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Calendar for April 2001

Services in Kingscote

Services in Horsley

• The Taize Worship group meets in the Lady Chapel on Thursday 5th of April. Worship commences at 7.30 pm . All are very welcome.
• A Deanery Evensong will be held on Sunday 29th April at 6.00 pm in Tetbury Parish Church.
• The Annual Parochial Church Meeting will be held on Monday 23rd April at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall. This is an open meeting to which all members of the church and the parish are welcome.
• Thank you to Richard Ingram and the team at the Aerodrome Garage for the excellent weld repair to the latch on the Lytch Gate.
• Other notices for Kingscote and Bagpath can be seen on the www.UKVillages.com website (the link for the noticeboard appears on the left hand side a few seconds after you click here). You can also post your own notices on the noticeboard.

Diocesan Internet News Site www.glosdioc.org.uk

The Vicar's Letter

Dear All,

I imagine that those who write scripts for black comedy often get a rough ride. It can?t be too difficult for them to offend someone. I recall one comic cartoon film. It showed an unprepossessing type, an ordinary Joe, walking down the street with an aerosol paint can. He arrived at a wall and began to spray. The camera zoomed in to capture his message. It read "God is Dead, Bill". While still focussed on the wall, Bill, the little cartoon character moved out of shot, obviously in search of another wall to autograph. Suddenly there was a flash of lightening, followed by a prolonged roll of thunder. The wall began to shake. Somewhere out of shot there came a cry. The camera zoomed out and showed the earth shaking. The wall began to crack and tumble. When the earthquake finally subsided, the camera zoomed in again. There was little of the wall left, just a few blocks, amazingly those containing Bill?s cryptic message. But these blocks had been disturbed. This time the words read, "Bill is Dead, God".

The age we are living in has sometimes been described as "the death-of-God" age. Different periods in history have been given different names. The period when our great cathedrals were built is sometimes described as "The age of faith". By comparison, God in our time has become a very minor figure in many people?s lives, and hence the expression "God is dead". Why should this be ? It is a fact that God figures less in our everyday lives than those of an English man or woman of the twelfth or thirteenth century. The huge advances in science and technology have made us less dependant on God. Sickness and death were the great scourges of the Middle Ages and then there was no medicine worth talking about. The sick had nowhere to turn for a cure except to God. People believed in and looked for miracles. Now people go to their local G.P. in search of such miracles. Their hope and belief is centred on his medical powers, and they are less and less dependant on God. In this sense God is , in fact, for many dead.

But God is not and cannot be dead. As Pontius Pilate discovered on that momentous Easter, there is no tomb large enough or strong enough to hold God. Jesus Christ broke out of his tomb and even if our age wishes to bury God for a second time, it is not going to succeed. Every time he is buried, he rises again. Since the eighteenth century, generations of writers and philosophers have confidently predicted the demise religion, yet it continues to survive. And whilst we can easily become despondent as we see the numbers of practising Christians diminishing in our own country, worldwide, the faith is more alive now than ever.

For forty or fifty years, people have placed tremendous faith in technology. Not so long ago the world seemed threatened with an AIDS epidemic and medicine was suddenly powerless. Of course we should not denounce our modern scientific and technological skills and knowledge, skill and knowledge which is after all, God given. But we should be aware of the limitations of those skills and allow those limitations to drive us back to the God of the gospels, Jesus Christ. In any event science will never produce what everyone really wants - happiness. There is no evidence to show that the higher our standard of living becomes the happier we are. Suicide rates continue to soar, particularly and tragically among the young. Terrorism has assumed draconian proportions. A single human being with a bomb in his luggage in a large modern airliner can hold the world up to ransom. Countries with all their sophisticated weaponry are powerless against the taking of hostages.

If God is dead or dying or not so prominent in the world we live in, it is due to the failure of our witness to him. Somebody once said that "the tragedy of Christianity is not that it has failed, but that it has never been tried". An exaggeration no doubt, but there is a large element of truth in it. Each Sunday we say in our communion service "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again". It trips lightly off our lips on Sundays. It is something else altogether to go out and live it for the rest of the week, to live our belief. A key word in the New Testament is ?witness?. In Greek that same word is translated ?martyr?. The witness demanded of the early Christians often involved giving their lives. We are not called to die for what we believe, but we are called to live it.

On Easter Day we shall recall how Christ rose from the dead, and to that fact we are all called to be witnesses. Have a happy and blessed Easter.

God bless,

John Newcombe

Jo Spash

Meet at the Village Hall on Sunday 1 April at 11.00 am to complete our board game about the life of Jesus. All children are welcome.

We will meet at the Church on Wednesday 11th April at the usual time of 2.30 pm to have a good clean up for Easter. The report on our charitable giving will be in the next issue as we meet too late in March for this month?s Forerunner.

I will report on the Poetry Evening in the next issue as this does not take place until 27th March. Our next event then takes place on the 26th April. This will be a walk around the Slad area where Laurie Lee resided, and we may even have supper in the local Pub which he used to visit (sometimes I am told over-indulging in the liquid refreshment). We won?t do that ! Meet at the Village Hall at 5.00 pm.

Binley Lambing

Due to Foot & Mouth restrictions there will be no Binley Lambing Open Day this year. We would like to thank everyone for staying away from the farm paths during this difficult time.

Richard and Leslie Gale

I know some members of the village have sympathy with the above. They might like to register their interest and support. They can do so by ringing the Support Hotline on 0906 788 1680.

Tony Reynolds

Lent Meetings - From Seedtime to Harvest

A number of issues including F&M upset our original plan, but 5 of us met on 15th March at 3 The Walled Garden and 6 of us met on 22nd March at Gardeners Cottage. The vicar had selected material from the Diocesan Course and we had enjoyable and helpful discussions.

We started off reflecting on the way we had individually come to realise the importance of recognising and responding to God the creator, and the events, experiences and people who had led us to become practising Christians.

Then we turned to what we could do to further the ministry of the Church, particularly in this parish. Whilst recognising how disappointing it could sometimes be when congregations are very small, several of us observed how belonging to a small church like Kingscote had some compensating benefits. We appreciate the personal involvement, friendship and teamwork which it necessarily creates, and of course the special joy when there is a large attendance.

Discussion moved on to how we can increase the active involvement of the parishioners in the Church, and various statistics were presented. One which particularly amused the author was that `only 1% of churchgoers start attending church when they are 60+'. Clearly this ignores those who attend for the first time in their coffins ! One particularly appealing quotation was `The purpose of the church is to manifest an alternative way of seeing and living life'.

Only the individual can open the door to let Jesus the saviour in. We have to do what we can as a church community to provide a favourable environment and example.

Harry Tubbs

The Whist Drive

Memories of far off days came flooding back to some of the older residents of Kingscote when a whist drive was held in the Village Hall on March 17th. Weekly whist drives were a feature of Kingscote life in the fifties and early sixties, but gradually lost their appeal and the card tables were consigned to the loft, where they had been gathering dust until they were rediscovered and brought downstairs once again. Several residents attended the evening?s instruction on the game of whist, which was arranged three days before the event and which helped those who were new to the game to enjoy the whist drive as much as the old hands.

The whist was played in the best of spirit and all had a most enjoyable evening. As players had a different partner for each hand, it was a very good way for new and old residents to meet each other. The raffle was as always run by Iris Shorey and the evening raised over fifty pounds for the hall. Our thanks go to all who made donations or who gave raffle prizes, and especially to those who did so much hard work to clean up the hall in readiness for the event.

Tim Sage

The Music Evening ( note change of date from 21st to 28th April)

Get ready for another fine evening of acoustic music from Mike Waite and friends. This evening will feature performances from:

Doors open at 7.30 pm for 8.00 pm. Admission : £5 adults, £2.50 kids and concessions. Bring your own drinks and glasses.

Mike Waite

Mobile Library

The mobile library will be by The Walled Garden from 9.40 am to 9.55 am on Thursdays April 5th and 19th.

The boxes will be emptied as follows:

Newington and Bagpath - Mon. 2nd and Tues. 17th April.

Kingscote - Tues. 3rd and Wed. 18th April.

With 125 copies we are very tight on our current circulation plan. If anyone is aware of any duplication please let the editor know so that we can reallocate

Contributions for the next issue please by 20th April to Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Tel. 860 194,
Email .

(We have space to spare this month so the editor has added the material below for your interest)

From: Air Ministry, Director of Radar.

To: C in C Fighter Command.

Subject: Interference to Church services by experiments conducted with an autogyro.

In view of possible repercussions from the Church and the Press, you may wish to be advised of the regrettable and unusual results of an experiment conducted under the direction of TRE, Worth Matravers.

The facts, as far as we have been able to ascertain them, are as follows:-

On a Sunday morning recently, the Scientific Officer in charge of tests instructed the pilot of an autogyro to proceed to the village of Kimmeridge, Dorset, and hover over the church steeple, which offered an admirable fixed point for calibration purposes.

It would appear that, in their observation of this vital aspect of the national effort, all concerned had momentarily forgotten the day of the week and the fact that Matins would be in progress.

In accordance with his instructions therefore, the pilot brought his autogyro into position at a low altitude over the steeple, and hovered during the entire proceedings of the Service, thereby, it is feared, making devotions difficult, and the sermon inaudible.

The pilot observed the congregation leaving the church, and regarding the autogyro with expressions of annoyance and distaste, but continued hovering in accordance with instructions.

Shortly afterwards he was startled by two loud explosions and, looking down to ascertain the cause, was surprised to see the Vicar standing in the graveyard with a smoking shotgun which, the pilot had deduced, he had just attempted to secure a left and right at the autogyro.

Considering that the interests of science would best be served by with- drawing from the danger area, before the Vicar had time to reload, the pilot returned to his base at Worth Matravers.

The Scientific Officer, however was of the opinion that he was fully justified in ordering the pilot to risk further salvoes of AA from the Vicar, in view of the urgent importance of completing tests.

The pilot, to whose intrepid sangfroid you may wish to draw the attention of the appropriate authorities, resumed his station over the steeple during the late afternoon and evening, a period which coincided with Evensong, which the Scientific Officer - doubtless by sheer inadvertence - had overlooked.

No further AA fire was encountered, but signs of alarm and despondency among the parishioners were not lacking, and the Vicar was observed marshalling his flock and giving them urgent instructions.

There was much coming and going from the vicarage and the village. The pilot observed that the parishioners were laying out white objects among the graves in the churchyard. Slightly reducing his altitude, he was able to identify these objects as bed linen, sheets, pants, vests, nightshirts and so forth, but it is understood that these articles were specifically brought from the vicarage and neighbouring cottages and that any reports that may be received to the effect that the parishioners were disrobing in the churchyard under the Vicar's instructions should be treated with reserve.

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