Who do you think you are?You’ll see below in “news and Notices” that Stoke St Gregory church are planning a weekend of browsing and exploring, investigating and researching. On 15th and 16th April we are bringing a selection of archives from the country registry to be opened and perused (carefully, of course) in the church. We’ve done this before, I am told, quite a few moons ago, and I am excited to learn about some of “what has gone before” in and around the village. Of course, I am personally not expecting to discover anything about my own history whilst pouring over the various documents, but I am keen to read about the lives of those who grew and lived in the area and whose lives are recorded in the registers. Since arriving here in 2021 I have gradually met and chatted to many people (the lockdown got in the way for quite a few months of course!) and have discovered the villages in the benefice are a mixture of locals and incomers, and I often muse as to how long one needs to be in the area before the latter becomes the former. I was born and grew up in Bristol, and only moved from the city after my 51st birthday. I was at least fourth generation Bristolian, with my great-grandfather probably being born in the city. My two grandchildren are sixth generation (I think Yate, just north of Bristol, counts as Bristol, perhaps…). [Footnote: it might well be that my great-great-grandfather was from “round these parts…”]. Such “roots” are important to me. I identify as Bristolian, and always will, I suspect. As the saying goes, you can take the boy out of Bristol, but not Bristol out of the boy. But it isn’t like that for everyone. Some of use live in one place all our lives and others move regularly. The names written in the books soon to be viewed in Stoke St Gregory will feature the names of families who still live locally. Others will be long gone and people will say, “Oh, I remember so-and-so… their great-grandson married so-and-so and I think I went to school with the grandson of Mr Whatsit.” The important thing is that we remember to remember. It is in remembering that we can maintain a sense of our own identity. As we recall the names of people we once knew or dig deep into our own past to reflect upon where we’ve been, we ensure our own lives have value. I would go so far as to suggest that it is in the relationships with others that we can be sure of who we are. I make my life out of meetings with other people. We are made real by encounters. We can learn who we are by bumping into people. We weave our lives out of fellowship and when we remember we can be ready to face the future with roots that go deep: not necessarily in a place, but through families and friends. The Fifth Sunday of LentCollectMost merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Ezekiel 37.1-14The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.” So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD. Psalm 1301 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. 8 It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities. Romans 8.6-11To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. John 11.1-45Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. Post CommunionLord Jesus Christ,
you have taught us
that what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters
we do also for you:
give us the will to be the servant of others
as you were the servant of all,
and gave up your life and died for us,
but are alive and reign, now and for ever. Pastoral CareYears Mind for March 2023 We call to mind parishioners who have died at this time in recent years. Ben Moreton, Mary Nash, Phyllis Pine, Mavis Staple For those who are sick or in need Alison, Angie, Anne, Anne, Audrey, Audrey, Barbara, Caroline, Christine, Dave, David, David, Diane, Edward, Eileen, Ethel, Fran, George, Helen, Joyce, Judith, Marjorie, Mary, Norma, Patrick, Portia, Ralph, Rebecca, Rita, Ruby, Sheila, Susanne, Tom, Will, Zillah. We pray for these and their families and carers, and all those who are in need but named only in our hearts. May light shine into their world, may abundance spring forth and may they find hope in their hearts. Our prayer life is fundamental to our Christian living, and this will not ever change. Our prayers are our very own conversation with God and are one important way that we can show our care for others. If you would like to include anyone at all, please contact Revd Simon. The coming week | Wednesday
10.30am: Hymn Choosing, North Curry
1.10pm: North Curry School Collective Worship (Revd Simon) |
| | | Thursday
9.15am: Stoke St Gregory School Easter Service
2pm: North Curry School Easter Service |
| | | Friday
2pm: Funeral of Shirley Vickery, Burrowbridge |
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Evening Recital | | The concert by Mary Stewart-Wilson and friends, which was postponed from last year because of the death of HM the Queen, will take place in North Curry Church on the evening of Saturday 15th April. Tickets held over from last year are still valid, but further tickets will be available in mid-March from the Post Office and online from TicketSource (search ‘North Curry’): £12.50 to include a glass of wine. |
Old Church Records at Stoke St Gregory: Request for VolunteersOn the Saturday and Sunday after Easter (15th and 16th April) we are planning to have the old church records out from the Somerset Archives for people to come and examine. We shall need a collection of volunteers to oversee these when the church is open for a short period of time. Obviously, the more volunteers we have for church duties, the shorter length of time anybody will need to be on duty. | | |
We hope also to have some live music in the church at some point and possibly a talk by a knowledgeable individual (yet to be confirmed). We will be serving refreshments in the Church Room during these hours, so more volunteers are needed to do some baking please, and another cohort of kind people to help out with serving on each day. If you are able to support the church in these activities please contact Jane on 490508 We are also keen to know if how many people in the village have other family archives that could be of interest to others and whether they would be prepared to lend these to the exhibition. If this is the case then please let Jane know. The weekend will conclude at 6pm on Sunday evening, 16th April, with a celebratory Evensong. All are invited. NB: North Curry’s usual Evensong will be shelved.
Instead there will be a 10am Eucharist in North Curry that morning. Bells Update in North Curry | | More will be explained in the next Athelney Magazine, but this is simply to say that Taylor’s (the bell people) are back in North Curry church and are working hard to get the bells back. The timetable is currently fluid with various scenarios about when they can be rung flying around. Please watch this space for updates. In the meantime, the church remains closed during the week. Also: A date for your diary: 30th April… Bishop Michael to lead our worshipIt is exciting to announce that Rt Revd Michael Beasley, our new Bishop of Bath and Wells, will be leading worship on 30th April at 6pm. This will be a time of celebration and thanksgiving when Bishop Michael will dedicate the new bells at North Curry. More details to follow. |
Coming Month’s WorshipMarch 26th: Fifth Sunday of Lent, Passion Sunday- 9.30am: Eucharist, Burrowbridge, Revd Simon
- 10am: Eucharist, North Curry, Revd Martin
- 11am: Eucharist, Stoke St Gregory, Revd Simon
April 2nd: Palm Sunday- 8am: BCP, North Curry, Revd Simon
- 9.30am: Eucharist, Lyng, Revd Martin
- 9.50am: Palm Procession in Queen Square then (10am) Eucharist, North Curry, Revd Simon
- 11am: Eucharist, Stoke St Gregory, Revd Martin
- 3pm: Baptism, Stoke St Gregory, Revd Simon
Holy Week- Each Evening at 6.30pm Compline, Stoke St Gregory
- Monday 3rd at 6.30pm: Holy Communion, Burrowbridge
- Tuesday 4th at 7pm: Music and Sacrament, North Curry
- Wednesday 5th at 6.30pm: 6.30pm: Holy Communion, Lyng
- Maundy Thursday at 6.30pm: Stripping of Altars, North Curry and Stoke St Gregory
- Good Friday
- 10am: At the foot of the Cross, Stoke St Gregory Baptist Church
- 2pm: Meditation at the Cross, Lyng
- 3.30pm: Stations of the Cross, North Curry
- 7.30pm: Taizé Worship, North Curry Methodist Church
- Saturday at 8pm: Easter Vigil and Fire, Lyng
April 9th: Easter Day- 6.15am (ish): Burrow Mump, Sunrise worship, Revd Simon
- 9.30am: Eucharist, Lyng, Revd Martin
- 10am: Eucharist, Burrowbridge, Revd David Barge
- 10am: Eucharist, North Curry, Revd Simon
- 11am: Eucharist, Stoke St Gregory, Revd Martin
April 16th: Second Sunday of Easter- 8am: BCP, North Curry, Revd Simon
- 9.30am: Eucharist, Lyng, Revd Simon
- 10am: Eucharist, North Curry, Revd Martin. NB: NO Evensong this month owing to combining with Stoke St Gregory (see below)
- 6pm: Evensong, Stoke St Gregory, Revd Simon, celebrating the Archive Weekend
April 23rd: Third Sunday of Easter- 9.30am: Eucharist, Burrowbridge, Revd Martin
- 10am: Morning Prayer, North Curry, TBC
- 11am: Eucharist, Stoke St Gregory, Revd Martin
| | The Athelney Magazine is published monthly, appearing before the first Sunday of each month. The deadline for submissions for the next (April) issue was 12th March. The current month’s issue is available online during the week after the paper copy is distributed. Current online issue is March 2023. |
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