Author: Webmaster

 

Calendar for May 2014

 

 

The next stage in the process to appoint the New Vicar will be interviews of selected candidates on 13 May.

 

The next PCC meeting will be on Monday 9 June at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall.

    

     Diocesan News                 www.gloucester.anglican.org/news/publications

                                          www.gloucester.anglican.org/news/blog

     Nailsworth Benefice         www.stgeorgesnailsworth.org.uk

    

     Kingscote Community      www.kingscoteonline.co.uk

 

The Curate’s Letter

 

May is a delightful month when the dawn chorus of bird song reaches its full crescendo and the there are signs of new life everywhere.  There are new lambs in the fields, ducklings in the streams and the first sightings of the swallows’ arrival.  It’s a time to plant out the seedlings and everywhere people are vigorously attending to their vegetable plots and gardens.  It is a time of hope and anticipation for the new season, that this year it will be the best ever !

 

The Bible is full of stories about people who had hope when faced with the challenge of the changes in their daily lives.  Challenges that could bring them either growth and success or failure by the choices they made.  There are moments in these stories with which we can all identify with and which cause us to reflect and think further.  Challenges which we have to face in our spiritual lives and how we make our decisions and conclusions.  At the end of the month on 29 May the Christian Church celebrates Ascension Day when it remembers Jesus’ ascension into heaven.  It is one of the earliest festivals dating back to the very early church, which marks the conclusion of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the beginning of his new heavenly phase.  In his resurrection ministry we receive a fresh hope for a new season in our daily lives, knowing that Jesus ever intercedes on our behalf.

With every blessing,

Sue Sobczak

 

Flower Rota           

Sundays 4th and 11th May	Zoe Nichols
Sundays 18th and 25th May	Sue Spandler
Sundays 1st and 8th June	Jane Nichols

Wedding:  Sunday 4 May, 2.00pm, Douglas Bendle and Margaret Smith

 

Lorna Reynolds

 

 

Cleaning Team

The next church cleaning session is at 2.30 pm on Monday 12 May.  We are always delighted to welcome anyone who would like to join the team.

Teresa Day

  

Village Hall Programme 

Village Hall AGM – Tuesday 13 May, 7.00 pm in the VH.  If you would be interested in joining the committee please contact Ken on Tel. 861 113.  Anyone is welcome to look at the VH accounts for 2013 either by contacting the treasurer Viv Ainsworth on Tel. 861 683 or by visiting the community web-site.

Coffee Morning – Tuesday 20 May, 10.30 to 11.30 am.  Coffee and cake in the Reynolds Room, £1.50.

Spring Supper – Friday 30 May, 8.00 pm, bring food to share (salads, savouries or desserts) and celebrate the season.  Admission free, pay bar.  Please let Carol know on Tel. 860 649 what food you plan to bring. 

Carol Paton

 

Grumbolds Ash Group

On Tuesday 13 May we visit the Bowood House Rhododendron Walks which open at 11.00 am.  Entry to the garden walks costs £6-75 / £6-25 and a combined House and Garden ticket costs £15-50 / £14-00.

Note that the entrance to the Garden is at  SN11 9NF, off the A342 Chippenham to Devises road, and signs to the House should be ignored for that.

Meet at the Village Hall at 10.00 am to share cars.

Jutta Tubbs

 

Book Club at 8.00 pm

Wednesday 14 May, ‘Secret History’ by Donna Tartt, at the Village Hall.

Wednesday 11 June, ‘Harvest’ by Jim Grace and/or ‘The Rosie Project’ by Graeme Simpsion, at Jane’s. 

Angela Wooldridge

 

Kingscote Parish Council

The Parish Assembly will be on Tuesday 13 May at 7.45 pm preceded by the Village Hall Committee AGM at 7.00 pm.  All parishioners are invited to attend.

 

Planning approval:

Scrubbets farm, Bagpath, proposed shelter for cattle.

Planning applications:

Woodlease Farm, Kingscote: proposed cattle/fodder store building.

2 The Park, Kingscote: fell holly tree and beech tree; trim yew, apple, plum, greengage, maple, willow, silver birch, cherry trees.

The Parish Council has been consulted concerning an application within Stroud District for an anaerobic digester at the Old Dairy, Chavenage, which is close to the Kingscote Parish Boundary.  Any comments should be directed to SDC.

 Anna Davison, Tel. 860 244

VILLAGE FETE – Saturday 28 June

There will be a Great Kingscote and Bagpath Bake-off to be judged on the day.  Please make either a Victoria sponge, or 4 scones or 4 cupcakes (or all three if you wish !).  Details of when to deliver the cakes to the fete will be announced in next month’s Forerunner.

There will also be a children’s Vegetable Monsters competition – let your imagination run riot !  Again for timings and delivery details please see next month’s Forerunner.

For those of you who keep empty jam jars and lids, we invite donations of filled jars as prizes for the tombola – sweets, crayons, dry pasta, jam/pickles, buttons whatever takes your fancy.

Also if you have gazebos or tents that could be used by stall holders please contact  Viv Ainsworth on Tel. 01453 861 683. 

Many thanks, Village Hall and PCC fete organising committee

 

Free-range eggs for sale

Mrs Pat Cooksley of 2 The Windmill normally has some free-range eggs for sale at £1 for six. Best call afternoons.

 

Mobile Police Van

The Mobile Police Station will visit Kingscote between 3.15 and 4.15 pm on Wednesday 21 May. Please support this initiative.

 

Mobile Library

The next visit will be on Friday 16 May when the van will park as usual in front of The Walled Garden from 9.30 to 11.30 am. 

 

Weekly Recycling – Green food boxes and wheelie bins

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays.

Fortnightly Recycling – Black boxes, White Bags and Blue bags

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays 2, 16 and 30 May.

 

Fortnightly Waste – Grey wheelie bins to landfill

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays 2, 16 and 30 May.

 

Bus Timetable Enquiries – Ring traveline on  0871 200 2233.

 

Magazine 

Any material which may be of interest for the next issue of the Forerunner should be sent by 20 May to H. Tubbs,  3 The Walled Garden,  Tel. 860 194.

The Editor

 

 

How the Christian Faith began for David Suchet

(Extracts from an article in The Times on 19 April describing the experience

of the actor, famous as Hercule Poirot in so many well known films)

 

In the beginning was a bath tub and David Suchet was in the bath tub.  “ It began in Seattle in an hotel in 1986,” he says.  “ As I was lying in my bath I was thinking of my grandfather, Jimmy, who was sort of my spiritual guide.  I thought ‘Isn’t that funny that I think he’s with me ?  I don’t really believe in life after death.  I don’t want to believe that.’  I thought: ‘Is there a Bible ?’  And I opened the drawer of my bedside table and there wasn’t.”

 

That might have been that.  Suchet, who was shooting the movie Bigfoot and the Hendersons, could just have headed to the bar and had a drink with his fellow actors.  However, Suchet is nothing if not assiduous, and he dug out the Yellow Pages, found a bookshop and went out to buy a Bible.  That night he read Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  “ I was grabbed in a way that I never, ever thought I would be.  I was looking at a world view that I had been searching for ever since the Beatles.

 

So began more than 20 years of exploration, leading to Suchet’s conversion to Christianity.  Suchet’s father, a hospital consultant, was Jewish and his mother a nominal Christian, but neither was religious.  At Wellington School he enjoyed reading from the King James Bible in chapel, but more from the perspective of an aspiring actor who relished the language than for the message.

 

The bath tub moment did not exactly herald a Pauline conversion.  “Paul had the flashing bright light and the world changed.  That’s not me.  The way that I prepare for a role was the way I prepare for my faith.  I was determined to prove it wrong.  I was determined that the Resurrection never happened.”  From 1986 to 2007 he “did the A to Z of churches”, trying to find the right fit.

 

Eventually he settled on the Church of England Chapel Royal at the Tower of London.  One day the chaplain there noted that he was taking communion and asked where he had been confirmed:  When Suchet said that he hadn’t been confirmed the chaplain said that technically he shouldn’t be taking communion.  He was later confirmed by the Bishop of London.

 

He is anxious though, not to be seen to be banging on about his faith.  “I am the last person to want to be considered in any way an evangelist.  It’s just not in me.  I’m not embarrassed about my faith either.  I will talk about it to anybody who wants to know.  But I’m certainly not going to push it into people’s faces without being asked.  It has given me a lot of strength in my life.  It’s not for everybody, but it’s my life.”

 

Not for him, though, any thought that the Church is on its last legs.  “ I presume, like every fashion, we are coming towards the end of the pendulum, and one day it will go all the way back again as it has done throughout history.  I don’t think it is a crisis in the church.” 

Ukrainian History

  

It seemed a good idea to provide a short item describing the history of the Ukrainian nation.  It was quickly found that this comprised almost permanent chaos, with frequent cycles of invasion, occupation, exploitation, revolution, partition by neighbouring powers to the East, North and West for over a millennium.  Tensions between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches were also involved due to strong influences from Russia and Poland.

 

A significant feature of society in 19th C Ukraine was the class of small landowning Kulak farmers who in many cases formed the focal point of community life.  These became victims of Communism being hounded by Stalin to facilitate collectivisation, concluding with the genocidal famine in the 1930’s which resulted in the death of over 3 million rural peasants.

 

As we are seeing ourselves now, there is nothing straightforward in the Ukraine.

 

The Editor

 

 

 

For the Children:

 

The Song of Mr Toad

(Composed by Toad) 

The world has held great Heroes,

As history books have showed;

But never a name to go down to fame

Compared to that of Toad !

 

The clever men at Oxford

Know all that there is to be knowed,

But they none of them knew one half as much

As intelligent Mr Toad !

 

The animals sat in the Ark and cried,

Their tears in torrents flowed.

Who was it said, ‘There’s land ahead’ ?

Encouraging Mr Toad !

 

The Army all saluted

As they marched along the road.

Was it the King ?  Or Kitchener ?

No.  It was Mr Toad !

 

The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting

Sat at the window and sewed.

She cried, ‘Look ! Who’s that handsome man ?’

They answered, ‘Mr Toad.’ 

Kenneth Grahame

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parish Directory

 

Vicar:                        Interregnum – awaiting new appointment.

Curate:                      Reverend Sue Sobczak, Horsley, Tel.  01453 833 526

Reader                       Sue White, Nailsworth, Tel: 01453 835 693

Churchwardens:         Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Kingscote, GL8 8YP.        Tel: 860 194

                                 Godfrey Ainsworth, Kingscote House, Kingscote, GL8 8XY, Tel: 861 683

 

Hon. Sec. PCC:          Georgina Harford, Ashcroft House, Kingscote, GL8 8YF, Tel: 01453 860 227

 

Hon. Treas. PCC:       Jane Nichols, Asheldown, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote, GL8 8YB,  Tel. 01453 860 534

 

Members of PCC:          The Churchwardens, The Hon. Secretary, The Hon. Treasurer, Elin Tattersall, Zoe Nichols, Chris Alford.

 

Flower and Clean Team: Teresa Day, Vivienne Ainsworth, Angela    Wooldridge, Pauline McTear.

 

Nailsworth MU:          Trissa Jones,   Tel:  832 551

 

Editor of Forerunner:  Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Kingscote,  GL8 8YP Tel: 860 194

 

Gift Aid and Envelopes:   Jane Nichols, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote, Tel. 860 534.

 

Church Flowers Rota:  Lorna Reynolds, Tel. 860 231

 

Organist:                   Rosemary Sims, 15 Badger’s Way, Forest Green, Nailsworth,  GL6 0HE  Tel: 832 446

 

Sidespersons:             Harry Tubbs, Rod Tibbert, Elin Tattersall, Godfrey Ainsworth, Jane Nichols.

 

Electoral Roll:            Elin Tattersall, 3 Boxwood Close, Tel.01453 860 182

 

Mowing Team:           Tim Sage, Harry Tubbs, Sebastian Cooper, Rick Bond, Roger Lucy, Godfrey Ainsworth,

Ken Davies.

 

Village Hall:               Bookings: Pauline McTear, Kingscote,  Tel. 861 311

                                 Secretary:  Carol Paton, Bagpath, Tel. 860 649

 

Parish Council Chairman: Graham Nichols, Asheldown, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote  Tel: 01453 860 534

 

Parish Council Clerk:   Anna Davison, Bagpath Court, GL8 8YG, Tel. 860 244

 

Village Agent:             Aileen Bendall, Tel. 07810 630 156 or 01452 426 868

 

Printer of Forerunner:  Godfrey Ainsworth, Kingscote House, Tel. 861 683                                                   

 

 

 

The Forerunner is published by the P.C.C. who are usually most willing to

accept copy from village groups and individuals. However, please note that the opinions and views expressed by the contributors within the Forerunner are not necessarily those of the Church, P.C.C. or Editor.

 

 

The Magazine for the Parish of Newington Bagpath with Kingscote

Wednesday	2nd	Nailsworth	10.00 am	Holy Communion
Sunday	6th	Nailsworth Kingscote Horsley	9.30 am   9.30 am 11.00 am	Family Communion Morning Prayer BCP Holy Communion  CW
Wednesday	9th	Nailsworth	10.00 am	Holy Communion
Palm Sunday	13th	Kingscote Nailsworth Horsley	8.00 am   9.30 am 11.00 am	Holy Communion BCP Family Communion Family Service
Wednesday	16th	Nailsworth	10.00am	Holy Communion
Thursday	17th	Nailsworth	7.30 pm	Holy Communion
Good Friday	18th	Nailsworth Nailsworth Horsley Kingscote	11.30 am   2.00 pm 2.00 pm   2.00 pm	Service in Mortimer Gardens Quiet Hour Quiet Hour Quiet Hour
Easter Sunday	20th	Nailsworth Nailsworth Kingscote	8.00 am 9.30 am  11.00 am	Holy Communion  BCP Family service Parish Communion CW
Wednesday	23rd	Nailsworth	10.00 am	Holy Communion
Sunday	27th	Nailsworth Kingscote Horsley	9.30 am 11.00 am 6.00 pm	Family Communion Family Service Evening Service
Wednesday	30th	Nailsworth	10.00 am	Holy Communion

The Little Angels mothers and toddlers group meets on Fridays at 9.45 am at St George’s Church Nailsworth, except on 18 and 25 April.

The next stage in the process to appoint the New Vicar will be a meeting of the selection panel on 29 April to choose the applicants to be interviewed on 13 May.

The Annual Parochial Church Meeting    will take place on Monday 7 April at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall.  This meeting is open to all parishioners who are most welcome to contribute.    

     Diocesan News             www.gloucester.anglican.org/news/publications

                                          www.gloucester.anglican.org/news/blog

     Nailsworth Benefice       www.stgeorgesnailsworth.org.uk

     Kingscote Community   www.kingscoteonline.co.uk

  

The Vicar’s Letter

The Christian Faith stands or falls on the resurrection !  Without the raising of Jesus from the dead there is no Gospel, no Good News.  As St Paul says when some in Corinth were denying the Resurrection, “If there is no resurrection, then Christ was not raised:  and if Christ was not raised, then our Gospel is null and void and so is your faith …..  But the truth is Christ was raised to life – the first fruits of the harvest of the dead !”

Indeed, the Resurrection is the true starting place for the study of the making and meaning of the New Testament.  We can be tempted to believe that although the Resurrection may be the climax of the Gospel, there is yet a Gospel which stands on its own feet and may be understood and appreciated before we pass on to the Resurrection.  The first disciples did not find it so !   For them the Gospel without the Resurrection was not merely a Gospel without its final chapter, it was not a gospel at all.  Jesus, it is true taught and did great things:  but he did not allow the disciples to rest in these things.  He led them on to paradox, perplexity and darkness –  and there he left them.  There too they would have remained, had he not been raised from death !

All the New Testament writings were written in the light of the Resurrection, and the conviction that Christ is raised and alive shines through in the letters of Paul, James and John.  As I said at the outset, the Christian Faith stands or falls on the Resurrection.

Yet there is a temptation for us to see the Resurrection as a past event, or as a future event when we will be called to share in the final Resurrection.  However, if we see it as something past or future only, we really lose the true impact of Christ’s resurrection, for as the New Testament writers show time and time again, the Resurrection of Jesus is something that is to be experienced here and now.  It is in our lives now that we should experience the power and freedom that God in Christ has given us in overcoming death and sin.

So that which was dead is made alive and that which was old is made new.  Indeed, when we begin to recognise the power of the Resurrection present in the ordinary everyday routine of our everyday lives, then we shall see for ourselves that all that separates, injures and destroys, is being overcome by what unites, heals and re-creates – all because we are empowered by the Risen Christ.

So let us joyfully celebrate this coming Holy Week from Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to Easter Day, and thereby proclaim the Easter Faith – that Christ is raised and that He lives in us – “Alleluya Christ is risen !  He is risen indeed”.

With every blessing,

Michael Irving

Flower Rota           

Sundays 6th and 13th April            LENT	No Flowers
Sundays 20th and 27th April        EASTER	Flower team
Sundays 4th and 11th May	Zoe Nichols

Wedding:  Saturday 26 April, 2.00pm, Timothy Benford and Georgina Payne

Lorna Reynolds

Cleaning Team

The next church cleaning session is at 2.30 pm on Monday 14 April.  We are always delighted to welcome anyone who would like to join the team.

Teresa Day

Grumbolds Ash Group

On Tuesday 8 April we will explore the lovely old market town of Marlborough.  We plan to join the timed tour of The Merchant’s House and Garden (SN8 1HN) at 10.30 am which will take us up to lunchtime.  Admission costs £6-00.

We meet therefore at 9.00 am at the Village Hall to share the driving.

Jutta Tubbs

Village Hall Programme

Film Night – Tuesday 8 April, 7.30 pm, ‘Walk the Line’  based on the early life and career of country music artist Johnny Cash.  It stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon who won Best Actress for her role.  Admission free, Pay Bar.  Last film of the season.

Coffee Morning – Wednesday 16 April, 10.30 to 11.30 am.  Coffee and cake in the Reynolds Room, £1.50.

In view of the Easter holidays, there will be no further events in the Village Hall in April.

Carol Paton Tel. 860 649

Book Club at 8.00 pm

Wednesday 9 April, ‘The Sisters Brothers’ by Patrick de Witt, at the Village Hall.

Wednesday 14 May, ‘Secret History’ by Donna Tartt, at the Village Hall.

Wednesday 11 June, ‘Harvest’ by Jim Grace and/or ‘The Rosie Project’ by Graeme Simpsion, at Jane’s.

Angela Wooldridge

 

Kingscote Parish Council

The next PC meeting will be on Tuesday 15 April at 8.00 pm in the Hunters Hall.

The Parish Assembly will be on Tuesday 13 May at 7.45 pm in the Village Hall, preceded by the Village Hall Committee AGM at 7.00 pm

 

Carbon Monoxide gas poisoning:

Following the recent tragic death of Tommy Cooksley and Pat’s near escape, we need to be more aware of this domestic threat which appears to have been responsible.

All heating devices involving combustion generate variable quantities of this poisonous gas, but if the flue through which the exhaust gas discharges to the chimney is partially blocked, or if the appliance has leaks, great danger to life results.  The particular problem is that the gas does not smell and just slowly asphyxiates.

The only sure solution is to have a detector unit in any room where a combustion appliance is operated.  They cost between £15 and £30 and are available in all stores selling household goods.  It is essential to have one with a sound alarm, and they can be portable and taken to the room where the risk exists.  They must be used in compliance with the manufacturer’s instructions.  They do not detect smoke.

Plenty of official advice is available on this subject from local authorities and the Citizens’ Advice Bureaus.

 

Planning:

Shepherds Way, Calcot  –  Reduce the conifers on the boundaries with the roads by no more than one third.

No objection (County Council)

Anna Davison, Tel. 860 244

 

Plants for sale

At Bumpers Island we have a range of plants for sale from 1 April.  Call 01453 860 498 to check availability. 

Jane Bateman

 

SAVE THE DATE – VILLAGE FETE !

Kingscote and Bagpath Village Fete will be held on Saturday 28 June at Kingscote House;  Hog Roast, Afternoon Teas, Bar, Dog Show, Children’s competitions, Stalls and lots more.  Guest band appearance by Dr Jazz.  Bring your friends.  Full details next month.

Village Hall and PCC fete organising committee

 

Free-range eggs for sale

Mrs Pat Cooksley of 2 The Windmill normally has some free-range eggs for sale at £1 for six. Best call afternoons.

Weekly Recycling – Green food boxes and wheelie bins

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays.

Fortnightly Recycling – Black boxes, White Bags and Blue bags

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays 4 and 18 April.

Fortnightly Waste – Grey wheelie bins to landfill

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays 4 and 18 April.

 

Bus Timetable Enquiries – Ring traveline on  0871 200 2233.

Mobile Police Van

The Mobile Police Station will visit Kingscote between 6.30 and 7.00 pm on Tuesday 22 April. Please support this initiative.

Mobile Library 

Due to the Easter holidays the next visit will be on Friday 16 May when the van will park as usual in front of The Walled Garden from 9.30 to 11.30 am.

Magazine

Any material which may be of interest for the next issue of the Forerunner should be sent by 20 April to H. Tubbs,  3 The Walled Garden,  Tel. 860 194.

The Editor

 

An Easter Message – Experience Easter : Experience Hope 

(Copied from the Diocesan Messenger for April) 

Ukraine, Syria, South Sudan – just some of the places deeply scarred by conflict today.  And in our own country a range of challenging issues – communities recovering from floods and storms, unemployment, a fragile economic recovery – the list goes on.   It can all seem a long way from the story of new life and resurrection that the church will be celebrating once more as Lent and Holy Week give way to Easter.  Where do we find hope?

The Easter story speaks of transformation born out of Jesus’ defeat of death.  His rising to life eternal happened out of a crucible of pain and crucifixion.  That is the ground of Christian hope.  Not simply optimism which believes that somehow everything will be okay, but a true hope founded on the power of God to raise Christ from the dead.  If death can be defeated, then all those other things that scar our world can be transformed too.  But to do so takes courage, faith and love.  Hope is not cheap.

Easter proclaims that the power that raised Jesus from the dead can now work in us and bring transformation to the world.  Are we bold enough to be an Easter people who allow that power to be at work through us so that others too can experience the hope that Easter celebrates ? 

Revd Canon Andrew Braddock

(Director of Mission and Ministry) 

 

An Easter Prayer

 O Lord God, our Father. You are the light that can never be put out; and now you give us a light that shall drive away all darkness.  You are love without coldness, and you have given us such warmth in our hearts that we can love all when we meet.  You are the life that defies death, and you have opened for us the way that leads to eternal life.

 None of us is a great Christian; we are all humble and ordinary.  But your grace is enough for us.  Arouse in us that small degree of joy and thankfulness of which we are capable, to the timid faith which we can muster, to the cautious obedience which we cannot refuse, and thus to the wholeness of life which you have prepared for us through the death and resurrection of your son.  Do not allow any of us to remain apathetic or indifferent to the wondrous glory of Easter, but let the light of our risen Lord reach every corner of our dull hearts. 

Karl Barth 1886 ~ 1968

 (He was the most prominent Protestant theologian of his time, and he asserted that the supremacy of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, was far above the grasp of human reason.  Most of his life was devoted to his academic work and to resisting the Nazi movement.  But in his mellow old age he preached a series of sermons at Basle prison in his native Switzerland, each of which concluded with a prayer.)

 

May Hill

Gloucestershire

This they once called Yartleton Hill,

From the Celtic, meaning ‘round topped’, still

A name that fits, that’s suitable.

Close to a thousand feet above sea level,

An encampment of towering Scots pine

Is assembled here, like a conquering clan

Claiming the hill.  We gaze around

The circling counties, admire the border ground,

The silvered Severn reflecting sunlight,

The Forest, the Malverns, and Welsh hills receding.

 

The sky is blue-and-yellow bright,

But crisp chilly March will keep us moving.

These are the early-in-the-year days we love

When landscapes awaken with the life we crave.

A pine-cone is blown from its tree-top,

Pin balling off branches as it tumbles down –

The tall and the small of this Gloucestershire crown.

 Roger Pope, from his book

‘Love Between Sandwiches 2’

Parish Directory

 

Vicar:                    Interregnum – awaiting new appointment.

Curate:                  Reverend  Sue Sobczak, Horsley, Tel.  01453 833 526 

Reader                  Sue White, Nailsworth, Tel: 01453 835 693 

Churchwardens:   Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Kingscote, GL8 8YP.            Tel: 860 194

                            Godfrey Ainsworth, Kingscote House, Kingscote, GL8 8XY Tel: 861 683

Hon.Sec.PCC:        Georgina Harford, Ashcroft House, Kingscote, GL8 8YF Tel: 01453 860 227 

Hon.Treas.PCC:    Jane Nichols, Asheldown, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote, GL8 8YB Tel. 01453 860 534

Members of PCC:   The Churchwardens, The Hon. Secretary, The Hon. Treas- urer, Elin Tattersall, Zoe Nichols, Philip Kendell, Chris Alford.

Flower and Clean Team: Teresa Day, Vivienne Ainsworth, Angela Wooldridge, Pauline McTear.

Nailsworth MU:     Trissa Jones,   Tel:  832 551

Editor of Forerunner:  Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Kingscote, GL8 8YP Tel: 860 194

Gift Aid and Envelopes:   Jane Nichols, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote Tel. 860 534.

Church Flowers Rota: Lorna Reynolds, Tel. 860 231 

Organist:               Rosemary Sims, 15 Badger’s Way, Forest Green, Nailsworth,  GL6 0HE  Tel: 832 446

Sidespersons:         Harry Tubbs, Rod Tibbert, Elin Tattersall, Godfrey Ainsworth.

Electoral Roll:        Elin Tattersall, 3 Boxwood Close, Tel.01453 860 182

Mowing Team:         Tim Sage, Harry Tubbs, Sebastian Cooper, Rick Bond, Roger Lucy, Godfrey Ainsworth, Ken Davies. 

Village Hall:        Bookings: Pauline McTear, Kingscote,  Tel. 861 311

                            Secretary:  Carol Paton, Bagpath, Tel. 860 649

Parish Council Chairman: Graham Nichols, Asheldown, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote  Tel: 01453 860 534

Parish Council Clerk:   Anna Davison, Bagpath Court, GL8 8YG, Tel. 860 244

Village Agent:        Aileen Bendall, Tel. 07810 630 156 or 01452 426 868

Printer of Forerunner:  Godfrey Ainsworth, Kingscote House, Tel. 861 683                                                   

 

The Forerunner is published by the P.C.C. who are usually most willing to accept copy from village groups and individuals. However, please note that the opinions and views expressed by the contributors within the Forerunner are not necessarily those of the Church, P.C.C. or Editor.

 

Calendar for February 2014

The Little Angels mothers and toddlers group meets on Fridays at 9.45 am at St George’s Church Nailsworth when all are welcome.  Followed by refreshments in the Parish Rooms.

The next stage in the process to appoint the New Vicar will be the Vacancy Meeting on Tuesday 25 February when all three PCCs will meet in Horsley with the Archdeacon of Gloucester to agree the ‘Benefice Profile’ document to be used for advertising.

Next PCC Meeting

Monday 10 March at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall 

Communications

     Diocesan News                 www.gloucester.anglican.org/news/publications

                                          www.gloucester.anglican.org/news/blog

     Nailsworth Benefice         www.stgeorgesnailsworth.org.uk

     Kingscote Community      www.kingscoteonline.co.uk

 

The Interim Minister’s Letter

Life is not easy or straightforward.  Indeed, the older we get the more life seems to throw googlies at us !  I am fascinated by life itself and the way that we engage with it and seek to understand it.

I am hoping there might be some who would like to journey together exploring this very subject during Lent and I an offering some Tuesday evenings in March and April in which to meet.  As a catalyst we will use a book called ‘God Lost and Found’ by John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford (SPCK ISBN 978.0.281.06352.9) £9.99.

Two well-known people say of this book:

“This is an unusually honest book.  Its analysis is plain-spoken and compassionate, and what Bishop John has to say about finding ways to live constructively with times of emptiness is superbly well focussed.  You’ll emerge from reading this with –

probably – relief that a widespread set of challenges has been so sensitively identified – and certainly – with gratitude for sensible, durable advice on how to go on making friends with the mystery we can never digest or contain.”  Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury.

“What a courageous book !  In his inimitable, engaging style, John Pritchard exposes the doubts, anxieties and spiritual dryness which can afflict even faithful believers.  He shows us the darkest reality of being unable to find God.  But he does not leave us there.  His many stories and insights lift us gently to look again, experience afresh and be open to ‘new beginnings’.  The result is a deeply compassionate book – full of hope and full of God.”  Elaine Storkey, President of Tearfund.

I do hope that anyone from Kingscote or Horsley will feel free to join us, to be fellow explorers and to journey together to understand more fully the mystery of life, as far as we are able, and how we can live it even after we have been bruised by it and at times lost our hopes for it.

The meetings will be at Kingscote Village Hall at 7.45 for 8.00 pm finishing no later

than 9.30 pm, on Tuesdays 4,11,18, 25 March,  and 1,8 April 2014. To give some idea of the numbers could you let Harry Tubbs (01453 860 194) or Georgina Harford (01453 860 227) in Kingscote, or Stan Burrage (01453 832 952) in Horsley know if you are coming, even if only to some of the meetings.  It will give us some idea when ordering the books and putting out the coffee cups !

With every blessing, Canon Michael Irving. 

Flower Rota           

Sunday 2nd February

Sundays 9th and 16th February

Sundays 23rd February and 2nd MarchJane Bateman

Wendy Ingram

Sheila Grey 

Wedding:  Saturday 15 February, 2.30 pm, Rory Spanton and Rebecca Griggs 

Lorna Reynolds

Cleaning Team

The next church cleaning session is at 2.30 pm on Monday 10 February.  We are always delighted to welcome anyone who would like to join the team.

Teresa Day

  

Grumbolds Ash Group

On Tuesday 18 February we visit The Museum in the Park in Stroud, to see particularly the visiting exhibition Tracing the Blue Print describing the historic indigo fabric printing of Central and Eastern Europe.  We met at 10.00 am at the Village Hall to share transport, and will go for lunch after the visit.

Jutta Tubbs

Village Hall Programme

Film Night – Tuesday 11 February, 7.30 pm, Oscar winning film West Side Story with Natalie Wood and George Chakiris.  Admission free, pay bar.

Coffee Morning – Wednesday 19 February, 10.30 to 11.30 am.  Coffee and cake £1.50.

Wine and Cheese party – Friday 28 February, 8.00 pm, with light headed wine quiz.  £5.00 for a glass of wine and cheese, pay bar to follow.

Carol Paton Tel. 860 649

Book Club at 8.00 pm

Wednesday 19 February, to discuss ‘Arcanum’ by Janet Gleeson or ‘The Cashmere Shawl’ by Rosie Thomas at Angela’s.

Wednesday 19 March, to discuss ‘The Fishing Fleet’ by Anne de Courney at the Village Hall.

Angela Wooldridge

Kingscote Parish Council

 The next PC meeting will be on Tuesday 15 April at 8.00 pm in the Hunters Hall.

Planning approvals:

Rosemary Cottage, Kingscote, erection of single storey rear extension.

Planning applications:

Bagpath Court Cottage, erection of two storey side and rear extensions to existing dwelling, insertion of two dormer windows and roof-light to the rear (amendment to 13/02598/FUL). 

Major work is now scheduled on the pavement outside the Matara Centre. 

Anna Davison, Tel. 860 244

Free-range eggs for sale

Mrs Pat Cooksley of 2 The Windmill normally has some free-range eggs for sale at £1 for six.

Weekly Recycling – Green food boxes and wheelie bins

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays.

Fortnightly Recycling – Black boxes, White Bags and Blue bags

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays 7 and 21 Febuary.

Fortnightly Waste – Grey wheelie bins to landfill

All current collection points – from 7.30 am, Fridays 7 and 21 February.

Bus Timetable Enquiries – Ring traveline on  0871 200 2233.

Mobile Police Van

No announcement has been made concerning the visit schedule for 2014.

Mobile Library

The next visit will be on Friday 21 February and the van will park as usual in front of The Walled Garden from 9.30 to 11.30 am.

Church Gutter Clearing

We thank all the helpers who took part in the gutter clearing activity on Saturday 11 January.  Considering what has been going on, we were very fortunate with the weather.

The PCC

Weddings in Kingscote Church in 2014

 We hope that it will be helpful to have this advance warning of the dates and times of the 2014 weddings in the church:

Saturday 15February                            2.30 pm

Saturday 26 April                                2.00 pm

Sunday 4 May                                    2.00 pm

Saturday 17 May                                 1.20 pm

Friday 20 June                                    1.30 pm

Saturday 16 August                             2.00 pm

Saturday 27 September                         1.30 pm

Saturday 4 October                              2.00 pm

Wednesday 8 October                          2.00 pm

Thursday 30 October                           1.00 pm

As you can see this totals 10 weddings which is the PCC’s agreed limit for the year. 

Georgina Harford and Jane Nichols

(Wedding Administration team)

 

Magazine

Any material which may be of interest for the next issue of the Forerunner should be sent by 18 February to H. Tubbs,  3 The Walled Garden,  Tel. 860 194.

The Editor 

Stop imposing single, simplistic truths on a plural world 

(Extracts from an interesting article by Ziauddin Sardar co-editor of ‘Critical Muslim’,

published in the Times on Saturday 11 January 2014)

A thought provoking e-mail popped into my inbox last week. It was an article entitled ‘All religions are true, Adam and Eve a fable, hell is a mere metaphor – says Pope Francis.’  Long held Catholic doctrines had been redefined, it suggested.  The essay suggested that there is a problem with the religious conception of truth.

I agree.  All monotheistic faiths claim to possess absolute truth.  In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, there is only one single path that leads to salvation.  The Jews are not just the keepers of God’s laws but also His chosen people.  In Christianity, you can only be ‘saved’ by accepting Jesus Christ as the Saviour; it is the sole route to heaven.  Muslims have to believe that the Koran is the Word of God, Muhammad the Last Prophet, and God’s laws must be implemented in full to avoid the fire of hell.

These notions of truth set up a false dichotomy.  If all truth is the same for everyone at all times, then if I am right, you must be wrong.  And, if I really care for truth, I must convert you to my view.  If necessary, as history shows, by force.  They instil a sense of superiority in the believers.  As possessors of the absolute truth, or the chosen people of God, the believers are morally superior to the rest of humanity. Their way of life is the best in this best of all possible worlds.  This arrogance is responsible for much of the inter-religious strife we see around the world, and the sectarian violence in the Muslim world.

This Platonic idea of truth makes religion unfit for the globalised world.  This is why religions are inept at dealing with equality, pluralism and the moral chaos of our times.

Monotheistic faiths, I think, have to abandon much of what they have held to be true, including their historic goal of imposing a single truth on a plural globe.  If God is Infinite, then She cannot be enveloped in a single, ancient, simplistic construction of truth.

Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi, came up with a neat prescription for religions to cope with the complexity and plurality of modern life.  In the first edition of The Dignity of Difference, he wrote that the way forward for religion is to drop the old recipe that  ‘faith is supremely important, and therefore all men must have one true faith’ and replace it with the new formula that ‘faith is supremely important and therefore every man must be allowed to live by the faith which seems true to him.’  He was shouted down by the Jewish Orthodoxy and had to delete this passage from subsequent editions of the book.

I would go one step further.  We have to see religious truths as human constructions made at certain times and places to serve certain ends.  Revelation may be inspired by God, but it is humans who receive it, interpret it, and turn it into a dogma.  We see Moses, Jesus and Muhammad not as historical figures struggling with truth, but as personification of truth without a past.  As historical figures they can be recycled in sermons and invoked as role models.

If we see religious dogma as human constructions, then they can be redefined and updated by other humans without qualms.  All religions teach that God is not a static but an active agent.  A corollary of this teaching is that faith communities can only be true to God by embracing change.  No religion is ever complete or fully realised.  All are work in progress.  All have to embrace notions of equality, pluralism and adjust to our expanding knowledge of the cosmos. 

MISS  THOMPSON  GOES  SHOPPING

In her lone cottage on the downs,

With winds and blizzards and great crowns

Of shining cloud, with wheeling plover

And short grass sweet with small white clover,

Miss Thompson lived, correct and meek,

A lonely spinster, and every week

On market day she used to go

Into the little town below,

Tucked in the great down’s hollow bowl,

Like pebbles gathered in a shoal.

 

So, having washed her plates and cup

And banked the kitchen fire up,

Miss Thompson slipped upstairs and dressed,

Put on her black (her second best),

The bonnet trimmed with rusty plush,

Peeped in the glass with simpering blush,

From camphor-smelling cupboard took

Her thicker jacket off the hook

Because the day might turn to cold.

Then, ready, slipped downstairs and rolled

The hearthrug back; then searched about,

Found her basket, ventured out,

Snecked the door and paused to lock it

And plunged the key in some deep pocket.

Then as she tripped demurely down

The steep descent, the little town

Spread wider still its sprawling street

Enclosed her and her footfalls beat

On hard stone pavement; and she felt

Those throbbing ecstasies that melt

Through heart and mind, as happy, free,

Her small, trim personality

Merged into the seething strife

Of auction-marts and city life. 

Martin Armstrong 

Parish Directory

Vicar:                    Interregnum – awaiting new appointment.

Curate:                  Reverend Sue Sobczak, Horsley, Tel.  01453 833 526 

Reader                  Sue White, Nailsworth, Tel: 01453 835 693 

Churchwardens:   Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Kingscote, GL8 8Y. Tel: 860 194

                            Godfrey Ainsworth, Kingscote House, Kingscote, GL8 8XY Tel: 861 683

Hon.Sec.PCC:        Georgina Harford, Ashcroft House, Kingscote, GL8 8YF Tel: 01453 860 227

Hon.Treas.PCC:    Jane Nichols, Asheldown, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote, GL8 8YB Tel. 01453 860 534

Members of PCC:   The Churchwardens, The Hon. Secretary, The Hon. Treasurer, Elin Tattersall, Zoe Nichols, Philip Kendell, Chris Alford.

Flower and Clean Team: Teresa Day, Vivienne Ainsworth, Angela Wooldridge, Pauline McTear.

Nailsworth MU:     Trissa Jones,   Tel:  832 551

Editor of Forerunner:  Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Kingscote, GL8 8YP Tel: 860 194

Gift Aid and Envelopes:   Jane Nichols, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote Tel. 860 534.

Church Flowers Rota: Lorna Reynolds, Tel. 860 231

Organist:               Rosemary Sims, 15 Badger’s Way, Forest Green,

                            Nailsworth,  GL6 0HE  Tel: 832 446

Sidespersons:         Harry Tubbs, Rod Tibbert, Elin Tattersall, Godfrey Ainsworth.

Electoral Roll:        Elin Tattersall, 3 Boxwood Close, Tel.01453 860 182

Mowing Team:       Tim Sage, Harry Tubbs, Sebastian Cooper, Rick Bond, Roger Lucy, Godfrey Ainsworth, Ken Davies.

Village Hall:        Bookings: Pauline McTear, Kingscote,  Tel. 861 311

                            Secretary:  Carol Paton, Bagpath, Tel. 860 649

Parish Council Chairman: Graham Nichols, Asheldown, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote  Tel: 01453 860 534

Parish Council Clerk:  Anna Davison, Bagpath Court, GL8 8YG, Tel. 860 244

Village Agent:        Aileen Bendall, Tel. 07810 630 156 or 01452 426 868

Printer of Forerunner:  Godfrey Ainsworth, Kingscote House, Tel. 861 683                                                     

The Forerunner is published by the P.C.C. who are usually most willing to

accept copy from village groups and individuals. However, please note that the opinions and views expressed by the contributors within the Forerunner are not necessarily those of the Church, P.C.C. or Editor.