St Mary's Church News 2007

1st Sunday	8.00am 9.30am 6.30pm	Holy Communion Morning Service Evensong
2nd Sunday	9.30am 6.30pm	Holy Communion Evensong
3rd Sunday	9.30am 6.30pm	Morning Prayer Holy Communion
4th Sunday	9.30am 6.30pm	Holy Communion Evensong
5th Sunday	9.30am 6.30pm	An alternative style of service An alternative style of service

Sunday School - Due to very reduced numbers of children attending and dwindling staff, from February 2008 there will be an activity pack for children attending the Morning Service. This will include a Bible Study, colourings, wordsearches etc. The children will remain in Church. The situation will continue to be reviewed and Sunday School will be re-instated should there be sufficient children attending regularly/offers of help.

Mothers’ Union meets in the Old Grammar School 2.00pm, 1st Wednesday of the month. Leader Mrs Janet Neal, tel: 813054.

For the Church, the approach of Christmas brings us to the season of Advent. Not just a time for opening calendars filled with chocolates but also a time of preparation for the Advent [coming] of Jesus, which we celebrate at Christmas. We start this year with our Angels @ Advent in St Mary's. Did you realise the number of angels mentioned around the time of Advent and Christmas! We continue with the POSADA figures of Mary & Joseph going around the village urging people, to get ready for the coming of Jesus.

Although other places around the country each year go through the silly season of ‘wintermas’, putting up ‘winterlights’ and banning Father Christmas we are sticking to the old fashioned approach and keeping Jesus as part of our festivities! But just because we are including Jesus doesn’t mean that everything runs smoothly though!

The coming of the Christmas season reminds us that in Christmas shopping we nearly always find just the right present after we have bought something else. We worry that we have enough for the Christmas meals and afterwards wonder why we brought so much. Hindsight can be a wonderful thing.

The Christmas story we will hear once again in St Mary’s Church, over the season, will speak to us of the ‘if only’s’.

In reality God chose the best way possible for Jesus to become part of his creation, in a baby born in obscurity, knowing the danger of life from day one, becoming a figure of question and derision for many. All this so that we would have a chance to hear, first hand, what God has planned for us his creation.

May you all have a joyful and enjoyable Christmas. St Mary’s Church will be celebrating the Christmas Story in many different ways - look out for more details.

For the first time for a long while I can say, in a Rollestonian, that we are nearly there! The Old School Room extension completed, almost on budget, and all that we need to do now is repair the roof and redecorate. Within the Old School Room we are planning an Internet connection with computers, projector and screen. This is being made possible first with the many people who have given or promised interest free loans – thank you to you all.

Secondly the money for the IT equipment has been backed up by Rod Paul in the village. He undertook to cycle from Lands End to John O’ Groats for sponsorship and hoped to raise £1,000. His hard work and broken bits (ask him about them!), together with your support raised an incredible £3,000! To which Rod’s employers, Care UK, added £1,000! Watch this space for a service of dedication later in the year.

The Ramp continues to be ‘nearly finished’ and approaches its First Birthday this month. It’s usable and already on a regular basis is used by cyclists, prams & buggies and wheelchair users in their access to the Church & Churchyard.

In the village we are also saying goodbye to Methodist Mick and elsewhere in the magazine will you find tributes to him & Jeanette. I want to say that I have enjoyed and appreciated his support in the life of our churches and in his outreach amongst the young people. He will be a hard act to follow and I will miss him, together with his prayers. Methy Mick leaves before many of our joint thoughts and ideas were able to find fruition, but there is another Methodist Circuit that will find in Mick a great asset in their work together.

As the Church and Village look to what’s coming up in the future, keep an eye out for Angels in the Village in November. You never know where they may crop up!

Despite torrential downpours on the days leading up to Gardens Sunday on 17 June, the afternoon itself was thankfully dry. The event featured 12 gardens open to the public, 5 of which were new to the event. There was music from the Fiddle Folk and a local Hurdy-Gurdy man as well as organ music in church throughout the afternoon played by a number of local organists. There was a competition for children to look for fairies hidden in the gardens. Visitors also had the opportunity to see the Old Grammar School, which has recently been refurbished with the aid of money raised from previous Gardens Sundays in addition to grants from East Staffs and BIFFA. Hopefully a large amount of money will have been raised in aid of St Mary’s church ACCESS fund, on what might be (for a while at least) the last Gardens Sunday to be held in Rolleston.

On 17 May Rodney Paul and Mark Jordan set off on a cycle ride from Lands End to John O’Groats. Rodney was raising money for computer equipment for the Old Grammar School Room; Mark was raising money for the Burton branch of the Alzheimer charity. Read about their adventure here.

With the passing of winter and the hot spring weather work on the fabric at St Mary’s has moved on at a pace. Let start with the good news…

The Old School Room looks transformed from the outside with the new building of the tea bar, toilets and storage room being completed. By the time you are reading this I am sure that many of you will have been inside already and see the workmanship involved. We are very proud to have had a great building team from Ken Hulland involved in this work.

Adjustments over the course of the planning and building meant that we did have to go over budget, the moving and retaining of the end window into the new end wall cost over £900 extra than was planned. It but does enhance that wall but at a price. We also had to dig deeper foundations due to tree roots and enhance the hall but overall we are very grateful to the BiffAward Scheme and East Staffs Borough Council for their grants through the Village Design Statement Group.

We also wish to thanks those who have given us interest free loans over a number of years, which have meant that to date we are not in debt on this build. Thank you and if anyone feels that they can help us in giving us an interest free loan towards the works please speak to the Rector or either Wardens.

With regard to the front ramp on Church Road this has been a different story. Work started in slowly August 2006 and continues to today. At the ‘finish’ of the build it was found that the work was unsatisfactory, as we had been saying from quite early days. Problems were addressed but with the addition of the handrails the Architect involved condemned the work and changes had to be made. In doing so more problems have arisen. It may well be that the first anniversary of the ramp in August 2007 will see it completed – we hope so.

Elsewhere in the life of the church we have seen growth in numbers at all our services in 2007 and plans are well advanced for this years Gardens Sunday on 17th June. New additions this year will give it a different feel and it has been decided that this will be the last Gardens Sunday for while but that a new event will take place next summer.

New plans are also in the pipeline for November and Advent. There is the rumour of Angels in the village and you may already see them cropping up from time to time. So mark the date; 30 November – 3 December at St Mary’s Church come and be amazed!

As part of Lent the Rector worked with church members in various places, including Grass Roots hairdressers, Queens Hospital, Courts and Baking at Home! On Wednesday he joined Mildred Bailey and the WRVS ladies who host and service the luncheon club in the village Commemoration Club Room. Having donned his official WRVS piny he helped welcome six lovely elderly ladies before serving them with tea or coffee, lunch and pudding. Then Ian needed his apron and gloves and was shown the sink.

Each week this happens through the hard work of a number of WRVS ladies and the hospitality of the Club - right under our noses.

With snow falling outside and the promise of more to come what a change a few days can make! January, the warmest on record and now with a few inches of snow the country grinds to halt! You can never trust the British weather…but what else would we talk about when we meet strangers or even friends!

It never ceases to amaze me that, at St Mary’s, we are continuously welcoming new people to our church. Over the past year or so our attendance has risen steadily to now nearly 100 each Sunday. This, I am sure, is down to the welcome strangers receive when they come to church. It is not easy stepping into a new place for the first time, either the first ever, or the first time after a number of years. Through the door and ‘where do I sit?’, ‘is it someone else’s seat?’, ‘what do I do?’ and ‘will I know anyone?’. These are just some of the first time questions we ask ourselves whenever we go somewhere new but these questions are ones that people at St Mary’s are used to.

It doesn’t matter where you sit at St Mary’s but individuals often gravitate to the same area out of custom. There are no seats that ‘belong’ to anyone but if they usually sit where you are sitting there are no worries - they’ll either sit with you and chat or sit behind you and chat. The services are friendly and welcoming and are usually well run and guided as long as the Organist and the Rector know what hymns are coming up – tunes are something else though! As for knowing anyone there, you will be surprised at perhaps now many you will know and if not, then we are always introducing new friends to each other.

St Mary’s is the village church and your church to which you are always welcome either on a Sunday or during the week as the church is always open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm during term-time. See you Sunday?

This year we have to update the church membership list. Also called the Electoral Roll, this is different to the political electoral roll although their origins are the same. The church Electoral Roll is the closest we have to a membership list of those who support St Mary's Church. It is open to anyone who lives in the parish or anyone who attends worship on a regular basis. Your name on the roll enables you to stand for and to vote at the church AGM for the church council and the ancient office of churchwardens. It also enables you to use the 'services' of the church and be Married or have your Funeral taken there if you are from outside the parish. Electoral Roll forms can be obtained from the church throughout February & March, or by contacting the Rector or Wardens.