The Parish Church of St Andrew's, Medsteadwelcome | faith | services | events | news | archive | people | church | village | friends | location |
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The Parish Church of St Andrew's, Medsteadwelcome | faith | services | events | news | archive | people | church | village | friends | location |
|
October-December 2006
Ben's Christmas Message
Posada
Vision Day
Mercy Home Appeal
PCC Meeting: 22nd Nov
Operation Christmas Child
Remembrance
Benefice PCC: 25th Oct
Gratitude
New Organ Installed!
Christmas At St. Andrew's
2006 Christmas Card
Advent Study Group
Talents
Patronal Festival Concert
An Indian Summer
Jumble Sale
Grand Bring & Buy
Lay Reader Induction
iPod Your God?
Frontliners
Births, Deaths & Marriages
Small Ads
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:
On Saturday, 7th October, a large crowd gathered in Winchester Cathedral to celebrate the Admission and Licensing of the newly-trained Readers, among them our own Charlie Shaylor.
It was with great pleasure I noted how many villagers from all four of the parishes of this benefice had taken the trouble to accompany the large and enthusiastic 'crowd' from Lasham. The number of robed clergy, myself among them, was the largest I have ever seen for an Admission service which again, I believe, emphasises the tremendous value we, the clergy, place upon all who offer themselves for this ancient and important ministry.
At the 'do' kindly hosted by Michael and Anthea Del Mar afterwards, in proposing the toast to Charlie, I noted, for a younger, especially a newly-ordained candidate, the distinctive robes worn by ministers in the Church of England not only help to identify a new arrival to the parishioners, but also help the nervous new minister to assume their role.
In Charlie's case this was clearly unnecessary; instead, I suggested his 'blue scarf' should be seen by all of us as more in the nature of part of the honours system: a 'decoration' to be worn with pride denoting our gratitude for many years of faithful service past, coupled with the keen expectation of many years to come.
The Church increasingly relies upon its lay people for the well-being of our parochial system. Another ancient office is that of Churchwarden and, as I have been giving out in Bentworth church for some time now, that parish especially stands in need of willing volunteers.
Chris Jones has served his last year as Churchwarden by himself: he must stand down next Easter, under the new rules, and so two people are urgently needed to come forward and take on the role. As a result of a recent meeting in the parish, the duties have been re-allocated to some degree, relieving incoming wardens of the hands-on tasks of fabric maintenance and stewardship. Hopefully, this will prove the trigger for a flood of applicants: it would be refreshing indeed to have to conduct an election!
Many of you will know of our project to raise £12,000 for the purchase of land at the Kathryn Mercy Home in Devakottai, South India. With your help, we have so far raised just over £5,700, which is truly wonderful, so thank you very much from both of us.
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie
Checkpoint into Bethlehem, erected by the Israelis as part of the wall.
It routinely takes several hours to be granted permission to enter or leave.
Please remember the people of Bethlehem in your prayers this Christmas.
With the approach to Christmas well advanced, I would ask for your thoughts and prayers for Bethlehem and all the Holy Land.
The continued construction by the Israelis of the wall, higher and more brutal in its routing even than its infamous Berlin predecessor, is making everyday life a misery for the vast majority of the population of the West Bank.
Persecutions are 'cleansing' the area of all but those of the Jewish faith: Christians and Muslims are suffering great hardships; the Christian community in Bethlehem has all but disappeared. It will be hard to sing "How still we see thee lie" this year!
In and among our collective and individual Christmas celebrations, which I trust you will all enjoy, the plight of this part of the world ought not to stray far from our prayers this year.
Ben Flenley
Comments? email Ben
Related Links:
Lay Reader Induction
Mercy Home Appeal
The figures of Mary and Joseph, together with the donkey, from the St. Andrew's Nativity display journeyed through Medstead each night during Advent, re-enacting their search for lodgings as told in Luke 2:7-20.
The idea was Mary and Joseph stayed with a different family, in a different place, every night, starting with the Christingle service on Sunday, 3rd December.
They returned to our Church for the Crib Service at 3.30pm on Christmas Eve, Sunday, 24th December.
In between, each person or family took the figures of Mary and Joseph home overnight before passing them on to the next home.
Their journey around Medstead and their presence in our homes was a great way for villagers, friends and families to come together and remember the true meaning of Christmas: to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
We loved seeing your pictures of Mary and Joseph's overnight stays and how you made them feel at home!
If you would like to add to the collection, please email your pictures to our webmaster.
With your permission, we will then publish them on this page, to record their unique journey through our village.
Related Links:
Posada, 2005
Where there is no vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18).
What is the future of our village church and what part can we play?
How can we improve our worship and prayer, our Christian education and personal growth in faith, our caring, contact and communication with the community, our parish administration and our Christian responsibility?
These subjects and more were discussed by around forty parishoners at our Vision Day in the Church Hall on Saturday, 18th November, one of the most important and inspiring meetings we have held.
The Diocesan Adviser, Gordon Randall, joined us to help establish the direction in which our Church should be heading.
The information and views gathered will now be consolidated into strategy statements, summarising our aims in each of the five areas discussed. These will be reviewed at the next PCC meeting on 17th January, 2007.
We need your feedback to help shape these statements. If you are interested in helping the teams, then please either email Chris or Ben.
The agenda for and feedback from the discussion groups on the day is available, below.
Downloads:
Vision Day Agenda
Vision Day Feedback
Right click on the link, select "Save Target As..." to save the file to a local directory. The documents are in Adobe pdf format, compressed using Winzip.
We have had a marvellous response to our appeal for money to buy the land next to the Kathryn Mercy Home so that a kitchen could be built on site.
We need to raise £12,000 to purchase the land. Although we have already raised nearly £6,000, we need to raise £6,000 more, hence our continued appeal.
At present, Jeyapaul has to rent a house with a large kitchen to provide cooking facilities, to which the boys come twice a day for a cooked meal (the girls are fed at the Grace Home). This can only be a temporary measure, due to the costs involved, the distance the boys have to walk, and the boys having to eat outdoors whatever the weather.
Firstly, we are asking people to 'buy' a square metre for £10. We encourage you to Gift Aid the donation, for every £10 raised we can clain £2.80. Everyone who does this will have their name added to a list of donors which, unless you wish to remain anonymous, we will then give to Jeyapaul.
If you would like to donate, please make your cheque payable to Bentworth PCC with Kathryn Mercy Home written on the back.
We are so grateful for your support in this venture. Interest in the project is growing all the time and we thank God for the way he is opening doors to new opportunities!
Please continue to remember Jeyapaul and his family in your prayers. To see their dedication to improving the prospects of the Dalit community is humbling, they do so much with so little!
Thank you so much for your generous donations to date.
We send you our love
Kathryn & Ben Flenley.
Related Links:
An Indian Summer
Letter From Devakottai
Mercy Home
Indian Priest To Visit The Benefice
The Parochial Church Council met on Wednesday, 22nd November. As well as the usual items of business, your PCC discussed the following:
Our next PCC meeting is on Wednesday, 17th January, 2007 and the next, joint, Benefice PCC meeting will be held on Tuesday, 20th February, 2007, both at 8.00pm in the Church Hall.
If you have any matters you would like discussed, please let our Secretary, Chris Tew, know.
Chris Tew
Related Links:
Organ Appeal
Vision Day
As part of the Benefice's Christmas celebrations we, once again this year, joined in with the excellent project Operation Christmas Child, run by Samaritan's Purse.
Samaritan's Purse's philosophy is to meet the critical needs of the victims of war, poverty, famine, disease and natural disaster while sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
In our Benefice churches and in our schools, we collected shoe boxes containing gifts for children in Eastern Europe.
The response was truly magnificent: the number of boxes donated rising from 83 last year to 185 this year!
This will make a significant difference to those children who will receive a present from us this year.
We are very grateful for your kindness and generosity.
Thank you very much.
Kathryn Flenley
November has become, in the Church's calendar, a month of remembrance. It begins with All Saints' Day (1st) and All Souls' Day (2nd) which, taken together, provide us with the opportunity to commemorate not just those who bear the formal title "Saint N" but all the people who have stood or stand for their faith in Jesus as Lord.
There's a story told how a young candidate, about to enter theological college to study for ordained ministry, asks for advice about how best to prepare. He is told, "Read the lives of the saints." That could sound remarkably dull. The Church of England, conscious that many, if not most, of us know little or nothing about the 'saints' we commemorate, published in 1997 a book entitled Exciting Holiness. It contains prayers for each person together with brief biographies.
Many of us have since been inspired by learning about the lives of, in many cases, remarkably ordinary people who just responded to circumstances in an exceptional way. All Souls' Day specifically encourages us to recall the people who have inspired us in our own journeys of faith: people for whom the formal title "Saint" will never be applied but who, nevertheless, seem like saints to us.
Which, in its own way, is what we remember on Armistice Day (11th) and Remembrance Sunday (this year, the 12th). In remembering, primarily, those who gave their lives in two World Wars, we recall other remarkably ordinary people who were caught up in exceptional circumstances and whose lives were lost, often in courageous acts of self-sacrifice, sometimes just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Each of the armed forces keeps the roll of its heroes; medals and decorations for gallantry are prominently displayed in their museums acting, in their own way, as does the Church's book Exciting Holiness: there to inspire future generations.
With even more urgency than normal, I would encourage you all to join in with Acts of Remembrance this year. Regardless of political arguments about present deployments of British personnel, today's young men and women find themselves 'in the front line' and deserve our prayers. Details of our observances will be found in the service schedule, along with much else, on this website and at the back of our parish magazine, The Villager.
The Royal British Legion, of which I have been a full member since the 1970s, has as much to do today as ever it did, so please support them by buying poppies again this year. It's not just about 'old fogies': young people continue to be added to the list of those who depend upon the Legion's help.
"Lest we forget". Sunday by Sunday at the Eucharist, Christians the world over recall the voluntary death of a young man.
At each celebration, we remember that Jesus died to win our freedom: freedom from acting as though there's no escape from our propensity to make a mess of things, freedom to embrace this life fully and be the people God has always wanted us to be, freedom to have "life in all its fullness" (John 10:10). This is why we come together and worship him.
Those who gave their lives deserve that we remember them. He who gave His life deserves our worship.
Ben Flenley
Comments? email Ben
A combined PCC meeting took place on Wednesday, 25th October in St. Andrew's Church Hall, to discuss items concerning the whole benefice, which included:
The next Benefice PCC meeting is on Wednesday, 7th February 2007, at 8.00pm in St. Andrew's Church Hall commencing at 8.00 pm. If you have any matters you would like discussed, please let our PCC Secretary, Chris Tew, know.
Related Links:
Child Protection Policy
Vision Day
Giving In Grace
Do you take Harvest for granted? It's so easy for us in a country like ours. Some of you will be keen growers of your own produce; all of us can buy the food we 'need' from limitless numbers of outlets, in season and out. We can source food from around the world and enjoy a diet far more varied than I grew up on in the 'Fifties and 'Sixties. In effect, whatever we want we can get.
Harvest Festival, specifically, gives us the chance to say 'thank you' that we have enough, but we so take for granted that we will have enough, I wonder just how deeply our gratitude is really felt.
Singing 'old favourite' hymns in a beautifully-decorated church, surrounded by the scents and smells of flowers, fruits and vegetables links us with a utopian vision of life, and may well bring to church people otherwise rarely seen. As John Betjeman put it:
But all the same it's strange to me
How very full the church can be
With people I don't see at all
Except at Harvest Festival.
Diary of a Church Mouse, 1954.
Do they - or we - come out of gratitude, or to recapture a romantic memory from childhood?
The contrast between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' could hardly have been more clearly drawn for me than during my recent visit to South India.
I began in Kerala, a lush, green, verdant state in the south-west corner; two monsoons a year provide plenty of water, crops grow freely and the State is one of the most prosperous in India. Adult literacy is high, wealth is created, unemployment is low.
Across the border is Tamil Nadu, in the south-east corner. Flat, barren and hot; only one monsoon a year, water in short supply and, for six months of the year, the water courses are empty, fields barren. The State is one of India's poorest, adult literacy rates are low, unemployment high. This is the State where our project, the Kathryn Mercy Home, is to be found.
The Almighty, in His wisdom, has created for us a planet which, year on year, produces enough for us all. How it must hurt Him, therefore, to see obesity in countries like ours becoming such a threat to so many while, at the same time, countless numbers of our neighbours still die for want of the basics.
He must grieve to wonder just how much longer it will take for us to wake up and show our gratitude, not once a year in church at Harvest Festival, but day by day in feeding His children.
Ben Flenley
Comments? email Ben
Our new Phoenix digital organ was delivered on Tuesday, 19th December and has now been installed, ready for its first use at our Christmas Eve services.
The organ plays a key part in the life of our church and community. It is used to lead the congregation in hymns, accompanies the choir and plays music before, during and after services. It is also used for occasions such as weddings, baptisms and funerals and village events such as concerts and recitals.
St. Andrew's needed to replace its existing Victorian organ in order to significantly enhance the quality of music at our church.
Many parts of the current organ were in a poor state and were failing. The best way forward was install a high quality, modern digital organ, whilst maintaining the aesthetic appeal of the existing organ.
Not only is this the most cost-effective solution for the church, it is also the best artistic solution.
The total cost of the project is anticipated to be £16,000, which will need to be raised by donations, grants and the church.
We have made a very good start, having raised around £8,000 so far, which has enabled us to place the order and install the organ.
However, we still need your help and support. We have already received sponsorship for 24 of the 30 organ stops available. If you wish to sponsor one of the remaining six, at £100 per stop, please contact Adrian.
You can also sponsor a stop or pledge a donation online, through our website.
Thank you to all those who have already made a commitment.
Adrian Barnes, Patrick Busby & Ian Jurd
Related Links:
Read more about our Organ Appeal
This year we held the following services and special events:
Sunday, 3rd December: Christingle, 11.00am.
A beautiful Christmas service especially for children, who each received a Christingle, to raise money for The Children's Society. The service also saw the start of Posada.
Sunday, 10th December: Family Toy Service, 11.00am.
Children were invited to bring along toys to donate to Social Services for distribution to local families in need at Christmas.
Thank you all, for your generosity: we were delighted with the response!
Tuesday, 12th December: Carols on the Village Green, 6.45pm.
Villagers gathered in the Hall for festive carols led by Ben, which included a beautiful soprano performance by Wendy Busby.
Amidst plentiful supplies of mulled wine and mince pies, the Village Christmas lights were formally switched on, we were entertained by children from Medstead School, and Father Christmas made an early guest appearance to distribute presents to village children!
Thanks to the Medstead Village Hall Committee for organising this event.
Sunday, 17th December: Nine Lessons and Carols, 6.00pm.
The Church was filled with over 150 parishoners who enjoyed the unfolding story of Jesus' birth and the singing of traditional carols, followed by mulled wine, mince pies and our Christmas raffle in the Church Hall.
Sunday, 24th December: Holy Communion, 8.00am.
Sunday, 24th December: Crib Service, 3.30pm.
The church was full to capacity, again, for our Christmas Eve family service. The figures of Mary, Joseph and the Donkey from our nativity display returned from their Posada journey through Medstead, and local children enthusiastically dressed up to participate in a delightful and touching nativity play.
The service was also the first opportunity hear our new organ in action, leading traditional carols and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!
Sunday, 24th December: Midnight Communion, 11.30pm.
Monday, 25th December: Christmas Communion, 11.00am.
Our 2006 Christmas card, containing details of our Christmas services and events, was delivered to 600 homes in Medstead.
The cover, by Jan Lenox of the Medstead Art Group, depicts our 2005 Christingle Service.
You may also download a copy, here.
Right click on the link, select "Save Target As..." to save the file to a local directory. The card is in Adobe pdf format, compressed using Winzip.
In an increasingly multi-everything society, can it really be said that all faiths are pathways towards a common end, or is each distinctive?
A course entitled The Uniqueness of our Faith will seek to answer just that very question.
Venues and Times:
Cottesmore, Five Ash Road, Medstead, on Wednesdays:
15th and 29th November,
6th, 13th and 20th December and
17th and 24th January.
Skule House, Lasham, on Tuesdays:
14th and 28th November,
5th, 12th and 19th December and
16th and 23rd January.
Both start at 8.00pm.
For more information please contact Ben or one of the Churchwardens.
The 2006 Parable of the Talents, which started on Easter Day, concluded on 30th November.
£1,485.51 was raised through this project, a vital part of our fund raising efforts.
Thank you to all who participated and contributed to this success.
Mary Spinks
Everyone enjoyed an excellent evening of outstanding music at our recital on Sunday, 26th November, to celebrate the festival of our Church's patron, Saint Andrew.
The recital included a virtuoso arrangement of Tschaikowsky's Nutcracker Suite for 2 pianos by Nicolas Economou and also works by Dvorak, Chopin, Liszt and Purcell.
Congratulations and thanks must go to Janet Beale, Patrick Busby and Wendy Busby, for such great musicianship and fine entertainment.
The recital was followed by a finger buffet and wine in the Church Hall.
Thank you also to all the helpers: page turners, programme, ticket and poster printer, food providers, wine dispensers, to name but a few.
The net profit, in aid of the organ appeal, will be about £1,000.
Thank you and well done to everyone involved.
After taking in Micheldever and Bentworth, the Flenley's short touring production on Ben's Sabbatical finally arrived in Medstead, on Friday, 24th November.
Ben gave a talk on his study of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and, following refreshments, Kathryn gave a first hand account of their visit to the Mercy Home. Both were well received by an appreciative audience.
If you missed the event, you may download a copy of Ben and Kathryn's presentations:
Kathryn Mercy Home, July 2006
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
Right click on the link, select "Save Target As..." to save the file to a local directory.
The presentations are in Adobe pdf format, compressed using Winzip.
Each file is between 1-2Mb in size.
Related Links:
Land Appeal
Yet again, our Jumble Sale, on Saturday, 11th November, proved to be extremely popular with bargain hunters, with £794 being raised for Church funds.
Many thanks to everyone for your co-operation and assistance, without which this excellent result would not have been achieved.
Kathryn and Ben Flenley held a Grand Bring and Buy Sale on Saturday, 28th October in Bentworth Village Hall in aid of the Kathryn Mercy Home, Devakottai.
This formed part of a fund raising effort, the proceeds of which will allow the Reverend Jeyapaul to buy a piece of land adjacent to the home to provide much needed cooking facilities.
Kathryn Flenley.
Charlie Shaylor has completed and passed his three year course to become a Lay Reader and was inducted during a service in Winchester Cathedral on Saturday, 7th October.
Our Benefice is now in the fortunate position of having three Readers: Kathryn Flenley, Carol Fuller and Charlie.
Charlie is already known to many, as he takes services in all our Churches and he will be a valuable addition to our pastoral team. Do support him, as he will be supporting us.
Related Links:
Christmas Message
The Church of England website has just been relaunched and is attracting around 140,000 visitors and four million hits every month.
New features include topical prayers, help for people researching their family history, a section for people planning weddings and an RSS news feed.
The site also plans to introduce podcasting and webstreaming. Visitors can already 'listen again' to General Synod debates.
Next year's communications training programme plans to include courses on blogging, social networking sites and website audits, to ensure Churches are making best use of the internet as a communications tool.
Katherine Palmer has been accepted by the Oasis Trust to join their Frontline Team in London, for 11 months starting in September. This is her second newsletter.
I have now been in London two months. At times I have found it difficult, especially the first month I was away. I have now settled in and am enjoying myself. The people I am living with in Norbury, south-west London, are really nice and I get on well with them. Soon, all the Frontliners will be moving into a group house in Brixton, which will cut my travelling time and mean I can travel with the others, more often.
My work for the church keeps me very busy. A typical week includes:
Every other Monday we have training which, so far, has covered christology, urban mission, boundaries, children's work and ecclesiology. I find all of these topics interesting, ecclesiology made me think the most and is the one I have got most out of.
On alternate Mondays, the group discussions on different topics are an opportunity to learn from each other, makes me think about what I believe and develops my understanding.
On Tuesday mornings I do jobs which need to be done, such as work on the advocacy project we are trying to set up, helping with the databases for the coffee shop run by the church, or just doing odd jobs.
In the afternoons, I normally do a shift in the coffee shop and I can now make many different coffee drinks, though I do not like them! Working in the coffee shop allows me to meet people who live and work in the area, as well as those who may need help.
Wednesdays are spent at a local primary school where I help in a year four class. I find this enjoyable though challenging at times, as some children can be difficult to work with.
After school I go back to church and help in the Children's club. I find this hard as I miss the set up while I am at school so when I arrive I do not know what I will be doing. In the evenings I attend a course in British Sign Language, which allows me to meet other people.
On Thursday mornings we have a prayer meeting followed by a church meeting. I also help at the mother and toddler group, Hullaballo, on a rota basis. In the afternoons we are planning and arranging a group for older members of the congregation, so they can meet during the week.
I have Fridays and Saturdays off so I spend these days catching up on the things I need to do, like washing and ironing and sleeping. I don't know how Mum does a full-time job, and looks after us all as well!
On Sunday, I go to church for Morning Service where we help, then I stay in London for the evening service.
Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, so far. However, I still need to raise more money to cover the cost of this year, so if you know anyone else who would be willing to sponsor me, or for more information, please email Katherine.
I must finish now or I will miss the train to Waterloo for the Morning Service.
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.
Katherine Palmer
Related Links:
Oasis Trust
It is with deep sadness we report Brigadier E G B Davies-Scourfield passed away, peacefully, on Monday, 20th November 2006.
A private, family, cremation took place on Thursday, 30th November. A memorial service will be held in the new year, to which all will be welcome.
Our prayers and thoughts are with his wife, Diana, and their family at this time. We offer our sincere condolences and give thanks for a life well lived and for Gris' strong and unshakeable faith.
May light perpetual shine upon him.
Related Links:
Appreciation
Obituary: Daily Telegraph
Obituary: The Times
Hazel Rowe has served us for 20 years as Sacristan and now seeks a well-earned rest.
If you would be interested in taking on this invaluable behind-the-scenes role, responsible for the communion bread and wine and linen used at our services, then please contact a Churchwarden.
To advertise here please contact Andrew.
To advertise in the Pewsheet please contact Chris.