Our joint parish Holy Communion service for Mothering Sunday is at St Peter's Church, Hascombe at 10am. Reverend Tim Clifford Hill, curate from St Nicolas Church, Cranleigh is our celebrant.We'd love to see you there but if you can't be with us in person just click on the link below to join us via Zoom.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/82754924403?pwd=UlFCcG5XRnh2MVlTL3pDYWlBdHlBdz09
A Cathedral choir has recorded a fundraising anthem for Ukrainian children, to be released on Mothering Sunday.Truro Cathedral Choir’s recording of Ave Maria, by Ukrainian contemporary composer Valentin Silvestrov, will be performed at the Cathedral and released as a recording on YouTube on Mothering Sunday this weekend.The Crowdfunder, in aid of Unicef’s emergency appeal ‘Protect Children in Ukraine’, was inspired by young choristers who wanted to use their talents to help their peers caught up in the war.By extraordinary coincidence, Ukrainian refugees Akim, 12, and his mother Tanya Huhnina, who fled Cherkasy in Ukraine to join a family in Cornwall last week, visited Truro Cathedral as the choir rehearsed.The mother and son had been shopping for shoes for Akim’s first day in a Cornish school and had felt moved to step inside the cathedral.When she realised what was happening in the cathedral, Tanya said: "God has led us here tonight."The choir, with 34 children and 12 adult professional singers, received support with Ukrainian pronunciation from Marta Jenkala, Associate Professor of Ukrainian at University College, London.Dean of Truro Roger Bush said: “This will be a very poignant Mothering Sunday in the UK. As we celebrate with family at home, our thoughts will naturally turn to the plight of millions of Ukrainian mothers, courageously attempting to bring their children to safety, including those who are making their way to our shores.“Whatever your faith, we hope that this beautiful Ukrainian Ave Maria offers a powerful channel for our feelings, thoughts and prayers.’ Truro Cathedral's Director of Music, Christopher Gray, said: “It has been a joy to discover some of Ukraine’s music recently in preparation for our Crowdfunder."When I came across the music of Valentin Silvestrov it had a stillness and sheer beauty that stopped me in my tracks."Marc Gregory, who is one of the bass singers in the choir, said: “Our whole choir community is behind this initiative and we hope people in Cornwall and further afield will help us do something, however small, to support Ukrainian children caught up in this present-day horror.”Josh, 13, Head Chorister, said: "Some of us have given our pocket money and we hope people will give lots, lots more to help us make a difference.”The recording will be released on YouTube on Mothering Sunday this weekend and the choir will also sing the song live at the 4pm service in Truro Cathedral that day.
<br>Please find attached your copy of this week's Pews News. Our joint parish Holy Communion service on Sunday is at St Peter's Church, Hascombe at 10am. Our celebrant is Reverend Tim Clifford Hill.You will see in Pews News that we have three Lent lunches remaining and an explanation of some of the work going on in our diocese that is supported by the Bishop of Guildford's Communities' Fund.
He is one of the most famous vicars in the UK but in just over a month's time the Reverend Richard Coles will retire from parish duties at his church in rural Northamptonshire, and instead volunteer with prisoners.He will also leave the village which has been his home for more than 11 years and the county he and his family are from.So how does the former pop star reflect on his time as vicar of Finedon?Father Coles says: "Someone came to church the other day, this hulking young guy, and I said 'have you been here before?' and he said 'it's me Father Richard' and it was a kid from school, who I'd known since he was a little boy, and now he's a grown man and he's thinking about getting married."You are so much part of people's lives - you baptise them as kids, you marry them, usually in that order, and then you bury them or their parents or their grandparents and before you know it you're part of the community."So I leave, but I don't think I'll ever really leave, actually."The vicar and his family hail from nearby Kettering and he now he feels more connected to his home town."The older I get the more I realise that you're the product of your past and I'm Kettering and I think when I was young what I wanted to be was 'not Kettering'."I wanted to go away and have adventures in the world and go to great cities and travel, and I love all that, but as I get older I know that I really am proper Kettering actually."Father Coles says the death of his partner the Reverend David Coles has prompted his retirement and move away from Northamptonshire.He died at Kettering General Hospital in December 2019 and last year Richard revealed it was alcohol that killed him.Father Coles says: "When your life partner dies what dies with them is your future and I realised I wanted to be with people who I love and care about and know well and it just so happens that some of them live in Sussex and one of my oldest friends, a house two doors up from hers was up for sale, and she said 'why don't you move here' so I did."I think David on a good day would have wanted me to face forwards and step forwards; on a bad day he'd have loved me to stay at home stirring polenta and thinking of him again."But it's just part of the process of bereavement, you get used to a world in which the other person's not in it and then you start thinking, 'well, I'm in it', so what am I going to do?"I think I've got some more to do."In 2017, Father Coles appeared on BBC TV's Strictly Come Dancing, which he said his partner warned him against doing because "he said I dance like a walrus".The 59-year-old says: "I must confess I nursed this completely ridiculous belief that I would be good at it - there was a Justin Timberlake or a Fred Astaire or a Gene Kelly waiting to be released."But he was right - it was a walrus, I couldn't do it."He says the doctor during his pre-series medical told him: "You're overweight, you're one point off obese, you have arthritis in both knees and one leg is significantly longer than the other - you'll be fine."The vicar says the series "was so much fun" and gave him a "great skill" to spot fake tan.He says while others might think someone has been on holiday he knows if it is "Venetian double dark"."I think I can safely say I'm the only vicar who's spray-tanned with Debbie McGee," he adds.Once Father Coles leaves Finedon he says he will volunteer with prisoners and people in the criminal justice system to try to cut reoffending.
