The Rector's Notepad February 2012
In 2011 Desford Church raised and gave away £6,557 to charities and good causes. Included in that sum was £331 raised for the Children’s Society at the Christmas Eve Christingle Service and included in that was £22.60 raised by Holly and Georgina Turner and their friend Lauren Johnson. Not for the first time, it is children who show adults what they should do.
A collecting box in Desford Church raised £74 for L.O.R.O.S. over Christmas. This is done in lieu of Christmas cards. The total raised for L.O.R.O.S. last year was £528.
During 2011, the weekly Coffee & Chat Tuesday Coffee Mornings and monthly lunches in the Desford Church Centre raised £2,053 for Church Centre improvement. The current project is to install a fixed power-point projector and large screen in the main hall.
A retiring collection after the Christmas Eve Carol Service at Peckleton Church raised £156 for Crisis at Christmas, which works with the homeless and destitute.
A Coffee & Gateaux Morning in Desford Church on Saturday January 7th, 2012 raised £136 for Breast Cancer.
My wife Jill. and I announced our retirement to Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire from the end of July 2012. Both P.C.C.s are exploring the possibility of a house-for-duty minister to live at the current Rectory in Church lane, Desford. He or she would, potentially, replace me whilst, at the same time, save the Leicester Diocese one clergy stipend. Nothing has been decided to date.
Most readers of the Parish News will know that the next Olympic Games will take place in East London in the summer. Desford Church welcomed the Revd. Barry Hill, the Leicester Diocesan Mission Enabler, on Sunday January 15th, 2012. He talked about the possibilities that these Games offer to local churches to broaden their contacts with local people. He made the obvious point that many people follow or play sport. One has only to pick up a newspaper to realise that. I was interested to learn that Desford was the first church in the diocese in 2012 to hear him talk on this topic. An item about the Olympic Games appeared in last month’s issue of the Parish News.
Desford Church has held an annual Parish Weekend since 2004, when the late Phyllis Chapman helped to organise a Three Peaks Challenge, to raise money for the Spire Appeal. The ninth weekend will take place from Friday to Sunday July 13th-15th, 2012 in Porthmadoc, North Wales. Last year forty four people took part. Please note the dates now. Further information will follow.
The Archdeacon of Loughborough, the Ven. David Newman, is the preacher at Desford Church on Sunday January 29th, 2012 at 10.30am. The church service will be followed by a lunch and a meeting with the P.C.C., to consider the future of the parish after I have left.
Sales of second-hand books in the Peckleton Village Hall have raised £36 for church funds.
There is a fuller notice on pages 10 & 11 of this issue of the lecture by Neil Finn and the exhibition in Desford Church of reproductions of paintings by John Flower, the self-taught Leicestershire artist, the anniversary of whose death was in 1861. His drawings of pre-Victorian Leicester, published in 1826, will be familiar to many readers of the Parish News. Can you recognise Leicester’s Guildhall ? (look right)
An AA Meeting will open in the Desford Church Centre on Wednesday February 1st, 2012 from 8pm.
The annual Service of Remembrance for those recently-baptised, married or died will be in Desford Church on Sunday February 5th, 2012 from 6pm. All are cordially invited. Refreshments will follow.
Peckleton P.C.C. will meet on Tuesday February 7th, 2012 from 7.30pm. at 51, Main Street.
There will be a Prayer Breakfast in the Desford Free Church on Saturday February 11th, 2012 from 8.30am. Dalton King is the speaker.
There will be a Viennese Evening of music (on disc) and food in the Desford Church Centre on Saturday February 18th, 2012 from 7.30pm., to raise money for the church’s Access for All-Phase 2 Project (to put two toilets and a kitchen on the side of the main church porch. This is being organised by Jean Tolley and Liz. Lindsay. Details on 824673.
The Ash Wednesday Service will be in the Desford Free Church on Wednesday February 22nd, 2012 from 7.30pm. The first joint Lent Group will be on Sunday February 26th, 2012 from 6pm. in Desford Church. There will be tea and biscuits but no bring-and-share supper as in previous years. We will be using the York Study Course. Study books will be on sale in church or from 822276.
The Women’s World Day of Prayer will be observed in Desford Church on Friday March 2nd, 2012 from 7.30pm. Prepared by the women of Malaysia, this year’s theme is Let Justice Prevail.
The Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will feature prominently in our lives later in the year. Like Queen Victoria or the Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, many people have known no other monarch. The actual Accession Day falls on Monday February 6th, 2012. The changes that have taken place in her sixty years have been phenomenal. The interest lies in the way the monarchy has adapted itself.
Desford Church’s Urban Saints group is due to go to Mexico in April this year, to take part in a house-building programme amongst the country’s poorest. Their budget is £6,000. I am pleased to say that, at the time of writing, they are only £500 short. Well done. I wonder if any reader of the Parish News would like to help them reach their total?
Handel’s Messiah is deeply engrained in our social memory. It was first performed at a charity concert in Dublin, to raise money for a hospital. The story is told that someone congratulated him on producing such a good entertainment. “Entertainment? “ he said. “My purpose is not to entertain but to teach them something.” Leicestershire’s Charles Jennens took the words of The Bible to tell the story of Jesus. There will be a performance of items from Messiah on Saturday May 12th, 2012 in Desford Church. Rehearsals have begun. Music copies have been bought. If any reader of the Parish News would like to join in, please speak to the Revd. Peter Folks on 828090.