“A Most Special Invitation for Each of Us”When a friend invites us to join in an event which has special significance for them, enabling us to share more fully in their life, it is a wonderful expression of their appreciation and love for us……and that is especially the case when Jesus, the presence of our living, loving God ‘in the flesh’, invites each of us to ‘come and follow him’ (the very same personal invitation he gave to the fishermen who became his earliest followers), offering us the opportunity to ‘come and see’ for ourselves how the living God is revealing his own awesome presence, power, purposes and promises in the events of Jesus’ life and ministry. This personal invitation especially includes journeying with Jesus through Holy Week (24th – 31st March), and our churches in Alrewas, Fradley and Wychnor most warmly wish to welcome you and your family to join in with the various special services and activities hosted by each one (details available in each church’s section in this edition of Parish News)…..Come and experience the first day of Holy Week – Palm Sunday (24th March) – as Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem is retold in story, movement and symbol (with palm crosses for all) …enter into the awe and wonder of the crowds which celebrated Jesus as King, but had no idea what that might mean for their own lives……what might it mean for ours? On Maundy Thursday (28th March), join us at All Saints Alrewas as we gather from all three villages to enter into the experience of Jesus’ ‘last supper’ with his disciples, and Jesus blows his disciples’ minds as he reveals completely unexpected insights into God’s presence and power in their lives….and ours too! This moving Communion Service will include symbolic ‘handwashing’ for those who wish to partake…….……as we remember Jesus being betrayed by one of his very own and his disciples abandoning him out of fear for their own lives, from 9pm to 12am a ‘Night Watch’ will continue in All Saints, with opportunity for candle-lit personal meditation and occasional readings – you are warmly invited to ‘drop in’ and stay for however long you wish, as we prepare for the world-changing events the next day…On Good Friday (29th March), you are invited to participate in a variety of services and activities which help us to experience the awesome depth and costliness of God’s love for our world, and for each one of us personally, as the events leading to Jesus’ death are retold in story, song, activities and experiences for all agesFollowing an eerily quiet ‘Holy Saturday’ as the painful reality of Jesus’ death sinks in, we sincerely hope everyone will join in our churches’ joy-filled celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection on EASTER SUNDAY (31st March) as we celebrate the life-changing victory of God’s love!We sincerely hope you will accept this personal invitation to join in the wonder of Holy Week, and experience afresh the amazing presence and power of God tomake all things new….including me and you, and our lives now and eternally!Vicar John
Join in a Life-Changing Journey….. The six week long Christian season of ‘Lent’ invites each of us to join in a very special ‘journey with Jesus’ as he lives out the final stages of his earthly ministry, revealing God’s amazing sacrificial love for each one of us – and, indeed the whole of creation - by the giving up of himself to an excruciating death on a Roman cross. In my experience, a great many people associate the Christian season of Lent as a time to intentionally ‘give up something’ you personally enjoy (reflecting the traditional ‘Lenten fast’ by abstaining from certain foods), to heighten our appreciation of what Jesus experienced for our sake. For all who find this a valuable practice, I warmly commend it to you…..But it’s important to add that, whether you embrace this practice or not, Lent can and should be a special time in which each one of us is invited and challenged to engage in deeper and richer opportunities for reflecting, learning and growing as human beings so that, as we journey with Jesus to the cross, our daily attitudes, choices and actions may also experience an amazing, life-enhancing transformation beyond our wildest dreams! May I take this opportunity to invite you to join in any - or indeed all - of the following local opportunities which everyone in the communities of Alrewas, Fradley and Wychnor are most warmly welcome to participate in during the upcoming Lenten season:Ash Wednesday ‘United Service’ at All SaintsParish Church, Wednesday 14 February, 7:30pmThe ’40 day’ Lenten journey begins with this important day, with the use of ‘ash’ on our foreheads reminding us of our mortality and our ultimate dependence on God for life in all its fullness, and Holy Communion to fortify us for the journey ahead!You are most warmly invited to continue this life-changing ‘journey with Jesus’ by joining in this year’s Lenten Discussion Group opportunity which is being offered at All Saints Parish Church on Wednesday nights beginning 21st February through 27th March (7:00 to 8:30pm, with free refreshments ), featuring the acclaimed BBC series ‘Tales from the Madhouse.’Eight arresting monologues, from award-winning actors including Helen Baxendale, Tony Robinson and James Cosmo, win our empathy as we gradually recognise them as players in a universal story….for, lurking in these stories, hidden in a crumbling asylum, are ‘eyewitnesses’ of Jesus: people like the Centurion, the thief on the cross, and Judas the betrayer.In a series of powerful and thought-provoking short episodes, their motivations and private worlds are laid bare; we glimpse the moments when they brushed with someone who intrigued, galvanised, even astonished them. In meeting Jesus, they each touched the light –but, seven of these eight returned to the shadows…..the result is a series of gripping tales which dig deep down into their lives, and ours too – if we’re daring enough to join them on this journey of discovery!Of course, the season of Lent culminates with the observance of Holy Week (Sunday 24th through Saturday 30th March), including special worship opportunities and events focussing on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday in the churches serving our three communities, and culminating with a glorious celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday, 31st March……… further details about all of the special opportunities during Holy Week 2024 will be offered in next month’s Parish News, so please ‘stay tuned’! With every blessing, Vicar John
“The Most Precious New Year’s Gift of All” The most precious gift you will receive this New Year, which God graciously offers to each of us, is - quite simply - the gift of time. Now, God doesn’t give us this gift in one big lump sum, which would be totally overwhelming and unmanageable (after all, 31,536,000 seconds in one year is an overwhelming lump sum, by anyone’s measure!). Instead, God gives it to us by means of a very special type of ‘bank account’, which is wonderfully depicted in the following (anonymous) reflection entitled Sands of Time: If you had a bank that credited your account every morning with £86,400, that carried no balance over from day to day, allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every penny, of course, and use it to your advantage! The fact is, each of us has such a bank, and its name is TIME. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night, it writes off as lost whatever of this we have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance, and it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account for us; each night it burns the balance of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposit, the loss is yours – there is no going back. There is no drawing against ‘tomorrow’. It is up to each of us to invest this precious fund of hours, minutes and seconds in order to get from it the most out of today. Wow! Just think – for every day in the coming New Year, God will credit us with 86,400 seconds to spend. What a tremendous gift! In our pressurised daily lives, we often say, ‘There just aren’t enough hours in the day’ to get everything done. But, given the gift of 86,400 seconds each day, the question is not actually ‘whether we have the time’ (we do!), but rather – in 2024, how will we choose to use the time we have ‘in the bank’ each day of our lives? Will our daily use of those 86,400 seconds include not only work, but also time for play and refreshment? Will we spend enough of our time not only with (or on) ourselves, but also with cherished family members and friends, and joining in the life of our local community with all it has to offer? And what about our response to the one who so graciously gives us each and every moment of our existence – what portion of our time will we give to God each day, and each week, through private prayer as well as public worship and community service, so that – being truly aware of his amazing gift of time to us - we live out every moment of our lives with a tremendous sense of wonder and joy?My hope and prayer in this New Year is for each of us to ‘empty the time bank’ every day, using each moment wisely and thoughtfully - in the service of God, in meeting the needs of those around us, and in developing our own gifts and aptitudes as persons wonderfully crafted in the very image of God! Your Vicar and friend, John Allan
A Special Appeal to all the residents of Alrewas Village from Vicar JohnRising to the Challenge…of Raising £100,000 Dear Friends, As many of you will know, the very first church which was built in Alrewas (on the present site near the mill and stream, which is where the village was formed) was a small thatched roof structure around 830 AD – and we’ve been blessed to have a church building on this site ever since, with the stone-built Norman church erected in the 1100’s and modified over many hundreds of years. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to previous generations of villagers who have generously offered their time, talents and treasures along the way, enabling all of us to benefit from the well-equipped and maintained ‘Grade I’ listed building known as All Saints Parish Church, which belongs to us all and is here to serve this special village and its growing community. We are delighted that it is open and welcoming daily to everyone, whether villagers or visitors! Over the years, many of you will have enjoyed coming to All Saints for various forms of Christian worship. These will have included regular Sunday and Wednesday services; special festival occasions at Harvest-time, Remembrance Sunday, Christmas and Easter; as well as services personally meaningful to you and your loved ones, particularly christenings, weddings and funerals. In recent years, we’ve also offered new forms of services to meet the varied spiritual and practical needs of folks in our village, including All-Age Praise, ‘Reflections’ meditative service, Café Church, and Village Songs of Praise. Of course, we’re also thrilled that our beautiful church is seen by the village community as a valued amenity for everyone’s use and benefit throughout the year – for example, providing not only a regular meeting place for the Alrewas Community Choir (with its special concerts) and the Alrewas Show Committee, but also creatively using the facilities for treasured village events such as Open Gardens and the Arts Festival, as well as providing hot soup, refreshments and a warm space on ‘Souper Wednesdays’ during the colder months of the year! All of these events – and a great many others which haven’t been mentioned – depend upon our ancient Parish Church building remaining in sound shape! Over these past 22 years that I’ve had the privilege of serving as your Vicar, we’ve all worked hard together to ensure that regular maintenance was regularly performed, professional inspections carried out, dangerously worn stonework replaced, electrical systems renewed, and the church tower (which was becoming structurally unsound and unsafe) has had major restoration work carried out to ensure that our building could continue to be used safely and enjoyably by all. Over the past year, our Architect has been inspecting and monitoring the church roof, and particularly the lead lining which protects the ancient wooden roof structure, since more frequent leaks are occurring due to the lining which has been exposed to the elements for more than 60 years, patched countless times over the decades, having now become dangerously thin. A full replacement of the protective lead lining over the nave (central) roof section is required as soon as achievable, in order to prevent the wooden roof from serious deterioration and becoming structurally unsound. The longer we delay replacing the lead, the greater the risk we run of serious structural damage to this special building, as well as significantly higher costs for replacement of water-damaged ancient wooden roof timbers! The Architect has recently confirmed the actual present-day net costing of this project as £150,000. The good news is that All Saints Church has already succeeded in raising £50,000 towards this (including some very generous funeral collections in memory of beloved villagers!). Our aim is to be able to commence this vital restoration work in the summer of 2024 – but in order to start the project, we must successfully raise the remaining £100,000, including via donations and grants! We have established a Nave Roof Appeal Strategic Fundraising Team to explore all possible avenues for raising the revenue needed and are deeply grateful for the willingness of Anthony Coates (Coates the Butchers), Richard Kirkland (RJK Construction), and Peter Ralley (Alrewas Archives/Arts Festival) from the village community to contribute their expertise and energy in helping us to move forward as swiftly as possible. Next year marks my 40th anniversary of full-time ordained Ministry, as well as 23 years of privileged service as your Vicar! Having recently announced my plans for retirement in September 2024, it would give me the greatest joy if – during my final year with you all – we could together successfully reach this goal and get the project underway…..If you are willing and able to support this project for the benefit of this generation and those who will follow us, I have detailed below how contributions can be made. With my deepest personal appreciation and gratitude for your valued friendship and support, and every blessing, Vicar JohnDonations can be made in any of the following ways:-1. Posting an envelope through the Vicarage letter box.2. Posting an envelope in the donations box just inside the main church door.If using either of the above methods, please mark envelopes ‘Roof Appeal’ and if you are a taxpayer, completion of a green gift aid envelope (these are available in Church by the donations box) will increase the value of your donation by 25%. Alternatively, please also annotate your own envelope ‘Gift Aid’ and include your name, house number / name, and post code.3. Via our Just Giving Page - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/all-saints-church-alrewas This has a facility which allows donors to remain anonymous should you prefer. The page is in the process of being updated to reflect the launch of the roof appeal but as this is also a vehicle for other donations to the Church, please clearly state that your donation is for the roof appeal, and as with direct donations, please indicate where Gift Aid can be claimed.4. Directly to the PCC’s Bank Account. If you would like to donate in this way, please contact our Treasurer, Nick Kilford on 07912 359237, or via email at treasurer@alrewasallsaints.church.
