lay ministries inside this issue: service 2012 - astad.org€œgod’s love to all: experiencing,...

“God’s love to all: Experiencing, Sharing, Demonstrating!”

Issue 54 All Saints’ Church, Thorpe Acre with Dishley November 20p

Next issue will be

for December

2012

Please send any

articles to

[email protected]

Lay Ministry

(cont)

2

CYFA 3

Foreign Fields 5

Toddlers

Harvest

6

If Jesus went

for a curry

7

Inside this issue: Lay Ministries Service 2012

A packed cathedral saw all our lay

ministries represented at the

annual service to commission

authorise and admit lay ministers

on Sat 13th October. Among those

being licensed were 10 Readers

(and a further two “free

transfers”(!) from other dioceses),

8 Pastoral Assistants, 3 Pioneer

Ministers, 3 Evangelists, a

Children and Families Officer and

3 Youth Workers.

In his sermon Bishop Christopher

spoke of the huge impact of Lord

Shaftesbury’s social action on

behalf of the poor and how this

ministry was kindled primarily by

the unseen Christian faithfulness

of one of the domestic staff of the

Shaftesbury family who ensured

that Lord Shaftesbury’s initially

lonely and isolated boyhood was

enriched by her loving and

encouraging Christian support and

care. Bishop Christopher spoke of

how each of us was called through

baptism to exercise our own

Christian ministry and how the fruit

of such ministry in the mystery of

God’s purposes, while

unpredictable, should never be

underestimated.

Continued over

Jenny and Claire at their licensing

service with Assistant Bishop

Christopher. Thank you to Nigel

Zanker for the photo


Issue 54

During the service the congregation was

liberally sprinkled with holy water as a

reminder of baptism, and the cathedral was

filled with words of rededication and renewed

commitment to Jesus Christ and service in

His name!

These 2 pictures show Jenny and Claire

receiving their certificates


Issue 54

End of the CYFA Era

When I think back to the first time I went to CY-

FA (short for Christian Youth Fellowship Associ-

ation), I immediately remember just how at

home I felt among the people who I met there.

This was at a time of change for me, a time

when everything was new and scary, and I had

been struggling to find my feet among people at

school and college for some time. So when Sal

invited me to join CYFA, it was a relief for me to

find that not all new things had to be challeng-

ing and scary. Later that academic year, when

Dave encouraged me to come to Soul Survivor,

it was what he still describes as “a real break-

through”. And it is thanks to these two wonder-

ful leaders of CYFA that I and many other CY-

FA members have grown in our journey of faith,

and have had the privilege of activities ranging

from spiritually based, fun-filled trips away to

Soul Survivor and Bonsall, to stuffing our faces

at every CYFA lunch!

CYFA has been taking place on Sunday

evenings at All Saints Thorpe Acre with

Dishley for about twenty years, with

Dave and Sal Coates as its main lead-

ers for the past nine or ten. For those of

us at CYFA, it has been a sad thing for

us to hear that they will be stepping

down from leading it, but on a brighter

note, we are so grateful for the many

happy memories and amazing experi-

ences these past few years have given

us. One of the many activities I will al-

ways be thankful for are the weekly CY-

FA meetings, a time I always looked

forward to, when I could share my

thoughts on God and faith among friends.

Alongside these, Dave and Sal have put end-

less love and effort into providing bus trips to

and from, and food at, every Bonsall weekend

away, looking out for us at Elev8, Sunday Night

Live, driving us to Soul Survivor Watford – even

when only two of us turned up, providing us with

delicious food at every CYFA lunch and helping

to host all the numerous CYFA parties. The list

could go on, but to sum it all up, I can safely say

that, without all that love and effort, many of

those memories and experiences would not

have been possible.

Most of all, I would just like to say a big thank

you to Dave and Sal, for all the opportunities for

food, fun and fellowship mentioned above, but

especially for all the time, patience, advice and

hugs they have given us. I, and I’m sure many

others, will continue to appreciate what we have

got out of these years with the Coates’, and as

the CYFA era comes to a close, I would just like

to wish them well in their next phase of life. As

has been the conclusion to every CYFA meet-

ing, heartfelt prayers and warm, Coates-style

hugs all round!

Grace Liu


Issue 54

Pictures supplied by

Vanessa Wood


Issue 54

Gardens in Foreign Fields

During the World Wars there was no repatriation of the

dead as there is now with the wars in Iraq and

Afghanistan. The service men who were killed in active

service were buried along side their comrades, for the

most part in specifically constructed War Cemeteries

now cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves

Commission.

These cemeteries were started during the 1st World War,

the brain child of Sir Fabien Ware, who realised that the

proper care of war graves would boost morale of the

troops and comfort the relatives at home. He

encouraged help from Sir Edwin Lutyens, one of three

eminent architects, and garden designers from Kew.

From their foundation in 1917 the Cemeteries throughout

Europe were always conceived as Gardens. So no

matter where the Cemetery was, the plants in it would be

a reminder of home, “a corner of a foreign field that is

forever England”. So in foreign fields from Flanders to

Cyprus you will find broad grass paths and the familiar

scent of cottage garden plants and floribunda roses

clustered around the ranks of uniform headstones. For

planting ideas for the prototype cemetery garden Lutyens

called on his friend Gertrude Jekyll who sent clumps of

white thrift from her own garden. And it is a simplified

version of her planting scheme that endures to this day.

Low hummocky plants are set in front of the headstones

protecting the lettering from splashing mud with roses

and perennials alternating. The foliage perennials and

small shrubs behind, all repeated along the rows in

rhythmical blocks.

With more than a million dead, creating these gardens

on ravaged land was the biggest landscaping project

undertaken. Begun in 1919, it was not complete until

1938. Just a year later Europe was at war again and the

Commission started work all over again. As the war

extended over the globe, there were new and

challenging horticultural territories. The Commission

currently maintains 2500 cemeteries in 150 countries.

For all their common features everyone is different,

Rhodes cemetery is designed as a gravel garden to

harmonise with nearby classical ruins. In South Africa

native bulbs and grasses are incorporated into the

planting. Finding suitable grasses for a dozen different

zones is a major concern for the Commission. The kind

of stubborn pride that kept men going in the trenches

now drives the keeping of lawns against equally

impossible odds. No matter harsh the sun and scarce

the water somehow verdant lawns are willed into

existence. The struggle underlies the importance of

these gardens as symbolic places: translating the

wounded landscape of the battle field into places of

order, symmetry and beauty. But no one can make

grass grow in the desert, so El Alamein, Suez and

Tobruk, dry grasses have been created.

The War Grave Commissions care for four cemeteries in

this country, accounting for 8000 graves of British and

Commonwealth dead who died here. The smallest, with

only 100 graves is in the Cannock Chase War Cemetery

in Staffordshire. During the 1st World war the New

Zealand Rifle Brigade were stationed at Cannock Chase

where there was also a large Prisoner of war hospital.

Most of the Commonwealth graves at Cannock Chase

are of the New Zealanders. Next to the Commonwealth

Cemetery is a German Military Cemetery cared for by

the commission on behalf of its sister organisation , the

Volsbund Deutsche Kriegsgaberfursorge.

Individual graves account for the great majority of burials

in the UK and are found in every conceivable burial

ground from a rural chapel yard with one grave to

municipal cemeteries with many 100’s. All are cared for

and annual cleaned by the War Graves commissions

and those closest to home are the 2 at the front of the

church (by the car park).

Their inscriptions read:

Flying Officer E.A. Knight Pilot Royal Air Force 26

th February 1944

My time is in they hand PS XXX1.17 Pilot Officer G Hutt Flight Engineer Royal Air Force 18

th March 1944 Age21

At the going down Of the sun And in the morning We will remember him Adapted from Parish Line, Sutton Bonington and Normanaton Church magazine


Issue 54

ABOVE Ali entertains with her puppets

and below Penny takes part in the story

telling

Above the children bring forward their

gifts and below members of Toddlers

Church and Thorpe Acre Playgroup all

celebrate together


Issue 54

IF JESUS WENT FOR A CURRY

If Jesus went for a curry

We’d eat it slow and not in a hurry

Pondering life and the universe

Had His coming made it better or worse?

Did he like being the Son of God

Going ahead where no one had trod?

Would he do it again or would he change

Parts of his life, maybe rearrange?

Was he upset when people deceive

Turn their backs in anger; don’t believe

His message of love, everlasting life

On an earth where famine and war are rife?

Can there be change after two thousand years

A new hope seeded among the fears?

Why trust in his way; why trust at all

Faithless to faithful: a new miracle?

He took my hand and the world fell away

I leant forward to hear words he would say

In 1 Corinthians you will find

That ‘love is patient, love is kind’

‘For God so loved the world’ – he sent me!

To remove the blindfolds, to make you see

Creation gave you the gift of freewill

Turn away; but his love is with you still!

Then he smiled and looked me straight in the

eye

Matthew 6, verse 25, he sighed

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry’

If Jesus and I went for a curry……

Julie John

(taken from The Round Tower parish magazine

for St Mary with St Leonard, Broomfield)


Funerals

Our sympathy and prayers go to

the families and friends at their

time of bereavement. May they

find peace through faith in Jesus

Christ

7th September James EDWARDS

15th October David Robert HALFORD

Senior Minister

Keith Elliott 211656

Mobile 07772369126

Assistant Minister

Rachel Alexander 843083

Pastoral Assistant

Jenny Bickley 550656

Reader

Claire Zanker 550397

Church Administrator

Chris Milner 236789

[email protected]

Office open Monday to Friday

10.00am to 12 noon

Issue 54

All Saints', Thorpe Acre

Tel: 01509 236789

Email: [email protected]

www.astad.org

Registered Charity No: 1135035

Baptisms

Welcome into

the church family

7th October

Ethan James BRAILSFORD

lay ministries inside this issue: service 2012 - astad.org€œgod’s love to all: experiencing,...

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