SUNDAY 7th November 2021
8am HOLY COMMUNION (traditional language).
10am HOLY COMMUNION in Church and on YouTube.
4pm CHURCH AT 4 MEETING IN CHURCH All ages welcome.
6pm NO EVENSONG THIS EVENING
There is no service of evensong this week (fireworks at the Fox & Hounds!). This service has been moved to 6pm on Sunday 14th November
Tuesday 9th November, 12 noon – Funeral Service for the late Joyce Backes at NW Crematorium
TUESDAY 9am Morning Prayer in church
THURSDAY 9am Morning Prayer in Church
SUNDAY 14th November
Remembrance Sunday
8am HOLY COMMUNION (traditional language)
Preacher: Revd Phill Harrison
Sidespersons: Alan & Christine Wrixon
10.15am REMEMBRANCE SERVICE
To take place in the Church Car Park
Please see separate notice below regarding the Service
4pm CHURCH AT 4 MEETING IN CHURCH – All ages welcome.
6pm EVENSONG
Preacher: Revd Chris Hunter
Intercessor: John Henderson
Readings: TBC
Sidespersons: Carol Brown and Trish Green
Live streaming the 10am service
The 10am service will be live streamed on You Tube. Please visit our YouTube Channel on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc6wnuTqXBYTixq-NpQgeLQ (or search for Wroughton and Wichelstowe Parish church) and press the ‘subscribe’ button.
Covid-19 update – social distancing
Many of us are becoming used to being in situations where strict social distancing rules have been relaxed and would welcome the chance to sit a bit closer to friends in church. We would like to take a cautious approach to easing social distancing measures, not least because there are still plenty of people who aren’t yet ready to take this step. We have therefore designated the rear section of the nave as an area where social distancing is no longer required, with social distancing remaining in place in the rest of the church.
If you want to be socially distanced then please avoid the pews in the rear of the nave.
Remembrance – Sunday 14th November
This year we will once again be able to join with the wider community to mark Remembrance Sunday. Remembrance is one of the busiest church services of the year and a time when we welcome large numbers of people, however Covid hasn’t gone away and the capacity of our church building remains restricted. We have therefore take the decision to hold our Remembrance Sunday service outdoors. We will meet in the church car park at 10:15am for a short service where we will be joined by Wroughton Silver Band, the Royal British Legion, uniformed groups and representatives from the Royal Engineers. At the end of the service the parade will march down Church Hill and assemble at the War Memorial on Warf Road at 10:50am for the Act of Remembrance. The Legge House car park will be available for those who need to drive to the service.
Advent Reflections
We will be leading a series of short reflective services during Advent. These will take place on Tuesday evenings at 7.30 on the 7th, 14th and 21st of December.
Church Building update
By now we’re all getting used to the look of the bare sections of wall in the church, in fact a number of people have commented that they rather like it! The modern plaster was removed from these areas because it was trapping water inside the wall; the walls have been slowly drying out ever since. We recently met with representatives of the Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches (DAC) to discuss our next steps. They have told us that we will need to replace the missing plaster in the North aisle and nave, however they were happy for us to investigate the feasibility of removing the lime-wash from the dressed stone of the window reveals and mullions and the archway of the former North door. It was felt that this would provide a pleasing contrast between the white-wash of the walls and the honey-coloured dressed stone. This would also be in-keeping with the bare stone of the pillars and arches in the nave. Re-plastering in the baptistry area is more problematic because the wall hasn’t dried out at all (it is below ground level!). The DAC have recommended a that our architect looks at a slightly different solution for covering the wall in this area. We also have agreement in principal for the levelling of the floor in the St Helen’s chapel and widening the gap leading to the North aisle to provide spaces for wheelchair users and better access. These important accessibility improvements are not currently within our budget, so they will only be progressed if funds allow.
Coffees
Providing coffees at the end of the service again is proving popular. However we have run out of disposable cups so would ask that you bring your own mugs if possible. Don’t worry if you forget. You won’t go without a drink but it would help the team if we don’t have to use too many Church mugs.
Many thanks to the team and cake makers.
Healing on the Streets
……..is back! We shall resume our presence in the Ellendune shopping centre on 13th November from 10.30am till noon. To begin with, we shall be there on the second Saturday each month, to offer prayer for healing or just for a friendly chat and listening ears. Do come and say hello if you are passing.
Tear Fund Quiz
“The Annual TEAR Fund Quiz will be held again this year on Saturday 20th November starting at 7pm. The event will be held by Zoom giving opportunity for friends and family from afar to be involved in this popular fund raising event. Teams of up to eight members can join or let us know if you would like to be allocated to a team. Please contact the Church Office on office@wroughton.com or Peter Ferguson 07733338814 email fergieskpdj@gmail.com for further details or to enter a team. Thanks.”
LET’S… WROUGHTON AND WICHELSTOWE
LET’S is back! So… Let’s get together!
25th of November 10:00am to 11:30am in the new Kingfisher School in Wichelstowe (behind Waitrose).
# LET’S MAKE CHRISTMAS-WREATHS
***25th November 10am ***
***Free of charge – we will meet in the Kingfisher school building
***Please sign up early as we just have 30 spaces !!
***To reserve your place email- martina.lewis@ntlworld.com
Delivery of Paper Service Sheets
Several household members of our church currently receive hand delivered paper copies of the 10am Service Sdheets and Weekly Notices. The octagenarian who does these deliveries would quite like a week off every now and then. If you are able to deliver a dozen service sheets occasionally then please speak to Janet in the Church Office.
Treasure hunt
A big thank you to everyone who helped at the treasure hunt last week, including bird feeder makers and those in charge of refreshments . Despite the showery weather we had great feedback from those who took part and some of us learned things about the Churchyard we didn’t know. Barbara
Bible Society
This month we are thinking of the Bible Society which our Church supports.
It is a Christian charity which for 200 years has been on a mission to offer the Bible to the world. Thirty million Bibles were distributed despite the pandemic.
This week’s story comes from a prison in Africa. A prisoner called Moussa took part in a Scripture based literacy class and found Jesus through a Bible he was given by the Bible Society team.. He vowed that on his release he would become a carpenter. A few months after he was given a Presidential pardon and released. He now has a contract to make 50 carts for the prison he was in and is a member of his local Church( story courtesy of Bible Society newsletter)
It is hard for us to imagine that people still can’t get a copy of the Bible in their own language although it is not so long ago that this applied to our country.
Please pray for the wonderful work the Bible Society do around the world and help if you can.
Eco Top Tips – practical ways to take better care of God’s creation
November – Recycling
Check you know what can be recycled in your area, if you’re not sure check the council website.
Floodlighting
The Church will be floodlit on Tuesday 9th November by Anna Godwin in memory of David Godwin; On Saturday 13th November by Jean Lawton in memory of Edward Lawton.
Funerals
We commend to God’s care and keeping those who have, died recently. We pray for all those who mourn the loss of a loved one.
| The Parish Office, Priors Hill, Wroughton, SN4 0RT Open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 9am to 1.30pm
01793 812050 office@wroughton.com Revd Phill Harrison – Vicar 01793 812301 vicar@wroughton.com Revd Chris Hunter – Curate 01793 814987 curate@wroughton.com Church Twitter Account – @WroughtonWichel Find us on Facebook – Wroughton and Wichelstowe Parish Church Please follow us for all the latest updates from Wroughton Parish Church.
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Synod Snippets Autumn 2021
You can find an on-line version here https://www.nschurch.org.uk/swindon-deanery/synod-snippets.php
Synod Snippets is designed to help Deanery Synod members communicate what’s happening at Swindon Deanery Synod with their PCCs and wider congregations and provide points for discussion at and feedback from PCCs.
If you want further information about anything below where there is not a contact listed, please email
rev.trudie@wigley.org.uk or Sally.robertson27@btinternet.com
Post-Covid recovery
At Deanery Synod in May we identified 5 areas where help and coordination across the Deanery could be helpful in the post-Covid (or at least post-lockdown) period. Here’s an update on each
- Live streaming Services
- Many churches still have some presence on-line, though not all
- Advice can be shared by churches which are using different technologies
- Church of England Digital labs website (https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/church-england-digital-labs) has lots of useful information and runs webinars on various issues.
- Children’s work
- There is concern across the deanery about the number of children’s leaders who have stepped down.
- Is there anyone who could produce (with support) a video to aid recruitment of children’s workers across the deanery?
- Schools work
- Watch out for details of an Education focussed synod next year
- Liz Townend (Director of Education for Bristol Diocese) has produced a really helpful guide to good church engagement with schools and how to develop it. You will find it here.
- Engaging with those we have lost touch with – which is similar to
- Outreach and Pastoral care –
- We would love to explore a social media presence for the deanery, so that information and events can be more easily shared, so we are looking for a deanery social media advisor and content manager. Who in your congregation could fill this role?
- The Diocesan Communications team are very keen to engage if there are press releases etc we want to put out about events or good news stories. You can contact them on comms@bristoldiocese.org.
Racial Justice
At our July Synod, we discussed how to make our churches more welcoming by engaging in inter-cultural worship. In October, Revd Anjali Kanagaratnam, a curate in the Bybrook Benefice near Chippenham, challenged us in a video (watch it here https://vimeo.com/637512731) to take 2 small steps to increase our inter-cultural welcome.
- Include a small act of cultural hospitality in services, for example
- using part of a liturgy from another culture
- using images or music drawn from non-western culture
Anjali recommends the following links to resources to help with this
Songs2Serve – www.songs2serve.eu
S2S Worship Network UK – www.facebook.com/groups/s2suk
IC-UK – http://www.icuk.network/
Arts Release – https://artsrelease.org/
- Inclusion of global theological perspectives in sermon
It helps to ask any minority ethnic members of your congregation in planning this but even if you have none including one of these elements regularly still widens the expectations and awareness of congregation.
- Choose one thing you can do personally and regularly to learn about racial diversity today, for example
- Read a book from a different ethnic theological perspective
- Use a commentary written by someone of a different race
- Speak to someone and listen well to their perspective on spiritual and moral issues.
Swindon New Town Parish provides a monthly Mass with readings and prayers in Konkani (the language of the Goan community). The forthcoming Masses, all at St Luke’s on Broad Street, are on Saturday 20th November at 6pm, Friday 3rd December at 7pm and Saturday 1st January at 10am. You would be very welcome to join them. You can find a poster here.
