GIFT DAY AT CREECH ST MICHAEL
This year, our Gift Day will take place over the weekend of Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October, coinciding with our Harvest Thanksgiving. Envelopes for the gift day will be distributed this time with this edition of the parish magazine, to our Creech subscribers. If you pick up your magazine from church, please come and collect a gift envelope from church next time you’re in church. You can do this at a Sunday service or when the church is open in the day time.
The church will be open for receiving your response to our gift day on Saturday 5th October from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available, the church will be decorated for Harvest, and people available to chat. We hope you will support us.
This year, we have the opportunity to give to our church fabric fund which maintains the building; the church general fund which pays the cost of the ministry and mission of our church; and/or our new Children’s Worker fund which supports the ministry of our new Children’s, Families & Schools Worker. Please think and pray about how you will respond. Leaflets with full details of all of this are being distributed in the Gift Day envelope. We look forward to receiving your response.
Rebecca Harris
It’s SHOE BOX Time
I will be collecting shoe boxes as per usual to send off through Operation Christmas Child. There should be leaflets in all the churches. If you haven’t got one then ask me and I will get one to you.
If you don’t want to do your own shoe box then a contribution towards sending them would be useful as they now suggest £5 a box and quite a few boxes come in without the money to send them.
Once the shoe boxes leave us they go to a warehouse where they are checked over and sealed, put in large boxes and sent by lorry to the countries where children are in need. It’s the cost of transport that is expensive.
Remember packets of sweets but not chocolate, no clothes apart from hats, gloves and scarfs. No liquids. All soft toys must have CE marks. No books written in English as the children won’t understand them.
I need all boxes by the end of October. I can collect from church or if someone has a few from your house.
For more information look on the website: Samaritans-purse.org.uk/occ
Liz Harper
(01823 443369)
FAIRTRADE ADVENT CALENDARS 2019
I will be placing an order for the Real Advent Calendar again this year from the Meaningful Chocolate Company, in early November. It includes a fair-trade chocolate behind each window and a colourful booklet telling the Christmas story. It costs £3.99 which includes a charitable gift to the Funzi and Bodo Trust which proves mums and babies from poor African villages with care: clinics for pregnant mums, birthing rooms, baby growth and malnutrition clinics.
This is a lovely gift for any of the children in your family, godchildren, grand-children etc. You don’t have to let me know. I shall be selling them in church during November, or you can contact me directly and pick them up from the Rectory or church office during the week. I will order the usual number plus a few extra for any who would like to donate one to the Food Bank, which is always a brilliant thing to do. We don’t know who may receive this lovely gift which shares the story of Christmas with children we don’t know.
Rebecca
DEANERY DAY OF DISCOVERY – CALLED AND SERVING
Are you wondering what God has waiting for you to do and be? God has a plan and a purpose for each one of us, so if you want to explore what that might mean for you, then Called and Serving will provide a great opportunity.
St James Church Taunton
Saturday 12 October from 10.00 am to 3.30 pm
You are welcome to stay for the whole day, or drop in for any part of it.
In the morning there will be a presentation of Personal Discipleship plans. Over lunchtime there will be stalls around the church with displays, leaflets and people available to talk about different aspects of lay and ordained ministry. In the afternoon, from 1.30 pm there will be talks on being a churchwarden, a PCC secretary, pioneer ministry and being a project manager. For more details, pick up a leaflet in one of our churches, or have a word with me. No need to book in advance, please just turn up!
Rebecca Harris
Area Dean
Wells Cathedral Abseil
In pursuit of a new experience, yes why!, I have signed up to free fall Abseil 124ft from the top of the North West tower of Wells Cathedral on 28 September. I’ll be just one of a team who are united in the aim to raise funds for the Cathedral and the Shepton Mallett based charity SOS Africa. This organisation invests 80% of sponsorship in providing education and care to underprivileged South African children, and the other 20% to Wells Cathedral for upkeep of the building.
Donations for this fund of any amount will be greatly appreciated and can be made on line, simply search JustGiving Sally Tuer or to me in person, I have a sponsorship form. In return I’ll jump off the Tower, harnessed securely, I hope!
Sally Tuer
Lee Abbey Benefice Weekend 2020
In recent years we have enjoyed an annual weekend of spiritual refreshment and developing friendships in the wonderful setting and hospitality provided at Lee Abbey, near Lynton.
If you would like to join a church group in May or June next year it is time for us to make an initial reservation as soon as possible. These months get booked up very early at Lee Abbey.
If you wish to come or would like to find out more please can you contact me via the Benefice Office
At the current time there is availability on the weekends of:
1-3 May (Bank Holiday weekend)
15-17 May
12-14 June
26-28 June.
Let me know which weekends you would be free so that I can make an application.
Jane Hempson Brown
RUISHTON CHURCHYARD AND CEMETERY PLAN
We have now received the final version of the Ruishton Churchyard and Cemetery plan. Mr Eric Chown presented it to me at the end of May and a copy is now in our church for anyone to view when the church is open. To view the plan online please click here. We are very grateful to Eric for producing this for us. It will be a great help to anyone wanting to research their family history, or find a relative’s grave. In case anyone is not aware, the cemetery is found through the gates of the Old Vicarage and behind the church meeting room. This is now in the hands of Taunton Deane Borough Council as it is now closed to new burials.
Eric has made a meticulous and detailed plan for us which will make it much easier for us to maintain and for future generations to research their family history. We have given a small gift to Eric to thank him for all his hard work.
Rebecca Harris
Bible Recycling
A homel
ess person recently asked me whether I could give him copy of the Bible. He had lost his copy and wanted to read more. I was not sure where to find one in the church to give him at that moment and was frustrated at not being able to help
This led me to think about people coming off the street into our churches. People who might feel prompted to read more and don’t have God’s Word to take with them. They may not have enough money to buy their own Bible or they might just be desperate at that moment. It seems to me a bit bizarre that as an open church we might not be able to spread God’s word.
If our local churches were to offer free Bibles I think this might meet people’s need and so I feel nudged to collect and distribute them. Now I always carry a spare one, but would love to be able to offer more.
So I wonder whether you have an unmarked spare copy of the Bible you could donate to give away. If so, please bring the Bible to one of our services or leave in one of the churches with a note indicating that it is a donation.
Creech St Michael in two World Wars
It has recently been announced that the War Memorial in Creech St Michael has been granted a Grade II listing by Historic England so perhaps it is fitting to ask about all the names of the men of the parish who lost their lives during the two major conflicts of the last century.
I am doing research into all the names on the memorial in the churchyard. Sadly so little detail has survived about them, who they were and their family lives before the war.
Do you have any of these local names in your family?
ADAMS ALLEN BURT DART DAY DUKE
DUNNING FOXWELL HARVEY HILL HOOPER HOPKINS
HURFORD LEDDINGTON MITCHELL POOLE THATCHER VERRIER
VILE WALSH WEST
I am trying to trace all the family connections in the parish and to compile a commemorative book to be available in the church. I already have some details for all of the named men from the parish.
My aim is to give a very short biography of each serviceman, family connections to the parish and add details of their military service including the circumstances of their death. To include the military unit, rank, medals and any honours etc.
Most of the service records for the men of the Great War (1914 – 1918) were lost, being burnt during the Blitz on London during the 1939 – 1945 war, so military details are very sparse. But by using local sources, census information, newspapers and other lists available from the Somerset Heritage Centre, a picture of these men’s lives has emerged.
Anything that those with family connections can add either as a direct descendant, relative, friends or marriage lines will help to bring the memories back to the parish for us all to share.
Some of the families may have lost their ties to the village so if anyone reading this can add or give details of known family members who served and lost their life in the two world wars it would help to complete our knowledge of these brave men.
My list includes limited stories about the six men from the parish who are named during the Second World War (1939 – 1945). These men’s military details are closed* for 100 years so less personal information is known. *Families can apply for early release of sealed information from the National Archives, the current cost is about £30.
The on-going research is continuous, seeking details that will add to our understanding of the lives the men and families. Every endeavour will be made to ensure that the individual histories are correct. This is the reason for this appeal in the Church magazine.
If you have any details you wish to share please contact Eric via the Benefice office
BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE
St Michaels Church now has a book of remembrance. If anyone would like a loved one’s name added please fill in a form available in Church or contact Liz via the Benefice office.
Bell-ringing at Ruishton
If anyone is interested in bell-ringing, the new bell tower captain at Ruishton would be pleased to hear from you! Please contact Mervyn via the Benefice office.