A question that Rev Margaret asked the staff team recently was “What is the joy in our ministry?” It certainly got me thinking. 17 years ago I had felt the call to take my faith a step further and after 3 years of study and a few interviews when I had to discuss and explain my faith, I was licensed as a Reader. During these years I have had the privilege of preparing and taking services in all of the churches in the Area. I’ve taken many funerals which has involved talking to the bereaved families and preparing a service that they feel recognises the love for their family member and celebrates their life. This despite the sadness that surrounds a funeral gives me joy that I can help in some small way to make a difference for the family. As you can imagine it takes a lot of thought and prayer to put together such a service, but it is also the pastoral work that goes alongside this that is most joyful. Not that these times are joyful.I also find joy in putting together services and other occasions where we all get together to think about and discover what our Christian faith means. It really is fun thinking of creative ways to share our faith and working with other like-minded people in the preparation. Thinking of different ways to explain, discuss and to share our faith is joyful – the hope is that people who attend such services or events also find it joyful! Just a plug here – I hope you will join us at Marchington Woodlands Village Hall on 15th August at 3pm for one of these creative ways to look at our faith and enjoy getting back together over tea and cake!So what is joy? The dictionary definition is a feeling of pleasure and happiness. Defining joy in ministry is difficult. I suppose that it is the pleasure of what I have just described. But then the happiness comes from the feeling I can get when I get the sense that a service has been well received, not that I’m often told! I just hope it has!But the real joy is that I am not alone – I may live alone but I have a companion in all that I do – one who understands me, one who I can talk to, one who puts up with me, accepts me as I am with all my faults and failings, one who will never walk out on me, one who will give me encouragement. There is the continuous assurance that God in Jesus through the Spirit walks beside me always. What more can I ask for!?Maggie Hatchard, Reader for Uttoxeter Area of Parishes.
GRATWICH NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2021 Tell out my soul the greatness of the Lord Unnumbered blessings, give my spirit voice Tender to me the promise of his word In god my Savour shall my heart rejoice. GRATWICH SERVICES IN AUGUST SUNDAY 1st 7.00pm Evening Prayer via ZOOM SUNDAY 8th 11.15am Holy Communion IN CHURCH SUNDAY 22nd 7.00pm Evening Prayer IN CHURCH SUNDAY 29th 10.00am AREA SERVICE – Greatwood Primary School, Tean It is not necessary to book a seat or wear a mask in church but if you feel you would prefer to wear a mask that’s fine. There will still be hand sanitising and social distancing for the moment. Blimey actual Summer Weather in July and hot enough to make hay as well!! We made ‘almost’ hay and had it wrapped as we don’t have a barn to keep hay in. It brought back memories of long ago (eee when I was young!) haymaking at home in-between milking times and in the evenings – small bales by pitchfork, not like today with large round bales moved with tractor spike. It was hot work and I suppose tiring at the time but travelling back up the field on top of a load of bales was the best thing ever. 100 CLUB – JULY - drawn at the Evening Service on 25th July 1st Bonnie Cotton 2nd David & Co Woolley 3rd Carol Woolley The 100 club started it’s new year in July – if you would like to join/rejoin please contact Sue Capewell 01889 502241 (Church Treasurer) ASAP. The next draw will be at the evening service on 22nd August in church . EASY FUNDRAISING FOR ST. MARY’S As you may (or may not) know the PCC are raising funds to re-wire the church (new heaters and lights too), have the water connected and install an eco-toilet in the churchyard. If you register with www.easyfundraising.org.uk and support St. Mary’s church Gratwich, when you shop on-line (as most of us do!) they will donate money to St. Mary’s. It doesnot cost you anything (or make your purchases any dearer) but would be a big help to church funds. Have a look there are 100s of companies to shop from so there will be some you buy from I am sure.The Uttoxeter Area of Churches Invites you to AN AFTERNOON TEA! Sunday 15th August 3.00 – 5.00pm At Marchington Woodlands Village Hall ST14 8PF Join us for an afternoon of activities for all the family – and tea & Cake!! ***************************************************** MARCHINGTON OPEN GARDENS 7th and 8th August 11.00am – 5.00pm £5 Entry by wristband available from Marchington Shop (next to the church) www.marchingtonshop.co.uk Refreshments and wine tasting at the shop Also Refreshments served in some of the gardens. ********************************************************* St. John the Baptist Church, Stowe by Chartley Pet Service Sunday 5th September 3.00pm All welcome to come along with their pet/pets To Book a place please phone: 01889 270114/01889 270596 The article below was written by Mrs Elizabeth Statham who farmed at Elm Farm, Bramshall and is borrowed from Bramshall Newsletter. She was born in 1895 and was the grandmother of Robert Statham who farms there now. The House in Gratwich used by the Postman to mend boots in was situated in the corner of the Church Croft by the road and called “The Postman’s Hut”. The ruins of which are still there in the nettles. BRAMSHALL AS IT USED TO BE How well I remember the lovely countryside around Bramshall: the footpaths, especially the unique one which was raised over three feet down Bennett’s Lane, which has unfortunately been allowed to go astray and would have been much more valuable in these days of heavier traffic. At the termination of this path we turned in across the field opposite, to cross the railway over the bridge and so on to the Great Northern Line. Past this we went over a stile and through a field to a rather shaky plank with only one handrail over the brook. A coppice lay opposite, after which we came out onto the main Stafford Road. To view Bramshall from Loxley Hall was well worth the effort, not only of knowing most of the fields by name, but also all their associations over so many years. Coming back to the village, which used to be a hive of activity, we saw the local Baker’s shop, Wheelwrights, Butchers, Cobblers and not forgetting the busy little Bramshall School, where concerts were held and local talent used. These were worthy to be remembered. I recall the Whist Drives and the Dance Music to gramophone (by special permission) in the good old days, when most of us appreciated our limitations but made the most of them. There was the postman on his early morning round, delivering letters, then collecting boots to repair to occupy himself for the rest of the day at a house in Gratwich. He came back about six in the evening to collect the post and take it on to Uttoxeter in time for the G.P.O. mail coach to Stafford. This returned during the night with the next day’s post. I think the well, which supplied the majority of drinking water for the village, deserves a mention. Regularly one could see folk shouldering their buckets attached to yokes which were worn across their shoulders. This well was called “Incroft Well”, where the water was filtered before use. Most pumps were terribly hard to use and I remember that the water tended to be the same. If anyone has any information about Gratwich in the past please let me know – it would be lovely to put it in the newsletter. Jenny For further information about anything in the newsletter, please contact: Rev. Charles Dale 01889 500428: email: revcharles.dale@btinternet.com Jenny Talbot: 01889 50241 email: jenny477@btint
On August 15th at the Woodlands Village Hall, a small team are organising an Afternoon Tea with some aspects of Messy Church for everyone of any age who wants to join in. It will be a chance for people to get together - have a chat - do some activities ( some for adults and some for children) and hopefully get to meet Rev Jules Walker.For more information about the venue - https://www.mwvh.co.uk/ or the event, contact one of us via the links on this website.
July 2021 - Team Vicar “Twaddle”. This is my 10<sup>th</sup> year in the Uttoxeter Area of Parishes. I know that is peanuts compared to others; however, somehow I feel long-in-the-tooth. I have now been in the Area for more time than my years in the Probation Service (eight years) and my combined time at university (seven years). In that time I have gone from being fairly green to the whole parish priest lark, to feeling reasonably knowledgeable and competent. When the diocese talks of ‘experienced’ priests it quotes those with at least ‘three years’ in a post, which doesn’t seem long to me but what do I know? I still feel like a bit of a fly-by-night. When I speak with people like Thelma, Hilda and Geoff, who seem to have been around the Area since time immemorial, I know that I am temporary, lacking in local knowledge compared with PCCs, parishioners and Ministry Teams, who have seen a dozen or more parish priests come and go. I hope I have always been conscious of the subservient nature of parish ministry and valued the dependence on volunteers in all churches, which will go on long after my retirement. Whilst obviously I still want to change the world, if I can be remembered half as fondly as Paddy (and Mark) Vidal-Hall was at her funeral recently, I think I will be happy with my stint in the Uttoxeter Area. We do face a different parish situation now. Whilst Leigh, Kingstone/Gratwich and Marchington St.Peter’s/Marchington Woodlands each had their own vicars, there are now 10 parishes in the Area, which bounce around between having 1-3 paid vicars at any one time. If I could wander around Leigh as a full-time post then I could probably do a better job but in 2021 it costs £56, 450 to pay for one vicar (which includes the stipend, housing costs, pension, diocesan costs and around 6% to the national church), which Leigh could not afford. I get £27,000 (gross) in my annual wage packet and am not complaining, but it does make you wonder about the funding structure in the Church of England. Perhaps we should go back to Glebe Land and Livings! Over the last year I have had the chance to look at Parish Shares across the Deanery and have come to the conclusion that different people are looking at the same picture through different lenses. The Diocese primarily sees Parish Share through a Benefice lens but staff deployment through a Deanery lens; the Deanery sees Parish Share and deployment through a Deanery lens but has no real power to effect either; and the parishes tend to see both through a parish lens. At points such as Shaping For Mission, some of the lenses intersect but not consistently enough and not with enough understanding from all parties together. As cheesy as this sounds, we all need to be singing from the same hymn sheet, or at least have the same hymn sheet available to sing from. We need to be focussing on working consensually as one (acknowledging our disagreements) in order to be able to plan well for the future. At the moment there is too much angst, too much anxiety and too little understanding of the bigger picture from all parties. We also need to be realistic about what is achievable and affordable in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, both in terms of finance and practise in the parishes. I crave the traditional parish priest role but find myself more often in front of a computer than in front of parishioners. Vicars often attend more meetings aimed at achieving a bigger impact than actually catching up with people. However, I can wander around as much as I like but unless enough money comes in for the building and Parish Share ….. In the end, I do not believe that the vicar can or should do everything, or can achieve the great charismatic wave of evangelism that would resolve all our problems. I am paid for by the people but cannot be the people. In the end my role must be to do the basics (services) but essentially to encourage and enable the wealth of experience, faith, passion, talent and hopefully compassion that people hold in their heads and hearts for those around them. That will be the wave that needs to come, to make the structures less top-heavy, less deferential to the powers-that-be and for those powers-that-be to more gracious and acknowledge that their very existence depends upon the donations and collections of the people on the ground. At the same time, the people on the ground need to accept that change will come and we should make the most of it and not just mumble into our beer, however comforting and traditional that beer may be. Peace and prayers, Joe Rev’d Joe Cant.
