Author: Jo Claridge

On Sunday 4^th June, over 65 people from our three churches, gathered in the Church Centre for our quarterly Charity Cafe Church.

This time the chosen charity was the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Our speaker was Carol from the Bristol and Bath Group of the association, and she was able to tell us a little about the disease and the work of the association.

MND is a disease which affects the nerves known as motor neurones. These nerves are found in the brain and spinal cord and tell the muscles what to do. MND causes the muscles to weaken, stiffen and waste, which affects how those with the disease walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe. The disease affects everyone differently, symptoms vary, and progress of the disease is hard to predict. It is life shortening and, as yet there is no cure. However, most patients with the condition die within 5 years with the average life expectancy after diagnosis being 14 years. 

MND affected up to 5,000 adults in the Uk at any one time. There is a 1 in 300 risk of getting MND across a lifetime. It can affect adults of any age but is most likely to affect those over 50.

We also heard about some well known people who have died from MND and those who are living with MND.

Comedian, Ronnie Corbett was diagnosed with the disease in 2014 and died in March 2016. Actor David Niven also died from the disease aged 73. 

The story of Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist and best-selling author is well known and told in the film the ‘Theory of Everything’. Hawking was diagnosed with MND in his early 20s and lived with the disease for 55 years. He was as famous for his motorised wheelchair and computer-generated voice as he was for his scientific work.

More recently the former Rugby League player, Rob Burrow, has shared the story of his battle with MND which was diagnosed in 2019, saying that it has made him appreciate the ‘little things in life’, and that the hardest thing is ‘not being able to be the dad I want to be.’

In May his wife Lindsay, her brother and Rob’s best friend, Kevin Sinfield ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon to raise money for a Centre for Motor Neurone Disease as well as the association. Many of you will have seen the emotional footage of Kevin carrying Rob, who he had pushed around the entire course, over the finish line. The short ITV documentary about this is well worth watching

https://www.itv.com/watch/news/lindsey-and-rob-living-with-mnd-tonight/zgyr4zk

We were all touched by what we had heard and donations of over £500 have been mad, by the church family, to the Bristol and Bath Branch of the MND Association, to help people with MND locally. https://www.mndassociation.org

A good number of us from St James’s, St John’s and All Saints gathered in Bath Abbey to join the 1,200 people who were all there to be welcomed by our new Bishop Michael to a very special service.

We sang an opening hymn

In the name of Jesus we gather,

In the name of Christ we sing,

celebrate new vows, new promise

of a life’s whole offering,

here ordained to lead God’s people

at the Gospel’s beckoning.

Then followed an uplifting service of Ordination in which our Curate, Jacqui, and four others, were ordained as Priests. The special prayer of Ordination ended by saying:

And now we give You thanks that you have called

these your servants whom we ordain in Your name,

to share as priests in the ministry of the gospel of Christ,

the Apostle and High Priest of our faith

and the Shepherd of our souls.

This wonderful first part of our service was followed by The Liturgy of the Sacrament and the Eucharistic Prayer preceding the whole congregation being offered Holy Communion.

At the end of this inspiring time of prayer and praise we sang a final hymn which ended:

Go forth and tell! O Christ of God, arise!

Go in the strength which Christ your Lord supplies:

Go ’til all nations his great name adore,

and serve him, Lord and King forever more. 

At Family Holy Communion on Sunday 21st May we attached this in spring video from the Alpha Cpurse which is currently running on Tuesdays at the Church Centre.

Your gifts this Christian Aid Week could help farmers in Malawi plant better seeds, secure a fairer price for the crops, and build happier futures for their children.

Soaring costs are affecting people here and around the world.

Families in Malawi are paying the price of this global crisis. 

Food, fuel, fertiliser and school fees have doubled in price in the last 12 months. And hard-working farmers are seeing their harvests fail as the climate crisis brings increasingly erratic weather.

The impact of the recent Cyclone Freddy in Malawi has been devastating. Floods have washed away crops, over 500,000 people have been displaced and hundreds have lost their lives.

Refresh-men-t is primarily a ‘men’s breakfast’ group meeting monthly at The Woodborough Inn in Winscombe.

All are welcome to join us, both regulars and newcomers, as we meet together in a relaxed, informal way to enjoy a quality breakfast with friends. This time there will not be a speaker but time to chat, renew acquaintances and hopefully welcome new people to our friendly group.

Every third month we invite a speaker and on these occasions breakfasts are open to all.

A choice of breakfasts are available but these do need to be pre-booked.

Cooked breakfast: 1 x sausage, 1 x bacon, 1 x fried egg, hash brown, mushrooms, grilled tomato, baked beans, black pudding, toast and butter with tea/coffee/fruit juice – £10.00

Vegetarian Cooked Breakfast £9.50

Bacon Bap including tea/coffee/fruit juice – £7.50

2 rounds of toast with butter, jam, marmalade including tea/coffee/fruit juice – £5.00

Refresh-men-t in July

Our most recent Refresh-men-t Breakfast at the Woodborough Inn took place on Saturday 15^th July. This time we were joined by several ladies for breakfast with a speaker. Chris Greenwood told us about his visit, last year, to see the Oberammergau Passion Play.

The village of Oberammergau which today has a population of some 5,300 people is home to the Passion Play which started in 1633 when a vow was made to perform the play every ten years if God spared them from the effects of the plague.

The play is normally performed in years ending with a zero, although the 2020 play was postponed until last year due to COVID-19.

The play involves over 2000 actors, singers, musicians and technicians, almost all residents of the village. It takes four years to produce and is staged from May to October. The very first play was staged on top of the graves of the plague victims in the churchyard but today the audience is seated in an auditorium facing the open-air stage.

The play, in German, is over 5 hours long and staged in two parts with a long break in between. Chris explained that the script changes from production to production depending on demands from the Church and other bodies for particular aspects of the story to be depicted or left out. Nowadays people from all faiths (or none) can take part although in the past it was restricted to Catholics only. As the play has attracted more visitors from cultures across the world the script has had to be more explicit about the characters and events portrayed.

Chris said that watching the play was a really powerful and totally absorbing experience. He and Yvonne couldn’t speak afterwards such was the effect it had on them. Chris still gets goosebumps just talking about it!

For more information about the play (or to plan a visit in 2030)  visit the website: 

https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de

We do not have a breakfast in August but look forward to meeting again on Saturday 16^thSeptember. Details of this meeting will be in next month’s edition of Signpost.

For further information contact Tim Harland on 01834 843248.

In previous years we have had a variety of themes to help us reflect on Easter.  There have been creative contributions from our parishioners such as Easter Gardens, Easter Crosses and Experience Easter.  

This year our Easter theme is ’Sounds of Easter’.  You are invited to record a sound clip, to help us reflect on the events of Holy Week.  We will feature these Easter Sounds on our website and they will also form part of our reflection on Maundy Thursday.  Here are some suggestions:

• Two halves of a coconut for a donkey’s hooves (Palm Sunday)
• A tray of gravel, deep enough to allow a child to stand in this and march vigorously on the spot (Soldiers marching)
• A collection of pieces of wood that can be thrown down noisily (The cross)
• A bag of coins that can be jangled and from which some can be tipped out (The betrayal of Jesus)
• A cup and some liquid to pour into it  (Wine – the first communion)
• Some pieces of cracker that will snap noisily (Bread – the first communion)
• A bowl of water (Washing the disciples feet) 
• A garden at night with owl (Gethsemane)
• A hammer and nail with a block of wood, into which to bang the nail (Jesus on the cross)
• Some wooden dice (Soldiers gamble for Christ’s clothes)
• A piece of cloth to tear  (The temple veil is torn)
• A piece of card that can be wobbled to make the sound of thunder 

The clip should be about 30 seconds, recorded on your phone and sent in.   You can use the ‘Voice Recorder’ app which is standard on iPhones or ‘Google Voice Recorder’ on many Android phones.  

Send your contributions to rev.andrew.hiscox@hotmail.com and parishmag2@gmail.com by Sunday  2^nd April!

Why not come and join our ‘Alpha?’ Course?  

Alpha is a series of informal sessions exploring the basics of the Christian faith, over coffee, tea and cake! 

Typically run over eleven weeks, each session looks at a different question around faith, with talks from DVD setting the scene.  The talks are designed to create conversation in small groups afterwards.  

So if you’d like to explore more about the Christian faith in a friendly atmosphere, whether you’re a regular church goer or not, this is the course for you!  

We are looking to offer the course after Easter 2023.

It’s totally free, and everyone’s welcome.

Contact: rev.andrew.hiscox@hotmail.com

Here are the pictures of the tables and chairs which the charity were able to buy as result of December’s charity appeal.

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What makes a Charity special, when there are so many charities demanding our attention?

In the case of the Elizabeth-Ann charity, at least two things make it special! Firstly, it was born of tragedy. Julie and Michael Davies, of Bradford-on-Avon, lost their only daughter at age 16 to a severe asthma attack and decided, via the charity, ‘Save the Children’ , to provide a water supply in her memory to a mainly Christian village in Andre Pradesh, India. A year later, when there was a problem with the water pump, they sent money for the repair but were made aware of the poverty in the village and decided to set up a charity in their daughter’s name, to provide a range of help-services in the village. 

The second thing to make the Charity special, is particularly important; Julie and Michael decided they and other Trustees they appointed, would take no money for administering the charity and would pay their own expenses when they visited India. They would also not spend money on advertising the charity and relied on personally making many contacts with individuals and a few companies in the UK. One company in particular, Utility Warehouse, has provided financial help and encouraged its staff as individuals to help. Our St James’s Church, as well as individuals within St James’s, have been generous donors for more than ten years.

These two aspects of the charity, mean that all donations made to the charity are used directly to benefit the people of the village, in a variety of ways, some of which are detailed in the following:

There is now an Elizabeth-Ann children’s home in the village of Burlavaripalem, to house children from poor families and make certain they get a good education. The picture shows children seated on the floor studying. They study after school, mainly doing homework, from 5.30 pm until 8.00 pm each night as well as in the mornings before breakfast. 

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At the informal Benefice  Café Church service on December 4^th, the entire service was dedicated to the charity and we were privileged to have co-founder Julie Davies talk to us live by phone link and answer questions put to her by attendees. The service appeal raised the amazing sum of almost £1000 including Gift Aid. Over half of this will be used to buy 40 chairs and 10 desks for the children so they do not have to sit and work on the concrete floor, which gets very cold in Winter. We are all looking forward to seeing a picture of children at the Home, using the desks and chairs!  Over the years, many of the children have achieved outstanding results and have gone on to well-paid jobs, helping their own and their wider families. Education is so key to breaking the cycle of poverty which so many struggle to escape from.

The charity has a particular focus on women and girls, who are often denied opportunities to better themselves. There is a Sewing Business class, whereby women are given sewing machines, costing £60 each and are enrolled in a 3 month training programme to develop a business, making clothes and other items, giving them some eagerly sought-after independence, as well as providing precious family income. There is a waiting list for machines and entry to the programme! 

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Children who live a long way from school are given bicycles so they can attend school. These are treasured possessions and at £65 each are supplied when funds allow.

Local farmers have benefited from a fund to help buy seed, and the money is repaid after the harvest. This has been particularly helpful after a disastrous harvest, when farmers have been unable to fund the purchase of precious seed for the coming year.

A special focus of the charity has been to help the elderly in the village and each month the elderly and infirm are given £5 each, which they usually spend on daily breakfasts for the month, often their only meal of the day. Food is also taken to those unable to come to the Elizabeth-Ann Home at mealtime.

During the time of the Covid pandemic, Vinay, who manages the work of the charity in Burlavaripalem, was going to the local market at 2.00 am to meet stallholders as they arrived so as to get a special price for food, which he later distributed locally, keeping many families with out of work breadwinners, above starvation level.

The charity also supplies ‘house cows’ to some poor families with children, providing precious milk.

One feature of the charity work is to pay for the visit, every two weeks, of a medical doctor, who manages to see over 50 patients in his three hour session. This is backed up by a weekly visit of a trained nurse and the long queues for both these medical people testify to their value. 

As well as providing these benefits to the Christian village, they have also reached out to needy people in the nearby Hindu village, particularly at the height of the pandemic. 

Jesus taught that when kindness is shown to the poor and needy, he counts it as kindness shown to himself and we are pleased, that as a Benefice, we have been able to support Julie and her small team as they seek to honour Jesus in their work in far-off Burlavariplem.

You can learn more about the charity by visiting www.eacharity.org.uk                          Peter Thompson