STAR NEWS
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S T A M F O R D U N I T E D R E F O R M E D C H U R C H S T A R L A N E P E 9 1 P H |
J U L Y
Dear Friends,
This is the time of year I have been to the Synod Ministers’ Summer School, which is usually in mid-June. We were at the Hayes Christian Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire, a lovely place, made even better with good weather. The roses were glorious, not very visible in the above picture, but take my word for it. As the verse says above, it is a place where people can go apart and rest a while, something we all need in our lives.
But the Summer School isn’t all rest - most of the time is accounted for, with one free afternoon and optional workshops and evening activities. We had morning and evening worship, 5 main study sessions and a few other things fitted in as well. The worship was very well led by retired Minister Rev’d Robert Bushby with readings and stories from the Open Doors charity who help the persecuted Church.
The theme this year was ‘Holy Anarchy’. What does that mean, you might say? So did we! It was led by a tutor from Northern College, Rev’d Dr Graham Adams, and was based on a book he wrote of the same name. It was about undoing human power and control in our churches, being community in how we live with each other, and loving strangeness, not just strangers.
It was interesting to listen and discuss in groups how it the theme applies to our own churches, to worship and to mission. I particularly liked a thought that was put forward of fostering child-likeness in our worship, a sense of curiosity and trust in each other and in God.
We do so often complicate our faith. As mature adults, we approach it with all our powers of thinking and reasoning. Sometimes we base it on what we’ve always known, not always able to see things in a way that others might, so losing that enquiring nature of a child.
I wonder what it would be like to get back to a child-like way of thinking, to a trust in God that accepts and believes and yet has the curiosity to explore further and to learn more. It might seem in contrast to the verse at the beginning of this piece. Yet, being child-like means we, like children, need that rest between the times of activity, and rest in the presence of a loving Lord.
I pray we all have times for both as we enjoy the next two months of the summer.
With love in Christ, Clare
July Services
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Date |
Minister |
Organist |
Duty Elder |
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6th July |
Rev’d. David Hughes |
David Lovell-Brown |
Anne |
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13th July |
Geoff Milnes Communion |
John Hall |
Pam & Thad |
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20th July |
Sue Macey |
Ann Llowarch |
Mike |
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27th July |
Rev’d. Clare Davison |
Ann Llowarch |
Frankie |
All services commence at 10.30am unless otherwise stated.
Notes to Services
Flower Rota
6th July George Lilley
13th July Pat Morris
20th July Helen Smith
27th July Anne Thompson
Resource Area News
Do join us if you can for the weekly Zoom prayer meeting, every Thursday at 7pm. The focus, as always, is the mission of our churches in the Resource Area. If you’re unable to join in, please find time to pray in the week. The following can be used as a guide.
This month, please pray for the group getting together to re-do the application for a Synod grant. Pray also for all the groups that use the hall, and for the Elders.
For our Resource Area churches, please pray:
~ for St Andrew’s, pray for their Community Fun Day on 19th July, for all who are organising it and that many will come. Pray also for their Church BBQ on 13th July
~ for Spalding, for their Friendship Afternoon Strawberry Tea on 1st July and for the fortnightly walking group
~ for Westgate New Church and Whittlesey as decisions are made over future ministry.
Thanks, Clare
Kenya Fundraising Event
A big thank you to all those who came for the day and contributed in any way. So far,
we’ve raised £201. Clare
From Lisa: If anyone else would like to donate towards the football project Clare is supporting in Kenya on her sabbatical, a box will be at coffee on Sunday. If you won’t be at church, but would still like to contribute, please let Lisa know asap.
Report of Kenya Car Treasure Hunt Saturday 21st June.
Anne, Lisa & I drove to the Church of St. Peter in Maxey to meet up with several groups who were taking part in the event. We were given a briefing by Nikki, who had organised the event, a copy of an OS map covering the area and a sheet of questions to answer - which could only be answered by visiting each church.
The first question was in Maxey church and then came the first surprise – they have bats roosting in the tower of the church!
Nikki had cleverly asked each group to go to a different first church so no tail-gating could be done and our first stop was St. John The Baptist Church at Baston, where as well as volunteers tidying up the garden, there was a knitting group meeting in the church.
A short trip to St. Michael’s in Langtoft was our next destination, which although it was closed as expected, yielded the two answers we needed after some careful observations.
And then we were off to West Deeping’s St. Andrew’s church, which was well hidden off a side road and then came the first slightly cryptic question – luckily Anne was able to think laterally so we bagged that answer. Meanwhile Lisa saw her highlight of the afternoon – three young cygnets in the pond opposite.
From there we thought it would be a quick trip down to Helpston…one diversion and a very long wait at ‘the other’ level crossing in Helpston (who knew there were two of them?!) later, we parked near St. Botolph’s. We noted they were having a grand reopening weekend the following week, as the church had been refurbished inside. One of the questions was the first of two about local poet John Clare – complete his quote, “A poet is born, not …?”.
We then crossed the well-known level crossing in Helpston and turned left towards the village of Eton – hands up, I’d never heard of Eton before then! St. Stephen’s church was another lovely church, which featured a poster from the First World War I’d never seen before… :
… alas several of the names on the poster also featured on a plaque in the church who never made it back. Their digital donation box was one of several we saw inside most of the churches we visited – a modern and well-presented way of asking for one-off donations from curious visitors, which is a great idea don’t you think…
From there it was a short trip to Glinton (well it should have been if I’d used the map properly!), so we went via Peakirk instead to visit St. Pega’s church (again well tucked away). It took a while to answer the question about the stained-glass window (I can’t read questions properly as well as maps apparently!)
Then back to Glinton for St. Benedict’s church, where we saw my highlight of the afternoon on the door:
We then went via a petrol station to St. Bartholomew’s Church in Newborough and another slightly cryptic question to finish off the quiz, and then headed to St. Andrew’s for well-deserved tea and cakes, find out who’d won and a raffle. Great fun was had by all and a good amount of money was raised too. Special thanks to Nikki & Kevin who spent time doing the research putting the quiz together – top job!
So 9 lovely churches visited, each with their own character, in 9 lovely villages. We’d passed 3 Blue Bells (in Maxey, Helpston and Glinton), a Golden Pheasant (Eton) and several other hostelries on the way – the point being we passed them! So I think retracing our steps and sampling the local hospitality is called for at some point!
If anyone is interested in visiting the churches, we have a copy of the questions, so please get in touch.
Church Meeting on 22nd June
It was great to see a good turnout for the recent Church meeting, which Clare chaired for the first time. Several important topics were discussed, including the Hall Renovation Project. Another was the subject of Churches Together in Stamford, and how important it is that we try to keep a voice on that group.
Update on Hall Renovation Project.
The Hall Renovation group of Sue, Mike, Lisa and Glynn met last week to gather our ideas on what we need to do to provide more detail for our renewed application to the Synod Trust Committee, in time for their early October meeting. We have scheduled two more meetings before then so we can keep on track to meet the required deadline.
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Quote of the month:
“The best way to avoid a bad action is by doing a good one, for there is no difficulty in the world like that of trying to do nothing.”
John Clare. |
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MINISTER |
COULD ANY ITEMS FOR THE AUGUST EDITION PLEASE REACH GLYNN BY JULY 21st AT: |
HALL LETTINGS |
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REVD. CLARE DAVISON |
MRS. SUE SAMUELS |
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revclare.urc2004@gmail.com |
urcstarnews@gmail.com |
sues25@outlook.com |
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01733 260164 07476 958269 |
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07428 820671 |
WE HOPE EVERYONE IS STAYING SAFE, WELL AND HAPPY