GRATWICH NEWSLETTER
June 2021
For further information about anything in the newsletter, please contact:
Rev. Charles Dale 01889 500428: email: [email protected]
Jenny Talbot: 01889 50241 email: [email protected]
Facebook: St. Mary’s Church Gratwich
GRATWICH SERVICES IN JUNE
SUNDAY 6th 7.00pm Evening Prayer via ZOOM
SUNDAY 13th 11.15am Holy Communion IN CHURCH
SUNDAY 27th 7.00pm Evening Prayer IN CHURCH
Phone Jenny (01889 502471) to book a seat in church and please bring a mask.
Well let’s hope June weather is better than May was - I began to think we were still in
April with all the showers and even hail storms! Still not much grass and not much
silaging being done yet let alone haymaking, this time last year some people had made
hay. I set my tomato plants out in the greenhouse yesterday and as I dug the holes they started to fill up with water, hope the plants don’t drown.
St. Mary’s Church is in desperate need of the electrics being re-wired. If anyone has any ideas of events we could hold to raise money for this please contact Jenny (01889 502471)
At last month’s Annual Parochial Church Council Meeting the following were elected
Chairman Rev. C. Dale
Churchwardens Miss R Adams & Mrs C Woolley
Secretary & Safeguarding Co-ordinator Mrs J Talbot
Treasurer Mrs S Capewell
Electrol Roll Officer Mrs M Cotton
Deanery Synod and Team Council Rep. Ms C Hollins
PCC Members – all the above plus Mrs S Cotton and Mrs M Recine
100 CLUB – MAY - drawn at the Evening Service on 23rd May
1st Fearn Woolley 2nd Simon Capewell 3rd Molly Cotton
The next draw will be at the service on 27th June in church .
Dianne in St. Mary’s Uttoxeter office is collecting GENUINE Brother, Cannon, Dell, Epson or Hewlett Packard ink cartridges and used postage stamps, both foreign and British, for MS research.
Please let her have any if you can.
Some Good News!
Rev. Jules Walker will be joining us as team vicar and living in the village of Marchington.
She will be the team vicar for Marchington, Marchington Woodlands, Kingstone and Stramshall and will be working within the Uttoxeter Area of Parishes, for a period of three years.
We look forward to meeting her and welcoming her and her family into our communities. Rev. Jules will be licensed on the 5th August by the Bishop.
Hi everyone,
We had a lively discussion about Mark's Gospel of Action last week, and appreciated it all the more for reading it in one sitting. It was our 1st gospel together as a group, but we're going back to the Old Testament for our next book....Obadiah. As it's only one chapter (oh yes!), we thought we should try out a few more of the minor prophets, so we're also going to read Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai.
Probably not books many of us have read at all, so do join us on Zoom on Wednesday June 30th at 7.30pm, same link as before;
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85964445235
Kind regards,
Lesley
Lesley J White (Mrs), Area Coordinator and PA to Area Rector for Uttoxeter Area of Parishes.
Bramshall Checkley Gratwich Kingstone Leigh Marchington Marchington Woodlands Stramshall Upper Tean Uttoxeter
Answers to last month’s Country Words
1) YUN – is Worcestershire word meaning lambing
2) PEGGLE – is a word from Essex for cowslip
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
25th June – National Cream Tea Day – treat yourselves to a cream tea in the garden!
18th July - Kingstone Fete Some thoughts for the Area June 2021
The final episode of BBC One's Line of Duty was watched by an average of 12.8 million viewers on that Sunday night, the most watched episode of any drama since modern records began in 2002.
Were you one of the viewers who tuned in to find out the identity of criminal mastermind, H? And did you agree with the critics that the series ended with an anti-climax with lots of loose ends and plenty of scope for further episodes.
One of Hastings most famous quotes is “Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey” and it seems to be one that has been appreciated. Several lines of duty are incorporated into that phrase.
Jesus: the main character in a murder story, one series finished with his resurrection, not a disappointing end that time. The next series is underway, and God knows that the last episode will be triumphant.
Mary: a girl who chose to embrace with joy the challenges of her line of duty, no guns required for this strong but humble woman.
Joseph: a key character who takes a back seat after the first episode
The Wee Donkey: carrying Mary to Bethlehem and Jesus to Calvary, not a fast car with a siren, but still getting people to places at the right time.
Jesus needed Mary Joseph and the wee donkey, in order to complete his purposes. The complexity of their relationships with each other and the world haven’t been fully explained yet- but they will be one day.
And we are also characters in this epic drama, may not be in uniform, may only be a split second on screen but still specially selected by God and part of the big picture. What now for us? The fear may be genuine, there is a lot at stake, there are so many opportunities, and we don’t know where the story line is going. We may have been slow to grasp who H was but let’s grasp who HS is. We do have a Heavenly Director in charge of our reality, a Colleague who won’t let us down, and the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Whether you have watched Line of Duty on TV or not, we are in this amazing set and with colourful characters let’s play our part in the exciting adventure God has for Uttoxeter Area.
Lucy Toyn
Reader Uttoxeter Area