You are herePewsheet Archive / November 2019
November 2019
1st December 2019
The Parish Churches of
St Michael & St Wulfad, Stone, with
St Saviour Aston by Stone
NEXT SUNDAY 8th Decemberis our Town Mayor’s Carol service at 3pm in St Michael & St Wulfad’s Church. The invitation is for all to come and joyfully sing the carols as we celebrate our Civic life together
SATURDAY 14TH DECEMBERwe welcome the Province of Freemasons to celebrate our Saviour’s birth in their carol service at 3pm. The provincial Grand Secretary is most anxious that it should be stressed that this is an open service and that all are warmly welcomed to attend that afternoon
SHEILA HOWELLS:There will be a service of thanksgiving for Sheila’s life at Aston St Saviour on Thursday 5th December at 3pm. All are welcome
The season of Adventlasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas. At that time, the new Christian year begins with the twelve-day celebration of Christmastide, which lasts from Christmas Eve until Epiphany on January 6. (Advent begins on Sunday that falls between November 27th and December 3rd each year.) Advent 2019 begins on Sunday, December 1st and ends on Tuesday, December 24.
To balance the two elements of remembrance and anticipation, the first two Sundays in Advent (through December 16th) look forward to Christ’s second coming, and the last two Sundays (December 17th – 24th) look backward to remember Christ’s first coming. Over the course of the four weeks, Scripture readings move from passages about Christ’s return in judgment to Old Testament passages about the expectation of the coming Messiah to New Testament passages about the announcements of Christ’s arrival by John the Baptist and the Angels.
While it is difficult to keep in mind in the midst of holiday celebrations, shopping, lights and decorations, and joyful carols, Advent is intended to be a season of fasting, much like Lent, and there are a variety of ways that this time of mourning works itself out in the season. Reflection on the violence and evil in the world cause us to cry out to God to make things right—to put death’s dark shadows to flight. Our exile in the present makes us look forward to our future Exodus. And our own sinfulness and need for grace lead us to pray for the Holy Spirit to renew his work in conforming us into the image of Christ.
From Christianity.com
Hymns for today
Aston Stone
209 309
Ps 122 196
98 209
198 566/529
566 307
Please pray for the sick in the benefice:
Mary Townsend, Elsie Richardson, Vera Tomkinson, Neil & Pat Wynne, Gary Kelsall, John Richardson, Peter Bowler, Catherine Ritchie, Graham Baker, James Astle, Miles Brain, John & Ann Shuttleworth, Evelyn Cotterill, Margaret Wright, Gren Deakin, Margaret Bott, Molly Wright, Norman Latham, Joan Lazonby,
And for the departed:
Richard Stevens, Rosaleen Williams, Jean Jones, Sheila Howells
Remembering their families and friends at this time
This week:
Tuesday 3rd NO Drop Inn café this week
Thursday 5th 10.30am Holy Communion – St Michael & St Wulfad
3pm Thanksgiving service for Sheila Howells – St Saviour’s, Aston
7pm St Michael’s School Governors
Friday 6th – 8th CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL – St M&W
CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL – December 6th -8th at St Michael & St Wulfad. Do come and see what our community offers in the way of displays this year. Plus on December 7th at 10am there is a Christmas Coffee morning. Raffle items, Tombola and cakes are all very welcome
AlsoWe need welcomers at the door throughout the festival. There are rotas to sign up at the rear of St M&W
ADVENTIVITYThat time of year again. If any wish to host the figures of the Holy Family this year, please see Dennis (Stone) or Berwyn (Aston)
CHRISTINGLE SERVICE this Sunday (1st) at 4pm in St M&W; We are joined by the children from St Michael’s school. Do come and support some of the most needy children in our nation, through the Children’s society
24th November 2019
The Parish Churches of
St Michael & St Wulfad, Stone, with
St Saviour Aston by Stone
ASTON CHRISTMAS FAIR – November 30th 2pmCome and join the fun!
CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL – December 6th -8th at St Michael & St Wulfad. Do come and see what our community offers in the way of displays this year. Plus on December 7th at 10am there is a Christmas Coffee morning. Raffle items, Tombola and cakes are all very welcome
AlsoWe need welcomers at the door throughout the festival. There are rotas to sign up at the rear of St M&W
So what do you think of the Monarchy? That’s what our political leaders were asked this week – and they came out with answers that didn’t really surprise us. I suspect the Queen is having another “Annus horribilis” just at the moment. Not for the first time in our history, of course – we’ve had some “rum uns” in the past, as any study shows
So what do we celebrate on Christ the King Sunday? It helps if we ask what a King really is? In lots of places, they simply wouldn’t really understand – America hasn’t had a King for over 200 years! In others, they would associate it with a despot – fierce and mean, brooking no argument, let alone opposition! But that’s hardly how Jesus saw it: he lives as the very antithesis of this. On Maundy Thursday he had performed the task of the lowliest servant, in washing the feet of his friends at the supper. No king does that sort of thing. And his saying that ‘the first will be last', well it doesn't really chime in with autocratic Kingship.
So we celebrate a Servant King – a radically different vision; someone uninterested in power or status as this world sees them – someone instead who works to undermine these values as being fundamentally wrong – and who seeks to bring in a totally different order
So we are citizens of a different Kingdom, one where we are called to live very differently from others. No wonder our prayer for today is “Stir up O Lord….”
Ian Cardinal
Hymns for today
Aston Stone
480 13
81 467
393 Sheet
308/404 276/342
103 103
Please pray for the sick in the benefice:
Mary Townsend, Elsie Richardson, Vera Tomkinson, Neil & Pat Wynne, Gary Kelsall, John Richardson, Peter Bowler, Catherine Ritchie, Graham Baker, James Astle, Miles Brain, John & Ann Shuttleworth, Evelyn Cotterill, Margaret Wright, Gren Deakin, Margaret Bott, Molly Wright, Norman Latham, Joan Lazonby,
And for the departed:
Brian Dominic, Gwen Cann, Peter Williamson, Richard Stevens, Rosaleen Williams, Jean Jones, Sheila Howells
Remembering their families and friends at this time
This week:
Tuesday 26th 11.45 – 13.00 Drop Inn Café - St Michael’s hall
Wednesday 27th Stone Chapter farewell to Stephen Mackenzie - Swynnerton
Thursday 28th 10.30am Holy Communion – St Michael & St Wulfad
Saturday 30th from 2pm ASTON CHRISTMAS FAIR – Village Hall
LADIES OUTING: Tuesday 17th December. Please can all outstanding monies be paid to Steph THIS SUNDAY! £6 Illuminations, £10.75 Buffet
PARISH DIARIES are available in each Church. These are free, but we suggest a donation for our churches.
BISHOPS AND PUDDINGS J THIS SUNDAY 10.45am: As usual on Stir up Sunday, we shall be making Christmas puddings during our service this day. This year we are joined by Bishop Geoff, on his last Sunday duties as Bishop of Stafford. If you would like to purchase a pudding, so speak to Chris Connolly – this year the puddings will have a special Episcopal blessing included, so quality is guaranteed
ADVENTIVITYThat time of year again. If any wish to host the figures of the Holy Family this year, please see Dennis (Stone) or Berwyn (Aston)
17th November 2019
The Parish Churches of
St Michael & St Wulfad, Stone, with
St Saviour Aston by Stone
ADVENTIVITYThat time of year again. If any wish to host the figures of the Holy Family this year, please see Dennis (Stone) or Berwyn (Aston)
ASTON CHRISTMAS FAIR – November 30th 2pmItems sought for the tombola and the Cake stall especially
CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL – December 6th -8th at St Michael & St Wulfad. Do come and see what our community offers in the way of displays this year. Plus on December 7th at 10am there is a Christmas Coffee morning. Raffle items, Tombola and cakes are all very welcome
“Wait till your Father gets home.” We’ve all heard that kind of menacing threat, either to ourselves or to others! But actually, it never seemed to be that bad in all reality. I don’t know what your parents were like, but mine tried hard to be loving and caring. The real thing wasn’t that we expected a parent to hit us or punish us – it was just trying to change our behaviour
In this week’s gospel, Jesus tells a salutary tale to the disciples, of how things may be to something very precious to them – the Temple! It was a massive building, with gilded stones and had probably cost the equivalent of the HS2 budget to build. King Herod had been trying to buy the affection of his people: it didn’t work, but they did like the Temple, and the thought of its destruction was unimaginable
But Jesus warns it may happen – and it did! The reason was the overweening pride of the Jews. They knew they were a chosen people, but thought that made them better than anyone else. Instead of being an example of God’s love and cherishing, they forgot about their Father in Heaven and treated all other races with contempt. Their rebellion in 70AD brought about the destruction they couldn’t imagine!
So today asks us about sinfulness – and perhaps questions the way that our nation behaves. Is everything as God would have it? Or do we have some reckoning of our own to do?
Ian Cardinal
Hymns for today
Aston Stone
519 285
39 500
139 174
231/342 308/231
356 522
Please pray for the sick in the benefice:
Mary Townsend, Elsie Richardson, Vera Tomkinson, Neil & Pat Wynne, Gary Kelsall, John Richardson, Peter Bowler, Catherine Ritchie, Graham Baker, James Astle, Miles Brain, John & Ann Shuttleworth, Evelyn Cotterill, Margaret Wright, Gren Deakin, Margaret Bott, Molly Wright, Norman Latham, Joan Lazonby,
And for the departed:
Brian Dominic, Michael Tellwright, Gwen Cann, Peter Williamson, Richard Stevens
Remembering their families and friends at this time
This week:
Monday 18th 7.30pm Stone PCC meeting - Church
Tuesday 19th 11.45 – 13.00 Drop Inn Café - St Michael’s hall
Thursday 21st 10.30am Holy Communion – St Michael & St Wulfad
Saturday 23rd – 3pm MESSY CHURCH – St Michael’s hall
BISHOP GEOFF’S LEAVING GIFT.Our two churches would like to make a combined gift. All donations to Churchwardens please - Last call this Sunday
LADIES OUTING: Tuesday 17th December. Please can all outstanding monies be paid to Steph ASAP. £6 Illuminations, £10.75 Buffet
PARISH DIARIES are available in each Church. These are free, but we suggest a donation for our churches.
BISHOPS AND PUDDINGS J 24th November 10.45am: As usual on Stir up Sunday, we shall be making Christmas puddings during our service this day. This year we are joined by Bishop Geoff, on his last Sunday duties as Bishop of Stafford. If you would like to purchase a pudding, so speak to Chris Connolly – this year the puddings will have a special Episcopal blessing included, so quality is guaranteed
10th November 2019
The Parish Churches of
St Michael & St Wulfad, Stone, with
St Saviour Aston by Stone
APOLOGIES TO THE RESIDENTS OF THE MOORINGSIt has not been possible to organise a Communion service this month
BISHOPS AND PUDDINGS J 24th November 10.45am: As usual on Stir up Sunday, we shall be making Christmas puddings during our service this day. This year we are joined by Bishop Geoff, on his last Sunday duties as Bishop of Stafford. If you would like to purchase a pudding, so speak to Chris Connolly – this year the puddings will have a special Episcopal blessing included, so quality is guaranteed
MOTHERS UNION & LADIES GUILDmeets at its new time of 11am this Tuesday – Speaker, Sue Coles
The first Remembrance Daywas conducted in 1919 throughout Britain and the Commonwealth. Originally called Armistice Day, it commemorated the end of hostilities the previous year. It came to symbolise the end of the war and provide an opportunity to remember those who had died.
In a letter published in the London Evening News on 8 May 1919, an Australian journalist, Edward George Honey, had proposed a respectful silence to remember those who had given their lives in the First World War. This was brought to the attention of King George V and on 7 November 1919, the King issued a proclamation which called for a two minute silence: "All locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead."
One hundred years after the first Remembrance Day, the people of Stone will gather at the War memorial to pay our respects to those who have died in our conflicts. The day is marked with no small sadness that, still, 100 years later; we have not learned the lessons of history.
May God bless us all as we gather together in Church this day. And May we finally learn to seek that “Peace which passes all understanding”
Ian Cardinal
Hymns for today
Aston Stone
15 106
366 366
sheet tune 114
342/313 15
114 National Anthem
Please pray for the sick in the benefice:
Mary Townsend, Elsie Richardson, Vera Tomkinson, Neil & Pat Wynne, Gary Kelsall, John Richardson, Peter Bowler, Catherine Ritchie, Graham Baker, James Astle, Miles Brain, John & Ann Shuttleworth, Evelyn Cotterill, Margaret Wright, Gren Deakin, Margaret Bott, Molly Wright, Norman Latham, Joan Lazonby, Richard Stephens
And for the departed:
Brian Dominic, George Washington, Eva McNulty, Joseph Tellwright, Gwen Cann
Remembering their families and friends at this time
This week:
Tuesday 12th 11am Mothers Union & ladies Guild – St Michael’s Hall
11.45 – 13.00 Drop Inn Café - St Michael’s hall
Wednesday13th 7.30pm STONE DEANERY SYNOD - BARLASTON
Thursday 14th 10.30am Holy Communion – St Michael & St Wulfad
MESSY ADULTS … a craft café at St Saviour’s Church on Wednesday 13 November, 2-4pm. Tea/coffee, cake and all craft materials provided. Suggested donation £5. For catering purposes, please let Revd Alison know if you are coming along.
BISHOP GEOFF’S LEAVING GIFT.Our two churches would like to make a combined gift. All donations to Churchwardens please
LADIES OUTING: Tuesday 17th December. Please can all outstanding monies be paid to Steph ASAP. £6 Illuminations, £10.75 Buffet
PARISH DIARIES are available in each Church. These are free, but we suggest a donation for our churches.