In the United Benefice of St Giles, Balderton, All Saints, Barnby-in-the-Willows

& All Saints, Coddington

(In the deanery of Newark & Southwell and the Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham)

Contact Information Vicar: Rev’d Louise Holliday

Tel: 01636 704811 Email: revdlouiseholliday@gmail.com

Associate Priest: Rev’d Phil Smith Tel: 07532 164314

Reader: Mr Mike Bache Tel: 01636 674741

Church Administrator: Mrs Louise Riley Tel: 01636 704811 (Wednesdays) Email: nsdeaneryoffice@gmail.com

Churchwarden: Mrs Yvonne Hayman Email: yhayman64@gmail.com

Churchwarden: Ms Sue Lovell Email: susanlovell244@gmail.com

April 2019

All Saints, Coddington

From the Vicarage Thanks to Revd Louise Holliday for this month’s contribution

s many of you will know, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my first grandchild later this month; there is so much to look

forward to when a baby is on the way but, for me, one of the many things that I am looking forward to is sharing a story with

my grandson or daughter. I loved reading books with my children, and I cannot wait to do the same with this little one, with Hairy Maclary or Winnie the Pooh just two of my favourite characters.

Sharing stories is an important part of our life as a church community and on Sunday 24th February, at the Songs of Praise service, John Dodd shared with us some of the stories behind the hymns chosen. We also heard Mark Westmoreland and Paul Handley share their experience of coming to faith. It was wonderful to hear their stories and to be reminded that we each play a part in the shared story of the life of our churches, whether that’s St Giles or All Saints at Barnby or Coddington.

This month we will be celebrating Easter, as our journey through Lent leads us to the events of Holy Week, Good Friday and the amazing event of Easter Day. We will take time to hear the story of Jesus final days with his disciples and their complete shock and disbelief at the discovery of the empty tomb. The story may well be familiar to us but each year we are invited to slow down and listen again. When we do, we can be sure that we will encounter a new and surprising truth about how, through Jesus life, death and resurrection, God revealed to humanity his amazing power to restore and redeem the whole of creation.

And the amazing thing about this story is that as we pay attention to it and retell it, we become part of it as, through His grace, God invites us to share in His mission to our communities.

Story telling is a part of our heritage – we all grew up listening to and learning stories. The gospels tell the story of God’s redeeming love for every single one of us. It has the power to transform the world and we are invited to play our part in bringing about that transformation.

So, this Easter, I pray that we would hear the story afresh and take our place as the story of God’s mission continues. Have a blessed Easter! Love and prayer, Revd Louise

April Sunday Services

******************** Sunday 7th April: Fifth Sunday of Lent

9.30 am Holy Communion Readings: Isaiah 43. v. 16-21; Philippians 3. v. 4b-14; John 12. v. 1-8

Sunday 14th April: Palm Sunday

4.00 pm Holy Communion Readings: Isaiah 50. v. 4-9a; Luke 22. v. 14 - 23.end

Thursday 18th: Maundy Thursday

7.30 pm Holy Communion & Stripping of the Altars

Friday 19th: Good Friday 6.00 pm Meditations at the Cross

Sunday 21st April: Easter Day 9.30 am Easter Day Eucharist

Readings: Acts 10. v. 34-43; 1 Corinthians 15. v. 19-26; John 20. v. 1-18

Sunday 28th April: Low Sunday 6.00 pm Evening Prayer

Readings: Acts 5. v. 27-32; John 20. v. 19-end

********************

Every Monday: 9.15 am Morning Service

All Saints’ Coddington’s

Annual Parochial Church Meeting will be held on Tuesday 2nd April 2019

at 7.00 pm in All Saints’ Church Coddington

Please pray for:

We pray for those who are ill at this time and for those who are grieving and mourning the

loss of loved ones. *******************

Our prayer list at All Saints has been renewed and so if you wish for us to continue to pray for someone, or alternatively you would like

us to pray for someone new, please send details in to our administrator, Mrs Louise

Riley, at nsdeaneryoffice@gmail.com

CHURCH NOTICES

If you have any safeguarding concerns about children, young people, or vulnerable adults, then please contact our Churchwardens.

******************* If you have any concerns about health & safety in the church or churchyard, then please contact our Health & Safety Co-ordinator, Nigel Hayman, on 01636 673204.

******************* Should you be in need of first aid, our First Aid Kit is located in church on the wall to the left of the vestry door.

******************* Please note that instances of dog fouling in our churchyard have recently increased. Please be alert to this and report instances to the Church Wardens – Yvonne Hayman on 07977 696772, or Sue Lovell on 01636 676707. If appropriate, please alert people to the need to respect the families of those buried in our churchyard by not allowing their dogs to use it as a toilet, and the need for them to pick up their dog’s poo if necessary!

Weddings & Baptisms

All wedding and baptism bookings will be made at the “Surgery” which is held every Tuesday between 6 and 7pm in St Giles’ Church, Balderton and staffed by churchwardens and Revd Louise. Please direct any enquiries here.

Easter - Eggstravaganza

All Saints' will be holding an 'Easter - Eggstravaganza on 13th April. Apart from other attractions on offer, we will be having a Chocolate Tombola. If you feel you could donate an Easter egg or something similar, it would be greatly appreciated. Please leave with Barbara Horton or Sheila Bache. Many thanks.

Check us out…. @CoddingtonAllSaints

https://www.achurchnearyou.com/all-saints-coddington/

'Little Fishes baby and preschool

group. Craft play, bible story time and

refreshments at Coddington

Community Centre on a Monday 9:30-10:30 am during term time

March is the month when 'The Children's Society' home collection boxes, are due to be opened. Thank you to those that have managed to get your box to me. If you still have your box, please phone 01636 674741 to arrange collection.

Many Thanks Sheila

The Bonus Ball winner for Saturday 2nd March was All Saints' with

number 54.

Good luck for next time.

HOME GROUPS We now have three Home Groups that meet during the week. The groups offer a great opportunity to get to know each other a little better and share our story and experiences. If you are interested in joining a Home Group or would just like a little more information, get in touch with Rev Louise and she would be delighted to have a chat and introduce you to a group.

Pat Walker is a member of one of the groups that have been looking at Rowan Williams’ book ‘Being Disciples’, and she has kindly offered her reflections on her experience of belonging to a Home Group.

She writes…

"BEING DISCIPLES" - HOME GROUP “Over the past 6 - 8 weeks a small group of us have met at each other’s homes to explore more about "Being Disciples". With the help of Rowan Williams, the author of the little book, we have been able to explore in more detail the challenges of being a Christian in today's complex world. We were a very diverse group who hardly knew each other when we started this particular journey, but by listening, respecting and encouraging each other, friendship has been nurtured and although studying this book has sometimes been a struggle, it has been mostly informative and fun! The experience has enabled us to learn from each other, so before you say "home groups are not for me" I would recommend you give one a try.”

Theft of Lead

It is with sadness that I report that the lead has been stolen from the North Aisle roof at All Saints’ Church. This occurred overnight of Monday 18th March 2019 and Tuesday 19th March 2019.

The roof itself was only repaired in 2017. At present we have secured the roof with a tarp to make it weatherproof, and will look to repairing it.

You may have heard the reports on the local news. All Saints is not the only church that has been targeted by criminals stealing lead from church roofs. Over the last week the following churches have had lead stolen:

St Wilfred's Church, Marsh Lane, North Muskham St Peter's Church, Church Lane, Widmerpool All Saints Church, Top Street, Elston St Bartholomew's Church, Langford St Matthew’s, Normanton on Trent

It is a time to be vigilant. We pray for the means to be able to repair the damage caused.

Anyone with any information, please contact the police. The officer in charge of our investigation is Pc 3088 Christine Hewlett. Newark Police Station.

Yvonne Hayman

Open Church

Please note that our Open Church days started again on Wednesday, 27 March 2019, 0900 - 1500. As always we are looking to extend our team of volunteers to assist us with the roof grant requirement that we be open for 40 (non-service) days per annum. If you can assist us with these 1-hour slot rotas we would be very grateful. Please contact Joan Rigby on 07896 415 047, or Sue Lovell on 01636 676707, for more information. If you are unable to commit to being a volunteer, then do please pop in for a coffee/tea; chat; choose a book; quiet reflection;………….. as we would love to see you and our volunteers would love having you to visit! Also, please bring along your family and friends, and remember to sign our visitors book, as a return on our visitor numbers each year has to be made to English Heritage in support of our roof grants. Our April opening days and times are: Wednesday, 3 April 0900-1500 Saturday, 6 April 0930-1530 Wednesday, 10 April 0900-1500 Wednesday, 17 April 0900-1500 Wednesday, 24 April 0900-1500

After many successful years of Time Travelling at Southwell Minster, Rev. Louise Holliday (vicar of Balderton) suggested that we could do something similar at St Giles for our local schools. The Diocesan Time Travelling is an opportunity for primary school pupils to make a pilgrim to the Minster to engage in a variety of activities and to find out more about Jesus, Christianity and the life of the Church. Back in September 2018, Rev Louise and a group from St Giles met with Diana Ives, the Cathedral Education Officer, in Balderton Church to begin planning how we could use the church to offer a bespoke package that would be appropriate for the two local schools, Chuter Ede and John Hunt Primaries. We agreed that we would like this to be an annual event so decided that it would be aimed at Year 4 pupils (8-9-year olds). Both schools readily accepted the invitation as it would complement their Religious Education curriculum and dates were agreed for March 2019. From the original meeting’s multitude of ideas, the planning group finally chose six activities that would be available with the children sorted into six groups and each group would do four of these activities during the two-hour session with a short refreshment break in the middle. The six activities were:

• Remembrance/memories linked to the centenary of the Armistice of 1918

• The Organ and how it works, the use of music in worship

• Communion; why we celebrate it and

how this is done, including symbols and imagery involved

• Stained Glass Windows; how they tell stories from the Bible and making their own windows on paper

• Making Prayer bracelets and thinking about the different types of prayers that can be said (Praise, Ask, Sorry, Thanks, Amen)

• Looking at vestments worn by clergy and Bishops and how the colours of these change according to the seasons of the church year. There was also an opportunity to dress up in child sized vestments.

We had 90 children on the first day and 60 on the second and all really enjoyed the activities. They were totally engaged and gave very positive feedback, as did their teachers: “Thank you for such a lovely morning – we all had a wonderful time.” “The children are all full of positives about it all! They really enjoyed it!” “We need to come into church more often to do things like this.” “If you do decide to make this an annual thing, we would be interested in doing it again!” It was such a privilege to see children welcomed into the church and to see them engaging with and learning more deeply about the Christian Faith. It will certainly become an annual event.

John Dodd, Deputy Church Warden

St Giles Balderton does Time Travelling

Benefice Website: bbc-churches.org.uk