The Forerunner

• The Taize Worship group meets in the Lady Chapel on Thursday 7th of June. Worship commences at 7.30 pm . All are very welcome.
• A Deanery Evensong will be held on Sunday 29th Julyat 6.00 pm in Gloucester Cathedral. A coach will leave Nailsworth Bus Station at 5.10 pm. Would those wishing to use the coach please notify the vicar by no later than Monday 18th June.
• There will be a Concert of Classical Guitar and Northumbrian Pipe music in Horsley Church on Sunday 10th June at 7.30pm. Tickets available at the door.
• At the Annual Meeting on Monday 23rd April, the PCC regretfully accepted the resignation as Churchwarden of Robert Whitworth who has served with great diligence in that role for over 15 years. He was gratefully thanked by the PCC, who hope that we will all continue to enjoy his cheerful and enthusiastic presence at our services and activities. There is now a vacancy as Churchwarden which the PCC seeks to fill.
• Forerunner Internet Site www.geocities.com/forerunneruk/
• Diocesan Internet News Site www.glosdioc.org.uk

The Vicar's Letter

Dear All,

We are half way through the year already. Where does the time go ? They say that the busier you are the quicker the time goes. I for one, always seem to have plenty to do. I read somewhere that someone once said that the world is made up of Marthas and Marys - the doers and the dreamers. If you have never read the story of Martha and Mary, then you can find it in St. Luke's Gospel (chapter 10, verses 38 to 42). Martha was the doer and Mary the dreamer - and it would seem that the former are far more numerous than the latter. The industrial and commercial society of today places a huge premium on achievement. It is results that count. Targets are set for production and sales, and only those who achieve or surpass them are rewarded. Captains of industry everywhere are pushing hard to have pay related to production. Their message is "shape up or ship out". And those who can't or won't are made redundant. It is all about ?turnover? in a profit-and-loss society. We live in Martha's world.

Yet history shows that many of the great contributions to our society were made by dreamers. By those, who in that memorable phrase of President Kennedy, "saw things that never were and asked why not?". From Plato to Albert Einstein our world has been shaped by a long line of visionaries who could see a world other than the one they were born into. In their time they were mostly ignored, often reviled and sometimes, like Galileo, condemned. (It is ironic that Christ's followers so seldom show his marked preference for the Marys of this world). They toiled away in their garrets often in poverty, elaborating their dreams and bringing into being a better world for future generations. Recognition, if it came, always came posthumously. We at least are in no doubt that they ?chose the better part?. They have left us forever in their debt.

Many of the achievers, who largely dominate the pages of our history books, have left us an altogether more dubious legacy. From Alexander the Great to Stalin, their rampaging armies have redrawn the world map in blood, imposed alien laws and languages is the name of conquest, and left behind a tangled web of feuds and hatreds that centuries later peoples still struggle to unravel. Their successors in our century, the giant international corporations, in their quest to dominate the world are now threatening its very survival.

But mercifully we still have our dreamers. "I have a dream". Who can forget those words of Martin Luther-King ? "I have climbed the mountain and seen the promised land". He was gunned down by an assassin, but his people were emancipated. A decade or so ago, another great prophet of our time, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, returned to his homeland Russia after years of exile in the West. He travelled the length and breadth of the motherland, listening to the voices of the simple Russian peasants. Then, looking and sounding like an Old Testament prophet, he delivered a scathing condemnation of Russia's new achievers to the parliament in Moscow. Those, like him, who chose to be the conscience of the people may seem to be ignored, but their message lives on.

Perhaps we should cherish such dreamers more readily. It is often the poets and prophets, writers, thinkers, philosophers and mystics who, like Mary, have chosen the better part.

God bless,

John Newcombe

June 3rd and 10th Whitsun Altar Guild and helpers

June 17th and 24th Wedding Flowers

July 1st and 8th Mrs. M. Gale

Meet at the Village Hall on Sunday 3rd June at 11.00 am. All children in the parish are welcome to join us as we continue to work on making clay tiles showing some of Jesus' parables. If you missed last month's meeting, you will be able to make a new tile. Please bring a craft apron and wear old clothes as this is messy work.

The next meeting will be in the church at 2.30 pm on Wednesday 6th June. Can we remind others that members of the Altar Guild prefer to remove their own floral arrangements from the church.

Our trip to Slad went very well, and although the Woolpack Pub was very ?rustic and down to earth? we enjoyed a very nice meal there. It just happened to be Ethel's birthday, so we sang the usual refrain which earned her a free liqueur from the landlord.

On May 8th we enjoyed a delightful evening with Doris Highfield, everyone taking a contribution for supper. The meal was varied and delicious, and enjoyed by all.

Our next event will take place on 26th June when we will have another ?birthday girl? - Margaret. We will take a trip down memory lane, back to the days of steam. We will travel to Kidderminster and board an old steam train for Bridgenorth. This will be a full day, and members should meet at the Village Hall at 8.00 am prompt.

On Sunday 22nd July we are hoping to repeat the success of previous years with various gardens in Kingscote open in aid of the Red Cross. We already have a nucleus of gardens on the list, but the more the merrier so all entries are welcome right up to a week before the day. Last time there were eleven gardens open, with a brilliant range of styles and sizes spread through the village, giving visitors good value for money. Contributions of plants for the plant stall would be welcome. Copies of the programme of Red Cross garden openings across Gloucestershire are available now free of charge on request.

Teas will be sold in aid of the upkeep of the church, and I should be very grateful for cakes and helpers when it comes to the time.

Village Fete: The Village Hall Management Committee will be hosting a Fete in Kingscote on Saturday 28th July. This date has changed from that previously announced. The committee meets on 30th May to finalise arrangements, and full details will appear in the July magazine and on posters.

David Brightly

On an idyllically beautiful Sunday morning at the end of May about equal numbers of adults, children and pets attended church. We were probably 50 in all, including 8 dogs, the twin guinea-pigs Snuggles and Nibbles, the pet mice Lucky and Letty, the smartly turned out pony Charlie Brown and a (human) visitor from Zimbabwe. Latin rogo/rogare means ?to ask?, hence Rogation Sunday, and the service was to ask God to bless the planting of crops, the farmers and others who work producing food, and all the animals in the world.

During this Family Service, the Sunday Club put together a well thought out and excellently presented collection of songs, readings, and their own prayers. John the vicar gently blessed each animal in turn and by name, and Sparky, the dog, only managed one spirited attempt to pick a fight. Everyone then processed to the gateway to the fields where crops were blessed, and we thanked God for His great goodness. Everyone agreed that it was an unusual but very happy event.

Georgina Harford

Mobile Library

The mobile library will be by The Walled Garden from 9.40 am to 9.55 am on Thursdays June 14th and 28th.

The boxes will be emptied as follows:

Newington and Bagpath - Mon. 11th and 25th June.

Kingscote - Tues. 12th and 26th June.

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

Late News:

On Sunday 27th May it was announced that our vicar, The Rev. John Newcombe has accepted the post of vicar to the parishes of Childswickham with Aston Sommerville, Buckland, Laverton and Snowshill. It is expected that he will take up his new responsibilities either at the end of July or at the beginning of September 2001.

Whilst this obviously comes as a nasty shock for us, we have known that it could happen at any time during the past year. We will say farewell to John formally closer to the time, but we do congratulate him on his new post and the new chapter in his ministry which it opens up. We thank him for all that he has done for us, and we hope that he will look back on his time here with pleasure and satisfaction.

We will miss John, and it may be some time before we have are placement, but God will still be around watching and listening and caring, and we will try our best to keep the services going with the help of available clergy.

For Your Notes

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.