Bowland Benefice
Pews News
18 August 2024
Welcome to St Kenelm’s Church
A prayer for St Kenelm

Lord God, you have given us in Saint Kenelm the
example of a life filled with faith and charity. May we
share with him the joy of your Kingdom. Through

Christ, Our Lord. Amen
Collect for today Trinity 12
Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience

is afraid

and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of 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. Amen.
This Week in the Benefice
Sunday
18 August

10.30am Benefice Holy
Communion in
Upton
Snodsbury

Sunday
25 August
Trinity 13

10.30am

2.30pm

Benefice Holy
Communion in
White Ladies
Aston
Baptisms in
Upton
Snodsbury
Henry Baxter &
Sophie &
Megan
Strefford
This is the third Sunday of our August pilgrimage
around our Bowland Churches to enjoy the friendship
and fellowship of taking Communion together.
Revd Claire and each church’s regular congregation
look forward to welcoming you.
Please do encourage friends and neighbours to travel

around with you.

Don’t forget Volunteers (with their gardening tools)

needed please!

………for a churchyard summer tidy-up this Saturday
17 th in Upton Snodsbury to make it all look good for a
wedding at the end of the month. Refreshments will
be available. More information from Helen (381490)

or Janet (381379).

As I put this weekend’s Pews News together – it’s
Thursday – A Level exam results have been publish
bringing a variety of emotions and anxieties….. Some
young people will be joyous and looking forward to
university, college, apprenticeships or a working life
whilst others will feel disappointed and be despairing
– whatever the day brings for those children and
grandchildren who we love, help us to reassurance
them all that life is much more than exam success and

academic achievement.

Help them all to be what they want to be not what the
world dictates they should be………
This week we are in St Kenelm’s, Upton Snodsbury,

but who was St Kenelm?

Legend tells us that Kenelm was the son of a Mercian
king, Kenwulph who died in 819AD when Kenelm was
only 7. Kenwulph founded Winchcombe Abbey.
Family jealousy and intrigue followed the king’s death
and Kenelm (now a boy king) was beheaded and
buried on the orders of his elder sister Quendryda,
whilst singing a Te Deum on a visit to Kenelstowe in
the Clent Hills. (Kenelstowe is now part of the village
of Romsley) Heaven took a hand as a heavenly dove
informed the Pope of Kenelm’s murder and he sent
monks from Winchcombe to find the body and carry

him home.

As the monks approached a particular thicket near
Romsley, they saw a shining light, dug and found
Kenelm’s body. As they lifted him up water sprang
forth and out flowed a stream. These waters
afterwards became known for their healing qualities

and a well-head was erected.

On the way to Wincombe, Kenelm’s body rested over
night in the church in Upton Snodsbury and when
crossing the River Avon near Fladbury, monks from
Worcester Cathedral claimed the body too. Eventually
Kenelm’s body, carried by exhausted Winchcombe
monks, and still being chased by the Worcester
monks, was within sight of Wincombe. The monks
struck the ground with a staff and a spring burst out
to refresh them for the rest of the journey.
St Kenelm was buried solemnly at Winchcombe
Abbey, miracles were reported at his tomb and, as
mentioned in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale in Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales, the shrine became a place of

pilgrimage.

Winchcombe Abbey, disappeared but in the parish
church of St Peter in Winchcombe, in the 19 th century,
2 stone coffins were discovered and are believed to
contain the relics of St Kenelm and his father King

Kenwulph.

St Kenelm’s Day is 17 July and for many years a village
fair was held in Romsley to mark the day when the
ancient custom of ‘Crabbing the Parson’ took
place…bombarding the unfortunate cleric with a
volley of crab apples……Look out Claire your days are

numbered!