Almighty God whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness, and was tempted as we are, yet without sin: give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit; and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

www.sleafordparishchurch.co.uk

St Denys Bulletin

March 2020

Prayer

Welcome to the March issue of the St Denys Bulletin

If you have an item you would like included in the St Denys Bulletin please email to

office.stdenys1@btconnect.com, by the Wednesday before the first Friday of every month.

New Parish Office opening times Mon - Fri 9.30am—11.30am

BULLETIN PUBLISHING DATES

Month of issue Last date for submission to the Parish Office

Date of issue

April bulletin 1st April 2020 3rd April 2020

March Services at St Denys

Sunday, 8th March Lent 2 8am Said Eucharist 10am Sung Eucharist 5pm Said Evening Prayer

Sunday, 15th March Lent 3 8am Said Communion 10am Sung Eucharist 5pm Taizé

Sunday, 22nd March Lent 4 / Mothering Sunday 8am Said Communion 10am Sung Eucharist 5pm Compline

Sunday, 29th March Lent 5 8am Said Eucharist 10am Sung Eucharist 6pm CTSD - St Botolph’s, Quarrington

Sunday, 5th April Palm Sunday 8am BCP 10am Sung Eucharist 5pm Evensong

Weekday Services Each weekday (except

Wednesday) at 8.45am Morning Prayer in St Hugh’s.

Every Wednesday at 10am - Holy Communion either in The

Lady Chapel or St Hugh’s.

HIRE OF THE PARISH ROOMS

St Denys has two rooms available to hire - a hall for larger functions and a small meeting room. More information and application form are on the website. www.sleafordparishchurch.co.uk Please contact the Parish Office (01529 413607 between 9.30 and 11.30am every week day) for availability.

. COMPLINE

Starting on the 22nd March, the Said Evening Prayer at 5pm on the 4th Sunday, will be replaced with Compline.

It will be a short, contemplative service drawing the day to a close. The service will be mostly sung to plainsong and chant.

LENT LUNCHES All at 12pm

2nd March Catholic Church 9th March Riverside Church

16th March St Denys 23rd March Salvation Army 30th March Methodist church

6th April St Botolph’s Church Hall Delicious soups will be served each Monday during Lent.

Donations are invited - all proceeds for Christian Aid

STAMPS! Thank you very much for all used stamps given to Church in aid of

the Leprosy Mission. These can help boost their much needed funds for continued research and work in hospitals and clinics in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and elsewhere - so bringing hope, help

and healing to the many who still live with the debilitating effects of leprosy. Please pray for the work of this Mission, continue to bring your stamps and thank you for your support. Helen Bristow

AN EXTRA DAY

If you hadn’t already noticed, this year is a leap year. The past month – February – had an extra day. It happens every four years so you would think we would be used to it by now, but whenever it comes around it causes a bit of a fuss. It is not unusual to find a news story about someone celebrating their 21st birthday on the 29th when in fact they have lived for 84 years!

The problem, that needs to be resolved by adding or subtracting days or months, to the calendar every few years, has been recognised for centuries. The ancient Jewish Calendar has twelve lunar months but in every 19 year cycle an additional month is added on seven occasions. It is also possible to delay the start of the year by two days. The reason for these variations is to ensure that the Passover always fall in springtime. The original Gregorian Calendar had 29 days in every February and every fourth year one day would be leaped – missed out.

Even with these additions the mathematics is not perfect and small extra adjustments continue to be made. The crux of the problem is that our lives are governed by both the moon and the sun. The cycle of the moon, from new to full, gives us one measure of the passage of time; the rising and setting of the sun and the solstices, give us another. Tides relate to the moon; seasons relate to the sun. But these two cycles are not easily reconcilable. Our human construct of the calendar can only ever be an approximation – a best fit – of these two cycles. So, every few years we need to make the necessary adjustments.

I think that the leap year should be a moment of humility – a recognition that the greatest human mathematicians cannot construct a calendar that maps the cycle of the sun exactly onto the cycle of the moon. Frequently, the psalmist asks us to consider the sun, the moon, and the stars – the handiwork of our creator. It is a way of helping us to keep a proper perspective on the achievements of humanity and of our place in the created order.

As we approach Passover and Easter the leap year – a year that has been adjusted to ensure Easter falls in Springtime, let us consider the sun, moon and the stars and marvel at the beauty and complexity of God’s creation.

Fr Philip

SLEAFORD KESWICK BIBLE MINISTRY 2019-2020 Riverside Church

Friday, 13th March, 2020 7.30pm

The Suffragan Bishop of Grimsby, The Rt Rev Dr David Court

VISIT TO TOLETHORPE

Wednesday 12th August

to see ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’

7.45pm.

A visit to Tolethorpe has become a regular event for us at St Denys and is open to everyone. The cost including the coach is £18 per person. The coach will leave the Market Place at 5.30 that evening with a pick up at the Quarrington end of Grantham Road if that is required. This allows plenty of time for a picnic before the performance. I need to confirm the booking by the first week of April. If you would like to join us or want further details please contact me on 01529 302775 thank you. Brenda

Hitchcock.

FIRST SATURDAY LUNCHTIME RECITALS

A series of six Chamber Music Recitals in St Denys. The first one will be held on 2nd May at 11am. Watch this space next month for more information.

CHILDREN’S SOCIETY BOXES Are due for opening in March. Please would you bring them to church if you are able, otherwise I will arrange to collect them.

Thank You Brenda Hitchcock 302775.

COMMUNICANTS’ GUILD Meets every 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7pm in the Church Room

Last month Paula, the parish administrator, talked to us about the Potteries where her mother had worked as a young woman. This month, on March 17th, we shall have something very different, when our speaker will be Jim McQuade, former conductor of Sleaford Concert Band. He will be introducing us to various brass instruments, with audience participation. Needless to say anyone interested in learning about the brass section of the orchestra is very welcome to join us. We meet at 7 pm in the Church Hall. April is AGM month and this year, departing from our usual custom, (owing to the unavailability of the vicar) the AGM will be in the Church Hall at 7 pm on April 21st and will be followed by a presentation by Simon Jakeway.

PARENT AND TODDLER GROUP

Every Wednesday, during term time, at 9.30am in the Church Hall

Contact the Parish Office on 01529 413607

ST DENYS RINGERS Practice every Friday at 7.30pm in the

church New ringers always welcome

Contact through the Parish Office 01529 413607

PCC MEETINGS @ 7pm

PCC Mon 16th March

APCM Sunday, April 26th @ 11.30am

BAPTISMS AND WEDDINGS For more information on booking baptisms and weddings please visit our website www.sleafordparishchurch.co.uk or ring the Parish Office on 01529 413607. The list of fees for 2019 is also on the website.

SLEAFORD HISTORY GROUP

Thursday, 19th March 2020 at 7.30 p.m.

in St Denys Church Room.

‘Bernard Samuel Gilbert’

Billinghay - born Author and Dialect Poet

By Dr. Andrew Jackson

EVERYBODY WELCOME.

FROM THE REGISTERS

FUNERAL / THANKSGIVINGSERVICES

Joy Lilian Alliband 7th February 84 years

Susan Denise Constance

Coulson

11th February 68 years

Stanley Blackbourn 20th February 91 years

Karen Draycott 27th February 59 years

Please remember them in your prayers

BISHOP’S VISITOR UPDATE

WILLIAM ALVEY SCHOOL

The new pattern of Assemblies began after Half Term and the first Monday I went to a Y1 (aged 5/6) class for the story of Jesus's 40 days in the desert and the beginning or the season of Lent. All classes were covering the same story at the same time at their own level. The second week the story was about Jesus teaching the crowds by the Sea of Galilee, going fishing and calling the fishermen to follow him and be his disciples. I was with a Reception class (aged 4/5) this time and I taught them a little song I learnt in Sunday School called “I will make you fishers of men, If you follow me”.

Last Friday there was a Book Quiz. The school is divided into 4 teams, Northgate (green), Southgate (red), Eastgate (blue) and Westgate (yellow). Every child can earn points for good work, effort and a whole host of other reasons towards the big trophy at the end of the school year. For the Book Quiz, all children wore their appropriate coloured T-shirts and there was a team of 7, one child from each year group, representing each colour, at the front to answer the questions about books, their authors and titles. They came into the Hall to the Mastermind music and the atmosphere was very competitive and tense!

There were 4 rounds of questions for the teams out front, some for individuals of the different ages, 2 rounds answered by the team quickest to react and shake the tambourine on their table and one round of identifying pictures of different book characters. If the team member was unable to answer it was opened up to the rest of the year group in that team to get points. The final result was....

4th Southgate (red) 40 points 3rd Northgate (green) 41 points 2nd Westgate (yellow) 61 points

1st Eastgate (blue) 71 points You can imagine the cheers and clapping which erupted as the points were added up!! I was allowed to present the 7 team members in the winning Eastgate team with a £5 book voucher to spend at the Book Fairs being held next week. Beryl Risdell

ON THE TRAIL OF TAMERLANE GWILLIM - Douglas Hoare In the south wall of the chancel is this monument: “In memory of Tamerlane(*) Gwillim esq, bachelor who deceased 28 Jan. MDCCCXXX [1830] aged LII [52]”. His death is recorded in The Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury of 5 February, 1830: “Suddenly, of an apoplectic fit, on the 26th. Ult. aged 52, Tamberlain Gwillim, Esq., of Sleaford, only son of the late Mrs. Brittain.” The difference of surname is explained thus: “1794: At St. George’s, Hanover Square, Mr. John Brittain, Merchant of Sleaford, c[ounty] Lincoln, to Mrs. Anne Gwillim, relict of William Gwillim esq. of Upper Clapton, Islington.”

Mr. And Mrs. Brittain are commemorated in a monument on the north wall of the chancel: “Sacred to the memory of JOHN BRITTAIN esq, who departed this life the 22d of May 1819 aged 66 years. A man of exemplary piety, patience, and resignation, one most loved, most revered, and most lamented. Also of ANN BRITTAIN, wife of the above, who departed this life the 5th. day of March 1829 aged 75 years.”

Further information about Tamerlane, his family and acquaintance can be gleaned from “The last Will and Testament of me Tamberlain Gwillim of New Sleaford in the County of Lincoln Esquire.” Although Tamerlane died in 1830 and the will was proved in London on 14 April, that year, it was actually made on 24 February, 1815.

Whence came Tamerlane? The heading to the will reads: “This is the last Will and Testament of me Tamberlain Gwillim of New Sleaford in the County of Lincoln Esquire and of Wellington, near Hereford” - some four miles north of that city. Therefore, we must look to Herefordshire for further background to our Tamerlane.

Beneficiaries in his will are: “My Cousins Elizabeth the Wife of Edward Hans Lechmere Esquire and all and every the child and children of my Cousin John Jones Clerk; Mrs Elizabeth Lechmere; John Cubley William Cubley and Tamberlaine Cubley; my Cousins Richard Bellman son of the late Ralph Bulliman two hundred pounds and to ffrederick Bulliamn Ann the Wife of Thomas Redhead Rebecca Bulliman Thomas Bulliman and James Bulliman son of the late Richard Bulliman “ The executors were Dr. Richard Yerburgh, Vicar of St. Denys’s, and “Edmund Burnam Pateshall was a well respected man, and became a Magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for Herefordshire. He was the eldest son of Edmund Lechmere, afterwards Pateshall.”

More research is needed to compile a family tree for Tamerlane, but a previous Tamerlane from Wellington had four children: Tamberlain [1692, who lived for four months]; Jane [1694; John [1695] and a second T amberlain [1696]. Again, watch this proverbial space!

(*) Various spellings occur: Tamerlane, Tamberlain or Tamerlain - all the same person!

GROUPS MEETING IN THE CHURCH HALL

Group Day Time Frequency

Move It or Lose It with Kimberley Wilson

Monday 9.15am and 10.15am

Weekly

Weight Watchers Tuesday 10am Weekly all year round

Mothers’ Union Tuesday 2pm Last Tuesday of every month but not Aug or Dec

Communicants’ Guild Tuesday 7pm Monthly on the 3rd Tuesday

Sleaford Museum Trust Tuesday 7.30pm Alternate months on the 4th Tuesday.

Parent and Toddler Group

Wednesday 9.30am During term time

Sleaford Dementia Support Group

For more details: sleaforddds@gmail.com

Wednesday 1pm Alternate Wednesdays, 1st and 3rd.

Bolly Wednesday 6.05pm Weekly

Yoga Wednesday 7pm Weekly

U3A - Ballroom Dancing

Thursday 2pm Weekly

Sleaford History Group Thursday 7.30pm Monthly, 3rd Thursday

Sleaford Dementia Support - Carers Group sleafordds@gmail.com

Friday 10am Monthly on the 1st Friday

St Denys Choir (Church)

Friday 7pm Weekly lee.rooke@googlemail.com

St Denys Ringers (Church)

Friday 7.30pm Weekly

Sleaford Widows Group Enquiries through the

office.

Saturday 2.30pm Last Saturday in every month except December

Rural Dean of Lafford, Vicar of Sleaford The Rev’d Philip Johnson 01529 304348 revdphilip@aol.com

Churchwardens Richard Clash 07714 565678 Philip Starks 01529 307144

Director of Music Lee Rooke lee.rooke@googlemail.com

Safeguarding Officer Angela Clash 01529 410065 Or Diocese - 01522 504081 safeguarding@lincolnanglican.org

PCC Treasurer Brenda Hitchcock 01529 302775

Vicar of Quarrington The Rev’d Mark Thomson 01529 306776

SLEAFORD PARISH CHURCH

CONTACTS

The Parish Office Parish Administrator Paula Ireland Parish Office Opening Hours Mon-Fri 9.30am - 11.30am 01529 413607 office.stdenys1@btconnect.com The Parish Office Market Place SLEAFORD NG34 7SH Registered charity No: 1127600 www.sleafordparishchurch.co.uk

Sleaford Parish Church To hire the Church Hall or The Peake Room please enquire at the Parish Office. Baptism and wedding application forms may be downloaded from the website. Enquiries to the Parish Office.