‘Taking stock’

THE SUMMER MONTHS are often a good time to ‘take stock’. I began the process of reflection – ‘taking stock’ – during my recent retreat, which I spent at Burford Priory. What is particularly on my mind at the moment is the change in our clergy team, with the dawning realisation that by the end of the summer I will be the only full-time priest in the Prestbury and All Saints’ Team Ministry!

There will be plenty of opportunities to embarrass Fr Grant when we say our goodbyes to him, to Chris and the family, later in July. I shall miss him enormously and am very grateful for his loyal support, his friendship and for the many times when we have discussed things together and I have benefited from his wise reflection. Fr Grant has also been a great ‘doer’; taking things on and bringing considerable talent to so many areas of parish life. We have much to thank him for!

In the autumn we will re-advertise the Team Vicar post which we were not able to fill. Also, I anticipate that at some point (hopefully before Christmas) the Scheme will go through creating the new North Cheltenham Team Ministry. Then I will be joined by other colleagues and of course by Fr Stephen Eldridge who will be another ‘full-timer’!

I am very grateful for the ministry of Fr Paul, Fr Peter and Andy Macauly and also the retired clergy who give so much of their time; we are very blessed! But I am also very aware of all those who work away in so many different roles within our parishes. This is what ‘lay ministry’ is all about. We can identify so much of it and at the same time know that there is a great deal of ministry which goes on that we are unaware of. Thank you all for your ministry!

As I look to the immediate future I know that I am going to have to very carefully use my time; I’m aware that I can’t do everything! I know that you will understand if I don’t attend every meeting or every coffee morning and I also know that you will understand that I won’t personally be able to give pastoral care to everyone. But then I know that many other people are sharing that ministry with me, and their ministry is every bit as valid as mine! My retreat also reminded me of how vital prayer is. We are praying communities and we should see that as our major resource, especially as we continue through this time of transition. This is a ministry in which every single one of us can share, so please pray regularly for our parishes, for the new Team Ministry and for the work God wants us to do in this part of His world.

Fr Michael

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The Parables – Activity Day

On Saturday 14th July from 9:30 the children’s team will yet again be hosting another of their successful activity days in St Nicolas’ Church and Hall. As always many months of planning go into these days and we look forward to welcoming all those who will be joining us on the day. There will be a variety of activities on offer including the usual ‘messy’ ones.

If you have half an hour to spare at 3pm in the afternoon do please feel free to come and join us for our closing worship and witness for yourself the atmosphere these events evoke. Please also take time to look around all our Churches on the 15th as you will have the opportunity to admire the wide range of objects the children will have made.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me for any further information.

Linda Biggs

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‘Music for Malcolm’

Malcolm McKelvey was Director of Music in Prestbury parish from 1989 to 2003 and this series of concerts in his memory is to raise money for work on St Mary’s organ.

On Friday 20th July in St Mary’s church Charles Hazlewood will be recording a programme in his BBC Radio 3 series ‘Discovering Music’. There is no charge but tickets are required. Please telephone the Parish Office on 244373 if you would like to come and we will order the tickets from the BBC.
The orchestra, Excellent Device, will play arrangements by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern of four waltzes by Johann Strauss the younger: Kaiser Waltz; Roses from the South; Wine, Women and Song and The Treasure Waltz. The concert starts at 6pm, but please be in your seats by 5.45pm. All are welcome, and there will be a retiring collection for St Mary’s organ fund.

Further concerts, all in St Mary’s, are as follows:
Saturday 22nd September 7.30pm (Christine McKelvey)
Saturday 13th October 7.30pm (The St Cecilia Singers)
Wednesday 7th November 11am (Peter Greaves).

Christine McKelvey

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Bzzzzzz

A swarm of bees appeared in St Mary’s churchyard recently (8th June). They had left their hive somewhere and landed in a tree. They hang there in a swarm while they send out scouts to find a new home. Beekeepers love to find a swarm at this time of the year because they can shake them off the tree (brave people!) and take them home and give them a clean wooden hive where they will make their honey and the beekeeper can have some of it!

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay,
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon,
A swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly!

Ken Bradbury

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St Mary’s Churchyard

Following on from the success of filling the skip with the contents of the ‘heap’, we really do need two new members to join the Grass Mowers. It’s a very friendly arrangement, with each person having their own section of the churchyard to mow. There are twelve sections, so it’s not a huge area each, and mowing can be done whenever you wish. Usually an hour a fortnight is enough and mowing machines and strimmers are provided. It’s really quite a pleasant task and very necessary as part of keeping our village tidy.
If you are interested, please see or phone me.

Ken Bradbury

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The House of Laity

On being appointed a lay representative to the Diocesan Synod, I was surprised to receive the minutes of a meeting described as “the House of Laity” and an invitation to their next meeting. My response to this was bewilderment. However the account soon reassured me.

The object of the House of Laity – made up of the non-ecclesiastical members of the synod – was to more fully inform members from parishes on the matters to be discussed at the next Synod so we could understand and offer constructive thoughts and opinions instead of attending in a state of dumb inertia! The sole aim is to help parishes to understand and take a more active part in the life of the Diocese. It is heartening to know that the “Powers-that-be” do value our feelings (I hope!).

The first and main item on the agenda was finance. We had all previously received the annual report of the Diocesan finance committee. The news is that the Diocese of Gloucester is nearer balancing their accounts than at any year for a long while. One of the biggest helps was the payment of Parish

Quotas on time by using direct debiting. Due to the good accounting and house keeping of our former and current treasurers we have never defaulted in this. All Gill Wood’s hard work and nail-biting is definitely appreciated but apparently a number of parishes don’t work the same way.

A massive re-organisation is taking place to run our financial affairs in a straight-forward way using the most modern big business techniques enabling us to spread our funds as far as possible. Rapid Response is the aim in future to resolve matters before they become too complicated. I rather liked the sound of that.

Another topic in the forefront at present is youth ministry. A major effort to increase contact with young people is going on. Painswick parish has a Christians-in-Sport scheme running with the local sports coach who is also a Youth Minister – akin to our Andy Macauly. This is a different angle from Prestbury and Pittville Youth perhaps but very interesting.

The congregation of Painswick asked themselves, “Where have all the young ones gone?” and the answer was blatantly obvious: “Painswick Rugby Football Club on a Sunday morning”, hence the decision to have a trained youth minister who is also a sports coach working with them. Although the young people are still not in church, many of them are actively discovering and enjoying the Christian faith in other ways and places.

I felt very proud when I realised that the work done in our parish does put us at the frontier of Diocesan Youth Work. Thank you all who are so committed to this.

Amidst a lot of more technical talk the final interesting topic was comments on the Easter Experience. Everybody had something good to say – along with the expected first time mistakes but other dioceses were impressed enough to ask if they can use Gloucester ideas themselves next year.

It was in this general discussion which moved on naturally to prayer mazes and Easter eggs, that the “Open the Book” work in schools was brought up. When asked for my experience I mentioned that it was a Palm Sunday procession ending in a Big Breakfast Party in school that had triggered the birth, ultimately, of Celebrate!. The idea of putting a very modern form of worship between two very traditional services each week was quite literally a show stopper, a new congregation, to a large extent, plus Sunday Club, plus the youth clubs, plus Prestbury and Pittville Youth project to which we add our various weekday service, and Mothers’ Union, we have so much to be grateful for. I know so much more is needed to make us grow far further for all age groups but I came home feeling, dare I say it, excited?

The thought of sitting through a diocesan synod isn’t daunting any more. I’m still a very green recruit but I think it is going to be a worthwhile experience. Things are happening, the Church of England is trying hard to adapt to the 21st century.

Lynda Hodges

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Farewell to Fr Grant and family

Please join us on Sunday 22nd July from 12.30pm on the school playing field (behind St.Mary’s Infant School in Bouncers Lane). Bring your own picnic and something to sit on – there are lots of shady areas! Also, please bring a bottle of something to share. During the afternoon there will be some organised games on the field as well as some informal worship and a chance to say ‘thank you and farewell’ to Fr Grant, Chris, Bethany and Sarah. This is a Team-wide social occasion! Please speak to one of the Wardens if you’d like directions, or if you would like transport to be arranged for you.

Please place contributions for a leaving gift for Fr Grant in a clearly marked envelope in the collection plates or hand to a Warden.

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Snippets from the Tower

The wedding season is well underway!

The Central Council of Church Bellringers held their AGM in Cheltenham this year. Many experienced ringers from all over the country came to ring with us for the 11 o’clock service on Whitsunday. There was standing room only in the Tower! In the evening four members of the Council joined four local ringers in ringing a quarter peal of Plain Bob Major.

We are always pleased to welcome ringers to the tower who may be visiting the area for their summer holidays.

Jenni Scruton

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Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust Sponsored Ride or Walk

This year the ride will be on Saturday 8th September. The idea is to raise as much money as possible to help look after the church buildings in our county. This is done by keen cyclists or walkers visiting as many places of worship as possible in a given time on that Saturday. They should arrange for their travels to be sponsored by many people. Half the money raised is given to the Trust. The participants each choose to which church their other half is given.

In 2005 All Saints’ church was awarded £10,000 towards the renovation of their roof.

Once again we are calling on you to help. You could be one of those who have a strenuous day out and deserve to collect the sponsorship money. If you are less active perhaps you could generously sponsor someone who asks you. Another useful role is to be in church to welcome any visitors to our parish. Please help in any way you can.

Sponsorship forms may be obtained from Bob Lyle at St Mary’s or Nigel Woodcock at St Nicolas’.

Brian Wood

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Cat and Mouse by Jennifer A, aged 9 (reproduced from the May 1999 edition of the Prestbury Parish Magazine)

Webmaster’s Corner

 or, While the cat’s away…

By the time you read this Frances, your usual editor, will have returned from a holiday to see the midnight sun. She left me in charge to put the magazine to bed. To be fair, Frances had done most of the hard work of asking people to write things. All I needed to do was gather up the articles that arrive on paper or by email and put them together into an attractive magazine. It sounded easy so I readily agreed.

The illustration is not entirely a pun on the title. The first edition of the magazine to appear on the Internet was that of May 1999, some eight years ago. It’s still there, although not in the obvious place. Much of the magazine is reproduced and placed on the world wide web each month. People away from Prestbury can have a look and keep up with our news. Moreover you can have a look and see the photographs in full, glorious colour, and more besides. And it’s free! The cover pictures look quite stunning; the black and white reproduction of them in the paper magazine does not do them justice. On average 40 visitors a day come to the website and, gratifyingly, many stay to look at more than the one page the search engine found for them.

Brian Wood

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Editor’s Corner

Ordinary Time

In February Beryl mentioned the short period of Ordinary Time between Epiphany and Lent. We are now in the much longer period which lasts from Pentecost to All Saints’ Day. Those of you who come to Morning or Evening Prayer in St Mary’s or St Nicolas’, where we use a version of the Franciscan Office, will have felt the shift from the joy of Easter to the expectancy of the ten days leading from Ascension to Pentecost. The day after Pentecost Sunday we drop straight back into Ordinary Time, but it struck me, sitting in St Mary’s that Monday morning, that it is by no means an anti-climax. ‘Ordinary’ Christians leading an ‘ordinary’ life do so as post-Pentecost people, filled with God’s Holy Spirit. Pentecost is not just a festival; it is an ongoing experience.

Other services in other churches

I don’t know how often you manage to get to a different type of service in a different church or even a different denomination. We have the opportunity to do this every week, of course, within our own parish, but recently I went slightly further afield.
Hester’s Way Baptist Church, which I attended for several years when I first moved to Cheltenham, celebrated their fiftieth anniversary at the beginning of June. Cambray and Salem Baptist churches had jointly funded this new mission church when the vast housing estates were being built in the 1950s, and it still has a very local mission to the people in that area.
It was good to be back there for several reasons, not least for the excellent half-hour sermon (the Church of England doesn’t know what it’s missing!) from guest preacher the Reverend David Coffey, president of the Baptist World Alliance, who spoke on Acts 2:42-47, reminding us that learning, sharing, praying together and praising God are all essential if the church is to grow. It was lovely to meet again people I had not seen for over twenty years, and we sang! Not only the four hymns during the service, but another dozen as well after lunch in the adjacent hall before tea and cake were served. The afternoon ended with a communion service, which unfortunately I was unable to stay for.

Frances Murton

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Summer in the Country

You fixed the earth on its foundations, for ever and ever it shall not be shaken.
In the ravines you opened up springs, running down between the mountains,
supplying water for all the wild beasts;
on their banks the birds of the air make their nests, they sing among the leaves.
From your high halls you water the mountains, satisfying the earth with the fruit of your works;
for cattle you make the grass grow, and for people the plants they need,
to bring forth fruit from the earth, and wine to cheer people’s hearts.
         - Psalm 104, from verses 5, 10-15; New Jerusalem Bible

Whatever our plans for the summer, July and August bring a change of pace. There is a pause in regular social activities, leisure to stop and stare. Whether you are off to exotic locations, or looking forward to a couple of days out, the chances are you will find yourself enjoying the beauty of a natural scene, coast, mountains or countryside.

Which Bible passage would you choose to express the way you feel as you look at a beautiful view?

At first glance, the Bible’s attitude to nature does not quite seem to match our need. Reading Psalm 104, we can imagine the harmonious lines of the hills, we hear the song of birds and the music of water, we enjoy the colours of trees and plants. The psalmist looking at the same things thinks of their usefulness: grass and plants to feed animals and people, springs for drinking, even the hills a water catchment area. Have we lost the magic somehow?

In fact Psalm 104 is inspired by the creation story in Genesis, beginning with the vision of God on the first day of creation, ‘wearing the light as a robe!’. The verses I have chosen concentrate on day three, when dry land and water are given their own separate places, and the land is clothed with ‘seed-bearing plants and fruit-trees’. They also look forward to day five when birds appear, and day six when God makes animals, and finally creates human beings to be masters of the other creatures, and to enjoy earth’s bounty. The creator has built the world as a perfectly functioning whole. Yet the psalm is far from prosaic; the mood is one of elation, a hymn to the perfection of creation.

The Bible is not blind to beauty. Read the Song of Solomon, chapter 2; the writer moves with startling ease from delight in plants, weather and birds to delight in a human body; yet his expression of sheer joy in the created world is alone good enough reason to cherish this book. But first and foremost, the Bible reminds us of the absolute goodness of God’s world. Just by being itself, every natural thing praises its maker (Psalm 19:3-4).

All this fits in with the strong feeling many of us have that being in a natural place brings us closer to God. We are dimly aware of the complexity of what we see, the long timescale of its history. And today there is a growing awareness that we have a responsibility to care for the earth, to treat it with respect so that it can continue to fulfil its God-given role of supporting life for animals and people.

And may we still allow ourselves simply to enjoy natural beauty? Jesus did. ‘Think of the flowers growing in the fields... not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these.’ Yes, it is good to stop and stare.

Beryl Elliott

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St. Nicolas Sunday Club

The last Sunday Club for this term will be on 8th July and will begin again on
Sunday 9th September.
Linda Biggs

Regular Youth Group Dates

Date For Your Diary:

PPY Alternative Fashion Show –
10 November

Following the success of the Our Voice Film Premiere, Prestbury & Pittville Youth are preparing for their ‘Alternative Fashion Show’ on the evening of 10th November at St Nicolas’. Please do book out that evening to join us to share in this gala event, help raise money for PPY and awareness of issues around fashion.

Andy Macauly

St Mary’s Bakestall

Mothers’ Union

Bible Study Group - Summer Social

Children’s Society boxes at St Mary’s

SIDMOUTH -
14th - 16th September

St. Peter’s Pilgrimage....

Christian Aid

Prestbury Open Gardens.

I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes during my long stay in hospital. It meant a lot to me to know that so many people were thinking of me and wishing me well.
Jill Smith