In The Benefice

January 2009

Activities

Regular Groups:
In January, these meet as follows:-

Prayer Group: - Tuesday mornings, 6th, 20th and 27th at 10am at 44, High Street, Marshfield - contact Simon Drew (891850) or Paul Sawyer (891436)

Parents Group: - Come and join a friendly group of parents to chat, discuss any issues related to the joys (and trials!) of parenting and let the little ones play together. Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 10am - dates for January are 7th & 21st at varying venues so please call for details. There is also an Evening Parent Group for those parents who either can’t make a daytime session or feel that their little ones are getting a bit big and able to understand what’s being discussed. This group offers a chance to socialise and discuss parenting issues; it meets on the second Thursday of the month. For January, the date is 15th at 8pm -for details of the venue please contact Molly Williams.

For any information about either group, please contact Molly Williams on 01225 891302. All are welcome!

Edward Bear Club: - the place to be for under-fives! (adults are welcome if accompanied!). The Club meets on the second Friday each month from 10am for a story, songs, activities and refreshments. Please note that during January, February and March , the Club will meet at Marshfield Chapel. The date for January is Friday 9th.

Events

Equipped To Grow ’09 – Local Diocesan Conference:
The Bristol Diocese is offering these conferences for groups of people of any age who want to see their churches grow. Our local conference will be Saturday 24th January 2009 at Sheldon School, Chippenham. The conference will run from 9:30am to 1:00pm. Hot drinks and cakes will be available!
Although bookings were asked for before Christmas I am sure that if there are any who would like to come but didn’t make that deadline then we can accommodate you. If so please contact Simon Drew (891850) as soon as possible.



Prayer for 2009:
As a follow on to our Advent Prayer cards we are organising two special meeting to pray for the life of our church communities during 2009. These are being run jointly with Marshfield Chapel and will take place on Sunday 4th January and Wednesday 7th January from 7:45-8:15pm. Please do come along and join us as we continue to seek God’s will for our churches and benefice during 2009.

Lindors Weekend – 21st-23rd November 2008: Kingdom Builders
About fifty-five people (37 adults & 18 children) went from Marshfield to spend a weekend at Lindors Country House, in the Wye Valley. This was a weekend shared by the four CofE churches of the benefice and Marshfield Chapel. We were joined by a team from Holy Apostles Church, Cheltenham, who came to work with us. Revd Rod Paterson led the adult sessions.
The accommodation and food were excellent, as always, and we had great fun together. In more energetic moments there was; swimming, tennis, croquet, boules, walking, table tennis and ‘channel island cricket’ to keep us entertained. In the more relaxed moments, for those who weren’t sleeping, there was plenty of tea and chat by a roaring fire!

The theme of the weekend was ‘Kingdom Builders’. Rod started his sessions by refering to Nehemiah (see the OT) a man who had a dream/vision to rebuild the ruined city of Jerusalem. What was our dream for our churches? Rod asked. He then went on to point us to two familiar NT passages:
The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) – the priest and the Levite (full-time temple officials) didn’t stop to help, but the Samaritan did – and he used wine and oil materials used by the priest and Levite in temple worship. Rod showed us how the ‘laity’ (the Samaritan - not the paid professionals) are called upon to minister God’s love to others!
The feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6) – The disciples worried about how they would ever feed everyone, but Jesus simply asked them ‘What do you have?’ Jesus then took the five loaves and two fish and used them to feed the crowd. Rod spoke of how God will take the things we already have, not what we don’t have, and use it to achieve great things if we will allow him to do so!

During the group sessions, which accompanied Rod’s talks, we identified four potential ‘dreams’ for the church within the Marshfield area.
1. Deepening our Christian discipleship.
2. Reaching out to the wider community.
3. Retaining children and young people.
4. Improving our use of the buildings.
These four areas will be reflected upon during the coming months by the ministry teams from both St Mary’s Church and Marshfield Chapel so that these dreams can become our goals for the next few years.

Whilst looking to the future, you may like to know that we have indeed booked a return trip to Lindors in 2010! If you want to come do make a note of the dates; Friday 19th – Sunday 23rd November 2010. Once again we have booked the entire hotel so we can accommodate around sixty people. Provisional bookings will be taken in summer 2009.
Simon Drew

Time Apart:
This quiet reflective evening service will be held on the fourth Thursday of every month (with a break over Christmas and during the holiday months of July and August) in one of the churches in our Benefice. The service itself will vary in form as we draw on the wonderful resources of Celtic worship from the communities of Iona or Northumbria, the Anglican service of Night Prayer (Compline), or Taize based worship. The aim will be to offer to everyone in the four villages an opportunity to enjoy half an hour of peaceful worship away from the worries and busy-ness of our very full lives.

The next service is on Thursday, 22nd January, in St. Mary’s, Marshfield at 8pm.

'Anymen 4 Skittles’ - Wednesday 14th January:
On Wednesday 14th January there will be another men’s skittles evening in Marshfield Church Hall beginning at 8pm. The evening will simply be an opportunity for men linked to the churches of our benefice to have fun together without the usual business/pressures of church meetings. All men welcome - ability and experience are not required! Entry will be free and ‘suitable’ refreshments will be provided on a donations basis. For further details contact Simon Drew (891850)