Recent Events & Updates from Our Community
Here are some of the displays that were up in All Saints' during Pentecost.
During the February half term there was another session of 'Ready, Steady, Stick', where 23 children took part in various craft activities following the theme of journeys.
During the busy run up to Christmas another Ready, Steady Stick was run at All Saints’. All children were invited to come and have fun taking part in various Christmas crafty activities! This also gave mums the chance to have some free time to wrap some presents! Fourteen children came along and following listening to a modern version of the Christmas story, along with some singing everyone set to making! Jelly baby Jesus’ were wrapped in fondant icing and carefully placed in chocolate coated shredded wheat mangers; marshmallow skewer snowmen were put together stick stars constructed; paper cups decorated as Rudolph and many more fun activities. The children enjoyed pizza for lunch along with many other treats! Our thanks must go to everyone who gave up their time during the busy Christmas period to help and especially Mary Cox who masterminded all the various crafts. A really fun time was had by all and many new skills were learnt, not least by the adults!!
2017 was a first for All Saints’ as they put on their first Christmas Tree Festival. The idea was to draw in many organisations, schools and individuals from the parish to help to decorate the church. The response was great and and the church looked fantastic throughout the festive period. Everyone who took part was so creative in their interpretation and every tree was actually a winner! During the weekend the committee served refreshments and there were stalls selling festive food. There was a fantastic hamper raffle and all visitors were invited to vote for their favourite trees, while the younger ones were challenged to look for 12 wooden mice which were hidden in the trees. The main aim of the weekend was not to be a fundraiser but the final result was actually over £2200. Many thanks to everyone who took part, helped or visited during the weekend. We are hoping to run another similar event and include even more organisations next time!
Congratulations to all who those were confirmed at All Saints' on Sunday 26th November!
We welcomed the Bishop of Lichfield, The Rt Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave who was to confirm the 17 candidates who came from the Benefice of Baschurch, Weston Lullingfields and Hordley, Ruyton XI Towns and from The Severn Loop Parishes. The Bishop led a beautiful service where the candidates were supported by friends and family and all took part in some rousing hymns!
We would like to thank Bishop Michael for being a part of this very special day.
On Sunday November 5th All Saints’ welcomed Rev Paul Thomas, the Archdeacon, to lead the worship at this service of thanksgiving. All donors and organisations who had generously given to the cause were invited to join in and celebrate. Due to their generosity and the hard work of members of the church and local community the bells are now safe and dry and the tower is prepared for future generations. As the Archdeacon recalled in his sermon the fundamental and metaphorical significance of a roof is immense. We warmly thank him for taking part in this special service.
The service was also a cause for celebrating Angela Price’s contribution to the church over the past 50 years. As a mere dot of a girl Angela joined All Saint’s choir in the 1960s and has been singing ever since! She was presented with flowers and gifts in recognition of her service and Emily Madge had made and decorated a delicious chocolate cake that was shared by all!
We would all like to congratulate Linda on becoming our new new Rural Dean. The commissioning took place on Thursday 12th October at Ruyton XI Towns. Although this is an honour for Linda it actually means that she will need all our support more than ever as she will have an ever increasing workload!
...and the sun shone for the whole afternoon!
(With thanks to Mike McKnight for the great photos!)
The things a Rector gets asked to do! Blessing a polo field was certainly a new one on Linda.
At the launch and opening of Shropshire’s first Polo club at Moor Farm. Moor Farm is owned by Hazel our organist and one of their new diversification projects has been the construction of a polo field. On April 22nd before the start of the first match Linda was asked to bless the pitch! Although she was not trusted on one of the live ponies Linda did get to sit on one of the wooden ones!
Just a little after 8am on Easter Monday, Georgia, Jackie, Clive, Emily and Mary began their walk around Lake Vyrnwy to raise funds for All Saints’ Church roof. They were walking round not once but twice - a total of 24 miles! The first lap was completed in a very creditable 4 hours. A quick stop for some lunch and then off on the second circuit. After a couple of miles they were joined by Linda and Lady (Martin was there too but was driving). At around the 17 mile mark some other friendly faces appeared, Debs, Nigel and Rebecca with some very welcome ice lollies. The miles were ticked off and the welcome sight of the iconic Tower was in view. Only a couple of miles to go before the dam and the finish. Georgia, Linda and Emily reached the dam first, shortly follow by Jackie and Mary. All completed in 8hrs 40mins.
Legs and feet rather sore and tired but well worth the effort as the total raised is nearly £700. If you would like to donate, please contact Jackie Parker at 4 Millington Close, Baschurch.
Mary Cox
It is only a year ago since we pressed the submit button to apply for a grant from the Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund and now we have a splendid new tower roof. By July they had awarded us £38,800 and we were then able to move forward with getting Faculty approval from the Diocese of Lichfield, further grants from other charities and many local donations. Tim Ratcliffe, our architect, produced information for tendering and Phillips & Curry Ltd, building conservation specialists were appointed to commence work at the end of September.
To start, a scaffold tower with a hoist was erected and then the old stone tiles and battens were removed and replaced with temporary tarpaulins to protect the bells. Then new green underlay and battens were fixed and finally Ladycroft stone tiles from Hexham were fixed to finish the roof. At the same time the old lead parapet gutter was removed together with the boarding and stonework beneath to enable the gutter to be reformed to current standards with new lead. The very small dormer door was rebuilt to improve access to the roof to raise the flag. The cockerel weathervane has been repaired and gilded and in doing so it was interesting to find it had been inscribed: "To commemorate the new vicar G.O. Jones July 1975. Made, given and erected by Neil Gasser and Gordon Menhinick." The scaffolding is now removed, the roof finished, and you can see the cockerel glinting in the sunlight.
The stones removed from the parapet gutter were even more interesting. When the stones were at ground level we noticed a few were marked with hieroglyphics, suggesting they had a previous use, but this had not been visible in the gutter as the stones had all been face downwards. We therefore had them reassembled to find an engraved foliate cross within a circle, a goblet and possibly a symbolised book or bible. My initial research suggested that the stone might be a medieval stone coffin lid, and this was confirmed by Peter Reavill from Shrewsbury Museum. He also confirmed it dates from between 1275 and 1325. This is new for All Saints' as records do not indicate stone coffins or anything of this type at the church. We now have a project to decide how to preserve and display it.
Michael Randall
A happy group of children came along to All Saints' first Ready, Steady, Stick afternoon. The theme was love and the session began with a game, a chat about what the children loved, favourite foods etc and then a story of love - Zacchaeus - Jesus loves everyone!
The children then literally got stuck in to lots of different crafty activities, making heart shaped key rings, angels, bulb planting, cake decorating, musical shakers were created and lots of stuff was built from junk!
Refreshments were served halfway through and a fun and successful afternoon was enjoyed by all! Watch this space for details of the next session!
In Linda's words 'it is good for us all to get together and celebrate and have fun'! So that's exactly what the three parishes did! A marvellous 'bring and share' tea party was put on by the three parishes at Linda's request. We were entertained with singing by four members of Lighthouse, a poem written and read by Linda's youngest son Dan and a magnificent cake was produced by Dawn Lake. You can see from the photos below that a good time was had by all!
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the 2017 panto! Written and directed by the multi talented Hugh Jones, this year's panto was even better than last, according to comments from the audience. Loads of fun was had by everyone who took part whether it be treading the boards or attaching false eye lashes. Many thanks to those involved a substantial sum was raised for the Shropshire Air Ambulance and All Saints'.
On December 18th, the Sunday before Christmas, the congregation of All Saints took part in an 'Instant Nativity'. This involved many people narrating and miming the famous scene. As Reverend Linda (alias Linda the ewe) reminded us nobody actually knows the details of what happened on that night over 2000 years ago, and so the motley crew of All Saints could easily have been representative!
On Sunday 11th December five members of All Saints' were confirmed by Bishop Mark of Shrewsbury. Following several months of preparation the candidates were ready to continue with their Faith journey. St Mary's was filled with friends and family of the 23 candidates being confirmed, one of whom was also being baptised. It was a very special, exciting and memorable day for everyone involved.
On a wet Saturday afternoon in December an enthusiastic crowd of young people and their parents took part in a Christingle service at All Saints'. The damp weather did not deter them from learning about the history of the Christingle, making their own and then singing some carols!
