myself; two are from Medstead, brothers Jonathon and Simon Gregory and the rest are friends old and new from Basingstoke to Bude.
The Auction of Promises held at the Star Inn in June raised over £5000 and thanks must go to Karen and Matt for organising it, the people and companies who gave the items and promises and the people who bought them with such enthusiasm!
We have had a wonderful response so far and have raised a significant amount for the two charities we are supporting. We know many of you are still dying to get in on the act and support us and we really want to raise as much as we can. We, and the two charities, would be really grateful for all the help you can give. You can sponsor us through the Star Inn.
John Stockdale
Related Links:
Meet The Team
On Saturday, 19th July seventy-five of us enjoyed good food and excellent company at St. Andrew's sixth annual Hog Roast in the gardens of the Castle Of Comfort.
With initial uncertainty about the weather, our fears were soon calmed as the evening settled into a sunny, if cool, summer's evening. The highlight of the event was, of course, the splendidly roasted hog which provided us with a delicious starter of crackling and then a wonderful main course.
Many thanks to Adrian, supported by Patrick, for roasting the hog, and to all those who provided salad dishes to complement the pork.
Resulting in an estimated £400 for church funds, we must thank Sharon for organising this event and Sue Willson for, once again, allowing us to hold our event in her lovely gardens at The Castle.
Chris Tew
Our traditional, annual fund-raising Village Fête, held on Saturday, 12th July, had a Harry Potter theme this year and St Andrew's was represented by Kerry Magennis-Prior and Kathryn Flenley, ably supported by Emily and Bethany, on the Splat-the-Rat stall.
Their high-pressure sales technique resulted in a brisk afternoon's business and good fun was had by all. One of our organists (Adrian) was actually able to hit the rat and one must assume years of playing our previous, unpredictable pipe, organ had honed his reactions to perfection!
There was also a grand parade, craft and trade stalls, bar and barbeque, tea and cakes, train and traction engine, dog show, grand draw and entertainment including dance, bands and displays, throughout the afternoon.
On the evening of Monday, 9th July St Andrew's welcomed 22 Medstead Beaver Scouts with their 5 leaders and helpers, who walked to our Church.
After a brief history of the church they set about brass and gravestone rubbing in the North Transept and took away a good collection of different rubbings.
Our social events are always very popular and the highlights of our calendar, for the rest of 2008, include:
Hog Roast: 19th July
French Evening: 11th October
Jumble Sale: 15th November
Recital: 30th November
Please see our regularly updated Events page for more details on these and other village events, and put these dates in your diaries!
If you are interested in joining the Social Committee or helping at any of the events, please contact Sharon Blackshaw.
Related Links:
Events
One of the new groups set up following our Vision Day was a Communications Team led by Pat Searls.
Two of the products of the group have now been implemented: an improved pewsheet and an online Parish Diary, based on Google™ Calendar.
Following discussions at meetings of the Communications Group it was decided that the Pewsheet should be of a more modern design and format. The first edition was launched at the 8.00am Holy Communion service on Sunday, 22nd June, and the response, so far, has been very positive.
The idea behind the Parish Diary is a simple one: having a shared online diary will allow Ben, the PCC members and leaders of the various Church teams to improve communications and keep up-to-date.
We are always pleased to consider other improvements to our communications; please contact Pat Searls, on 01420 561377, with your ideas!
Related Links
Talents In Action
Our Vision
Parish Diary
Pewsheets
