My favourite Psalm

WEDNESDAY mornings have suddenly taken on a new joy for me – at least for the duration of the Easter season. As many of you will know, I love reading the psalms. I might even be called a psalmaholic! What may not be so familiar to you is that Psalm 139 is my favourite.

So, when I sat down to celebrate Morning Prayer on Wednesday morning during the week after Easter week, I was excited to see that Psalm 139 is one of the appointed psalms for Wednesdays throughout the Easter season.

It is a relatively long psalm so tends to speak to me in different ways each time I read it. What it always does though is to heighten my sense of God’s intimate relationship with me – even when I am perhaps less intimate with Him than I would like to be.

I know there are others in our worship community who are as keen as I am on the psalms. Their reasons for that keenness vary to some extent but, as a general rule, the psalms offer us ways to speak to God which normally elude us. How can I, for instance, put into words my feelings of awe for what He has done for me personally? Who am I, a mere mortal, to praise Him for His wonderful deeds? Equally, how can I share my sadness and anger, when my emotions prohibit openness and total honesty with Him? There is something in the psalms for all occasions, and it is a source of constant joy that they play such an important role in our Morning and Evening Prayer in this Parish.

I would love to hear from others of you what your views are on the psalms – especially Psalm 139. How do you use them? What are your favourites? What are the special meanings that psalms offer to you? Please let me know via email – my address is in the Parish Magazine – or by snail mail, if you do not have a computer, or even speak to me – now there’s an idea! I am not into ‘texting’.

If I get a good response I shall publish a further article on the subject. You never know, reading the psalms could catch on – better still we could have a repeat of the psalm being so beautifully sung for us at the 11 o’clock Eucharist in the second week of Lent. Now I am getting carried away – but it would be wonderful to hear them once in a while.

Spring is well and truly with us now – everything seems to be earlier this year. How about taking on a new approach to your prayer life and making greater use of the psalms? This is the time for renewal – why not try it?

Fr Peter

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Christian Aid Week: May 11th-17th

Please consider becoming a collector for the house-to-house collection or organizing a small group of collectors in an area of Prestbury. More than ever we are being asked to help those in poor countries combatting the disastrous effects of climate change, already so evident in many parts of the world. We can do a lot to help them by taking an envelope to each household and calling back for it two or three day later for the response. The time spent doing this may be only two or three hours, but counts so much towards the valuable work done by Christian Aid through its partner organizations in countries of all the continents. If you are willing to help, please contact:

St Mary’s: Gill Ashman
St Nicolas’: Paddy Spurgeon

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Retiring Choir Members

At Easter Rosie Bradbury (soprano) and Avril Keen (alto) retired from St Mary’s choir. They have both been involved in the musical life of the church in a number of guises for over 20 years. We shall of course miss them and thank them for their commitment and loyal support. Whilst they have now hung up their choir gowns, I am sure they will continue to be active with other aspects of church life!

Peter Greaves

Musical Leeks!

I have been asked several times where the leeks, and often other vegetables, come from every Sunday morning at St Mary’s. Our unsung hero is John Boxwell – he is not only a good gardener but also a super pianist, and we have a good time together when we go to Bay Tree Court and deliver Evensong for the residents, when it is our turn at Sunday teatimes.

Sylvia McKenzie

Are you a Pianist?

If you could help once every few weeks by playing a couple of hymns during the short service at Bay Tree Court on a Sunday afternoon, please get in touch with Diana Mackie. Thank you.

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magazine @ prestbury.net

Most of you do send your magazine articles to the magazine address – thank you. But some of you are using my or my husband’s private email addresses. The problem with this is that if we are not at home, then your article will sit there unopened and will not go into the magazine, whereas if you use the correct magazine address, then Brian Wood, or sometimes a third person, will also receive it and will deal with it in my absence.

Similarly for those of you who post or deliver your articles by hand: if you write ‘Parish Magazine’ on the envelope, then it can be passed on to the person compiling that month’s magazine. If you don’t, then it will look like a private letter and will remain unopened until I return home, and may miss the deadline altogether.

Editor

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Prestbury Drama – your chance to become famous…

Following the recent notices about re-creating a drama group in Prestbury we held a very encouraging meeting in April to see whether this was a viable proposition. A dozen people attended the meeting, with several sending apologies, and it was agreed that we should go ahead and see what we can achieve.

Our next meeting will be held at St Nicolas’ Church Room on Wednesday 21st May at 7.30pm, when we shall examine various scripts and ideas with a view to presenting ‘something’ early in the autumn. There is still time to join us if you fancy ‘treading the boards’ or helping in any other way that might be suitable. Please contact me if you would like to hear more.

Marion Beagley

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North Cheltenham Churches Football Team
Sponsored by Selim Smith

A Review of this Season

Dad and I have looked back over the NCC’s second season, and, with delight, note a tremendous improvement in their results of six wins, including a cup win, and two draws, with 10 defeats, scoring 35 goals, compared with 20 during the previous season. Leading scorers were Andrew Murton (16) and Andrew Elvidge (9).

We felt the fifth game, against Tewkesbury Trinity Tigers, was the season’s turning point, resulting in a first-ever league win. With the NCC under great pressure, and their goalkeeper well beaten, and well outside his area, the Tigers appeared to be heading for the opening score, as depicted in this photograph. One defender thought otherwise, and in his desperate run managed to clear the ball off the line, epitomising the never-say-die determination the team has shown throughout every game. Well done to all concerned!

Michael Wyatt

A line from the NCC Captain

As NCC stepped onto the pitch for the last game of the 2007/8 season against Gloucester the feeling of expectation rather than hope that was amongst the players surely summed up what a vastly improved campaign it had been. Victory would have secured 4th spot for the Undertakers – a far cry from the solitary point gained in the previous season leaving the team bottom of the league. Unfortunately a typically spirited effort from all the boys went unrewarded as Gloucester sneaked a last minute winner.

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed on and off the pitch this season – our position once again at the top of the fair play league speaks volumes. Bring on next season!!!

Andrew Murton

A line from the NCC Manager

Well, what a season! The summer saw steady activity in the transfer market. We lost two regular players (Grant and Graeme) and gained some new faces (Aj, Duncan and David). Our youth system continued to produce with James Radburn becoming an established member of the side. But the core of the team remained the same and regular training sessions throughout the summer meant we were well prepared for the new season.

Despite an increasing confidence within the team we had the most disappointing of starts – three straight defeats. Then something just seemed to click and we went on a record-breaking run of five victories and one draw in our next six games. We were majestic – our defence was assured, our midfield fluent and our attack potent as we beat the best the Cotswolds Churches League could offer. Then, unfortunately, Christmas arrived and the mid-season break saw a turn in our fortunes. A combination of injuries and bad luck meant that the second half of the season couldn’t live up to the early promise.

It’s a measure of how far we have come that in the end we are slightly disappointed in our final position of seventh. The team has vastly improved in the past twelve months. Whereas last year we concentrated on defending and keeping the score respectable, this year we have felt confident of beating any side in the league. Although most players have been called upon to play in multiple positions, there is now much greater coherency to our play, and a good understanding of the strengths of other members of the team. Whilst there have been many memorable individual performances during the season, they have been spread throughout the squad. All our players have improved during the season both personally and as a team.

Finally whilst it’s true to say that we have become more competitive, with some tense, hard fought games, we have still played the game in a sporting manner. So, whilst it is good to have started winning games, we haven’t lost sight of the main purpose – to have an enjoyable game of football.

Tim Rudge

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Holiday to Ecuador and Galapagos islands – Part 2

continued from last month

‘NOW THIS is where your holiday begins’ said Angie, our tour leader.

Having arrived late, we had a quick transfer to the landing stage, where our first shock was to see two sea lions reclining where we should have sheltered from the sun, one on the bench and one underneath. ‘Do not touch them’ said one of the naturalists, ‘they are wild animals’. The second shock was that our yacht Isabella II was not there for us to board, it was anchored out in the bay and we had to don life jackets and travel out by panga.

After a hasty lunch due to our late arrival it was up on deck for lifeboat drill then back into the pangas for our first trip ashore and about a two mile walk. This proved to be the pattern for the next seven days: breakfast, leave the yacht at 8.30am, return between 11.30 and 12.00, lunch, leave again approx 2.30pm, back 5 to 6pm, 6.45 talk and orientation for the following day by Antonio (one of the Naturalists), 8pm dinner, after which we were ready to retire to bed. The first night some of us did venture on deck and saw sharks following the ship and another evening we all went star gazing from the deck. A new island was visited each day and during this time we saw amazing birds, sea lions, land and marine iguanas, nests, chicks, both blue and red footed boobies and frigate birds showing off with pride their courtship display by inflating an enormous red air balloon at the throat.

Landings from the pangas were varied, some wet landings, some on to rocks or lava and when it came to travelling in the glass bottom boat, that was an adventure in itself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, sitting on the edge of the panga and swinging your legs into the adjoining boat; we were quite blasé about all this come the end of the week. The hazardous transfers were well worth it when you surveyed the wonderful sea life below the boat, a view those who went snorkelling also experienced.

Walking on the islands could also prove tricky as we walked on lava, rocks, climbed rocky uneven surfaces, but also beautiful golden or white sand, saw the world’s largest tortoises, smallest penguins and strolled into a long lava tunnel. We also crossed the Equator three times in one day and the Captain called us to the bridge on one occasion and we drank a toast with champagne.

There is much more I could write about but space will not permit, so what lasting impression did I bring home with me? Well I felt very privileged to have been able to walk on islands never inhabited by man and to see natural wild life in its own environment yet with no fear of humans.

We left the UK shortly after Christmas and returned to find Lent already started. So what am I going to give up this Lent? The answer is simply nothing!!!! Instead I am endeavouring to go for a walk each day, enjoy the fresh air, observe new life as it breaks forth this spring and really appreciate this wonderful world God has given us.

I said earlier in this report that I would reserve judgement on whether the holiday really began when we reached Galapagos. Well the answer is it was a wonderful, wonderful experience and with great companions; but it was certainly the most energetic I have ever undertaken.

Avril Keen together with Eleanor Knight

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‘Give me to drink’

JESUS said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become to him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ John 4:13-14 (RSV)

As my Lenten reading this year I decided to embark on an older book, William Temple’s Readings in St John’s Gospel, first published in those ominous years, 1939 and 1940. William Temple was Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the great moral forces of his time, an outspoken advocate of social reform, crusading against usury, slums, dishonesty and the aberrations of the profit motive. Unfortunately his tenure of the post was short, from 1942 to 1944, and he died at the early age of sixty-three.

It is not always easy or comfortable reading but it is full of rewarding insights and encouragement to those of us who find the theology and reality of the Incarnation difficult to comprehend or to appreciate. Temple is constantly aware of our need for reassurance and in his comments on the conversation between Jesus and the Woman of Samaria he stresses its relevance to our Christian discipleship. Jesus was actually wearied by his journey, tired and thirsty when he said ‘Give me to drink’ and we need to be reminded that he drew the woman into conversation by asking for her help from his real need. Christian aid workers often find it difficult to offer service to those whose lifestyle is so different from their own. Temple illustrates this by relating the occasion when a helper left well-appointed premises where he needed nothing his neighbours could supply and went to live in a workman’s flat. The first evening he needed a hammer and went to borrow one from those in the flat below. At once the relationship was different – there was something that they could do for him.

In the same way, Almighty God seeks to win us to fellowship with him by putting some part of his purpose into our hands. He makes himself dependent upon us as Jesus was dependent on the woman of Samaria for the quenching of his thirst. He asks for our service. ‘How is it thou askest of me?’ we might well ask. We know you can do all things. We have nothing. We are surely not fit to offer the meanest service. Surely God will first require and help me to form a character worthy to serve him. No, it is only through service that such a character can be formed. Christ did not first make his disciples saints and then give them work to do. He gave them work to do and as they did it, they became closer to the character that was worthy of the demands made on them. The service that he asks of us is a real service; yet it is for my sake and out of love for me that he so orders his world as to need my service, inadequate as it so often is. He does it because he loves us. He rejoices that we should be ‘fellow-workers with him’ (read 1 Corinthians 3:9). If he were not Love he would have no need of us; it is his love that needs us and should prompt us to reach out to those who offer us the opportunity for service, even if this sometimes means accepting others’ consolation rather than offering our own, or sharing their doubts than providing our certainties.

John Elliott

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Ascension Day –
Thursday 1st May

10.30 am Said Eucharist St Mary’s
7.30 pm Team Sung Eucharist All Saints’

Ascension Day is a major Feast Day in the Church Calendar and a day when all who are confirmed should attend a Eucharist to celebrate our risen and ascended Lord

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‘Tongues of Fire’

Our next Quiet Day is on Saturday 10th May, the day before Pentecost, at Nympsfield Marist Centre from 9.30am to 4.00pm. The cost is £15 per person, to include lunch and other refreshments during the day.
Please sign up on the sheets in church. Further information from Margaret Compton (St Nicolas’), Colin Holman (St Mary’s) or Karen Winder (All Saints’).

Jen Swinbank

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Ecumenical Service for Christian Aid Week

On Sunday 11th May at 5pm (please note the time) there will be an Ecumenical service at St Michael’s, Whaddon. This is an opportunity to meet together with our friends from Churches Together and celebrate not only Pentecost but also the start of Christian Aid Week. Do join us. NB there will not be a 6.30pm service in St Mary’s on that day.

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St Mary’s Bakestall

The next bakestall falls on Sunday 18th May, with contributions gratefully received from the N-Z surname team. The profits will go to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship).

In March we were able to send another £50 to Care International for them to take further advantage of the EU scheme to quadruple donations. In addition we managed to send £30 to Water Aid via the Glastonbury Appeal. A very good year so far!

Linda Matthews & Margaret Waker

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Corpus Christi –
Thursday 22nd May

10.30 am Said Eucharist St Mary’s
7.30 pm Team Sung Eucharist St Mary’s

An opportunity to join together to give thanks for God’s gift of the Eucharist

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Through the Eyes of an Artist

On Saturday 24th May at 7pm in St Mary’s Church we are holding an evening event entitled Our Heritage through the Eyes of an Artist. Derek Henman, an established local artist, has drawn in pen, pencil and ink the parts of our church which the quinquennial review considered in need of repair. These pictures have now been elegantly framed and Derek has donated them for auction to raise money for the repair fund.

Fr John Mead will give a short explanation of quinquennial reviews, after which Derek will display photographs of his drawings on the screen, with explanations. There will then be an opportunity to view the original pictures during a fork supper. At 9pm the auction will commence. It will be an entertaining evening even if you are not intending buying.

Tickets priced £6, to include supper and a glass of wine, are available from Margaret Holman, Lynda Hodges and Janet White. There will also be a licensed bar.

Lynda Hodges,
Parish Events Committee

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Mothers’ Union

At our March meeting we were privileged to hear from the Revd Maz Allen of the United Reformed Church. Her subject was ‘A Kenya Presentation’ and she told us of her on-going work in Kenya at the St Stephen’s Orphanage, where street children are supported, cared for and educated. Although we were all aware of the many, many street children all around the world, we found it horrific to hear that some of these children were as young as three years old. Imagine our own children and grandchildren being abandoned at that young age to tend for themselves in a frightening and violent situation.

We were deeply moved by their plight and immediately agreed amongst ourselves to adopt a little girl of seven years old, and enable her, through our donations, to have a secure and safe future, where she can be educated and cared for by loving staff. We will be fund raising for her over the years to come to ensure that she is provided for. Anyone wishing to help us in this task can speak with any MU member or directly to me. All donations will be gift aided and used for her benefit.

This month’s meeting will be held on Tuesday 27th May and will be an in-house study using MU material. It will take place at the URC, Deep Street, Prestbury, at 7.30pm. All are welcome to join us.

Marion Beagley

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Eucharist with a Difference

The next Eucharist with a Difference at St Nicolas’ will be at 9.30am on Sunday 15th June. Do join us for this slightly different way of celebrating the Eucharist.

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Important Date for your Diary

Ordination Service –
29th June

On Sunday 29th June at 10.15am in Gloucester Cathedral David Gardiner will be ordained as a Deacon to serve in our Team Ministry. The Cathedral would like to know how many people might be attending the service. Please let Fr Michael know ASAP if you intend to go.

Ordination Sunday – 29th June

Please keep the afternoon free so that you can attend the welcome tea party for our new curate, David Gardiner and his wife Sarah. This will be held in the garden of Prestbury Vicarage – let’s hope the weather’s fine!

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Outing to Hereford Cathedral

The Mothers’ Union summer outing will take place on Tuesday 22nd July. I have arranged an outing to Hereford Cathedral, where our own Fr Paul Iles will give us a guided tour of the cathedral. I have booked a 52-seater coach, which will enable husbands, friends and others to join us if they wish. The coach will leave St Nicolas’ Church at 9.30am. On arrival at Hereford your time is your own but anyone wishing to can enjoy a lunch-time concert in the Cathedral, followed by the tour at 2.00pm. We will leave for home at 4.30pm.

The cost for the return fare will be £8.00 per person and any profit will go to support our little adopted girl from Kenya (see above article). Please let me know a.s.a.p. if you would like a place on the coach as I expect there to be a good take up for this trip. Your name with a non-returnable £5.00 deposit is all that is required at this stage.

Marion Beagley

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