NEWS AND VIEWS

VIEW FROM THE VICARAGE

Our first experience of love pre­cedes all words. We spend our first few months of life in a warm womb in which every single one of our needs is met. In those crucial weeks we are being knit together secretly in ways none but God can know. We are then born into this world as a unique human being and also born into a family, a community, a culture, a history and a future.
Though all images are inadequate as means of capturing the reality of God, the image of parenting can nevertheless help us to explore some aspects of what it means to be loved by God. We dis­cover God as the origin of our being and acknowledge God as the loving parent who is continuously striving to bring to birth the person we truly are, guiding us, restraining us, gathering us up in our weakness and celebrating the fullness of everything that we can become.
As we grow, the love we experi­ence and share is expressed in both words and actions. In the life of Jesus, we see God's words of love shaped and expressed in human form. We continue our journey by listening to what Jesus teaches us about the true nature of love, reminding us that, to follow him, we need to 'come and see' for ourselves who He really is for us. We need to see each other through His eyes, we need to trust Him and learn from Him how to make 'deci­sions for love' in particular situa­tions, even though our feelings may be far from loving.
Finally, we hear the expression of love in Jesus' own final prayer for His friends “…….I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which You have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” We can let that prayer reverberate through our own hearts as surely as it did through the hearts of the first disciples.
A child learns to speak by hear­ing others and then imitating what has been heard. We learn the lan­guage of God's love in the same way - first, by listening to God's words of love to us and then by becoming words of love to each other and the world.

CHILDREN’S BAPTISMAL ANNIVERSARIES
IN RECENT YEARS AT ST.MARY’S

6th. On 2nd. May - Ryan-Paul Myers
6th. On 2nd. May - Dylan Russel Myers
2nd. On 4th. May - Taylor Reece Evans
3rd. On 6th. May - Evie Mae Digwood
4th. On 14th. May - Meghan Rachel Bennion
6th. On 16th. May - Seren Grace Baldwin
1st. On 17th. May - Connie Renee Hoyle
7th. On 18th. May - Jemma May Chapman
4th. On 21st. May - Aaron Roy Coulston
5th. On 29th. May - Lucy Elizabeth Lilian Jones

We will pray for these children at our service of the Family Eucharist at 10.30am on 23rd. May and a candle will be lit for them.

ST. MARY’S SUNDAY SCHOOL:
The Sunday School meets in the Parish Church at the same time as the main morning service - 11.00am (except on the fourth Sunday when we meet at 10.30am ). This enables parents or grand-parents to bring their children with them to church and, in the case of young children, the parents or grand-parents can either stay with their children or join the service knowing that they are nearby if needed.
Further details about Sunday School can be obtained by contacting Mrs. Sara Davidson on 590050.

We have had a number of enquiries from parents of pre-school age children about Sunday School for their children. It would be difficult to serve the needs of such young children with the older ones every week but we are proposing to concentrate on the younger age group on the Family Eucharist Sunday at 10.30am. This would give the very young children a ‘taste’ of Sunday School and the older children will participate in the service by way of reading, serving, junior sidesmen duties, etc. Please contact Mrs. Sara Davidson on 590050 for details.

It’s fun to come to Sunday School
There’s lots of things to do.
We like to make and build things
And hear some stories too.
So why not come along soon,
It’s only for an hour.
We make new friends in God’s House
And sing about His power.

FROM THE PARISH REPORT PRESENTED TO OUR ANNUAL VESTRY MEETING IN APRIL -

2009 will go down as a memorable year in the long history of St. Mary’s Parish Church, but not necessarily for the right reasons! After over twelve years of arduous preparation the major work of restoration on our old building (intended to be carried out in our 700th. Anniversary Year in 2001) was begun in February. A good start was made but four weeks into the work our contractor, Chester Masonry, went into receivership. The news came as a big shock as it was a well-established company which had worked on many church buildings over a large area and had acquired a good reputation for the standard of its workmanship. There was no immediate news available from the appointed Receiver but our Parochial Church Council set about the task of putting the contract out to re-tendering. Even though we acted promptly, three months were lost as we sought a suitable replacement contractor and William Taylor of Buckley was engaged. The weather then took a hand as a wet summer and autumn made way for the coldest and frostiest winter for many years. Delays due to the weather and our contractors being absent working on other projects became a re-occurring feature. The end of the year came and a project which had been scheduled to last eighteen weeks was nowhere near completion after nine months.
The ‘Quota’ or ‘Parish Share,’ as it is now called, is the annual amount levied by the Diocese to each parish for the ‘Maintenance of Ministry’ (e.g. administration, salaries, stipends, pensions, housing, etc.). About three years ago the St. Asaph Diocesan Board of Finance devised a new way of calculating each ‘Parish Share.’ Whenever such an exercise is carried out there will be winners and losers and we at St. Mary’s, Rhuddlan are major losers in the new system. During the past three years the increase in our ‘Parish Share’ has been a staggering 55%! During this recent period we have had to draw heavily on our reserves to pay our way but when we have paid our contribution to our restoration programme and met the increase in our Parish Share we shall have very little left in our reserves.
Despite the increasing financial burden placed upon us and the frustrations of the restoration programme we have sought to continue our service to God and to our neighbour at St. Mary's Church by welcoming members and groups of our community to our Parish Church for worship and fel­lowship and by offering service both as a Church community and as individual members. We always regard it as a great privilege to be the Parish Church to the whole community for such valued annual occasions as the Civic Service and Remembrance Sunday and we value our links with community groups through such events as services with our local primary school, Ysgol-Y-Castell, and by project visits from schools and individual pupils in the locality, occasional 'parade services' by young uniformed groups and annual services for members of the Parachute Regimental Association and Rhuddlan Golf Club. Our Church Ladies’ Fellowship and Sunday School are very active throughout the year and members enjoy participating in the very successful annual Rhuddlan Carnival.
We are always very pleased to accept invitations to worship and fellowship with other Christians in our community. We also try to support each other's social and fund-raising events. An important annual event is the Community Carol Singing around the Town's Christmas Tree in the High Street and we start the season with a ceremony at the Tree when the lights are switched on by children from Ysgol-Y-Castell. Our ‘Tree of Remembrance’ was started in 2005 and, with a well attended service for the ‘switching-on’ on Advent Sunday, it has become a feature of Advent and Christmas at St. Mary’s. Our parish magazine continues to be well received in the community and is a very positive way of expressing the Church's concern and prayerful support for all the people in our parish.
2009 was another year in which we lost a number of our most faithful members. Their passing was a great sadness to us but we thank Almighty God for the privilege we have had of knowing them and being numbered amongst their friends. Their worship, work and witness has enriched us at St. Mary’s and the whole community of Rhuddlan.

E-mail:- info@stmarysrhuddlan.org.uk