ALL SAINTS CHURCH -LEIGH LINES NOVEMBER 2007
Leigh Lines
All Saints Church - Service
Sunday 4th November 11.00 am All Souls service and JAM Club
Sunday 11th November 10.45 am Remembrance Day Service and JAM Club
Sunday 18th November 11.00 am Second Sunday before Advent
Holy Communion with JAM Club
Saturday 24th November 11.00 am Charity Service for the distribution of the Dole
Sunday 25th November 4.00 pm Christingle Service
Sunday 2nd December 11.00 am Advent Sunday
Holy Communion with JAM Club
All Souls Service
This is our annual service of remembrance for those who have died or been buried in the parish in recent years. During this special service we read out the names of all who have died recently and light candles in their memory. Invitations are sent out to the close families of those who have died in recent years, and their names are listed at the back of the church for people to check. Any other names may be added and will be read out and remembered. Please add them to the list before the start of the service and we will be pleased to include them in this service of remembrance.
Remembrance Sunday
Remembrance Sunday this year falls on Remembrance Day and we will be holding our annual Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial at All Saints Church to remember those who have given their lives in the service of their country on that day. The service will start at 10.45 am in the church and we will then process outside (weather permitting) to hold the two minutes silence at 11.00 am at the War Memorial before returning back into church for the end of the service. Children are welcome and can join the JAM Club in the Meeting Room during the service if they like, who will also be looking at this theme.
Christingle Service
Our Family Christingle Service is being held this year on Sunday 25th November in the afternoon. A magical service for the whole family with an opportunity to make your own Christingle oranges in the service which we light in the darkness at the end. A wonderful start to the Christmas season and not to be missed for the young at heart of all ages! Don’t forget that this is an important fund-raising event for the Children’s Society in England who do valuable work with vulnerable children. Please bring a generous donation if you can.
Advent Service
Advent is the start of the new Church year and we will celebrate it with a special Advent Communion Service on Sunday 2nd December when we will light the first candle of the Advent Ring and start our preparations for the coming Christmas season. Come and share Advent Sunday with us in All Saints Church. Children are welcome to join the JAM Club for the first part of the service.
Christmas Concert
There is a special concert at Kingstone Church on the evening of Saturday 24th November given by the City of Birmingham Brass Ensemble. The concert will start at 7.30pm and ticket price will include mulled wine and minced pies during the interval. Tickets from Dominic Stone or on available on the door.
Where do you hope to be buried?
As you will be aware the older parts of the churchyard at All Saints Church are now effectively closed for burials apart from where family graves already exist with provision for other family members to be interred. All burials which require a new plot are now taking place in the new burial ground at the bottom of the old churchyard. New paths and a seat will be put in over the winter to make access to this area easier and more comfortable thanks to generous help and donations.
We are aware, however, that there are some of empty plots within the older areas of the burial ground which are “reserved” or where people expect to be able to be buried near to relatives and friends. If you have in the past applied for a faculty to reserve such a plot then we will have the paperwork and that plot will be held for you and your family (but there should be a stone plaque marking the plot to identify it as reserved with the faculty reference on it as part of the faculty process - and I am not aware of any of these). If you do not have a faculty to reserve a plot in the older areas, but believe that you have an agreement (with the church or an individual acting on behalf of the church) to be buried in a particular place please can you let myself of Hilda Platt know this in writing as soon as possible so that we can document and map these arrangements and make sure that there is no confusion over who will be buried where.
A number of difficulties have recently arisen in trying to ascertain who hopes to be buried where in the older areas, and I’m sure that you will agree that in order to avoid confusion and upset it would be good to have all of this information clearly set out and agreed (whether people have faculties or not). If we have received no information regarding apparently “empty” plots in these older areas by Christmas and no faculty exists to reserve it legally, then we will assume that new burials may be made there by anyone requesting a plot in the older area. Thank you for your help with this. Revd. Dominic Stone.
Seeing red?- a letter from Revd Stone
As I am writing this in early October the autumn is getting off to a dry and gentle start - no frost yet and some lovely autumn colours coming in the trees. I love autumn with the mists and the ground frosts, and especially look forward to the autumn colours which can be wonderful if autumn isn’t too wet. It is amazing how the leaves of many trees and shrubs can change from green to butter yellow or fiery red in the course of just a few weeks before falling off to make way for the start of the winter. I can vividly remember wandering around the grounds of Askham Bryan College near York where I did my horticultural training many years ago memorising all the best autumn colours at this time of the year so that when our lecturer arrived on Wednesday morning with a bin liner full of cuttings and laid them out for the weekly plant identification test I wouldn’t be caught out by the sudden and quite dramatic changes which can take place. These bright reds, oranges and yellows of autumn are for me the colours of the season.
Liturgically speaking, red is also the colour of November in the church. Red is first of all the colour of blood, and is therefore associated with both sacrifice and with death. It is also a colour powerfully associated with the opposite emotions of both love and hate. It is the colour of fire and heat and, in contrast to green which is a gentle and soothing colour, red is a colour which disturbs and upsets. For all these reasons red is therefore the colour which we use in the church at All Souls, when we remember the death of those we have loved and lost in our community and families in recent years - and the love which we have known in life is not switched off when someone dies, but continues beyond death and longs for our eventual reunion in heaven. Red is also the colour that we use for Remembrance Sunday - reminiscent of the blood shed in sacrifice for us by so many on the fields of war, and symbolised so powerfully in the wearing of the red poppies which sprung up in carpets on the fields of France so torn apart by the trench warfare of nearly a century ago. Red is also the colour used for the season of Christ the King - the Sundays which fall between Remembrance and Advent when we remember as the Christian year draws to a close the kingship of Christ, who suffered and died to win a victory over all death.
Christ’s crown is a crown of thorns; the symbol of his presence a cross - a tool of execution and death - reminding us that he is a God who knows both suffering and death, and who offers to go through that experience with us as a companion and guide if we invite him to take that journey with us. The red of this season is therefore not just a colour of loss and grief, but also a colour of power and hope - that in Christ death is not the end, but just a part of the journey, and that even as we mourn, so too we can rejoice in the hope of the new life which awaits us all in the place where the suffering and loss of red and purple will be transformed into the glory and light of the white and gold which we will use again at Christmas and Easter. You are warmly invited to share the journey with us in your local church this year through the red of November and the Purple of Advent to the White and Gold of the Christmas season and beyond; for journeying together is always better than journeying apart.
With my love and best wishes, Dominic.
All Saints Church Yard
As we enter the winter months we would like to express our thanks to the gentleman doing community service through the probation service working in our Church Yard alongside Cecil – they have done a tremendous job this year. Gratitude also must go to Mr Meakin and Mr Ratcliffe for their additional work in the Church Yard this year and all those who tend the area quietly. Michael Knobbs and John Carter have also given a great deal of time in supervising the community service gentleman and we are grateful to them as well.
Harvest Supper
In saying thank you for the wonderful Harvest Supper this year, we are deeply saddened that our thanks to Ann Stubbs for her catering, is written posthumously –it was the most fantastic meal and one we will all remember with great fondness and love. The supper was big heartedly subsidised by Ann, together with her generosity; Wendy and Alan Bradbury’s organisation; the auction and the raffle raised a fantastic £810.00.
Minutes of Leigh School Development Meeting 18.09.07
Held in the school Hall
Present: Wendy Lewis, Izzy Snowden, Jennifer Rowley, John Beaman, Paul Craven, Edith Durose, Wendy Kirk, Gill Baggaley, Ian Lyon, Miles Thornton, Dominic Stone, Eddie Backhouse, Bruce Barker (chair), Amanda Shaw, Lionel Ingram, Christine Dickin, Stephanie Johnson, Derek Stubbs and Andrew Raby (new Chair of Governors at the school).
Visitor: Mark Parsons, architect from Anthony Short & Partners, Ashbourne.
1/. All present were welcomed by Bruce who gave a brief resume of the journey so far. He particularly highlighted two issues before us:
The space issue (the school and community needs more space)
The money issue (where does funding come from?)
Bruce then introduced Mark Parsons and invited him to describe his design proposals.
2/. Mark Parsons outlined the proposal he had drawn up. This was essentially the smaller scheme (school and church scheme with limited community use), but with an estimated price tag of £750K for this he hadn’t moved on to the larger scheme yet. He used the example of the Danesmoor Centre to illustrate many of the points he was making - a scheme nearly complete with which they have been involved.
Comments and questions included:
- what would be the cost of a larger scheme embracing the needs of the community as well as school on this site?
- Location of the kitchen would need to be adjacent to the hall. Demolition of existing kitchen and rebuilding new might add £50K but make for better elevation, restoring original school frontage.
- Sharing kitchen space seen as a difficult issue. Concern that a separate catering kitchen with bar ideally needed for community use and not just a multi-use facility.
- If current hall remains as school dining space then no teaching space gain in this plan.
- Location of outside play area concerns. Would this replace current children’s play area with relocation of play equipment if the current frontage becomes car parking?
- Need for car parking to be thought carefully about. Staff need more parking and there needs to be a safe drop-off and pickup point for parents. There might be some multi-use surface potential (play area in the day and car parking in the evening).
- Consideration should be given for future flexibility if the opportunity comes for return to full primary with year 5 & 6 at some stage with extra class space required.
- Are linking doors to changing rooms a possibility under funding arrangements?
- This proposal gives 200m2 floor area as opposed to current 84m2 - how much can this cater for seated or standing?
- What are the range of funding possibilities for a venture such as this? School borrowing against capital; MGSH fund; Village Hall sale proceeds possibility; lottery sports and community funding; Advantage West Midlands etc.
- Need to think through potential daytime conflict between school and community use in a smaller facility.
- Storage needed for equipment for play group and other users - where does this go?
3/. There followed a discussion about what the scheme would need to include for a full replacement of the existing Village Hall to be considered. This might include: own kitchen, separate space for play group from school PE space, dedicated storage space, own access (not through school) and a larger space than 200m2 for functions.
The schools primary needs are for a PE facility, and for a new office for secretary and head teacher.
4/. Bruce proposed that we take the following action:
Ask MGSH trustees for some more funding for an expansion of architects drawings to include larger scheme and some external works. A block plan of the whole site was felt to be useful.
Arrange trip for representative group (say 5 persons) to Danesmoor Centre to look at what this scheme feels like (November open day? Mark Parsons to give dates).
Invite all village organisations to discuss plans in their own groups and feed in any further comments.
The next meeting to follow on from Danesmoor visit day and set for Tuesday 20th November 2007 in the School Hall.
DING DONG?
Fancy a spot of Tintinabulation?
If so, come along and try your skills at hand bell ringing,
The bells are back in town!
If you have ever fancied a try at hand bell ringing then now is your chance to have a go.
If you missed the first practise of the bell ringing on October 27th it is still not too late to come along and join the fun.
Practises will be held regularly on Saturdays at around 6.00pm in All Saints Church, Leigh
Musical ability is desirable but not essential
For more information you can phone Alison on 01889 502233
UNITED CHARITIES OF LEIGH
Applications are invited from pensioners living in the parish for the
Christmas “Dole”
Please apply to the clerk:
Mrs B.I. Smallwood, Tangelwood, Upper Leigh, Stoke on Trent ST10 4NU
BEFORE Friday 16th November
The monies will be distributed at a special service in Leigh Church on:
Saturday 24th November at 11am
(Anyone already receiving the “dole money” need not reapply)
All SAINTS CHURCH BAZAAR
Saturday, November 17th 2007 2pm
LEIGH ANNUAL CHURCH BAZAAR
At Leigh Village Hall
A warm welcome is extended to all
This is our annual good housekeeping event to raise money for All Saints Church, for every day things like insurance, electricity, heating, oil etc.
A range of stalls, games and small raffles have been arranged
John and Yvonne Carter are very kindly co-ordinating the Grand Raffle this year and already owing to your generosity we have some excellent prizes for our Grand Prize Draw, 1st Prize £100.00 2nd Prize £50.00 3rd Prize £25.00 and many others. We know many of you provide a prize for this draw every year and we would be grateful if you would contact John & Yvonne on 502301 or deliver the prize to their home 3 Lime Close
We would be grateful for donations of Home made Cakes to Wendy Kirk, Nicky Gorton or Janella Beaman and bottles to Ann Smith or Eileen for the bottle stall.
A range of refreshments will be available.
Contact John Carter for any offers of support on 502301
