The St Ippolyts Church Flower Festival is on for two more days. Come and see a splendid collection of flower arrangements depicted different days out. Then enjoy a cup of tea with delicious cake and maybe even buy some plants for your own garden. open from 11:00 to 17:00 Sunday 29th and Monday 30th May!
Reflections Blog
CHANGES
On the weekend of 11th and 12th June we officially celebrate the 90th birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. There never seems to have been a time when she was not our sovereign, and she seems to have broken every royal record in the book. Longest serving monarch - oldest reigning monarch - the most travelled monarch - the greatest and most loved monarch this (or any other) country has surely ever seen. One of my earliest memories is watching her coronation on a small black and white television in a neighbour's house, the picture blurred and flickering. It seemed to go on for ever and was thoroughly boring, so my friend and I spent much of the time chasing one another around the outside of the house with water pistols - to be exact bicycle pumps that could be filled with a satisfyingly large amount of water from the large square water butt placed conveniently by the back door. I wasn't a very nice small boy and we both got rather wet.
Now I am writing this on a computer, something that was utterly unheard of in those days. The rate of change in the 90 years that Her Majesty has graced this earth with her presence is greater even than the Industrial Revolution that we were taught about at school. It has been a time of racial, social, sexual, national and industrial revolution unlikely to be equalled. Amid it all there were the Sixties, an era when I was fortunate enough to be first at university then a young curate - a time of unprecedented religious liberation and revival. Now I see examples of the first cars I drove in museums, and my six year old granddaughter is teaching me to operate things that I would never have dreamed existed when I was her age. As we celebrate Her Majesty's 90th birthday we thank God for her,
for her dedication, her steadfastness, for the way that she represents all that is good in being British. A rock in a time
of change.
Change can be a very frightening thing. In the Church, in society, in our personal lives. We may have experienced a huge amount of it personally. Yet God never changes and the message preached by our church never changes. Perhaps the most sung and the most hackneyed hymn of all contains lines that we might remember at this time. ‘Change and decay in all around I see; In life, in death O Lord, abide with me.’ God never changes, his love never fails. He is always there for us; all we have to do is to reach out and know He is there.
Paul Lanham
St Ippolyts - Sunday 22nd May Trinity Sunday
09:30 CW Holy Communion - The Revd paul Lanham
Plus, Howell Davies for Evensong 18:30
and at Great Wymondley Doug Richardson for Parish Praise at 11:00
This week during our vacancy we welcome the following clergy
The Revd Paul Lanham
The Revd Adrian Hinksman
Pauline Sadler (or Jean Boothby)
There will be a sale of garden plants at Little Wymondley Church on Saturday 14th May from 11:00 and 14:00
ROGATION SUNDAY SERVICE - Sunday 8th May Don’t forget that the annual Rogation Sunday service will be held on 8th May (instead of 1st May) as this is the Sunday when Great Wymondley has a service. There will be a walk around the village to bless the crops, fields and gardens accompanied by Letchworth Morris who will dance at various places on the way. Refreshments will be served afterwards.
ASCENSION DAY - Thursday 5th May
It is St. Mary’s Church Great Wymondley’s turn to hold the Benefice Ascension Day service at 7.30am. followed by a delicious breakfast in the churchyard if fine, or in the church if too cold or wet. Come and join us for this special day, on what will hopefully be a fine spring morning, before you go off to work or get on with your day. The Venerable Jonathan Smith will be taking this service.
COMMUNITY LUNCH
The next Community Lunches will be on Wednesdays 4th May and 1st June from 12.45pm. till 2.00pm. in St. Ippolyts Parish Hall. (Serving time 12.45pm. till 1.00pm.) Cost £3. Everyone welcome.
Jane Veasey
KINDNESS
It's very good news that our new vicar, Reverend Ginni Dear, will be with us this summer. That this is sooner than we dared to hope is thanks largely to the hard work and efficiency of our churchwardens who saw to it that the advertisement for a priest went into the Church Times promptly and got on quickly with preparing the Parish Profile, a document available to all applicants, setting out the needs and nature of the benefice. In addition, churchwardens and PCC members have to shoulder extra duties during a vacancy, not the least being to find priests and lay ministers to take the services week by week, and to ensure that the pattern of church activities continues as usual.
We are fortunate also in being given ready help from beyond our parishes. Constantly looking out for us are our Rural Dean, Reverend Jane, Archdeacon Jonathan and Bishop Michael and in addition we continue to benefit from the help given us by other clergy and by Readers who willingly take services for us. We are grateful for all this kindness from people who already are or because of the vacancy, have become our friends. Putting it another way, we acknowledge that we get by with a lot (not just a little) help from our friends.
Kindness, better known as love, is one of the seven virtues. Scholars tell us that by origin and moral standing the philosophical ones are Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude. The theological ones are Faith, Hope and Love. Together these form the cardinal or chief virtues.
Kindness is an aspect of Love. Charity and courtesy, kindness and compassion, also reside in Love.
Hilaire Belloc put it this way;
Of Courtesy - it is much less than courage of heart or holiness;
Yet in my walks it seems to me that the Grace of God is in Courtesy.
Whichever word - kindness, charity, courtesy, compassion - is used to describe it, the Grace of heavenly Love is perfectly recognisable.
Surely it is the gift from God which brings us closer to Him, and to one another.
Pat Fry
Maureen Lane of the North Herts DFAS Church Recorders presented the archival record of St Ippolyts Church to Pam Skeggs during the 09:30 Holy Communion Service today, Sunday 24th April.
The Church recorders have been visiting the church over the past two years and have made a detailed record of all the furnishings, fittings, plaques etc within in our church. This has now been collated into a wonderful document and now serves as a permanent record of our furnishings etc within the church. Copies of this document will be sent to the Doicese at St Albans, The Church of England, the County archive and Historic England.
Although the recorders are all volunteers there was need for a sponsor to cover the additional costs and we are most grateful to Pam for providing this important sponsorship.
Maureen, who was introduced by our churchwarden, Michael Hooper, thanked all those in her team who had contributed to the document and those within our church who had added valuable information, these included, William and Ann Steel, Mrs Jean Andrews and the Revd Ann Pollington. Pam Skeggs responded that it was a privilage for us within the St Ippolyts Church community to have such a document and she thanked all recorders for all their efforts over the past two years. pam then passed on the bound document to the Churchwardens.
The document, although to be stored in the church safe, will always be available for viewing during special occasions and upon request to the the churchwardens.
This week we welcome to our Benefice the following who are supporting us during our vacancy -
The Revd Adrian Hinksman - St Ippolyts, 11:00 Wednesday 27th April CW Holy Communion
The Revd Canon Tom Purchas - St Ippolyts 08:00 Sunday 1st May BCP Holy Communion
Howell Davies - St Ippolyts 09:30 1st May Parish Praise
The Revd Adrian Hinksman - Little Wymondley 09:30 1st May CW Holy Communion
The Church Recorders (NADFAS) will present their recorded investigations to St Ippolyts Church during the 09:30 CW Holy Communion Service on Sunday 24th April.
Their document that they will present to us will be a fascinating record of our church furnishings.
This week during our vacancy we welcome to our Benefice :-
St Ippolyts - Wednesday 20th April 11:00 CW Holy Communion with the Revd Adrian Hinksman.
St Ippolyts - Sunday 24th April 09:30 CW Holy Communion with the Revd Paul Lanham
St Ippolyts - Sunday 24th April 18:30 Evensong with Howell Davies
Great Wymondley - Sunday 24th April 11:00 CW Holy Communion with the Revd Tom Purchas
Thanks to all for helping us during our vacancy