St Mary's March 2018 Magazine

Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Finedon
Parish Magazine
April 2018
1
Digital Edition

Vicar:
Finedon Parish Church: St Mary The Virgin
The Revd Richard Coles,
St Mary the Virgin Finedon, The Vicarage,
Church Hill, Finedon, Northants, NN9 5NR
01933 681 786, Mobile 07885 967 960
email: revdrichardcoles@yahoo.co.uk
Assistant Honorary Priest Fr Peter Baden,01832 733186
email: p.baden36@btinternet.com
Reader Mr Michael Duncombe, 01536 483935
email: mikeduncombe61@gmail.com
Parish Clerk
Mrs Gill Foster Tel: 680364 (To whom first
contact for Baptisms and weddings must be
made).
Churchwardens: Mrs Jane Read Tel: 680522
Mr Neil Forster Tel: 682177
PCC Secretary: Mrs Gill Foster Tel: 680364
Treasurer: Mr Andrew Weatherill Tel: 682212
Magazine Editor: Mrs Janet Millington, Tel: 681161.
email: millingtonjanet@aol.com
(to whom all copy should addressed by
the 15 th of the month prior to publication)
Director of Music Mr Jonathan Harris Tel: 01933 779059,
Mobile 07791 664507
Email: Hjonathan83@aol.com
Deputy Organists
Mrs. Kathy Roberts
Mr Oliver Grigg
Choirmaster: Mr. Bryan Chapman Tel: 398818
Tower Captain Mr Bryan Chapman, Tel 398818
Web Site
www.finedonphotographs.org.uk/
bellringers.html
Archivist
St Michael’s Mission Room:
Dr Kaye McClelland, kayemclelland@gmail.com
Bryan & Christine Chapman
Tel: 01933 398818
Times Of Services:
Sundays
8.00 am Holy Eucharist
9.30 am Parish Eucharist.
6.00 pm Evensong (1st Sunday of the Month)
Visit us on the Web at www.stmarysfinedon.co.uk
2

From the Vicarage, April 2018.
I’m not sure what the weather will be like by the time you read this, but if
it continues in a similar pattern to how it’s been around the time of writing
I can only hope your central heating is in good order and your thermals in
good repair. It has been an unusually cold winter. We’re used to mild; the
two freezing fronts that have blown in from Russia, along with the
murderous enterprise of that nation’s agents, have reminded us just how
mild. There have been a couple of green winters since I’ve been in
Finedon, with no snow worth mentioning; but this year we were actually
stuck inside, sat in front of the Vicarage log burner with a pair of
dachshunds as improvised lap warmers. We complain about schools
closing or trains being cancelled too readily, but I don’t blame anyone
for not risking it in those conditions.
It can’t seem much to those who lived through the winter of 1947. I met
someone recently who remembered it very well, a farmer’s daughter
from Lancashire, who as a little girl helped her father and his men dig a
tunnel through snowdrifts higher then their heads from the farmyard to
the main road. It took them three days and just when they finished a
snowplough came down the main road and filled in half of it as it went
past.
Storms come and go, after every freeze there’s a thaw, and the Beast
from the East eventually returns whence it came. Finally spring begins to
assert itself. That means new life, promised by the snowdrops’ stubbornly
early appearance, and the supermarket daffs and municipal crocuses
that follow. The prudent will cast ne’er a clout ‘ere May be out, but the
promise each year pays out. It’s a reminder from nature of the promise
that Easter delivers, the new life won for us by Christ, who rises from the
tomb with the gift of eternal life, to warm and revive and quicken us for
all eternity.
Happy Easter!
Yours in Christ,
Fr Richard.
3

Our Worship in April
Year B
1st -Easter Day
Acts 10. 34 – 43
Psalm 118, 1 -2
1 Corinthians 15. 1 – 11
John 20. 1 – 18
Hymns
147 Jesus Christ is risen to-day
150 Love’s redeeming work is done
136 Alleluia, Alleluia give thanks to
the risen Lord
Anthem: Easter anthems, This joyful
Eastertide
160 Thine be the glory
Easter Day Evensong
157 The day of Resurrection
Responses Dunleavy
Psalm 114
158 The Lord is risen indeed
Canticles Dyson in D
Anthem Ley - The strife is o’er
162 Ye choirs of new Jerusalem
8th - Easter 2
Acts 4. 32 – 35
Psalm 133
1 John 1. 1 – 22
John 20: 19-31
Hymns
148 Jesus lives, thy terrors now
158 The Lord is risen indeed
137 Alleluia, Alleluia
Anthem: O taste and see,Vaughan
Williams
Blessed be the God and Father,
Wesley
368 All my love on God is founded
15th - Easter 3
Acts 3. 12 – 19
Psalm 4
1 John 3. 1 – 7
Luke 24. 36b – 48
Hymns
157 The day of Resurrection
159 The strife is o’er, the battle done
152 Now is evernal life
Anthem: Cantate Domino, Pitoni
160 Thine be the Glory
22nd - Easter 4
Acts 4, 5 – 12
Psalm 23
1 John 3. 16 – end
1John 10. 11 – 18
Hymns
612 We have a gospel to proclaim
589 The King of love my Shepherd
is
138 At the Lamb’s high feast we
sing
Anthem: Psalm 23
311 Lord, enthroned in heavenly
splendour
29th - Easter 5
Acts 8. 26 – end
Psalm 22 25 – end
1 John 4. 7 – end
John 15. 1 – 8
Hymns
162 Ye choirs of new Jerusalem
150 Love’s redeeming work is done
468 I danced in the morning
Anthem
156 Sing choirs of Heaven
4

Floodlight Sponsorship
4th March
David & Mary Wilson - to celebrate
the birth of their grandson Lochlan on
15th February
11th March
Carole & Paul Mitchell - in memory of
her parents Ronald & Alice Smith
(on their respective 10th & 3rd
anniversary of death.
18th March
Sponsored by Finedon Buffs
25th March
St Mary’s Thursday Club - to
celebrate the club’s 57th birthday.
St Mary’s Thursday Club - in memory
of May Parker (founder member of St
Mary’s Thursday Club).
Our meeting on 1st May will take the
format of Women’s World Day of
Prayer which unfortunately was
cancelled due to the weather.
Parochial Church
Council APM
The Annual Parochial Church
meeting will be held St Mary’s Church
on Sunday 22nd April after the
9.30 am Eucharist at 11.00 am.
Taize
The next Taize service will be held in
St Mary’s Church at 7.00 pm on
Wednesday 23rd May.
Easter Sunday Services
The following services will be held on
Easter Sunday
8.00 am Said Eucharist,
9.30 am Sung Eucharist
Evensong
Evensong will be held in the church at
6.00 pm and will be followed by light
refreshments.
Mothers Union
At our next meeting we will be
welcoming our Diocesan President
Mrs. Barbara Haynes as our guest
speaker.
Anyone wishing to come along and
hear what the Mothers Union is all
about will also be most welcome.
This will take place in the Mission
Room at 2-30pm on Tuesday 3rd
April.
Church of St Mary the Virgin
Finedon
Flower Festival
Committee
Invite you to attend the
Open Meeting
regarding this year’s
Flower Festival
to be held at
Finedon Parish Church
on
Monday 16 th April
at 7.00 pm
(This year’s Flower Festival will
be held on 14th, 15th and 16th
September.}
5

Melodies & Memories
This Spring, Arts Barn are bringing
their concert ‘Melodies and Memories
a Century of Song’ to St Mary’s
Church Finedon on Friday 20th April
at 7.30pm.
This concert, first performed at Castle
Theatre last November, showcases
music from the 1870s up to the
present day.
It includes rousing choruses from
such diverse musicals as Die
Fledermaus, Oklahoma, The Mikado
and Sister Act and beautiful solos
from Company, Phantom of the
Opera and Carousel to name but a
few. Other musicals we cover include
Guys and Dolls, Wicked, Perchance
to Dream and Anything Goes. You’ll
hear 60s hits. You’ll tap your feet to
uptempo numbers from the 20s and
you may even feel inclined to sing
along (which is encouraged)!
We have comedy numbers, we have
dancers, a 30 strong chorus and if
that’s not enough to wet your appetite
we also have Finedon’s very own
Adrian Taylor and a guest
appearance by Jon Reynolds.
Tea, coffee and wine will be served in
the interval and there will also be a
raffle, proceeds from which will
benefit both Arts Barn and St Mary’s.
Tickets priced at £8 for adults and just
£5 for anyone in full time education
are available now by contacting our
box office on 07792262359 or email
Sam McLaughlin on
smamdoit@hotmail.com.
We hope to see you there for a
Spring evening filled with song and
dance in the beautiful surroundings of
St Mary’s.
Townswomen's Guild
The next Finedon Townswomen's
Guild meeting is at 7.30 on 5th April
in the Town Hall.
There will be a flower arranging
demonstration followed by a raffle of
the arrangements. The competition is
for a floral item.
There is a small charge of £3 for any
visitors who wish to attend.
The Royal British
Legion Finedon &
Irthlingborough District
Branch
The Royal British Legion is holding
an Auction on Monday 4th June at the
Bowls Club at 7.30 pm with viewing
from 6.30pm.
The Royal British Legion
Finedon & Irthlingborough
District Branch
is hosting a
Band Concert
featuring
Thrapston Town Band
in the
Finedon Wesleyan Chapel
on
Saturday 14th April 2018
at 7.30pm.
Tickets which cost £6.00
are available from the
Branch Secretary
on 07954 160777 or by email/text
to sthatcher666@gmail.com.
Please book early so as not to be
disappointed!
6

Vive la musique!
Local writer and
broadcaster David
Saint will be the
compère for
Wellingborough Orpheus Choir’s
concert ‘Vive la Musique’ on Saturday
21st April at St Mary’s Church, Knox
Road, Wellingborough.
The programme of choral and
instrumental music by French
composers from medieval times to the
20th century will include Fauré’s
beautiful Cantique de Jean Racine
and a medley from Bizet’s popular
opera Carmen, conducted by the
choir’s musical director, Mark McBride.
We have two talented young guest
soloists: flautist Mina Middleton, a
student of the Royal Academy of
Music, and cellist Robert Jones,
graduate of the Birmingham
Conservatoire.
Their solo items will include Poulenc’s
Flute Sonata and The Swan, the
haunting cello solo from The Carnival
of the Animals by Saint-Saëns, and
they will also be accompanying the
Carmen medley with Andrew Hudson
on piano.
The concert will start at 7.30 pm and
tickets are £10 (students £5 and
accompanied children under 12 free).
Call 01604 870318 or email
maureen@thejetty.eclipse.co.uk to
reserve yours in advance, buy them at
Irvin’s House of Flavour, High Street,
Wellingborough or pay at the door.
The Orpheus Choir is delighted to be
supported by Wilson Browne
Solicitors. For more information about
the choir visit www.orpheuschoir.info.
For more information about Wilson
Browne please visit
www.wilsonbrowne.co.uk/orpheus
Let Us Entertain You
Thank you to all who supported this
show at the Star Hall on 3rd March .
I am delighted that a fantastic total
of £720 has been handed to the
KIDS ALIVE YOUTH CLUB, which is
run by the Wesleyan Chapel.
These funds will be used to buy new
equipment to enhance the range of
activities for the youngsters.
Jonathan Reynolds
Finedon Local History
Society
The next meeting of the history society
will be on Monday 23rd April in the
Mission room Well Street Finedon at 7
-30pm.
The speaker will be Christine Rowe on
“Eleanor of Castile and the Eleanor
Crosses”
Admission to the evening is £2.50 for
members and £3.50 for non members,
afterwards light refreshments will be
served
7

Memories of a Finedon
Schoolboy
Some years ago, 20 years plus, I
asked Eric Chapman, Bryan’s Father,
to write a few reminisces of his school
days in Finedon as an interest to our
school children at the time. I found the
article recently and would like to
share it with readers.
Jane Read
Memories of my childhood days
during my four years at Finedon
Junior School Boys School
1923 – 27.
First of all may I begin by stating
when and where I was born, being
Saturday 13 th November 1915 at
4-10am at 54 Well Street, opposite
the ‘Pam’, The Waterloo Club, later a
Tannery run by Messer’s Sexton and
Cox.
Having jumped out of bed, sometimes
later than others, a quick breakfast
then off to school, which was a good
mile from the top of Well Street.
The Finedon Junior Boys School was
situated at the top of Church Hill, now
a home occupied by Mr and Mrs
Philip Powis, (now occupied by Mr
and Mrs Phillips).
The headmaster at the time was Mr
William Taylor with Mr Harry Hinton
as deputy.
How did we go to school in those
days. We had to walk or leap frog or
with a dicky stick, some of us had a
steel hoop with a hook made by Mr
George York the towns blacksmith,
price 3 pence in old money.
No bicycles or cars in those days,
parents could not afford those
luxuries.
Having arrived at school at about
8.45am, stopping half way down the
High Street, run up the Old Post
Office steps, peer through the
windows to look at the clock on the
wall opposite to see how much time
we had left to get to school.
It is now probably about 10 minutes to
nine, out comes Mr Hinton with the
school bell, one ring and we all stood
still motionless, second ring and we
all line up in our classes order in
single files, right turn into the
classrooms we go.
Many amusing incidents occurred
during my Junior School days. I very
well remember one, when I was a
little naughty in Mr Taylors class.
He called me out in front of the class
for talking, laid me across his knee
and it seemed ages before his hand
came down to slap my bottom, yes!
All the boys were laughing and
giggling, what for? Just because I
had about five inches of shirt showing
through a hole in my short trousers!
I remember one boy sliding down an
icy surface of the playground on a
cold winters day. He couldn’t stop
and slid into the wall at the bottom of
the playground and made a nasty
gash in his forehead.
Another incident that happened in the
class room was when Mr Taylor left
the class for a few minutes to go to
his house which is now occupied by
Mr Margaret Pettitt.
Well between the classroom and the
cloakroom was a wooden partition
with cracks in it that Mr Taylor could
peep through and it was one of those
days when he did peep, most of the
boys were throwing blotting paper
soaked in ink at one another when all
of a sudden Mr Taylor’s voice rang
out. ‘Stop it! Stop it! at once Smith,
Jones, Brown come out to the front’.
Mr Taylor enters with the cane and a
stroke across each hand for each of
these boys. Oh yes the cane was
used often in those days. Well one of
8

my very satisfying moments
happened in Mr Hinton’s class.
He was of course the music teacher.
He auditioned me to sing for the
Parish Church choir. Chapman, he
said, you have a voice as clear as a
bell, go to choir practice in church on
Friday and tell Mr Cuttell you want to
join the choir; which I did and am still
there today.
Happy days never to return.
(Eric remained in the choir and also
as a bell ringer for the rest of his life
and died aged 84 in 1999.)
RIP Eric.
By kind permission of Bryan
Chapman
(Anyone know what a Dickey Stick
is? Answers to the editor please)
St Mary's Thursday
Club
This months meeting will be on the
26th April 2018. We are holding a
curry evening at The Koh-i-noor.
Please arrive at 7.30pm.
Anyone wishing to join us who is not
a member would be made very
welcome but you will need to get in
touch with us so that we can cater for
you.
If you are interested in becoming a
member please call Louise on
07581556417 for further details.
We usually meet once a month on
the 4th Thursday (evening). We also
run a mums and tots group during
school term time.
The group meets on a Thursday
afternoon at The Mission Room from
1.30pm - 3.00pm.
If you have a Childrens Society Box
our collectors will be coming to
collect them from you.
Thank you for your continued
support, it really is appreciated.
FINEDON LOCAL HISTORY
SOCIETY
FARMING
IN FINEDON
The first two batches are all sold
and we are in the happy
position of having to order more
so as to fulfil demand. We hope
to take delivery of the third
batch by the end of April.
You can still obtain a copy of
Farming in Finedon if you place
your order by
Saturday April 8th
The cost remains at £20, but
where postage is necessary we
shall need to add a further £5 to
cover our costs.
To place your order, contact
Malcolm Peet at 13 Rockleigh
Close, or telephone on 01933
680773.
A deposit of £5 will reserve your
copy.
9

Finedon Parish Council
Clerk: Mrs Julia Tufnail
Office Hours: Monday-Friday Mornings
7 Amen Place, Little Addington,
Northants, NN14 4AU
Telephone 07410 633544
Email: finedonpc@gmail.com Website:
www.finedonparishcouncil.gov.uk
Your Councillors:
Ray Ogle Chairman
Laurence Harper, Vice Chairman
Terry Kendall-Torry, Planning
Malcolm Ward, also WBC
Barbara Bailey, also WBC
Sally Farrell, Gill Spencer,
Gordon Swann, Stuart Cooper,
Andrew Weatherill, Mike Bentley,
Danny Mullen, Dennis Willmott
Finedon Parish Council Budget
2018-19
You will have seen by now that
Finedon Parish Council has raised its
precept this year to £64,000. The
following will help you to understand
why the Council took the decision to
raise the precept.
As you will be aware, the NCC
budget has caused much interest in
the press and that one of their cost
cutting proposals was to shut many
libraries. It seems, but the detail is
not clear yet, that NCC will not be
closing all their libraries as they have
a statutory duty to provide them.
However, they are proposing to close
the smaller libraries, Finedon being
one of them.
When the library closures were first
suggested, Finedon Parish Council
took the decision to agree in principle
to support the Library which would be
run in some form by Friends of
Finedon Library, should the library
close. This was following
representation from residents. It was
agreed by the Council that a grant
(£7,600) should be put into the
budget to facilitate this. The net
overall increase in the
precept (£7,431) is directly related to
this with some small savings being
made elsewhere. It is the
responsibility of the Council to take
into account any likely expenditure
for the coming year in its budget
when it is set. This is what the
Council has done.
The Library is considered by the
Council to be an important
community facility which should
remain within the community.
It must be remembered however, that
the Council does not have any
powers to run a Library and so
cannot not take responsibility for it.
The bad weather forced the
cancellation of the Parish Council
meeting on 28 th February. The
March meeting on the 28 th will go
ahead as planned, see website for
Agenda and details. Finedon Parish
Council also has a twitter feed if you
would like to follow us. It contains
information from the Police,
Highways and NCC amongst others
so please use it. To get any
information out residents urgently, I
place them on the front page of the
website and on our twitter feed, so
please take a look
www.finedonparishcouncil.gov.uk
and @FinedonCouncil.
By now the Tainty Field railings
project should be complete. We
were successful in our bid for a grant
from WBC and they have promised
us 50% of the project costs. We are
obviously, very grateful to them for
this assistance.
Thank you also to all the residents in
Avenue Road for keeping the verge
clear during the work.
10

Now that the tree maintenance is
complete in the village, I feel that
there should be a mechanism to
replace some of the diseased trees
that had to been taken down. I am
wondering if residents might be
interested in buying a tree that would
represent something special to them
and plant it either on the Green or in
Banks Park. Our tree surgeon has
agreed to set up a list of suitable
trees that can be purchased
independently by residents and he
would plant them.
I’m thinking that it would be sensible
then to number all the trees on the
Green and in Banks Park and have
an information board to display their
type and, if purchased specially, the
reason for their purchase (weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries, births or
remembrance to name but a few
possible reasons).
Please let me know your thoughts on
this so I can take the idea to Council.
I think this could both rejuvenate our
open spaces in the village and give
them revitalised place within the
community. I look forward to hearing
from you.
As usual, please feel free to contact
me should you have anything you
wish to bring to the Council’s
attention.
Providing it is within the Council’s
remit, we will try our best to make
Finedon a better place to live.
Julia Tufnail
Clerk, Finedon Parish Council
Church Monthly Draw
The results of the March church
monthly draw are as follows:
Total receipts of £241.00 are divided
equally between the winners and the
church funds.
Winning numbers for the March
monthly draw are:
1st prize 96 £60.25
2nd prize 62 £36.15
3rd prize 188 £24.10
If you would like to join the monthly
draw (£1.00 per share per month)
which takes place in the church on
the first Sunday of the month, please
contact Kathy Hobbs on 01933
398794.
Finedon Over 60’s
We meet weekly on Wednesdays
1.45 pm to 3.30 pm in the Bowls
Club, Wellingborough Road.
Admission is £1.00 plus raffle. We
have speakers, bingo, entertainment,
occasionally bring and buy and much
more.
April Programme
4th Birthday Party
11th Tricia Thomson - Life and
songs of Vera Lynn
18th Will Osborne - my favourite
things
25th Margaret Eldridge - Friendship,
loyalty and reward
May
2nd
The Blood Bikers (Bikers, blood
and babies)
All welcome, just turn up
11

In My Day
the ramblings of Hubert Jamet
In my day it was about this time of
year that the football fixtures would
start to pile up. You could guarantee
games would get called off in January
and February because either the pitch
was so frozen you could do a decent
triple axle on the penalty spot or once
the thaw set in you had to shoo
hippopotamuses out of the mud bath
that was the centre circle.
So once the clocks sprung forward
we’d find ourselves playing on week
nights and to catch up. You’d get
home from work at five or six and had
to be up the Rec by half six for a cup
quarter final or a top of the table
clash.
You’ll gather that we had a pretty
good team in my day.
That’s how I remember it. We’d all
grown up together and had played
with one another since we could walk.
Back then every kid in the town was
out playing football in great endless
matches of twenty-a-side. Course,
they did end eventually but only when
you couldn’t see the ball in the dark.
To be fair football was popular
because there wasn’t much else to
do. Nowadays, kids can be fully
entertained and amused at home.
They go into their bedrooms as cute
six year olds and stay there until their
spots have cleared up and they are
ready to leave home. Course, they
quickly go back in again when they
discover that they can’t afford to leave
home.
Anyway; fixture pile up. Inevitably, this
tended to lead to injuries and we’d be
scratching around for players. The
season we won everything we’d had
to cast our net far and wide to make
up the numbers. Somebody told us
about the Weasley twins from Burton.
Fred and George had fallen out with
their team manager; Murray Neeno,
and were looking to move on. The
boys were identical except one played
on the left wing and the other on the
right. And they were… well… there’s
no other word for it, they were ginger.
Actually, we called them the Carrot
Twins. It seemed the right thing to do.
And they were fast. Greased lightning
had nothing on them and slippery too,
nobody could catch them.
It sticks in your throat a bit to admit
that we won silverware with ringers
from Burton but the boys became
much loved legends. They even
spawned that famous football cliché;
Slick as a Carrot.
Lot’s Wife
A father was reading Bible stories to
his young son. He read,
"The man named Lot was warned to
take his wife and flee out of the city,
but his wife looked back and was
turned into a pillar of salt."
His son asked,
"What happened to the flea?"
12

A
pril. Easter. Resurrection.
"Flesh and bones and all."
New life, new hope, new
beginnings.
"Hallelujah! For the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth ... and he shall
reign for ever and ever: King of kings
and Lord of lords. Hallelujah."
"Thine be the glory, risen
conquering Son."
Easter Changes Everything
Easter is magnificent. It can only be
rendered in the most glorious music.
It can only be spoken of with awe. It
can only be experienced as a very
partial foretaste – and how powerful
that can be. It demands a full 50-day
festival in our calendars. It changes
everything: history, the meaning and
purpose of life, the future (to name
just a few). Easter is the big one.
Stand in awe. On this day, in this
event, Jesus Christ is named as "our
Lord" and "declared to be Son of God
with power according to the Spirit of
holiness by resurrection from the
dead" (Romans 1:4 – try unpacking
the astonishing sentence that is
Romans 1:1–7 as an Easter spiritual
exercise: it is utterly life-changing).
Easter is about life-changing joy.
Feel Mary Magdalene's elation as
she witnesses to the disciples, "I
have seen the Lord" (John 20:18),
and re-read that astonishing story.
Hear Peter’s experience: "Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he
has given us a new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).
Stand with Thomas as he meets the
risen Christ, and fall to your knees with
him, exclaiming "My Lord and my
God" (John 20:28).
The resurrection isn't to be analysed
or debated. It is to be experienced and
received. It isn't to raise questions and
doubts. It is to flood our souls with joy.
Alleluia! Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Diocese of Peterborough – Magazine Resource – April 2018
Produced by the Diocesan Office, The Palace, Peterborough, PE1 1YB
01733 887000 www.peterborough-diocese.org.uk
13

The Great Vocations Conversation
T
he Great Vocations
Conversation is a new initiative
from the Church of England to
encourage all ministers, lay and
ordained, to have at least one
conversation about vocation with
someone new every month.
Research has shown that people
often need others to show them what
their gifts are, and whether they
potentially have a calling towards
ministry. The Great Vocations
Conversation has therefore been set
up to encourage ministers to talk to
particular parishioners who they feel
may have a calling in this area.
Ministers can sign-up to the challenge
via www.churchofengland.org/
greatvocationsconversation. They will
then receive monthly emails containing
devotional resources filled with prayers
and ideas. These resources will also
be available in print later in the year.
The Church of England set itself a
five year target in 2016 to increase the
number of people in ministry by 50%
by 2020 – from 500 to 750 per year.
So far the numbers have increased by
15% to 600 ordinands per year, but the
desire is that the campaign will enable
those numbers to increase. There is
also a hope that age, sex or ethnicity
will not be a barrier to people wanting
to enter
ministry.
Steve
Benoy,
Director
of
Ordinands at the Diocese of
Peterborough, has welcomed the
introduction of the campaign:
“We have a vision to increase the
number of clergy and lay ministers to
grow the ministry of the whole Church.
We’ve been encouraging more people
towards ordained and lay ministry, and
this campaign is a great way of doing it
– with some great resources.”
The official launch of The Great
Vocations Conversation will be on
Vocations Sunday on 22 nd April.
If you want to explore ministry further,
or know someone who does, contact
Revd Canon Steve Benoy (Ordinations
– steve.benoy@peterboroughdioese.org.uk)
or Revd Jenny
Opperman (Lay Ministry –
jenny.opperman@peterboroughdiocese.org.uk).
From the Living Faith Modules
Starting Wednesday 18 April, Church
History (LF4). 7.30pm. £40
Starting Thursday 19 April, Reading
the New Testament (LF2). 7.30pm-
9.30pm. £40. More info: 01604
887048 or lesleyanne.marriott@peterboroughdiocese.org.uk
April 2018 events
Sat 21 Apr, Bishop’s Bible Day at
Northampton High School, NN4
6UU. 9.30am-4pm.
A free day of studying the Bible with
Bishop Donald. Everyone welcome.
Book a place at:
Bookings@peterboroughdiocese.org.uk
More details at: www.peterborough
-diocese.org.uk/events
14

April
Town Diary
July
5th
9th
7.30 TG Town Hall, Flower
Demonstration
BL Meeting/skating on the Nene - Roy
York
2nd
6th
BL Saints Sinners=Nrthants Derek
Blunt, meeting, raffle
BL Summer Ball TBA
10th
14th
945 Coffee Morning, Bowls Club
BL 7.30 Thrapston Town Band, Wesleyan
Chapel
7th
8th
Organ Recital by William Whitehead,
St Mary’s Church.
3pm Hymns on the Green
16th
20th
22nd
23rd
24th
28th
May
11th
13th
14th
June
3rd
4th
13/
16th
23rd
24th
7pm Flower Festival Open Meeting, St
Mary’s Church
Arts Barn Gilbert & Sullivan Society.
St Mary’s church
11 am St Mary’s Church APM
7.30 History Society, Mission Room,
Christina Rowe, Eleanor of Castile.
9.45 Coffee Morning, Bowls Club
Bell ringers outing to Winchester
Lyra Singers, St Mary’s Church.
Christian Aid lunch
BL Evening of laughter-Elizabeth Robinson
June
2-6 pm National Garden Scheme opening,
67/69 High Street.
BL no meeting auction
Sister Act, Star Hall.
Churches together Scarecrow Festival
7.30 History Society, Mission Room,
Helen Norman, Charles Spencelayh.
20th BL Afternoon Tea/Entertainer 15.00-
17.30
23rd
August
6th
20th
September
3rd
24th
October
1st
10th
22nd
December
7.30 History Society, Mission Room,
Roy York, The hiccups & horrors of
steaming up the valley
BL Meeting/chat night, meat raffle
7.30 History Society, Mission Room,
Kevin Varty, Dead & Buried but not
for long
BL Fish & chips, raffle
7.30 History Society, Gary Saeffer,
An American eye view of Northants
BL Two intriguing murders & Ghost
story, Keven Varty & raffle
7pm Inter church quiz, Wesleyan
chapel
7.30 History Society, Della Thomas,
The powder treason
24th
2-6 pm National Garden Scheme opening,
67/69 High Street.
8th
St Mary’s Church, Wassail Evening,
Bowls Club
St Michael’s Mission Room, Well Street, Finedon
Available for hire weekdays, Saturdays & Sundays.
Suitable for most social functions, charitable events, children's parties (no late
discos)
For all enquiries and information contact
Bryan & Christine Chapman Tel: 01933 398818
Email: bryanchapman2@aol.com
15