Parish Magazine December 2008

The Ven. David Garnett The Vicarage, Edensor, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1PH Tel: 01246 582130 (Church website - www.stpetersedensor.org)

December 2008 Dear Friends I held the ladder and Richard climbed up to clear a lot of green weeds and plants out of the guttering. We discovered a young flowering cherry tree growing in the outlet. Hence the build up of vegetation. Richard, after pulling very hard, finally removed it and there was a gush of water and the guttering was clear. It reminded me of visiting one of the churches in my archdeaconry. There was a sapling growing out of the nave roof guttering. “That’s not so good” I commented. The churchwarden replied, “But Archdeacon, you should see it in the spring when it blossoms”! Archdeacons are often teased for going on about guttering, spouts and drains! Yet it is one of the most important parts of caring for a building. Henry Scott Holland humorously said: “the more you believe in the Incarnation, the more you care about drains”. The heart of an archdeacon’s work is incarnational. Last Sunday I went to preach and to dedicate new facilities in a church in Chesterfield. As part of the ceremony I flushed one of the new loos! A few years before I had sat in that same building with the churchwardens. The roofs were leaking and the place was damp and cold and there was an air of defeat. We prayed and pondered. A while later I found some seed corn funding. And from that unpromising beginning has sprung a community church with state of the art facilities, warm, welcoming and user friendly. It is now well used by the community it serves. Bread is broken on the Altar on a Sunday, and bread is broken with the community during the week. Recently, I visited a parishioner in the maternity unit in Darley Dale. There were complications and the birth was by caesarean. The baby is really handsome and weighs 9 lb 10 oz. No wonder they named him Hugo! I prayed with the family and blessed him. I experienced a joy both out of this world and in this world. And I thought of how our Lord in the manger draws down our love upon him. Heaven upon earth. Peace and goodwill for all humanity. A Very Happy Christmas! David 1

Useful Telephone Numbers St. Anne’s Wardens:Treasurer:St. Peter’s Wardens:Treasurer:-

Rupert Turner Vernon Mather Gloria Sherwood

01629 732794 01629 732317 01629 732983

Elizabeth Bradshaw 01246 582421 Duncan Gordon 01629 734099 Mark Titterton 01246 582245 e-mail: [email protected]

From the Registers Baptism

St. Peter’s ~

2nd November

Maisey Emily Oakley

DATES TO NOTE 9 Dec 10 Dec

13 Dec 13 Dec 13 Dec 14 Dec 20 Dec 21 Dec 21 Dec 22 Dec 24 Dec Christmas Eve 25 Dec Christmas Day

BEELEY WI – Christmas Party 7.30pm in the Village Hall CHATSWORTH WI Christmas Party 7.30pm Cavendish Annexe Buffet & wine, social time, lucky dip Competition: a hand-made Christmas card Flowers & Parcel: Mrs Brewer CHRISTMAS HAMPER SKIP: Baslow Council Houses 7.45-8.15 Nether End Car Park 8.20-10.45 Violin concert at St Peter’s, Edensor Beeley Christmas Party 7pm – late! Sidepersons/church cleaners meeting after church at St Peter’s, 10am Come and help decorate the Christmas tree at St. Peter’s 10.30am Carol Service at St. Peter’s Edensor 2.30 – 4.30 Beeley Children’s Party Carol singing around Edensor. Meet at church at 6 p.m. Hot punch and mince pies at the vicarage 6pm Carol Service at St. Anne’s, Beeley 11.30pm Midnight Mass at St Peter’s, Edensor 9.30am Christmas Communion at St Anne’s, Beeley 10.30am Christmas Communion at St. Peter’s, Edensor

St. Peter’s Church 100 Club October 2008 1st prize £30 no.47 Duncan Gordon 2nd prize £20 no.10 Zoë Penrose £45 to Church funds this month We still have vacancies for 5 new members. 2

Christmas in Beeley Beeley’s Christmas Party 13th December 2008 Get into the festive spirit. Dust off your dancing shoes and dig out your groovy gear for Beeley’s Christmas Party at the Village Hall from 7.00pm until late. Music for all ears, a quiz and nibbles! Bring your own drink and vessel. Ticket entry - £4 per person in advance only (no minimum or maximum age all are welcome)

21st December 2008 Fun, frolics and festivity for the youngsters! At the Village Hall 2.30 until 4.30 Santa’s sack, Children’s tea and lots of fun. Ticket entry – £1 per child in advance only (to cover food and entertainment) Funds to cover costs and any extra raised will contribute to the Children’s party, revamping the Beeley Children’s Playground and any future events.

Please make it a success by joining us! Tickets for both events available from: Sarah Porter 01629 732365 Jane Hornsby 01629 733184

dfdfdfd CHRISTMAS GREETINGS dfdfdfd The following people would like to wish their friends who live, work or worship in the two parishes a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year: Gloria & Roger Sherwood; Duncan & Cynthia Gordon; Ken Rimmington; Janet & Peter Machin; Angela & Ian Dempsey; Christine & Roger Bemrose; Pauline & Vernon Mather; Margaret Thomas; Doreen Gaynor; Dorothea Owen; David & Susanne Garnett; Andrew & Bridget Flemming; Liz & Ray Bradshaw; Dorothy Cooper; Jean Clarke; Josie Daubney; Jon & Pauline Dunkley; David & Margaret Jackson; Pat Cree; Jayne Boyd; Jill & Michael Gowdey; Charles Illingworth; Vilna Kembery; Ann & David Hall. -Donations will go towards church funds and should be placed in an envelope and marked ‘Christmas Greetings’ and placed on the collection plate during December. Thank you, Liz Bradshaw Christmas is the season when your neighbour’s radio keeps you awake playing ‘Silent Night’ 3

dfdfdf THANK YOU dfdfdf

A big ‘THANK YOU’ to everyone who has helped, in any way at all, at St. Peter’s and St. Anne’s this year. The people who clean, make coffee, arrange flowers, polish brasses, read the lessons, do sterling work as sidesmen, the organists who give us beautiful music (this despite the condition of the organ at St. Peter’s), those who unlock and lock the church, Clive who winds the clock at St. Peter’s and those who keep the churchyards tidy and last but by no means least, THANK YOU to David – well done, you’ve survived your first year with us and Vernon whose absence we always notice by the things we forget to do! I hope no one has been forgotten here!

MEETING FOR SIDESMEN & CHURCH CLEANERS There will be a meeting in the Cavendish Chapel, after the service – about th 11.45am, on Sunday 14 December for sidesmen and those on the cleaning rota – there may also be a glass of something!

St. Peter’s, Edensor To comply with the grant we obtained from English Heritage towards the roof repairs, an Access Audit has been carried out. We have now received the official report but would like members of the congregation to tell us if they feel there are any areas in the church, which are difficult to use or could be made more ‘user friendly’. Suggestions to the churchwardens or the vicar.

Exciting concert for Edensor Church! Village Aid wants to thank everyone at St Peter’s Church for the generous gift of £286.00 from the 2008 Harvest produce auction. This has gone to help the hungry in Africa where we are working all year round in more than 260 villages, in literacy, farming, and community projects, including digging 7000 compost pits and planting 3 million trees! The next event, which will help Africa, is an exciting concert by a renowned young Violinist, Tim Wright, who is coming with pianist Jason Bailey. Both students are at the Royal College of Music. Tim, who hails from Great Longstone, has already thrilled many local people with his virtuoso playing. On Saturday December 13th, at 7.30pm, they will play the ever-popular Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor, and Brahms’ Sonata for Violin and piano No 1 in G major in our Church. Mulled wine and mince pies will be served in the interval and tickets are available in return for a £6.50 donation to Village Aid. Bring your friends for a Christmas musical treat, and send some real cheer to Africa as well. Tickets are available from Susanne Garnett at the Vicarage, Edensor, 01246 582130, or from Village Aid, 01629814434. 4

PILGRIM PLACES: Historic Christian Sites in Britain – a last look at Whitby He then added very pointedly that When King Oswy decided that the Peter had the keys to heaven and it question of the date of Easter must be was unwise to ignore his tradition. settled once and for all, he called a This alarmed King Oswy who asked Synod of both Celtic and Roman Colman if our Lord had indeed given Christians. The meeting place was the keys of heaven to Peter. Colman Whitby Abbey where Hilda was the said yes because it was recorded in greatly esteemed Abbess. Matthew’s gospel. That decided the matter for King Oswy. Without The two parties arrived to take part in asking what the ‘keys of heaven’ the Synod. Colman, bishop of meant, Oswy declared that he and his Lindisfarne, led the Celtic monks, people would follow St Peter and the supported by Irish and Scottish monks Roman tradition. He would not offend and Hilda. The Roman deputation was the apostle who controlled the gates of led by Agilbert, bishop of Dorchester, heaven! Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, and James the Deacon. King Oswy presided and The die was cast! A momentous none attending that gathering in decision had been made at the Synod Whitby could have foreseen the longof Whitby. King Oswy committed term outcome of the proceedings. himself and his country to the Roman tradition. Hilda accepted the decision Colman argued that the Celtic but Colman resigned as Bishop of tradition went back through Columba, Lindisfarne and with many of his who brought the gospel to Iona, monks returned to Iona. Polycarp, bishop and martyr in the 2nd century, and the Apostle John. Of course the Celtic Church did not Wilfrid, the Roman spokesman, said disappear immediately but after their tradition was now accepted by Whitby, the Roman Church in Britain Christians all over Europe and that it was in the ascendancy. Celtic could be traced back to the teaching of Christianity remained in these islands both Peter and Paul. for another three centuries but was eventually incorporated with the more Argument and counter argument powerful and prestigious Roman followed. Colman and his supporters administration. The Synod of Whitby emphasised that John was the Lord’s committed the British Church to the beloved disciple and that his teaching jurisdiction of Rome and the Pope. therefore carried great weight. That jurisdiction lasted for eight Wilfrid, an ambitious young cleric, hundred years until it was challenged suggested that the Celtic Church was and dismantled by the Reformation. confused in its calculations and that it Dr Herbert McGonigle is Senior Lecturer was time for the obstinate Irish and in Historical Theology & Church History Scottish monks to forsake their out-ofat Nazarene Theological College, date practices and join ‘the universal Manchester. Church.’ 5

The Hopes and Fears of all the Years The Rev Dr Herbert McGonigle considers Christmas...

These words come from Phillip Brooks’ familiar Christmas hymn, ‘O little town of Bethlehem.’ In four lines Brooks reminds us that in the birth of Jesus the salvation of the world was being played out in Bethlehem. In thy dark street shineth The everlasting Light The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight. More and more these days people are asking if the Christmas story has any meaning and if it has any relevance. Some Christians even say that the New Testament doesn’t tell us to celebrate Christmas so we should drop the whole event from the Church calendar. The word ‘Christmas’ comes from the old Anglo-Saxon - from ‘Christ’ and from ‘masse’ meaning ‘mass’ or ‘celebration.’ So the word ‘Christmas’ means ‘Christ’s celebration,’ and it was because Christians from the earliest times believed that Christ was God incarnate that His birth was celebrated. Even though we can’t be sure of the exact month of His birth, much less the exact day, yet His coming into the world was such a mighty event that the instinct to celebrate it is in harmony with the New Testament. Even the calendar reminds us of His coming, for we divide history into the time before His coming, BC, and the time since His coming, AD. In three verses in Luke’s Gospel, the meaning of Christmas is spelt out so simply and so vividly. Luke gives us the Christmas Message. ‘Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy… For all the people. There is born to you today a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord’ (2:10,11). Luke’s words still thrill us with their timeless good news! We need only look at some of his key words and phrases. ‘Don’t be afraid …I bring good news…great joy. for all the people.’ Nothing in our world this Christmas can compare with that! No need to be fearful! The news is good! There is great joy for all who will believe it! And then he tells us what the good news is: a Saviour is born! He is Christ the Lord! But as well as this Christmas Message Luke has a Christmas Miracle for us: ‘This will be the sign to you: You will find a baby.’ God’s answer to the needs of the world was to send a baby! People everywhere were looking for a deliverer, perhaps another Moses; for a king coming in the glory and splendour of a Solomon; for a potentate like Cyrus to bring peace to the nations; for a long-promised Messiah. And God sent a baby! A baby, yes, but this Baby was the Incarnate God! 6

And Luke has one more word, for to the Christmas Message and Miracle he adds the Christmas Mission. ‘The Dayspring …has visited us..to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet in the way of peace’ (1:78, 79). The Dayspring is the gentle light of the rising sun. Christ our Lord came into our world silently and gently like the coming of the dawn, for had He come in all His ineffable glory and majesty we would have been blinded. And He came to bring the light of the love and mercy of God to us lost sinners and to guide us in the way of peace. And all who believe this grand and glorious gospel will celebrate His Coming this Christmas! Dr Herbert McGonigle is Senior Lecturer in Historical Theology, Church History and Wesley Studies in Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, England. 1 CORINTHIANS 13 - THE CHRISTMAS VERSION Author unknown If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside decorating to kiss the husband. Love is kind, though harried and tired. Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens. Love doesn't yell at the children to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way. Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can't. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Computer games will break, cashmere jumpers will wear out, golf clubs will get lost. But giving the gift of love will endure. Happy Christmas!

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas puddings, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook. If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing. If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata, but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Angels fall off the top of the tree What will be on top of your Christmas tree this year? Last year stars knocked the angels off.... in fact, they outsold them ten-fold. It seems that stars are seen as easier to colour co-ordinate with other decorations. 7

Fear not ….. Olave Snelling looks at Christmas at the end of a difficult year Christmas Eve, ‘Don’t they know it’s Christmas?’ (as Bob Geldof puts it.) It’s not as if the date of Christmas Day has anything to do with the real date of Christ’s birth. More like a pagan festival with Yule logs, consummate consumption and all that.

As the Northern Hemisphere days draw in, blinds come down earlier and earlier in the darkening afternoons. Lamps are switched on and fires burn in the grate. Collars are turned up; hats, coats and scarves are donned at the bite of the late-December weather outside. Our thoughts turn towards carols and tree decorations, mince pies and present wrapping, children’s Nativity plays and family togetherness.

Yet in spite of ‘all of that’, Christmas is Christmas whatever you believe and wherever you are. To the believer in Christ that unique stillness falls. It is as if the world holds its breath at what is about to happen. ‘Emmanuel, God with us’ is coming into our world, Credit Crunch and all. He’s coming into the muck and mire of the stable, into the panic of the falling stock market, into sub-prime mortgage chaos, into home repossession, unemployment, bankrupt banks and horrible fear.

That is if we have grates to burn fires in, houses to keep out the cold, warm clothes to put on, food to prepare, money for presents, families to love and be loved by. Thoughts turn towards celebrating the ‘Season’ in every corner of the globe. Happy Christmas, we love to say!

“Fear not,” said the Angel of the Lord as the glory of the Lord flashed and shone all about the shepherds watching over their flocks by night. ‘For behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all people. For to you is born this day in the town of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Messiah, the Lord.” Glory to God in the Highest!

But the significance of the season is lost in the clang of cash registers, the tinsel jangle of ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘I’m dreaming of a White Christmas’ over endless Tannoy systems in countless stores worldwide. It is lost in crassness as people spill drunkenly out of bars in Father Christmas hats and into the streets and transport systems of our cities. Why, as that unique stillness falls upon the earth on

The Bells I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men! Longfellow 8

How did the donkey get into the stable? When you read the Christmas story from Luke this year, you will notice that something very important is missing: the donkey. He is not mentioned in the stable, he is not mentioned on the flight to Egypt. Where did the donkey go? Actually, the donkey only arrived for sure in 1260, when the medieval hagiography, The Golden Legend was written. Jacobus de Voragine was the first writer to mention the donkey – and for that matter, the ox. “and there was a stable for an ass that he brought with him, in that night our Blessed Lady and Mother of God was delivered of our Blessed Saviour upon the hay that lay in the rack...” After that, there was no question of ever dropping the donkey. The Renaissance nativity scenes from Fra Angelico’s The Nativity, to Giotto’s Nativity, all painted the donkey in, as do our Christmas cards today. And why not? St Luke was writing a news story (a Good News story) and wanted to tell his readers the NEW thing that had happened in a stable: that Mary had given birth to Jesus. In first century Palestine, a donkey in the stable was hardly ‘news’ where else, after all, would a donkey be? No excuse offered or indeed needed for including this magical poem by Thomas Hardy

The Oxen Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. “Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in fireside ease.

So fair a fancy few would weave In these years! Yet, I feel, If someone said on Christmas Eve, “Come; see the oxen kneel “In the lonely barton by yonder coomb Our childhood used to know,” I should go with him in the gloom, Hoping it might be so. Thomas Hardy

We pictured the meek mild creatures where They dwelt in their strawy pen, Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt they were kneeling then.

Wisdom for everyone with relatives coming to stay this Christmas… The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. - Anon 9

Send A Cow celebrates 20 years years that followed, Send A Cow has expanded into education and social development, and is tackling environmental problems. From Uganda the work spread to Ethiopia and beyond.

In 1987, a group of Christian dairy farmers came up with what seemed to some like a crazy idea. At the time, EU dairy quotas were forcing them to throw milk away. Rather than slaughter cows, why not give them to malnourished families in Africa? Over the next year, those founders set about making that idea a reality: visiting Uganda, forging contacts there, persuading UK farmers to donate cows and the public to donate cash. Finally, on 4 July 1988, 25 pregnant cows were flown to Uganda, to be distributed through church groups to poor families. Send a Cow was underway.

Now, in 2008, Send a Cow has worked with more than 100,000 people in 13,000 households. It has offices in Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Lesotho, and works in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Cameroon, Ghana and Mozambique through Heifer International. Send A Cow these days also supplies goats, bees, fruit trees, donkeys, bulls, poultry, and oxen, among other gifts.

Over the coming years, it kept growing. All families pledged to pass on the first female calf to another family, so the gifts multiplied. Send A Cow formalised its partnership with the NGO Heifer International, and employed extension workers. By 1996, it had flown more than 300 cows to Uganda.

Send A Cow UK is based near Bath, but also has a countrywide network of 130 volunteers. As for the next 20 years? “We want to ensure that even more families are given the means and the skills to work their way out of poverty for good.” For more information, contact: Send a Cow, The Old Estate Yard, Newton St Loe, Bath, BA2 9BR 01225 874222 or go to www.sendacow.org.uk

Then the BSE crisis in the UK led to a ban on livestock exports. So Send a Cow started buying animals in Africa – a more cost-effective system. In the

Sup soup this month – and help the Salvation Army The New Covent Garden Food Company has dedicated its December Soup of the Month to the Salvation Army. The soup - chicken, vegetable and pearl barley, is on sale throughout December in supermarkets across the country. Look out for the special cartons carrying the Army’s Red Shield logo. The New Covent Garden Food Company expects to raise £10,000 for the Army to provide food and Christmas gifts for homeless and vulnerable people. 10

Let’s have a less wasteful Christmas this year Amid all the rejoicing at Christmas, it is easy to forget our good intentions about recycling. Overwhelmed by a mountain of discarded packaging, tinsel, food scraps and other rubbish, we have so much to distract us. But it’s worth giving some thought to ways in which we can minimise the waste that is created during the festivities.

Although green and blue recycling bins are becoming a familiar sight, the UK still lacks an extensive recycling infrastructure. The nation still creates 150 million tons of rubbish each year, of which 80 per cent is buried. Landfill space is rapidly running out. The good news is that this year over a million Christmas trees will be recycled and turned into ash or mulch by local authorities, many of which will arrange collection. But that still leaves six million that will be thrown out with the rubbish or left to rot in back yards or gardens.

An estimated one billion Christmas cards and 85 square kilometres of wrapping paper will have to go somewhere. Turkey foil wrap alone will create 3,000 tons of waste.

So what can we do on an individual level? If you have an old mobile phone lying around, you could give it to Community Fonebak, a scheme that recycles phones or repairs and redistributes them around the world (Tel 01708 683436). The project will also give donations to your favourite charity. Christmas cards could be taken to the special bins provided in (or outside) supermarkets. “Think before you throw” is a good motto for all of us.

Also looking for a home will be loads of old electronic gadgets (displaced by new ones). Thousands of mobile phones will be exchanged as gifts (15 million are replaced in the UK each year). According to a survey, each child will expect to receive ten presents, on top of those from parents – and 40 per cent of the toys will be broken within three months. Hardly any batteries are recycled despite the toxic substances they contain.

Don’t get mad this Christmas If you have a stressful family time ahead of you this Christmas, you have a difficult choice to make. Research has discovered that suppressing your anger can damage your body’s ability to heal itself of cuts, so increasing the risk of infection. Whereas, people who don’t bottle their emotions, but pour out their anger, keep their cortisol levels lower, and so heal faster. BUT, people who pour out their anger usually upset other people and family rifts can take even longer to heal. So – perhaps a cut on the hand is better than two aunts in a huff...or a sister in a sulk...? Meanwhile, it is not known if the researchers themselves, at Ohio State University, still intend to go home this Christmas... My guardian angel helps me with maths, but he's not much good for science. Henry, 8 11

It’s a Wonderful Life? Paul Hardingham considers a well-loved Christmas film One of today’s most popular responding to this question. Christmas Christmas films is It’s a Wonderful also raises some important questions for our culture about the things that we Life. The film was directed in 1946 by consider necessary to live a wonderful Frank Capra and stars James Stewart life, especially in these difficult and Donna Reid. It concerns the life of economic times. George Bailey, the unsung hero of Bedford Falls. Every attempt he The good news of Christmas concerns makes to leave his humdrum existence a man, born in a stable in Bethlehem, in this small community is constantly who came to offer everybody the gift thwarted. Although it ends up being a of a truly wonderful life. As Jesus great ‘feel-good’ movie, in the first said, ‘I came so that they can have real part of the film George faces and eternal life, more and better life mounting personal and financial than they ever dreamed of.’ (John problems. Together these bring him to 10:10, The Message). It is a life that the brink of ruin, despair and suicide, enables us to grasp the purpose for so that he looks back on his life as which God created us; a life in little more than wasted potential. This relationship with our creator, in which really is a story about broken dreams! eternity begins today! So why is this black and white film Christmas is a time for us to see how from the 1940s still so powerful with valuable we are as individuals in this audiences? Christmas is an obvious world. Without spoiling the film for time for us to reflect on how things those who haven’t seen it, this is the have gone over the past year. For point at which it ends. With the help some it marks the close of a year full of an angel named Clarence (!), of great memories, while others George sees that he really has made a remember only sadness and difference to other people’s lives in a disappointment. We often look back way that he never fully appreciated. on a year of broken dreams. Like George Bailey, let’s make sure It’s also a good time to ask ourselves this Christmas is a time of recognising ‘Do I have a Wonderful Life?’ I what is important in life and how we wonder how we find ourselves too can make a difference Home alone – and forgotten In the UK, 300,000 elderly people can go for an entire month without speaking to a family member or even neighbour. For some, their only form of human contact these days in the postman or milkman. It is estimated that more than 1.2 million elderly people are living lonely and isolated lives, say the charity Counsel and Care. In a recent report to the government, the charity puts the reason down to the growing fragmentation of families, age discrimination, and a decline in support services. Are there lonely, elderly people we could be visiting?

12

Christmas stamps – thank the Royal Mail! Famous paintings depicting the Madonna and Child appear on millions of Christmas stamps again this year. ‘The Madonna of Humility’, by Lippo di Dalmasio and ‘Madonna and Child’, by William Dyce, will feature on many first and second class stamps. The Royal Mail has been producing Christmas stamps for more than 40 years, and last year came under fire when rumours spread that it had a policy to phase out religious themes on its Christmas stamps. This year it has issued stamps with a pantomime theme, but also stamps with this religious theme. If you are happy that the Royal Mail has done a religious issue as well as a secular one, why not write to let them know? A good response to the religious stamps may encourage them for the future! Contact: Press Office – Special Stamps, Royal Mail Group, 148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ or Email: [email protected] or even phone them on: 0207 2502468

Dominoes Dominoes aren’t exactly play-station, but it seems they are making a comeback. In fact, the game is becoming so popular that a few months ago John Lewis reported that its own-brand £4 domino boxes were flying off their shelves at the rate of one every half hour! It seems that some celebrities have started the craze, though the cost is within everyone’s reach. A low-cost, low-tech present that will last forever, and provide hours of simple numerical enjoyment.... not bad!

What your sat nav won’t tell you A sat nav may help you find your relatives this Christmas, but it can’t help you make sense of the trip, or appreciate the area when you get there. A leading cartographer has warned that we are ignoring the rich tapestry of the British landscape, with its thousands of churches, dozens of stately homes, and hundreds of quaint landmarks, that can guide us when we use a conventional road map. The result? Adults are almost scared now of reading a map, and

children are growing up without basic navigational skills. May Spence, president of the British Cartographic Society, says: “We’re in danger of losing what makes maps so unique; giving us a feel for a place even if we’ve never been there.” Sat navs reduce trips to no more than a series of right and left-hand turns... which hopefully won’t strand you somewhere remote! 13

Book Reviews The Advent Calendar By Stephen Croft (Darton, Longman & Todd £9.95) Here is a children’s story from the new Bishop of Sheffield. Stephen Croft writes: ‘The door at the top of the calendar slowly began to swing open. There was just blackness on the other side – not the kind of blackness you expect to see in a painting. For Sam and Alice it was like looking down a tiny, dark hole or through a window into nothingness. They both took a step backwards in shock. A split second later, the tiny door was as big as a large window and it came rushing toward them. A moment after that, before they could move or think or do anything at all, they were completely swallowed up by the great and utter darkness and, at first, complete silence.’ And so begins the biggest adventure of Alice’s life. In a new city and at a new school, Alice isn’t looking forward to Christmas. But when Sam, her idiot uncle, brings home a mysterious advent calendar that’s short on chocolate but big on surprises, she is thrown into an Advent she never dreamed of. Packed with codes and secrets and inviting us to explore the deeper meanings of Christmas, this enthralling and touching tale can be read on many levels, and is suitable for adults and children alike. ‘Beating Stress, Anxiety and Depression’ By Prof Plant and Janet Stephenson. Are you depressed? Smile - it might help you more than taking Prozac. So says one government scientific adviser, Prof Jane Plant. Her recent book on unorthodox ways to fight depression and anxiety has other unusual ideas, such as: Dancing cheers you up; spending LESS money, not more, could make you happier; eat kippers for breakfast (they contain omega-3 fatty acids); and send fewer text messages.

Winter Walking If you plan to eat too much this Christmas Day, why not at least stagger out for a traditional Boxing Day walk? The Festival of Winter Walks is the Ramblers’ Association’s annual festival of walks which are open to everyone. There are many hundreds of walks happening across England, Scotland and Wales. For details. visit: www.ramblers.org.uk/winterwalks or www.mapoffestivalwalks Camels In Jane’s Christmas drawing, two of the camels were approaching the inn, over which was pictured a large star. The third camel and its rider were going directly away from it. “Why is the third man going in a different direction?” her mother asked. Jane replied: “Oh, he’s looking for a place to park.” 14

lllllSERVICES & ROTAS FOR DECEMBER 2008 lllll St. Anne’s, Beeley Flowers 7 Dec 14 Dec 21 Dec 24 Dec 25 Dec 28 Dec 4 Jan

9.30am 9.30am 9.30am 6pm 9.30am 9.30am 9.30am

Holy Communion Holy Communion Holy Communion Carol Service Holy Communion Holy Communion Holy Communion

No flowers in Advent 2.30pm Evensong " " " " Christmas Flowers " " Mrs Homer

St. Peter’s, Edensor Sidesmen 10.30am Holy Communion R A Gray/J Bowns 10.30am Holy Communion R Bemrose/Jayne Boyd 10.30am Carol Service Mrs Thomas/Mrs Bemrose + 2 more 11.30pm Midnight Mass Mr & Mrs Gordon 10.30am Holy Communion Mr & Mrs Machin 10.30am Holy Communion Mr & Mrs Jackson 10.30am Holy Communion Mr & Mrs Machin Coffee Cleaning Flowers 7 Dec Mrs Mather Mrs Bateman/Mrs Robinson No flowers in Advent 14 Dec Mr & Mrs Sherwood ---------------------------" " 21 Dec No Coffee Mrs Day/Mrs Nelson/Mrs Owen Christmas Flowers 28 Dec Mrs Bradshaw --------------------------------" " 4 Jan Mrs Cooper/Mrs Clarke Mrs Sherwood/Mrs Kembery The Church & Christmas tree will be decorated on Saturday 20th December from 7 Dec 14 Dec 21 Dec 24 Dec 25 Dec 28 Dec 4 Jan

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10am. Everyone welcome!

Readings at St. Peter’s Epistle Gospel Reader 7 Dec Romans 15: 4-13 Luke 21: 25-32 Molly Marshall Advent 2 Bible Sunday 14 Dec 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24 John 1: 6-8 + 19-28 Joan Davies Advent 3 John the Baptist 21 Dec Carol Service To be arranged 24 Dec Hebrews 1: 1-4 John 1: 1-14 To be arranged Christmas “Unto us a child is born” 25 Dec Isaiah 9: 2,6,7 Luke 2: 8-20 Doreen Gaynor 28 Dec Galatians 4: 4-7 Luke 2: 15-21 Molly Marshall Christmas 1 Sharing His Divinity ‘The Bridge’ Parish Magazine – From the January 2009 issue the price will be 60p per copy (£7.20 per year) Items for inclusion in the January magazine should reach me by Monday 8th DECEMBER . e-mail:[email protected] 15