The Benefice of St. Bartholomew

From the Rector - July 2019 Placements

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Written by The Rev'd Richard Warhurst

The Diocese uses July for doing rural placements, so The Rev’d Kevin will be attached to a parish in Dorset for much of this time. For this reason, there will not be Morning Prayer or Saturday Eucharist at Donhead St Andrew during July 2019.

This year, the Diocese has invited ordinands training at Cuddesdon Theological College, Oxfordshire, to do placements. We are pleased to welcome George Meyrick with us for two weeks from Lammas Sunday which this year is also Rural Mission Sunday.

From the Rectory - July 2019

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Written by Anna Warhurst

Last year, I took on the role of planning and co-ordinating Children’s Activity Week alongside a small team of helpers. This was quite a task, following on from an established team with 20 years of Children’s Activity Week under their belt!

We made some changes to the format (running it over 5 days instead of 4, offering a breakfast club and an overnight camp in The Rectory garden!) and it was a huge success!

Dates this year are Monday 29th July to Friday 2nd August 2019, and application forms are available by telephoning 01747 830174. Alternatively, you can request an application form from me by email by clicking here, and when the new window opens, click on the 'Contact Form' tab to send your message.

We have chosen an eco-theme, partly after considering that our Diocese is the first to be granted Eco Diocese Status! There will be lots of fun activities, including an over-night camp and family BBQ! Please do share this with any families that you think may be interested.

In a time where the Church of England has seen a decline in attendance, this is three times as pronounced among children, so our outreach becomes more vital, yet it feels to go often unnoticed.

“The average attendance by children, defined as being under 16, fell by 24 per cent in our Diocese between 2012 and 2017, compared with an 8-per-cent fall among adults” (Statistics, 2018)

Here are some of our stats:

• Children’s Activity Week 2018 involved over 30 families from across the Benefice
• Messy Church - held in Semley School Hall each month during term time - has up to 25 children in attendance
• We offer tea & coffee once a month at Semley Church - predominantly for those on the school run (although anyone is of course welcome!) which saw 18 children having fun exploring the Church while 16 adults (eventually) relaxed, letting their children run free while they enjoyed a cuppa!
• We also have our re-launched Baby & Toddler Group in East Knoyle Church on the Ist Thursday of each month
• There’s KidzClub at Charlton Church on the 3rd Tuesday of the month
• Open the Book in our schools
• The Easter Experience
• Assemblies... not just at Semley and Ludwell, but Hindon too...
• Regular visits to St Mary’s School, including preparing the students for confirmation

WOW - don’t we do a huge amount!

So here comes the plea for help! It is all too often the same people that volunteer for these groups ... please can you consider whether you can support us? You don’t have to lead anything in particular - just manning the refreshments would be fabulous!

We would love the families and children from the Benefice to know that our Benefice is a community of faith. They matter and they don’t need to wait until they can believe, pray or worship a certain way to be welcome. It matters that our families and children are an integral part of our Church and that their prayers, songs, and even their badly (or perfectly-timed, depending on who you ask) cries and whines are a joyful noise because it means they are present.

Anna Warhurst

Baptism Welcome !

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Written by The Rev'd June Lane

Sometimes it is easy to forget that when we Baptise anyone we are welcoming them into our Church Family. On 16 June 2019, at St. John's Church, we did just that. A young Portuguese family live near to the church and some weeks ago they came to a service there and afterwards they asked if their new son could be Baptised in the church. After talks and visits, surmounting the language barrier and getting to know them, the Baptism of William Ulisses Marques Solipa was duly arranged.

From our visits, we really expected just a small gathering of family as their relatives seemed scattered to various parts of the UK. However, and to our joyful surprise, a much larger group of the family arrived, complete with the most splendiferous cake for all to enjoy with our tea or coffee. Within minutes the church was full of happily mingling English and Portuguese voices as the welcoming tea, coffee and cake was consumed.

The Family had chosen two hymns as part of the Service - a Family Eucharist - and they all took part, many of their youngish children already being full communicants of the Church. A young member of the congregation presented William with the Baptismal Candle whilst William's older sister presented him with a Candle which the family had obtained especially from Portugal. The Churchwarden also presented William with a Bible which had been bought by the congregation of St. John's. During the final hymn, the Candle bearers led William and his immediate family through the congregation to the back of the Church.

Our Tea and Coffee Team of the day volunteered to make coffee again at the end of the Service as the beautiful, and very large, cake, had not been half consumed. Again the whole Baptismal Family stayed to share in the Fellowship.

It was an occasion of total joy and love so that at the end everyone left feeling positive and happy. Despite the fact that I had started the day feeling tired and the fact that we were in church for almost three hours in total, I left feeling so happy and full of the love and joy of Our Lord. I just want to say a public ‘Thank You’ to everyone who helped to make it such a wonderful occasion.

June Lane

Prayer Cycle and Prayer of the Month - July 2019

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Written by The Rev'd June Lane

Prayer requests and Thank You's as usual to Julia (tel: 01747 829166), The Rev’d June (tel: 01747 828427), Theresa (tel: 01747 829188), or The Rev’d Richard (tel: 01747 830174).

Prayer of the Month

This Prayer is based on an old Scottish Prayer, author unknown, but it rather suits the current feelings about how we use our Planet.

Lord of all mercy and goodness,
We promise not to forget to be grateful
for all the wonderful benefits you have given us.
We are reminded this day and every day
by the beauty around us, the wonders of the earth,
that you care for us, your creation.
Help us to realise this,
we ask in the Name of Our Lord Jesus.
Amen.