Letter From The Vicarage - November 2011

Dear Friends,

We are gradually trying to work closer with the Saint Mary’s team with whom we are eventually going to join. Fleur and I are going to their regular monthly staff meetings. I and a representative from both churches are now invited to attend their PCC meetings which give us a flavour of what happens in the team and what projects are in hand.

Members of the congregation are invited to join with Saint Mary’s on 1^st November for an All Saints service at 7.30pm; this will be preceded by fireworks & refreshments in the churchyard from 6.30pm onwards. There is also an invitation to a “This is Your Life” on 5^th November at St. Barnabas, Franche, when Owain, the Team Rector will be in the hot seat. It will be a good way of getting to know something of his background and again getting to know members of the team more closely.

Also, on the 20^th November, there is a Team Confirmation at Saint Mary’s at 10.30am when we are presenting some candidates from our two churches. All these follow the very successful service we had at Wolverley on Ascension Day, when a large number of the Kidderminster Team came and joined us.

There is also an LEP or Local Ecumenical Project with Saint Mary’s and Trinity Methodist Church in the process of being set up. As you know we have an LEP with St. Peter’s and the Methodists in Cookley. However, now that there is no Methodist church in Cookley, the members have gone to Broadwaters and come to us on the fourth Sunday of the month. There will be an opportunity for working and worshipping with the Methodists further in the larger team because of the LEP at Saint Mary’s and Trinity.

I am setting up a meeting with the wardens at Chaddesley, Stone and Saint George’s because these have already been through a similar experience with the retirement of John Cox.

Do try and get to some of these joint events. I’m sure there will be many more opportunities in the future. Also remember the joining of our parishes in your prayers.

Your friend,

Geoffrey

From the Parish Registers Christenings

Elizabeth Rushbrook-Staight at Cookley – 9^th October

Harry Jack Bingham at Wolverley – 23^rd October

Molly Alicia Harris at Wolverley – 29^th October

Weddings

Matthew Lee Barratt and Lisa Knight at Cookley - 23^rd September

Funerals

John Bayes at Cookley – 16^th September

Leonard Archer at Wolverley – 30^th September

Lucy Elizabeth Meakin at Cookley and Stourbridge Crematorium – 7^th October

Susan Mopore (Caunsall) at Stourbridge Crematorium – 14^th October

Letter From The Vicarage - October 2011

Dear Friends,

Recently I have been thinking about Worship in our two churches.  It is an activity in which we share week by week and it seems to me that it may just become a habit – part of our lives which we are used to.  This is not a bad thing.  In fact it is good that we develop regular and good habits as long as we don’t do them unthinkingly.

We are fortunate in the Anglican Church to have a very fine liturgy – a set form of service which has some variation within it and with which we can get to know and love and which nourishes us over a period of time.

The word liturgy literally means “the work of the people”.  In other words, it is something we do together and something which needs a bit of effort on our part.  We don’t come just to receive, but we come to give as well.  We should not let the words flow over us making us feel good, although perhaps there are times when we feel like that.  I find that at the end of a busy Sunday, it is rather nice to follow a set form of Evensong and let the liturgy speak for itself.

Rather we should come to church prepared to work.  We should really pray the prayers and think about them.  We should listen hard both to the readings and to the sermon and think about them, even if they are a bit difficult to follow.  In fact if they are bit difficult we need to work at them a bit harder. 

Remember that the readers and the preacher are themselves doing the work of God to the best of their ability.

Although some people grew up on a diet of 8.00am communions where they could go to church and leave immediately it was over so that they didn’t have to speak to anyone, nowadays we put a big emphasis on speaking to others, welcoming them (as for example in the peace) and socialising.  Finally we remember together the Last Supper and the gift of Christ himself on the cross.

Hard work isn’t it?  Church needs to be quiet and reflective sometimes, when we don’t have to do too much. 

We just need comforting.  At other times it needs to stretch us and challenge us. These days services are made more enjoyable and more accessible, but they should nevertheless broaden our horizons and feed us spiritually.

Yours sincerely,

Geoffrey

From the Parish Registers

          

Christenings

Jamie Roderick Jones at Cookley - 17th September

Weddings

George Lloyd and Donna Galvin at Wolverley - 16th August

Neil Stanley and Amy Pope at Wolverley - 26th August

Matthew Craggs and Sophie Wooldridge at Wolverley – 3rd September

Paul Harvey and Emma Palfrey at Cookley – 3rd September

Glyn Rees and Christine Evans at Wolverley – 17th September

Funerals

Pamela King at Stourbridge (Cookley) -  11th August

Brian Price at Stourbridge (Cookley) 8th September

Ivor Frank Spittle at Cookley – 14th September

Sidney Slater at Stourbridge (Wolverley) 15th September