Tel: 01373-834488
Email: admin@hardingtonvale.org.uk
Inspired by the love of Jesus to love God and to love others

Five parishioners were recently baptised on the banks of the River Frome just down stream of the Mill at Rode.  Rev Caroline Walker conducted the ceremony with the help of Fergus Stewart.

You can watch highlights of the event on this video

A special Holy Communion service to remember all those who work at sea was held at St Philip & St James church in Norton St Philip on Sunday.

Our guest speaker this year was The Reverend Canon Andrew Wright, Secretary General of the Mission to Seafarers who talked about the work of the Mission including some recent examples of how they make a significant difference to those seafarers working in sometimes very difficult circumstances.

 

TOTS and TOYS 

During Covid Restriction: EVERY WEDNESDAY 9.30  am -10.30 am group OR 10.45 am -11.45 am group

BABY/TODDLER/PRE-SCHOOLER SUPPORT GROUP

Welcomes: ALL PARENTS and CARERS.

Venue: ST PHILIP and ST JAMES CHURCH, NORTON ST.PHILIP

BOOKING ESSENTIAL -  THESE TIMINGS WILL LAST UNTIL WEDNESDAY 23 JUNE

WHEN THEY WILL BE REVIEWED FOLLOWING GOVERNMENT and CHURCH of ENGLAND GUIDANCE.

(WHEN ABLE WE WILL REVERT BACK TO DROP -IN WITHOUT BOOKING and 9.30 am-11.00 am GROUP TIMING)

Join us for play, music and movement, craft and story time and time to chat with other parents and carers in a friendly child safe setting.

£2.00 per adult per session to include a drink, slice of cake plus a craft activity for your child to do in group time with parent/carer or to take home. Please bring the right change.

COVID SECURE
We will have socially distanced seating where we will have a special table service to provide drinks and cakes for parents/carers. Please bring your own drinks and snacks for your child.

We have space for up to 9 bubble family group tables with up to 2 adults per family bubble group table (Over 5 years counted as an adult at the moment due to covid restrictions).

Masks should be worn on entering the church, adults will be asked to sanitise their hands on entry and exit. Please use NHS App to register our church QR code or provide details for track and trace. For NHS track and trace details are kept for 21 days.

Masks to be taken off while seated but must be worn to walk around and use the toilet.

Thank you for your support in these difficult times and helping us to gradually re-open Tots and Toys for the local community in a safe and secure way. Please note some toys and activities will not be available until Covid restrictions are totally eased.

BOOKING CONTACT: Leave your phone number on my answering machine 01373 812766 (you can pre book several sessions in advance) or email kidschurch@hardingtonvale.org.uk  by the Tuesday evening preceding the Wednesday morning Tots and Toys .

We welcome 0-5 year olds and their parents, grandparents and other carers. We are usually open every Wednesday morning throughout the year except for Christmas. In the school holidays we also offer ‘pop up’ family workshops at the same time for older siblings and/or other families with primary age children.

BUG HOTEL  

I have received funding to build a bug hotel in the churchyard of St Philip and St James church NSP. This will be part of the Eco Church and Wilder Churchyards initiative. I will be inviting families in the parish to come and help build the bug hotel.

If you have any of the following items, could you save them for the bug hotel: small branches, straw and hay, broken terracotta pots, bamboo canes, roof tiles, corrugated cardboard, dry sticks, loose bark, dry leaves and stones. We have been donated pallets from the Church Farm housing development in Rode.

MINI BREAKFAST CHURCH  

The next Mini Breakfast Church will be on Sunday 11 July 9.30am-10.00am. Please register with Caroline for your zoom invitation.  More details to follow.

God Bless

Sue

kidschurch@hardingtonvale.org.uk

Jo Robinson                                         01373 834643       kidschurch@hardingtonvale.org.uk

Revd Caroline Walker                        01373  834258      carolinehwalker@btinternet.com

Please click HERE if you would like to make a one-off donation to Hardington Vale PCC.

If you would like to join our Planned Giving Scheme please click here to download the form.  The form should then be returned to the Parish Treasurer c/o The Rectory, Vicarage Lane, Norton St Philip, BA2 7LY.

Alternatively contact the Parish Treasurer directly, Nick Brown tel: 01373-834488.

 

 GIFT DAY - Praise to God!  for the wonderful response to the Gift Day at St Philip and St James church on Saturday 10April .  Over £24,000 has so far been raised and pledged. A very BIG thank you to everyone who has already contributed and if you would still like to be part of this exciting initiative please contact David Lockley 834414 or Ros Clarke 834488 for a Pledge form.  Donations can be sent direct to the PCC Treasurer, Nick Brown.

We all know that 2020 did not turn out to be the year that we had hoped for in all sorts of ways.  However I would like to celebrate that in the midst of that there has been growth, generosity and grace.

Growth in areas of Mission and Discipleship:

Other Highlights for the year reflecting God’s generosity and grace to us include…

 

Prayer:  Prayer continues to be a central bedrock to all we do in parish life.  Meeting together outside when we could and then moving on to Zoom during Lockdowns.  More than ever we have had a growing recognition of our total dependence on God to guide and lead us by His Holy Spirit during these challenging and difficult times in new and creative ways that nurture, build and sustain faith in our communities and our church family.

Children and Family Worker:  Sue Rodford started the year busy as ever with working amongst our families and the Tots and Toys group.  Sadly COVID did curtail Sue’s work and so she was furloughed for several months.  But she is back and in school and more opening up for next term.

Praise God for the growth of Mini Breakfast church - which at the beginning of this month had 9 families and 13 children attending.

Administrator:  Ros Clarke has kept working through it all and her meticulous updating of the website and communicating across the parish with emails and pews sheets have helped keep us all informed and working together.

Service pattern:  When possible to be in church we alternated Holy Communion between Norton and Rode, whilst still recording the readings, talk and prayers and releasing this recording after the service for those unable to attend.  This mixed mode of working will continue even when fully back in church so those who can’t be with us one week can catch up. and that is what we are offering for Easter - complete mixed mode over 4 of the villages and Zoom Breakfast church, pre-recorded and Live Zoom NSP!

10 April Gift Day 10 - 4 in St Philip and St James Norton St Philip - towards the re-ordering.  We have permission and faculty to remove the 12 central pews in NSP.  Stage one is commencing as soon as possible, while use of the church building is limited.  The vision is for the back area - pews and display cabinet to celebrate the history not just of the church but the whole community.  So the whole building is more used by the community - the flexible space will offer the potential for wedding receptions and community events for use and hire going forward.

It remains an incredible joy and privilege to be part of this amazing team working in this beautiful area of Somerset and seeing God’s Kingdom come into our communities. It has been a tough year but good to remind ourselves that we are in this together and are all called ‘to be God’s chosen ones who are Holy and beloved - may we continue to do all we do in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through Him.’ Colossians 3 : v12 & 17.

 

Caroline

Rector

 

SAFE PASSAGE UK are fighting the Government in court to give child refugees a fair chance of reaching the UK.

Last year, Safe Passage UK, one of the charities that the Parish of Hardington Vale currently support,  launched a challenge of the Government’s unlawful family reunion policy for child refugees from Europe. Due to covid delays, it took months to confirm a date. They have finally received confirmation for the hearing - 25-26 May.
At the hearing, Safe Passage UK will be challenging the Government’s policy for considering refugee family reunion cases from Europe. Although this route was closed to new applications in December, many children still have applications under consideration. Hundreds more had their applications rejected last year under this unfair policy.
Winning this case will offer hundreds of children another chance to reach their families in the UK.
Children impacted by this policy have spent a freezing winter stranded in Europe during a global pandemic, instead of safe with their families.
For many, challenging this unlawful policy will be their last chance of reaching sanctuary.
Safe Passage UK need your help.
Refugees need your support to make sure they can reach safety. Safe Passage are working hard to help bring these children to the UK, and fighting to stop the Government closing the door on safe and legal routes to sanctuary.

If you would like to make a donation to the above charity, please make a cheque payable to Hardington Vale PCC and write Safe Passage UK on the reverse and send to the Treasurer, c/o Parish Office, Vicarage Lane, Norton St Philip, BA2 7LY.  If you would prefer to pay by bank transfer use the following parish account:- Hardington Vale PCC Code: 60 23 06 Ac:  31003060 and use reference Safe Passage UK.

Thank you.

The route and directions for three different walks around our beautiful parish are now available to download and print as handy, illustrated leaflets with maps.

Circum Walk around NSP

Norton to Hinton Walk

Norton to Mount Pleasant Hassage Baggeridge Walk

Our Curate, Jo Robinson has words of wisdom during these difficult times.

As 2021 moves on this picture by the artist and writer Charlie Mackesy seems very appropriate.His book —‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’— was a popular Christmas gift in 2019 and sold over 1.4 million copies spending 55 weeks on the Sunday Times bestsellers list. I wonder how many of you gave or received it? I’m sure that when Charlie wrote it he had no idea just how relevant it would be for the unprecedented events of 2020 and indeed 2021!

The book is full of simple cartoons which illustrate profound conversations between four friends – a boy, a mole a fox and a horse. They remind me of the stories and pictures of Winnie the Pooh although Charlie’s book is less of a story and more of a conversation – little tender exchanges where the characters are vulnerable and kind to each other showing what love and true friendship is about. Anyhow, this isn’t meant to be a book review and I don’t want to give too many spoilers! But I’d like to share a little bit about what I have found out about Charlie.

‘if this storm is making you tired…

…storms get tired too…

…so hold on.’

Charlie is primarily an artist. His pictures hang in the homes of the rich and famous including Whoopi Goldberg and Sting, but they also hang in hospital wards around our country. You may have seen him on the BBC News* which showed how he has been encouraging front line workers with drawings and special messages.

But Charlie is not only a talented artist he is evidently quite a sought-after speaker too. What makes him so enjoyable to listen to is the way he doesn’t take himself too seriously — he’s very self-effacing. I watched him give a Ted Talk** about art —wearing flipflops, with unkempt hair and his two dogs wandering up on the stage — and he talked about how he gives art classes to those living with Alzheimers. Charlie explained that it isn’t the artistic results that are important, but rather; ‘my intention was for them to enjoy each other, the process, connection, shared vulnerability, … it’s one of the greatest privileges I’ve ever had in my life…to encourage someone that it’s okay to make a mess… and to help people find their voice…vulnerability begins with making a mess together, what you get is connection, then you get communication, then you get belonging, you get all these things that society seems to be losing.’ Charlie is more about accepting people and helping them build community in the mess of life than he is about producing masterpieces.

This reminds me of art therapy classes we did with abused girls in Asia. They were asked to draw a memory from childhood, and I remember one girl drew herself and then holding the paintbrush in a tight fist scrubbed over her picture with black paint. She couldn’t put her experiences into words, but she was starting to express them, and she did that in a group —which was very brave thing to do. The acceptance and support of the group was so important in her process of healing.

‘When have you been at your strongest?’ asked the boy.

‘When I have dared show my weakness.’ said the horse.

‘The bravest thing you can do is to ask for help.’

Charlie’s art is an expression of God’s presence in his life. One of his paintings is simply entitled Known, and it came out of an experience he had of God: "There was one day when I was on my bike crossing a bridge in London, and it lasted about 11 seconds," he remembered. "But it was this kind of; ‘You're known, you're loved, God exists and He loves you, He knows you, you're known, you're fully known, you're fully known.'"***

‘Sometimes your mind plays tricks on you. It can tell you you’re no good, that it’s all hopeless. But remember this; you are loved and important and you bring things to the world no-one else can.’

So, as we find ourselves in this challenging time, remember how far we have come, reach out and encourage others, be brave and ask for help and most of all remember that you are loved.

 

Rev Jo Robinson

Curate

The quotes were from Charlie’s Book The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse published by Penguin, or from his Facebook page. The rest of the material you can find if you google:
* Charlie Mackesy Ted talk
** Charlie Mackesy BBC news 16th December
***Charlie Mackesy CBN News
More talks at – Charlie Mackesy HTB and new drawings and quotes are regularly posted on his Facebook page.

 

Join us for half an hour on Thursdays at 6.00 pm.   

A small group of us meet on Thursdays at 6.00 pm (currently from home) to meditate in the Christian tradition, seeking God in the silence and stillness beyond word and thought.

If you would like to join us for half an hour (reading, silent prayer, closing with The Lord’s Prayer), or learn more, please email Robin Campbell robinclerks@gmail.com    

Be Still and know that I am God  

Psalm 46:10

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