The Magazine, February 2005 (Section 1)

Magazine Production Team
Deadline for March magazine: 15th February

Team News

New Editors
We welcome our new editors this month, Steven and Jenny Colby. They have readily assumed Jill’s mantle and we look forward to their stewardship of the magazine.

Thank You
Although it seems a long time ago, thank you to everyone who made such a contribution to our Christmas Services. Flowers, music, candles, readers, sidespeople, cleaners, vergers, sacristans ………….the list is endless. Lent will be upon us early this year and we begin on Ash Wednesday 9 February at 8.00pm in St Andrew’s Church. This service will contain the traditional ashing and penitential rites.

CBC Course
This month also sees the introduction to the 2005 Communion before Confirmation Course. On Sunday 27 February in the Langley Hall there will be a meeting for parents wishing to have their child admitted to communion. The children are also very welcome to this meeting and Tracey Williams and her team are organising children’s activities alongside the meeting and after it.

Confirmation Service
The Bishop of Reading is coming to the Parish on June 12 for a Confirmation Service. Those people, particularly adults who would like to be confirmed are invited to Peter Bestley’s series of 5 evenings in Lent. The course is an introduction to the Christian faith and is open to everybody who would like to do a refresher course in Christian basics. Peter has put a separate article in the magazine with the details and Suzanne Ackford will be sharing in the leadership of the course.

Wedding Choir
The Wedding Choir is up and running and our grateful thanks to Neil Arden assisted by Michael Jackson who has been the driving force behind it. We await to see how many couples take the offer up this year.

Annual Meetings
The annual meetings take place in April and there will be members of the PCC who are coming to the end of their term of office. Please think about who you would like to represent you on the PCC. In addition to this Graham Dives completes his term of six years as Parish Warden and the standing committee would value some thought being given to who might be our new Parish Warden.

David

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News from Holy Trinity

Buildings
The building and repair work are almost complete for the time being and we now turn our attention to the roof. At some point the architect will give us an accurate estimate of the cost and the urgency of the situation. As you know, nearly all the tiles are in good condition, it is the nails that appear to have rusted through. But we don’t know how many and how serious the situation is. In any case, the financial situation is such that until we raise new money for the roof then we can’t really make definite plans.

Tsunami Concert
This is being written before the Tsunami Concert, but I need to say what an incredible response we have had from so many people. Everything is at short notice and Holy Trinity have responded generously and lovingly……………..thank you.

Intercessions
We need a couple more people to share in leading intercessions. If you are interested please have a word with either Mark or myself.

Important Date
A date for your diary……………..Mark Ackford’s priesting is on Sunday 26 June in Reading and we hope to make up a good group to go and support him. Do we have a service that morning, or all go to the Minster in Reading?

David

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News from St Andrew's

St. Andrew’s Day
The Visit of Bracknell Methodists on St. Andrew's Day was a great success. A good number of people came to listen to and ask questions about our Patron saint and the Church of St. Andrew in Priestwood. Afterwards we shared afternoon tea. A big thank you to Janet, Jean and June for their work in providing the tea.

Patronal Festival
St. Andrew's Patronal Festival service was a very happy occasion as we welcomed Fr John Allen a former priest of St. Andrew's. Fr John was the person who had such a large input into the style of the new building that we are fortunate to have this day. Most people comment as to the wonderful atmosphere of St. Andrew's for worship and a large vote of thanks should go to Fr John for his vision and indeed his hard work and ministry over 7 years in the parish.

School Carol Service
On the 17th December we welcomed Meadow Vale School for their Christmas Carol service. Once again they packed the church and sang a mixture of traditional and modern carols as we listened to the Nativity story.

Carol Singing
On the 18th December a group of carol singers from Bracknell Methodist church and St. Andrew's raised over £150 for charity singing outside Safeways

Christmas Party
On the 24th December we had for the first time the St. Andrew's Pram and Toddler group meeting for their Christmas party in the afternoon. It was a great success with a large number of children, parents and grandparents enjoying the fun and the visit of Father Christmas (Thank you to Mark Byron). The children and adults then stayed for the Crib service which had a large congregation of over 100.

A big Thank You
Thank you to all those who gave their time and energy to planning the Christmas services. Special thanks to Chris Norman, the choir, the servers, Mary Townsend for the flowers and Janet for her work in preparing the church. Thank you to Jean and George for the Christmas Tree and again all those who supported and helped with the services.

Future Events
Lent Study Groups : From Monday 14th February we will be sharing with Bracknell Methodist Church for the Lent Study Group at Lunch time and in the evening. All are welcome.

Early Morning Eucharists
St. Andrew's will have two of the early morning Eucharists followed by breakfast to celebrate Candlemass on the 2nd February at 6.30am and on the 1st March at 6.30am to celebrate St. David. All are welcome.

Ash Wednesday
On the 9th February we will host at St. Andrew's the Ash Wednesday service with a Eucharist and Ashing for the Parish. The service will begin at 8pm

Lentern Devotions
10th Feb St. Andrew's begins its Lentern devotions with the Stations of the Cross. We will meet each Thursday at 7.15pm throughout Lent to share in the stations of the Cross. All are welcome.

Nancy Tatham
It was with great sadness that the congregation of St. Andrew's heard of the death of Nancy just before Christmas. Nancy was a committed member of St. Andrew's a brilliant Scrabble player, she loved sport in particular football and rugby and in her mid seventies completed an open university degree. Nancy was a lovely person who was always interesting to talk to and will be greatly missed.

St. Andrew's Heating System
Just before Christmas we heard the good news that John McNeill our heating engineer felt that we could install a new condensing boiler which would cost £5000 and save about 20% on our gas bills. John will begin work on the system in January so we hope to have a heated building in the next few weeks. Of course we will still be hoping to begin our 100 club as soon as possible, anyone from the parish or friends of parishioners will be welcome to join.


Fr Jeremy

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News from St Paul's

Christmas
We had a lovely Christmas at St Paul’s, there was a super atmosphere in church for all our services and a special thank you goes to all those who organised and helped on Christmas Eve.

The children’s activity day went very well and this was followed by a special crib service which was organised and lead by members of the older children’s club.

The New Year
And now the New Year is upon us and it is going to be a busy year for all at St Paul’s. The year started with the floor of the church being sanded and re-sealed. This has given us a high gloss surface to compliment our new chairs.

Other building work will include trying to reorganise the vestibule, make the toilets easily accessible and explore the possibility of a platform lift from the middle floor to the hall.

Into The Future
The reorganising may not stop at the building as 23rd January was our ‘Working Together’ meeting where both congregations had an opportunity to give their views on the future of St Paul’s. There will be a short morning service followed by the discussion about the possibility of further sharing of ministry between the two congregations. This is an important time for St Paul’s and we ask that you pray for us as we explore the future together.

Changes ahead
The other change that faces us is the fact that Peter Flint, the United Reformed Minister will be leaving in June this year. I am personally sad at this news because I have worked so well with Peter but I am also excited for him as he moves onto a new post in Dorking in Surrey.

Not only will we lose Peter though, we will also lose Judith his wife, our organist. We will need to find a new organist but, at the moment, Judith feels irreplaceable!

So, an exciting 2005 in store for us all

Catherine

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Parish Register

Please remember them all in your prayers

Baptisms

We welcome into the God's family

Holy Trinity
Keya Leigh Tott
William James Walsh IV
Max Mark Harrod
Amy Carmen Wallbanks
Leah Elsie Wallbanks
Shannon Elizabeth Wallbanks
Elise Jane Small
Isaac William Confer

St Andrew's
Bethany Ruby Cook
Aimee Honey Jones
Luke Antony Robinson
Gemma Robinson

Weddings

There are three things that last for ever, faith hope and love; but the greatest of them all is love.

Funerals

We commit to God's care

Alita Ponsford (Lita)	Aged 39
Martin Cottrell	Aged 40
James Watson (Jim)	Aged 65
Donald Rowland (Don)	Aged 70
Eric James Page (Eric)	Aged 71
Ronald Griffin (Ron)	Aged 76
Amy Nock (Nan)	Aged 79
Kathleen Regan (Kath)	Aged 79
Ralph Montague	Aged 83
Ethel Daubney	Aged 86
Geoffrey Holmberg	Aged 86
Nancy Tatham	Aged 87
Frederick Charles Pearce (Fred)	Aged 87
Dorothy Bertha Davies (Bertha)	Aged 94
Eva Lambert	Aged 94
Victoria Basleigh	Aged 100

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February Diary

This can be found in For your Diary...

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February Prayer Diary

This can be found in Prayer Diary

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Taizé Meditation

These meditations are meant as a way of seeking God in silence and prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a day, take a moment to read the Bible Passage with this short commentary and reflect on the questions which follow.

Genesis 2:8-9,15-17

God places the human being he has just created in a magnificent garden, with the tree of life at the centre. What better way to show that God desires the fullness of life for us, that we are made for happiness? And this happiness does not consist only in leisure: Adam is placed in the garden “to till it and keep it.” Work is a means of collaborating with God.

But the tree of life is shadowed by another tree: “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” In Biblical terms, this means “the tree of knowing how to live a good life.” In Semitic languages, the use of pairs of opposites often is used to indicate a totality. In the Bible, the question “what should we do to lead a life that is good, full, successful?” pertains to the domain of wisdom. Being wise is not a question of having read many books, but rather of making the choices necessary to live in the right way. As opposed to plants or animals, human life requires a great many choices. By placing these two trees together, the Bible story expresses the fact that to find true life we must gain wisdom.

But how can we acquire this essential wisdom? The Bible gives us this answer: by listening to God’s Word. That is the meaning of the “commandment” in verses 16-17. For the Jews, this referred to the Torah, a word often translated by “law” but whose primary meaning is “teaching.” Here, God tries to explain to human beings the road to life and happiness. Humans must first use their freedom and intelligence to discover the world in which they have been placed. But this teaching also has a negative side to it, because human liberty is not unlimited. True wisdom is a matter among other things of discovering and accepting our limits, which requires and motivates trust in our Creator.

What brings me happiness? What takes it away?

How can I perform my work and other activities as a way of collaborating with God?

Can our limits ever be something positive? What enables us to accept them?

Take time at the end to pray, thanking God for his presence, asking for what you need for yourself, and for those things close to your heart.

Further information on Taizé can be obtained from the Community's website.

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