You can download the October 2020 parish magazine in PDF format using the link below.
The parish magazine is in Adobe PDF format, if you can’t view the magazine you can download a reader at adobe.com.
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Letter for October 2020
I wonder how many of our readers remember the closing moments of the world cup final in 1966 when Kenneth Wolstenholme who was commenting for BBC TV uttered the immortal words: “they think it is all over….we’ll it is now” as Geoff Hurst scored England’s fourth goal to beat the mighty West Germany. A few seconds later England won the world cup four goals to two, Bobby Moore lifted the trophy, the country celebrated, and the rest is history, so to speak.
Well, as autumn begins to take hold and the nights draw in, there’s one thing we can say about the COVID pandemic, and that is as much as we would like it to be, it is far from over. In the past few weeks we are witnessing a rising number of positive cases and sadly more deaths as a result of this devastating and terrible virus. We are into the second wave of the pandemic and as we navigate as a country through various local lockdown measures the situation appears more complicated than in March. The pressure and challenges of living together and looking out for each other seems to get more involved and added to this a sense of tiredness it is hard to know where to turn for hope and stability. But we must continue to encourage one another and bear one another’s burdens.
In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 11, verses 28 to the end, Jesus talks about rest for the weary with these words….
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
In this passage, Jesus invites the weary and the burdened to find rest for their soul by being yoked with him. In Jesus’ day the yoke was a wooden collar that ran across the shoulders of a pair of oxen and enabled them to jointly pull enormous weights. Jesus invites each one of us to be yoked with him in love so that he will gladly share our lives and offer us comfort and support in our present situation.
As we move deeper into autumn, why not think about inviting Jesus to share your burdens and weariness – you may be pleasantly surprised to experience his love and presence in the most unexpected places and times.
Take care, stay safe and God Bless, Rev Glenn Coggins,
Vicar of the United Benefice of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe and Alverthorpe.
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Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) – Sun 11th Oct
Straight after the harvest service on Sunday 11th October, we will be holding our APCM, more commonly known as an Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM was originally scheduled to take place back in April, but had to be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
This meeting will review what happened in 2019, which seems rather a long time ago now! The church finances from 2019 will be presented, and members will be elected to the Parochial church council (PCC) and officers elected. There will also be a discussion about our plans and hopes for the future. If you want to learn more about the church’s ministry, where the money comes from and how it’s spent, and what the various church officers do, then come along and find out!
The next AGM (to discuss the events and finances of 2020) will be taking place in only 6 months time, in March or April 2021, assuming that the world will have returned to a bit more normality by then! No doubt we will reviewing how the coronavirus pandemic has affected us at St Peter’s church.
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Harvest Service – Sunday 11th October
Despite the ongoing restrictions, St Peter’s church will be holding its Harvest Festival service on Sunday 11th October at 10am. It will look different to previous years, as we won’t be able to have as many people in the congregation, and we are still not permitted to sing. Even so it is an opportunity to thank God for his gifts to us all, and our many blessings.
We are unable to hold our community harvest lunch this year, because of the social distancing guidelines. However, any fresh food that is donated will be used by our senior citizens’ Tuesday lunch club, and any remaining tinned or dried food will be donated to either CAP Care in Wakefield which provides meals to the homeless, or St Catherine’s church food bank.
We will be serving refreshments after the service; people will be served where they are sat, rather than having to go up to the kitchen counter.
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Groups returning to St Peter’s church
St Peter’s church is starting to welcome back some of its regular groups. From September, Mini-Maestros children’s music classes will be returning, along with the community choir, knit & natter and the lunch club.
Next month, we hope the scouts will be returning, as well as Children’s Ark, the Rodillians choir, our coffee mornings and maybe the film club. It will be a bit longer until the Rainbows and Brownies return, and the Alternative Care disabled adults’ drama group.
Before returning, all groups are having to think very carefully about their activities, and how to ensure social distancing and minimise risks to members. It all takes a lot of planning, and St Peter’s church has produced some guidance for groups to help the process.
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Church Services – Sept/Oct 2020
The “Rule of 6” didn’t bring any significant changes to Church services. Below is the advice from the Church of England:
Public worship can continue. There is an exemption that covers places of worship making it possible for more than six people to gather for acts of communal worship. However, it is not a blanket exemption. People must not be part of a group of more than six unless they are from the same household or support bubble.
https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-churchesSo we continue to meet in a COVID-19 secure way every Sunday at 10am.
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Online services update
Now we are back in our buildings for the Sunday Service we are adjusting our online services.
Every week either the service from St Paul’s or the service from St Peter’s will be filmed live and broadcast on the St Peter’s Facebook page.
There is now a service in both churches every Sunday.
We are also continuing our mid week online prayers at the following times:
Monday morning prayer at 9am with Glenn and Angela
Tuesday evening prayer at 9pm with Glenn and Angela
Wednesday morning prayer at 9am with Glenn and Angela
Wednesday evening prayer at 9pm with Vicky
Thursday evening prayer at 9pm with Glenn and Angela
Friday evening prayer at 9pm with Vicky
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Church Services – August 2020
It was wonderful to have our first service since March in our church building and great to see so many people there.
Although we were sat apart from each other, it was lovely to be together and to worship. We are taking lots of sensible precautions to keep the risk as low as possible.
Remember that we do now have to wear a face covering to attend church services so please bring a face mask or scarf unless you are exempt.
- Sunday 23rd August, Trinity 11: Rev Glenn Coggins will be leading our service and preaching
- Sunday 30th August, Trinity 12: Rev David Teece will be leading our service and preaching
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Parish Magazine for June 2020
You can download the June 2020 parish magazine in PDF format using the link below.
The parish magazine is in Adobe PDF format, if you can’t view the magazine you can download a reader at adobe.com.
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Updates during the lockdown
During the lockdown we are keeping updated with all the churches in our benefice using a new benefice website.
Our services will continue posting here and our facebook page remains our primary source for service and information in Stanley.