Are you ready for our online Christingle Service this weekend?
Christingle is always a popular service with families. Our all age special ‘Christingle Service’ will be available to watch on our Christmas Services page from Sunday morning.
You can make your Christingle during the service or afterwards. This is what you will need.
Small candles are available to pick up in each of the villages. Winscombe: St. James’s Church porch. Sandford: All Saints church porch . Churchill; from the Post Office.
There are also other resources that you can download such as a colouring sheet on our Messy Church page.
Today we delivered copies of the Christmas booklet’ “It Begins in Bethlehem” to Winscombe and Sandford Primary Schools. There is a copy for each child and Rev Andrew has recorded a special Christmas Assembly which the children can watch in their classrooms or view here
What do a dog dressed as a reindeer, a guitar, and an ‘It Begins in Bethlehem’ booklet have in common? – it must be time to record our Primary Schools Collective Worship Christmas Video! This video will be accompanying the nativity booklets our churches are giving to every child next week.
On Sunday 20th September Rev’d Andrew made the following announcement;
I amdelighted to be able to welcome St John’s Churchill to our Church community of Winscombe and Sandford. Archdeacon Adrian has asked me to take temporary pastoral and ministerial oversight of St John’s, whilst arrangements are being made concerning their long-term future. St John’s has good links with Churchill Academy, works ecumenically with the Methodist Church in Churchill, similar to our approach in Churches Together, and has historic links with All Saints, Sandford. We welcome them to our benefice in prayerful expectation that their time with us will promote the flourishing of all our churches. I intend to work closely with lay ministers and retired clergy to ensure we are able to provide services at all of our parisheschurches in the future’.
During September we will be starting to hold services in St James’ Church Hall and on Sunday 20th September there will also be a service at All Saints, Sandford. Please click here for further information.
Therefore, St James Church will not be open for Private prayer during September but
All Saints Church, Sandford will be open in September from 11.00 – 12.00 except for Sunday 20th September.
N.B. Access into the Churches outside these times is not permitted except by members of the PCC Standing Committee making the arrangements for these ‘open for prayer’ sessions.
For our part, we will ensure that it is as safe as possible for you to visit the Churches by carrying out a thorough Risk Assessment and implementing the necessary control measures. During the time that All Saints Church is open someone will be present to supervise those attending for Private Prayer. Those parts that visitors touch (e.g. door handles, pews, chairs etc.) will be properly cleaned on a regular basis and at the end of the session.
The Report below gives some idea of the significant blessings our donations provide to the people of Burlavaripalem, many of whom have lost their total income through government measures to curb Covid. The pictures above show the items of food and the queues to get the life-sustaining supplies for hungry families. I am pleased that, unlike some of the food distribution in India which excludes Christians, the food distributed by EAC is given, with Christian love, to ALL needy people in the village. There are about 100 Rupees to the pound, so each needy village family gets about £4 of food regularly supplied by EAC, for as long as funds allow.
“This early morning at 2 o’clock we went to the market and got 6 kinds of vegetables. This time the vegetables were a bit expensive. We started the groceries distribution programme after the church service at 3.30. This time we removed dal and Sooji and instead added ginger and garlic.
The All Healthy Living Centre food bank has remained available throughout lockdown, although not everyone has been aware of that. At the start of lockdown, 60 individual food parcels were made up and a few weeks later it was topped up with 25 more family ones. A few more have been added for large families.
Throughout Lyn, who co-ordinates the foodbank has been doing some emotional support for those who have had to shield, with a local response team. Although they were geographically out of the normal foodbank ‘catchment area’, they have been provided with a few food parcels too.
Demand is now starting to pick up a little, as people are beginning to getting out more.
About a month ago the financial donations from our Church were used to do an Asda shop to top up. In addition Alliance Care donated about 6 bags of food they had left over.
Lyn says ‘Please thank your Church and all the congregation for its ongoing support, and as soon as we are able, we will hold another coffee morning to say thankyou again.’
Today Rev’d Andrew walked the Bounds of the Benefice praying for the people in our Benefice and asking God to bless our institutions, our care homes, schools, shops and businesses. He prayed for the newcomers who will join us soon in the new housing developments and for ‘Churches Together’ as we share ministry going forward. Andrew prayed for the love of Christ to be known and received in our Benefice.
This day also marks the completion of the first two months of Andrew being our Priest in Charge for which we give thanks as we wait for God to lead us on the next exciting part of our journey in Winscombe and Sandford.
Afterwards Andrew thanked everyone for their good wishes and prayers saying, ‘It was a privilege to pray for each of you, and the needs that were shared, and for God’s blessing on the future of our Benefice.’
You will probably have seen the recent announcement from the Government that Churches can open for Private Prayer from 15th June. We have also received advice from the Church of England and our Bishops and Archdeacon. They emphasise that ‘just because you can, does not mean you must’.
All Saints Church, Sandford will be open in September from 11.00 – 12.00.
N.B. Access into the Churches outside these times is not permitted except by members of the PCC Standing Committee making the arrangements for these ‘open for prayer’ sessions.
There is some specific guidance which we ask you to follow if you visit All Saints during these times:
Respect the 2 metre Social Distancing advice with anyone else in the Church or Churchyard.
Follow the guidance within the Church with regard to COVID-19 hygiene and where you can go to pray. Places for single people, couples and family groups will be identified.
There will be no prayer books or bibles available in the Church for you to use. You may therefore wish to bring your own.
The toilets will not be open.
Use the sanitizers when you leave and on your return home, remember to wash your hands.
For our part, we will ensure that it is as safe as possible for you to visit the Churches by carrying out a thorough Risk Assessment and implementing the necessary control measures. During the time that All Saints Church is open someone will be present to supervise those attending for Private Prayer. Those parts that visitors touch (e.g. door handles, pews, chairs etc.) will be properly cleaned on a regular basis and at the end of the session.
