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Churchwardens
Arthur Savage and Paul Routley
are our churchwardens at Longstanton. A great deal of work is done "behind the scenes" and especially
on Sundays when the Church has to be prepared for our times of worship.
PCC Members - Longstanton Revd
Malcolm Raby (Priest in Charge)
Revd Valerie Kilner
Roger Hetherington (Licensed Lay Minister)
Arthur Savage
(Vice Chair)
Thelma Savage (Minutes Secretray)
Rebecca Roebuck (Treasurer)
Fred Chatfield
Patrick Combes
Adrian Kilborn
Susan Meah
John Frost
Please give these people every support, and if there are any matters
which you feel should be raised at PCC meetings then do be in touch with any of the above.
LONGSTANTON FLOWER ROTA 2012
The number of flower arrangers is now quite small and as a result there
are a various "gaps" in the rota. If you feel you can help in any way please be in touch with Anita Gale
(11 Hattons Park) or one of the churchwardens. If volunteers do not come forward then we may well have no flowers in church
on certain occasions.
In the weeks leading up to Easter, the only "vacancy" is January 29 - February 5 (probably
too late if you are just reading this!) but there are lots of vacancies later in the year.
WHAT IS "OPEN THE BOOK"?
OPEN THE BOOK is a project which offers primary school
children an opportunity to hear the major stories of the Bible, presented chronologically, during the school year. All the stories for the first year are taken from "The Lion Storyteller" written
by Bob Hartman. There are a further two years of themed material for schools who wish to continue after the first year. OPEN THE BOOK fulfils both OFSTED
and Church Schools inspection requirements for Collective Worship, and has been successfully used in a multi-faith context. We are delighted to have been invited to take the project into Hatton Park School and we
hope that the team delivering the programme as well as the children really enjoy the presentations. Do pray for us, especially at 1.30 p.m. each Monday as we go into the school.
What children have to say about angels
It's not easy to become an angel! First, you die. Then you go to Heaven,
and then there's still the flight training to go through. And then you got to agree to wear those angel clothes. -Matthew,
age 9 Angels work for God and watch over kids when God has to go do
something else. - Mitchell, age 7 My guardian angel helps me with maths,
but he's not much good for science. - Henry, age 8 Lint Considering all the lint you get in your dryer, if you kept drying your clothes would they
eventually just disappear? Foot in mouth The vet in a small town was also in charge of the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme. Late one
night the phone rang, and his wife answered. An agitated voice inquired, "Is your husband there?" "Do you require his services as a neighbourhood watch, or as a vet?" she asked.
"Both!" was the reply. "We can't get our dog's mouth open, and there's an intruder in it." The husband's
guide to household repairs - Always take credit for miracles.
If you dropped the alarm clock while taking it apart and it suddenly starts working, you have repaired it.
- Regardless of what people say, kicking, pounding, and throwing sometimes DOES help.
- If something looks level, it is level.
- If
what you've done is stupid, but it works, then it isn't stupid.
Winter travel A government
warning said that anyone travelling in icy conditions should take: shovel, blankets, sleeping bag, scarf, hat and gloves,
24 hours supply of food and drink, de-icer, rock salt, torch, spare batteries, road flares, reflective triangles, tow rope,
a five gallon petrol jerrycan, first aid kit, and jump leads. So ... I looked a complete idiot on the guided bus this morning! Moses revisited Nine year old Joseph was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday school. "Well, Mum, our teacher told
us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea,
he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then he radioed headquarters for reinforcements.
They sent bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved." "Now, Joseph, is that really what your teacher taught you?" his mother asked, somewhat alarmed. "Well, no, Mum. But if I told it the way the teacher did, you'd never believe
it!"
JAFFA CLUB
We have recently completed a series of DVD’s called “Friends and Heroes”, greatly enjoyed
by children and leaders alike. If you want to know more, ask a member of JAFFA Club. There
are many “heroes” in the Bible. For example, Elijah, A powerful prophet yet very human. He faced up to a wicked
tyrant who might have executed him, and then fled in fear and despair.
He saw God’s power at work in answer
to his prayers, then sank into doubt and depression. The news today is full of personalities who are often given “hero” status.
Some are media celebrities – footballers, soap actors, singers. Some are religious leaders, powerful clerics who are
given unquestioning obedience, though there are not so many in Europe where there is much cynicism about religion, especially
Christianity. Some are politicians who are given more than human stature – until they fall from grace with a loud crash
and then find themselves vilified and humiliated in public.
To recognise
and honour abilities and gifts of leadership, but at the same time allow for human frailty and failure is difficult in a culture
that demands “Yes” or “No” definitions of issues and heroes. If
you are looking for a hero, then don’t hold out for perfection – unless you are willing to accept a hero who died
in humiliation on a Roman cross having promised eternal life to those who were willing to commit themselves to him.
Visiting the Sick - The Nearly-well By David Winter, a former Head of BBC Religious Broadcasting Nowadays people are generally not in hospital for long. Even a major operation only earns
you a few days' stay in one of their beds. With almost embarrassing enthusiasm they get you out of bed, walk you up and
down the ward and duly announce that you're ‘well enough to go home'. On my last hospital stay the simple test
was whether the patient could walk unaided up a flight of stairs. Frankly, those who were keen to get back home (to the telly,
the garden or the beloved) shot up the stairs. Those who fancied a couple more days being waited on by that delightful Ghanaian
nurse, didn't. Visiting the recovering sick is a simple art. They
want to be told how well they look, how bravely they've endured their treatment, and how good it is to see them about
to return to the normal business of life. They'd like to be brought up to date on the local news and gossip, of course.
And I've often found that they (and it has been ‘me' a few times) value a little prayer of thanksgiving for
recovery. Gratitude is never inappropriate! A spell in hospital reminds
us how ‘shut off' patients tend to be, even in the very best institutions. Those who have recently experienced it
are well placed to remind the rest of us that friends and fellow church members in hospital are not transferred to another
planet. They may not expect frequent visits from those who are not close friends or family, but it's often quite easy
to pick up the phone and speak to them on the ward - just the sort of contact we would have with them at home. The same kind of simple contact can work very well when they are eventually back home -
a brief call simply enquiring if everything's OK, with perhaps the offer of practical help with shopping, for instance,
or a lift to the GP surgery. Thus the nearly-well become the completely whole!
What is your child doing all night? A primary school teacher has written to several parents after finding his pupils falling
asleep at their desks at school... and discovering the reason was that they had been playing computer games until up to 4am. Now teachers are warning that children are becoming addicted to gaming, and it is hurting
their concentration in class during the day. A poll at just one school in Plymouth found that 78 per cent of 10 and 11 year
olds play games consoles every day, and 35 per cent of these play even before going to school in the morning. Almost half
of these 10 and 11 year olds are playing adult-themed games, and also watching films with a 15 or 18 age rating. As one educational expert put it: "It's getting out of hand. Parents seem to be
unaware of the dangers. Children are coming to school too tired or unresponsive to learn." Many experts urge parents
not to allow televisions or computers in bedrooms.
Administrative matters take up a lot of time for clergy, so here is
one novel way of dealing with correspondence ..
You may have had several years of intensive training on
biblical interpretation, preaching and church history, but theological courses never seem to cover the most important matters
in parish life: how to evade disgruntled parishioners, run a tight jumble sale and, in your case at the moment, deal with
correspondence.
The accepted practice is to read all
the letters you receive and then discard them. If the matter is truly important, you will receive a second one, to which you
respond; more likely, the sender will either have forgotten all about his first letter after the second month or will write
to some other cleric instead. In either case, you will be saved a great deal of trouble. You only need two folders for your filing system. The first is for complaints; they
are to be filed and ignored, no matter how many duplicates you are sent.
Should you be confronted personally,
you simply say that the matter has been passed on to the bishop. Those truly dogged complainants who pursue the matter will
eventually receive an episcopal reply saying he knows nothing of the matter, for which you then blame the postal system. After
letters will have ricocheted round the country for many months, the person complaining will either have lost energy to pursue
the matter, or the will to live. The second file receives all other
correspondence chronologically. The earliest letters will be at the bottom of the pile and the most recent on the top. In
my experience, this file only needs attention when it reaches a height of about two feet and becomes unstable. The practice
then is to discard the lower 6 inches and allow it to continue its steady growth until the process is repeated.
If the stack is kept in the church vestry, then mice usually attend to the papers on the bottom of the pile in their own
omnivorous way. Sadly, your own church, with its
electronic systems for filing, sorting and retrieving correspondence and with your parish secretaries, removes all of these
blessings at a stroke. You have therefore no excuses for not dealing instantly with every note that comes your way.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap. May I also remind you that not even
St. Paul, that unflagging letter-writer, ever ended one of his letters with a request for a prompt reply. Need I say more?
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