St James The Great

​Old Milverton, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

​​Lent lunch

If you haven’t yet signed up for the Lent Lunch on Saturday 12th April, please do so as soon as possible. There will be no specific charge, rather donations will go to support the Esther Project based in Leamington. This is always a delightful and delicious occasion, so please come along and support this very worthwhile charity.

Have you completed your Electoral Roll form and given it back to us yet? If not, please do so now – this is the year when everyone has to re-join so we all need to complete the form. Membership of the roll allows you to vote at the Annual Church Meeting and is a formal way of recording your membership of St James. If you are not yet on the Electoral Roll, have been a member of the church for at least six months, and would like to join, speak to Claire Drage, our Electoral Roll Officer, or to one of the churchwardens.

Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting will take place on Sunday 27th April after a shortened service of Morning Worship – please stay and hear what our PCC have been doing on your behalf over the past year: we promise it won’t be a long meeting!

Readers, Intercessors and Stewards – Geoff will be putting together the next rota very soon. If you are aware of any dates between May and August when you know you are not available, it would be really helpful if you could let him know as soon as possible. If you would like to join the rota in any capacity, speak to Jane or Michael.

Prayer Space / Quiet Morning for Lent

This month’s prayer space on Saturday 5 th April will be extended to allow us to have a Lent Quiet Morning. We will be in church between 10.00am and 12.00 noon and you are welcome to join us for all or part of that time – just come and go whenever you need to. This is an opportunity for your own personal conversations with God or simply to stop and enjoy the peace and quiet of St James. There will also be some ideas for reflection should you wish to make use of them.

Refreshments will be provided and whilst the heating will be on in church, remember to bring a warm layer with you. Stay for as long or as short a time as works for you.

Our summer series of Evening Prayer begins again in April, but this year on the 1st Sunday Sunday of each month. Join us at 6pm on 6th April for a gentle, reflective service to close the day.

Our two Holy Week services follow the same pattern as in past years:

• On the evening of Maundy Thursday we have a very quiet and reflective time together with readings and music. This begins at 7.30pm and lasts about an hour.
  
• The Good Friday Service at 10.30am is our usual mix of bible readings, reflections and hymns and is followed by coffee and hot cross buns down in the Parish Room.
  

Come and join in with one or both of these as we journey together from the cross to the joy of Easter Day itself.

Foodbank Donations

At the moment, the foodbank is short of tinned peas, sweetcorn, washing-up liquid, custard and tinned vegetarian meals, but any donations are always welcome. If you are donating early in the month, might you think about including a small Easter Egg?

Churchyard Clearing

The dates for churchyard clearing this year are:

• Saturday 12th April (before our Lent Lunch)
  
• Saturday 14th June
  
• Saturday 16th August
  
• Saturday 18th October
  
• Saturday 13th December (leaf clearance)
  

Please put all these dates in your diaries and come along and help if you are able between 10.00am and 12.30pm (bring your own tools).

Churchyard mowing is now underway – may I remind those of you with graves in the churchyard that we ask you to have only one pot or container on each grave, to make life a little easier for our wonderful team of mowers, who have to move them (and put them back) each time.

We may move excess pots onto the stone slabs by the war memorial and little memorial statues or crosses will be put in church for safe-keeping until you can collect them.

The Resurrection Promise

by Maya Anthony

In Lent’s end, a promise bright,

Easter’s dawn, breaking night,

In resurrection, our plight,

In this hope, our delight.

Through forty days, a journey long,

In Lent, our faith made strong,

In Easter’s promise, we belong,

Resurrection, our victory song.

In this season, hope reborn,

In Lent, our spirits sworn,

To Easter’s light, we’re drawn,

In resurrection, a new dawn.

Thought for the month:The Invitation of Easter

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.

Martin Luther (b.1483)

As we draw closer to the end of another Lent, I hope you have all managed to find just a little time to be with God each day: there’s still time if you haven’t done so yet! In the busyness of each day, the ups and down of daily life and in the sorrows and tribulations around our world, it is easy to lose sight of the promise that Easter brings us of restored life and of God’s grace for each and every one of us. This poem reminded me of that promise: I hope it will do the same for you, too.

With love, Sue

Across our beautiful,

evolving world another Easter dawns,

tenderly inviting us

to ponder upon wider truths

and alternative visions.

Truths of both heart and mind

that find their roots

in the mystery and practicality

of God.

Basic truths

illumining

our often uncertain journeys –

allowing us to reconnect

with the energies of Christ:

That life does come from death;

that hate is not the final word;

that the broken continue to sing with joy:

that the trees and the mountains clap their hands;

that forgiveness resides in the heart of the human condition;

that love, with its multiple faces, remains our companion.

So Christ is risen!

Risen again in the midst of it all –

that in some amazing way

we too

may be a people of hope

who walk in the light,

imbued with the Spirit.

(by Peter Millar from Fire and Bread: pub. Wild Goose Publications)

April Garden Cuttings

As the weather improves and we move the clocks forward, I thought I would encourage us out into our gardens with one of Vi’s ‘Garden Cuttings’ – this from 2005.

England in April. Lots of new growth and colour – and toil. Bent almost double and a hand on the back provoked a person to describe me as an old ‘weeder woman’. Weeder women were employed in the 18th and 19th centuries to do just that, and no doubt paid a pittance. Keep weeding but never pull out a weed until you are sure it is one. If you cannot identify it, wait – it may be a progeny of a plant you really can’t do without.

Spring-clean beds and borders. Remove old stems from penstemons, fuchsias and more and see plenty of new growth showing from the base. Lightly fork over the soil and apply a couple of good handfuls of fertiliser like blood, fish and bone: as good as a glass of Guinness.

In past years when we grew vegetables, April was the time for planting onion sets and shallots. If they weren’t planted in firmly enough, it became a contest between us and the birds as to who found it the most fun to pull them out. They were very experienced and we were amateurs. We soon learnt to protect the green tips with pea-guards.

Planning a climbing plant? Try early flowering clematis ‘Armandii’ growing along a fence: rather like a ‘montana’, but evergreen and not so rampant. Its white flowers glow among dark green glossy leaves.

While clearing up I found three ladybirds, although nearly drowned one. Consternation, as each one is precious and it’s not easy to resuscitate a ladybird. How many of us remember ‘ladybird, ladybird, fly away home’?

Today, along with my local National Trust newsletter, I have received a copy of the National Garden Scheme gardens open for charity. It details an amazing number of gardens open to the public in the area and the charities supported. Do go and look, it makes for an enjoyable outing, and sometimes a cup of tea. Copies can be obtained from garden centres and bookshops.

With pleasure I noticed new buds showing on the cherry tree. Every garden should have a flowering cherry. Remember A.E. Houseman’s poem:

‘Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

is hung with bloom along the bough.

And stands about the woodland ride

wearing white for Eastertide.’

On a day when the sun shines and the sky is blue, stand underneath one and look through its branches. As beautiful a picture as you will ever see.

V.A.G.

Lord of all life and power,

who through the mighty resurrection of your Son

overcame the old order of sin and death

to make all things new in him:

grant that we, being dead to sin

and alive to you in Jesus Christ,

may reign with him in glory;

to whom with you and the Holy Spirit

be praise and honour, glory and might,

now and in all eternity.

Collect for Easter Sunday

​​

Clergy

Revd. William Smith      316475      wms.smith@btinternet.com

Revd. Sue Fairhurst      735254       sue@fairhursts.me.uk

Churchwardens

Michael Rayner       831522

Jane Marshall         831680

Website & email

www.stjamesoldmilverton.co.uk       churchwardenstjames@outlook.co

​​​Parish News​