Church of England BEnefice of Winscombe and sandford with Churchill
Putting the love of Jesus in the heart of our community
Over 80 people gathered in the Church centre of Friday 20th October for St James’s Event Team’s Autumn Supper.
The entertainment was provided by the Fab Twins who soon had everyone singing along to hits from the 60s and 7Os.
After a ploughman’s supper the floor was quickly filled with eager and enthusiastic dancers. It was such fun for everyone that the band were reluctant to finish playing!
Thank you to all who came and supported us raising £800 for Church funds.
Shaun Darley celebrated 60 years of ordained ministry at a special service at St James’s on Sunday 24th September.
After Shaun presided over communion and gave the blessing, Reverend Andrew read a letter of congratulations from Bishop Michael and a gift was given to Shaun from our churches, to mark the occasion. Shaun spoke about the special home that Winscombe has been to him and Jill since moving here some 26 years ago and praised Jill for her steadfast support for his ministry.
Afterwards the congregation were invited to share in the celebrations with a glass of fizz and a slice of a special cake decorated with a picture of St Alban’s Abbey where he was ordained.
On Sunday 10th September all three of our churches celebrated harvest with special services featuring a number of popular Harvest hymns and offering thanks for the bountiful world in which we live. Beautiful seasonal flower arrangements were also on display.
Following its Harvest Service each church held a Harvest Lunch for church members and others in the local community to join together to share food and fellowship.
At All Saints a delicious lunch of homemade soup and crumbles was served.
In Winscombe over 60 people enjoyed lunch together. The spread of cold meats with an assortment of salads was followed by fruit crumbles and cream. It was lovely to see so many people joining together for our first post pandemic Harvest Lunch. ‘Just like the good old days’ was the comment from many.
And St John the Baptist, in Churchill, welcomed parishioners to enjoy a sumptuous lunch to reflect and celebrate Harvest Sunday. 30 guests attended the event held and catered by the Fund Raising Team.
We remembered those we have loved as we came together at our All Souls’Service on the afternoon of 29th October. We had a thoughtful time of singing, readings and poems and the opportunity to place stones bearing loved ones’ names on the altar and later place then in the churchyard.
On Tuesday 25th July we said goodbye and good luck to Iris at Coffee Morning as she is moving to Clevedon.
Iris has been leading Tuesday Coffee Mornings since they restarted after the pandemic. The coffee mornings are a valued and popular weekly event, an opportunity for people from the church and local community to meet each other and socialise over a cuppa.
Iris was presented with a beautiful picture (of an Iris) created by one of the coffee morning team, flowers and a card.
Beth has kindly offered to continue Iris’s good work and lead the coffee morning team together with Chris and Mo.
We have finally heard that the Church Commissioners have approved the transfer of St John’s to Winscombe and Sandford. We are now officially the Benefice of Winscombe and Sandford with Churchill, as from 1st July 2023.
We shall be having a celebratory joint service on the 5th Sunday in October, which is 29th October. It will be a Eucharist at St John’s at 11.00 am, with Cheese and Wine afterwards.
What is ‘Fresh Foundations’?
‘Fresh Foundations’ is the newly revealed name for our project to create a new Church Centre in Winscombe to serve the three churches of St. James’s, St John’s and All Saints and their communities.
Our Vision is to create a beautiful centre not only for worship but to fulfil our mission of ‘Putting the love of Christ at the heart of our community’ by continuing to provide spaces for lettings but also for community outreach activities providing some of the services that are currently missing from our villages.
Why ‘Fresh Foundations’?
The colour green represents new life and growth, energy and sustainability. The word ‘fresh’ is about a vibrant, new project. ‘Foundations’ makes the link between our old building with its issues and a new building with fresh foundations. We are also laying the foundations for a new chapter in the life of our churches, the base of our strength and new confidence in building our future.
Over the past few months, we have held a number of consultation events with church members, local residents and other stakeholders, the latest of which took place on Sunday 9th July when the ‘Fresh Foundations’ project name was ‘unveiled’.
The audience were invited to ‘Just Imagine’ an inspiring new building in a landscaped setting with a myriad of activities for all ages taking place within its walls.
Look out for more information about ‘Fresh Foundations’ on our page Fresh Foundations
On Sunday 4th 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.