The Benefice of St. Bartholomew

Benefice News - 17th September 2021

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Written by Tony Gowers

Church News

A copy of this week’s Church News can be found here. In addition to news, the document gives full details of all of our services this coming Sunday and on the following Sunday. Do join in with everything that appeals to you.

Sunday 19th September 2021 - Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

There are five services planned for Sunday 19th September that will all be held in church, with two of these also streamed over the Internet using Zoom. Details are shown in the right hand margin of this webpage and on the Benefice calendar here. The service sheet for the Family Communion to be held at St John's Church, Charlton, at 11.00 am can be printed and/or downloaded here.

If you are not able to attend church in person and wish to join an online Eucharist, Salisbury Cathedral is live streaming the 11.00 am service at this link: https://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/live

Churches Opening During the Week

Some of our church buildings will be open at specified times throughout the coming week. Details of the opening days and times for each church are shown below:

• St Andrew’s Church, Donhead St Andrew: Tuesday and Friday: 10.00 am to 4.00 pm
• St Mary's Church, East Knoyle: Monday to Saturday: 10.00 am to 6.00 pm
• St Leonard’s Church, Semley: Monday to Saturday: 10.00 am to 6.00 pm
• St Mary's Church, Donhead St Mary: Monday to Saturday: 10.00 am to 6.00 pm

These details may change as we gain experience of our ‘new normal’, so please check this page from week to week for the latest information.

Zoom

With many services now being held in our churches on Sundays and some being ‘Zoomed’ at the same time, we require more than one ‘Zoom room' to enable us to Zoom two services from different churches simultaneously. Details of each ‘Zoom room' are shown below.

Important: please ensure that you check in the right hand margin of the this page the Zoom details of the service in which you wish to participate before joining the service.

Zoom 2

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84985924593?pwd=em4zQ1Q2YkdrdTRuanhYY0lOejZQUT09
Meeting ID: 849 8592 4593      Passcode: 519527

Zoom 3

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85640073075?pwd=akd0WTVKUHpSeDFhZ1NrM1NrTHZKQT09
Meeting ID: 856 4007 3075    Passcode: 2020

Zoom 4

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2872955220?pwd=NTN5OHE0anVTRmNwYmpUVHdoSWI3QT09
Meeting ID: 287 295 5220      Passcode: 175430

Zoom 5

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3341879558
Meeting ID: 334 187 9558       Passcode: 345123

You can also participate by dialling in by telephone to one of these phone numbers: 0203 481 5237 or 0203 481 5240.

Click here for more guidance on how to join a Zoom meeting.

From the Associate Priest - September 2021

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Written by The Rev'd June Lane

Dear Friends,

September is such a full and busy month. As a teacher I always looked forward to September with a mix of joy and trepidation. Each new academic year brought its inevitable changes - pupils, both those one enjoyed and those ones did not so much, will have left and a whole raft a newbies enter the portals of their first "Big" school, all needing to be met and absorbed into their new school family.

In church we have the joy of Harvest Festivals and Suppers to look forward to an especially important time in our rural villages and this year we, of the St Bartholomew Benefice, are all eagerly awaiting the Installation of our new Rector, Kate, on the first of the month! It will be quite a challenge for Kate as she moves her whole family and life many miles across country to make her home here. A new job, a new home, new schools for the boys, a new life as Rector of the Benefice, much to take on all at once. It will also be a new experience for us as Kate will be our first female Rector, and I am sure she will bring much joy as she joins us.

September, in so many ways, is a time of new beginnings. It was at September time back in 2008, that we first accepted that we should finally actually become the long promised Benefice of St Bartholomew, and we made preparations for the joining together of what we often refer to as the Northern and Southern halves of the Benefice. It all seems now so natural, it is as if we had always been together. It was also a September, 2002, that I was ordained Deacon in Salisbury Cathedral, becoming the first female curate appointed to the Benefice, and then in September 2003 we had that lovely Service in East Knoyle Parish church when I was ordained priest by Bishop Peter Hullah, so beginning a period of happy ministry which thankfully continues today.

Back to Kate and her coming among us. Many of you, covid regs allowing, will be at her Installation in Semley parish Church on the 1st and many more, I trust, at her first Service as she celebrates her first Holy Communion at the Benefice Service at East Knoyle on the 5th Sept. I know you will welcome her as you have welcomed me, that you will all make her feel thoroughly at home and welcome, and I look forward to this September, as so many others before, to being the start of a truly exciting and rewarding journey.

Finally, I just want to say a very sincere and heartfelt "Thank You" to everyone who has worked so hard and tirelessly throughout this whole Interregnum, from the churchwardens to every person who has helped quietly in the background, your work has always been appreciated. Thank You and God Bless you all.

June

Prayer Cycle and Prayer of the Month - September 2021

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Written by The Rev'd June Lane

We continue to pray as usual so please do keep your requests and news coming. Contact any of us: Rev’d June (tel: 01747 828427), Julia (tel: 01747 829166), or Theresa (tel: 01747 829188).

In view of the terrible situation in Afghanistan and the difficulties around the world caused by climate change, we have so much to be thankful for at this Harvest Season. This month's prayer reminds us to remember those who are suffering deprivation.

This month's Prayer of the Month is by Lilian Cox:

We dare not ask you bless our harvest feast
Till it is spread for poorest and for least.
We dare not bring our harvest gifts to you
Unless our hungry brothers share them too.

Not only at this time Lord' every day
Those whom you love are dying while we pray.
Teach us to do with less and so to share
From our abundance, more than we can spare.

Now with this harvest plenty round us piled,
Show us the Christ in every starving child.
Speak, as you spoke of old in Galilee,
"You feed, or you refuse, not them but me!"
Amen.