St. Mary's Church
News 2008


News Articles:


Services At St Mary's

First Sunday of the Month at 8am Holy Communion in Church:
No hymns, a short sermon and about 25-30 attending for a 30 minute service

Every Sunday at 9.30am Morning Service in church with a ‘Stay & Play’ area for parents and children and remodeled Sunday School on certain dates (see separate notice). Refreshments served once a month after the service. Service varies between Communion, Baptisms and simple informal worship. Hymns, prayer & sermon and lasts about 1 hour for the 50 – 60 who attend.

Every Sunday at 6.30pm Evening Service with about 30 people with a full robed 4-part Choir where parts of the Traditional Book of Common Prayer service are sung either Evening Prayer or Holy Communion. This gives the non-singers chance to hear sung worship in a traditional form. Hymns, Canticles & Psalm together with prayer & a Sermon lasts about 1 hour.

Once a month we have the following:

Quiet Time in Church. A short half hour time for reflection and meditation with extended times of silence in the context of worship & prayer.
Praise Evening giving us a chance for an hours worship in church using the newer hymns of the church in a more relaxed and less formal structure.
“Wednesday Afternoon Christian Fellowship” (Mothers Union) gathering together a group of ladies [and occasional man!] who help the church support family life through talks, demonstrations and practical service.
Café Groups gather either in people’s homes or the Old School Room to meet together over refreshments to pray, look into the bible and how the Christian life applies to daily living.

Every year:

Alpha Course run as an introduction to the Christian faith especially for those who have little or no church connections. It provides an opportunity to ask all those questions you have of faith and raise your own thoughts in an accepting atmosphere.
Confirmation happens each year [or sometimes bi-yearly] for those who want to commit themselves to the Christian faith and to the Church of England. It is the usual way to come to share in the bread and wine of Communion.

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Winter 2008 News

Rector’s Message

For the Church, the approach of Christmas brings us to the season of Advent. Not just a time for opening calendars filled with chocolates but also a time of preparation for the Advent [or coming] of Jesus, which we celebrate at Christmas. We started this Advent with our Christmas Trees & Wreaths festival and continued with the POSADA figures of Mary & Joseph going around the village urging people, to get ready for the coming of Jesus.

Although other places around the country each year go through the silly season of ‘wintermas’, putting up ‘winterlights’ and banning Father Christmas we are sticking to the old fashioned approach and keeping Jesus as part of our festivities! But just because we are including Jesus doesn’t mean that everything runs smoothly though!

The coming of the Christmas season reminds us that in Christmas shopping we nearly always find just the right present after we have bought something else. We worry that we have enough for the Christmas meals and afterwards wonder why we bought so much. Hindsight can be a wonderful thing.

The Christmas story that we will hear, once again in St Mary’s Church, over the season will speak to us of the ‘if only’s’ of Christmas.

May you all have a joyful and enjoyable Christmas. St Mary’s Church will be celebrating the Christmas Story in many different ways look out for more details.

Rev Ian Whitehead.

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Christmas & New Year Services At St Mary’s

Sunday, 21st Dec
9.30am SundayKidz Club - Christingle
6.30pm Carols by Candlelight
Candles will again be provided – you can bring a torch - but still be careful!

Christmas Eve
3pm Family Nativity Service
come dressed up!
11.30pm Midnight Communion
Open to all to share in that moment of Christmas

Christmas Day
8.00am Holy Communion
a quiet short service to celebrate Christmas morning
10.00am Christmas Family Communion Service
bring your presents!

Sunday, 28th December
9.30am Holy Communion
6.30pm Christmas carols & Christmas Poems
Putting one year away and welcoming in another.

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Autumn 2008 News

Rector’s Message

Dear Friends,

It has been a busy year with plans and activities and now that the holiday season is nearly over we enter into the slow run up to Christmas. It never ceases to amaze me that, with the summer [what there has been] finishing, the end part of the year is so hectic. Was this way in previous generations I wonder?

With our History Day on 11th October in the Old Grammar School Room we will be looking at the rich history of parts of this village of ours. Was it as hectic for them? Certainly on the farms there would have been even more work with the onset of harvest and maybe migrant workers and casual labour filling the village. Harvest celebrations would have been just that, a celebration that the harvest was in for the coming year, yet in our church prayer book from the mid 17th century there were still prayers in time of failure of the harvest. Not something we have to directly have to worry about in 2008 and yet we are still as vulnerable as our forebears were. Politicians know that the population of this country is never more than three days from chaos if food fails to make it to the shelves!

Christmas heading towards us provides a welcome break in the darkness of the winter months just as it did for our predecessors, yet in a different way. Today’s shelves will be filled with all manner of things we never knew we needed or wanted and yet it’ll be a nice present for Auntie Flo! Christmas for us will begin with the Wreaths and Trees Festival in Church where again the local community shows it’s talent and creativity, this time including a concert with Beatus and a Christmas Fair to finish. No doubt earlier generations also had their celebrations and concerts in church as the focus of the village life.

We may, today, make a meal of looking back with TV programs such as ‘Who Do You Think You Are’, ‘Time Team’ and the like and yet we are who we are because of yesterday. The challenge is to make the most of the present so that we don’t fall into the trap of neither living in the past too much nor trying to live the future before it’s here. Today is what matters for it’s today that we can write, call, text or email someone to tell them that you have thought of them, that is worth far more than any off the shelf Christmas present that is here for today and tomorrow in the next raffle! Don’t let life be like that.

Ian Whitehead

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Harvest Festival Services - 21st September. Auction of Produce after evening service in Rolleston Club.

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Come And Join Us! - SundayKidz Club

September 29th
October 26th
November 23rd
December 21st

If you enjoyed Holiday Club give us a try! Children Age 4+. We meet at 9.30am in church (Morning Service), leave for activities in the School Room, and return to share our results with everyone. Any queries - phone Vanessa Winstone (812830).

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Summer 2008 News

Rector’s Message

Dear Friends,

So much seems to have happened over the past few months and now it seems to be settling. I am sure that your lives are like that at times as well. Hectic arrangements, decisions being made and things to do and then a space, a breather and time to look back and sometimes say “How did we cope?” St Mary’s church life hasn’t quite been like that but there have certainly been moments.

At the Annual General Meeting two new wardens were elected along with a new Church Council with a number of new members. The new posts of Deputy Wardens were also brought in with Sylvia Martin & David Bousie taking up those posts. Ced Morgan & Carol Webster as Wardens take up their new roles in May after being officially sworn in by the Archdeacon but until then they are simply getting on with the job.

At the AGM the church heard that finances this year in the general ‘housekeeping’ of the church was going to be very tight with an increase in the proportion given by our church into the central pot of the wider Diocese out of which clergy are paid and the Diocese is run. This will hit us hard both this year and in the number of years to come. It is something that the church family is taking up because there are more needs to come.

On the fabric we are pleased that the first two phases of the ACCESS project have been completed with just the refurbishment of the old schoolroom hall to finish. However a recent investigation of the exterior wall of the Mosley Aisle that faces the Croft showed that urgent work will be needed in the next year on re-pointing and replacement stonework estimated at £200,000. That’s what happens on any property though and when you have the responsibility of a 900-year-old building those things will come thick and fast! Of course there will be grants available but it is up to the local congregation and parish to see that the work is done and there will be no national church help in that. So here we go again with another fabric project!

Elsewhere you will find news of events being planned and held for St Mary’s. We have reluctantly decided not to hold a Gardens Sunday this year so that will put pressure on our annual fund raising but following last years cycle ride by Rod Paul for St Mary’s I will again with help be undertaking a long distance ride for Church. Not anywhere near Rod’s marathon ride but something a little more manageable in a day. Birmingham Cathedral where we come! At this rate we are running out of Cathedrals to visit and so the time may come when something new will be found to do as a challenge.

That is what life is like. Time of hectic activity, daily and long-term challenges and surprise events that make us take stock. At St Mary’s we are fortunate that these is a strong team of people willing to be involved and that today is worth thousands in the bank. Make sure if you can that you too have a strong support in your lives.

Revd Ian Whitehead

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Spring 2008 News

Rector’s Message

Dear Friends,

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly life and situations can change seemly overnight. So many changes around us only go to prove that change is the only constant in life. This year marks our 9 years in Rolleston and just looking through the past issues of the Rollestonian has shown me just how much has been achieved.

Following on from this time last year with the extension to the Old School Room this year sees work on the roof and then the interior work of electrics and decorating. This Old School Room is getting a new breathe of life and many of you have been a part of that change and transformation. If you want a further chance at making your mark on a Rolleston feature we’ll decorating the interior soon, so if you want to help…

We have to say a big thank you to the Civic Trust once more for their giving for the Christmas Tree and the renewing of the church floodlights. I have heard of the story of the floodlights from the past but now it really is wonderful of an evening to see the church lit up and humbling to see who has sponsored it and why.

Within the life of the church there will soon be the annual round of elections, something that every group or committee has each year and the church is no different. This year we elect two Churchwardens replacing Deryck & Arnold who have both done a wonderful job in the life of the church. Churchwardens may no longer exercise the role of village police, magistrate, social worker, educator and social security advisor but they do still have the responsibility for the life and fabric of the church - your church. We also elect church council members, area parish representatives and persons to manage the regular Sunday services. That’s a lot of roles to fulfil but with a steadily rising congregation size we are fortunate to have many people who are willing to be a part of St Mary’s church. And there is always room for more! A church built to house 200 in the days when the village was only about 600 persons now looks full when only 10% of our current 3,500 turn up as you did for many services over Christmas. Yet there is room for anyone to be with us at St Mary’s. See you Sunday then?

Rev Ian Whitehead.

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Angels@Advent

Although it seems a long time ago, and apart from the Holey Angels, the church is back to its normal appearance. This is the first opportunity in Rollestonian to thank all the groups and individuals who proved so creative and helped to make this such a successful event. The opening concert by Beatus was a lovely way to begin the weekend and all our visitors were quite amazed at the variety of angels that had been produced. The weekend raised over £3,200 for the Fabric Fund, and just as importantly proved yet again that Rollestonians can join together and create a really wonderful occasion. What will happen this year? (Sylvia Martin)

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Women's World World Day of Prayer

Over 3million women worldwide will be praying and worshipping together during an annual day of prayer on Friday 7th March. They will be using an order of service prepared by Christian women from Guyana.

Our service in St Mary’s will begin at 2.15pm and you are invited to join us. The new Vicar of Stretton – Rev. Kim Thomas will be welcomed as our speaker, and members of Rolleston Methodist, Anslow and Tutbury churches will be also be participating. (Gill Pyne)

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© Richard Bush

Last updated: 15 December 2008