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The Forerunner

Calendar for January 2003

Diocesan Internet News Site www.glosdioc.org.uk

Forerunner Internet Site www.geocities.com/forerunneruk/

Dear Friends,

At this time of year it seems that most people are agonising over the Christmas gifts for their families and friends - I am always amazed at the amounts people spend to give presents. In my childhood, one big present and a few practical gifts - slippers, socks, hankies - and a few bits and bobs to fill the stocking were as much as we would expect. Because we didn’t expect much, the presents we did receive were all the more special !

Today it seems that often within weeks (days ?!) of Christmas, the gifts that have been carefully chosen at great expense are worn out, brocken or thrown aside: sometimes children spend more time playing with the packaging than the gift inside !

Could it be as our lives become more and more frantic - despite the fact that we live in an age when there is more leisure time and ‘labour saving’ devices than ever before - that we try to buy our way out of the time that we have meant to spend with our families and loved ones ? I believe that the best gift anyone can give to another person, no matter what age, is friendship, time and love. One of the best reminders that we can give each other is one of my favourites from A Wayside Pulpit - ‘The best gift is love’.

I believe we all have much to look forward to in this newly united Benefice in this New Year ! Let us look at all that we do through the eyes of Christ. Let us consider how all that we do will be for His greater glory in this place. Let us all find ways in which we can encourage each other, drop into each other’s services, and discover new ways to worship and share. Let us all make a resolution to give more time, friendship and , yes, love to those around us. In this we would follow Christ who is THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT MONEY CANNOT BUY.

Thank you once again for supporting the church with your flower arrangements, which make it feel welcoming and cared for. I have pinned up a list for the new year on the board inside the church, but there may be changes at Harvest time so please do check the dates in the Forerunner if you know your turn is due in October.

Jan 5th, 12th and 19th Mrs C Hatherell

Jan 26th and Feb 2nd Mrs J Bateman

Feb 9th and 16th Mrs W Ingram

NB: If you require to re-use your materials elsewhere, please remove them shortly before the change-over date. Otherwise they will be disposed of or still good flowers re-used by the next arranger. Dead or dying flowers left in the church look sad and unattractive. Personal flower containers should also be collected promptly to avoid loss and disappointment. Obviously the PCC cannot protect your property in the church whist it is open.

Jo Spash

Early in January we will deliver a questionnaire to find out parents’ and children’s preferences for Sunday Club meetings. (The number and length of meetings as well as the preferred activities). We will let you know the results in next month’s Forerunner.

Thank you to all of the children who took part in the Christingle service and the Festival of Carols in December.

Altar Guild

We will meet in the church at 2.30 pm on Wednesday 15th January for a cleaning session.

We all enjoyed our Christmas meal at ‘The Old Crown’ Pagan Hill, Stroud - a lovely old-fashioned pub with low beamed ceilings and a real log fire.

Our next meeting will be held at the home of Jane Bateman on Tuesday 28th January at 7.30 pm, when we will have a poetry evening and also discuss plans for 2003. So, everyone, bring along a favourite poem !

Vida Sutton

Collections in the parish, which were sent to the Royal British Legion, totalled £657-27. We thank all who contributed to this wonderful achievement.

As many of you will know, Kathleen Windham, a village resident for many years, died suddenly in December. Flowers were sent on behalf of the parish and as a result of generous contributions by the community a donation of £40 was given to the residential care centre which is the home of Penny one of her daughters.

Sue Bradley-Jones

The village Hall needs a spring clean ! We will be cleaning up on Saturday 25th January from 10.00 am, and any enthusiastic volunteers will be very welcome.

It is proposed that a record be compiled of personal memories of our parish church life during the second half of the 20th century, i.e. from the end of WWII to the end of the millennium. I would be prepared to edit this, but it would be nice if someone else would offer to do it. Individuals could submit paragraphs or individual statements on relevant topics and a narrative be prepared by a process of circulating preliminary drafts for comment. Possible themes could include:

Clergy sequence Newington Bagpath The Vicarage

The Choir The organ The heating

Sunday school Mothers Union British Legion

Service patterns Festivals Horsley link

PCC officers Organists Wight charities

Church contents Churchyard Fabric repairs

etc.

The Mobile Police Station will visit Kingscote between 1.30 and 2.00 pm on Wednesday 8th and Sunday 19th January. Please give them your support.

The Post Office is open on every normal working Tuesday and Thursday :

from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm and from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm.

Mobile Library

The mobile library will be by The Walled Garden from 9.40 am to 9.55 am on Thursdays 9th and 23rd Jan.

The boxes will be emptied as follows:

Newington and Bagpath - Mon. 7th and 20th Jan.

Kingscote - Tues. 8th and 21st Jan.

Surplus mobile phones and their batteries are taken for recycling by Red Cross shops (call 0800 015 3576 for details).

Magazine
Material for the next issue of the Forerunner please by 20th January to H. Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Tel. 860 194, e-mail: .

The Diary of a Cotswold Parson - Rev F E Witts

1783 - 1854, Edited by David Verey, Sutton Publishing.

The Rev Witts was Rector of Upper Slaughter and a magistrate in Gloucester. His diaries give a fascinating insight into life in Gloucestershire at that time.

Drove Margaret to Daylesford to call on our old friends Winter and Marie (Chapuset) in their new character of man and wife. The lady was at home. Winter came in from hunting, alas ! that the clergy should persist in the practise !

Went to the Tolsey (in Gloucester) to attend the second general meeting of the subscribers to the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Church Building Association, as relates to the archdeaconry of Gloucester. The Bishop took the chair. It appears that about £13,000 have been subscribed by the whole Diocese, of which the clergy have subscribed about £4,000. Various churches to be built, or enlarged, have been promised aid from the Society, among them the enlargement of Horsley has been decided on. A church is to be built in the parish of Leckhampton, another contiguous to Gloucester in the parish of Hempstead, which will be of great service to the population rapidly accumulating about the docks. Lyson is to be minister, which will enable him to live in his own mansion at Hempstead, and to be non-resident at Rodmarton the climate of which he considers to be prejudicial to his health.

A church in the populous part of Stroud is likely to be erected. The prospect is not so certain of a church being built at Purton, a hamlet of Berkeley, Lord Segrave being opposed. The Bishop urged the claims of the association earnestly and at considerable length; but he is a hesitating public speaker, not very effective. The best speech was by Powell, incumbent of Stroud, an able man and pleasing orator, who dilated on the small amounts of subscriptions as compared with the opulence of the diocese, and on the importance of an endowment fund, without which the building of churches was only a one-sided labour of love. The Bishop, in reply, argued that if it were necessary to wait till endowments were ready, the good work must be postponed indefinitely.

Proceeds to be shared by Village Church and Maheo Centre.

Parish Directory as of January 2003

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