Thank you to all who helped 'man' the church every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon this Summer.
Maybe we didn't get a lot of visitors but we did have knowledge that were keeping our side of the bargain with English Heritage who provided such a much needed grant towards our fabric fund.

Thank You! - With the benefit of a couple of grants and the wonderful generosity of some of our congregation the amount for the organ repairs has been raised and tenders our now being requested.

We need YOU!   

Due to woodworm, the air box on our organ has had to be removed and £2300 is needed to replace it. Grants are being sought but we also need your support to raise the difference, and so for the next few weeks we will have a double collection during our services. The latter purely to go towards these much needed repairs. This is a safety matter and we could be without the organ for the induction on the 22nd of October unless these repairs can go ahead,

Reverend Peter Jones

We are very pleased to be able to announce that The Rev'd Peter Jones has been appointed to the plurality of Keele and Silverdale as from 22nd October 2011. The Rev'd Peter is currently at the parishes of Llangennech and Hendy, near Llanelli in the diocese of Monmouth. He is also Area dean of Cydweli. He has worked in a variety of parishes, has been a School Governor, a lecturer in Higher education and is currently a School Inspector. He lists some of his interests as Philosophy, Theology, is keen on singing, novels and plays of Josephine Tay and rugby. he has a wife, Mandy , and two adult sons.

Angela

And From the Rev'd Peter Jones

Peter and his wife Mandy are both in their 50's. They have two grown-up boys, Gareth and David. At present, David, who's a neuroscientist, is an academic living and working in Oxford. On 1st August he starts his new job as Senior Lecturer in neurophysiology at Keele University. Soon after, he and his partner (Llinos) and their 7-month old daughter (Ffion) will be moving to live in Silverdale. Peter and Mandy's younger son, Gareth, and his partner, will continue to live and work in Cardiff. Gareth will soon take up a degree work in mathematics. But…really: we're ordinary and down-to-earth people.

At present, Mandy's working for the local authority in Carmarthen – a distance of just over 20 miles from where they live now. She's eagerly looking forward to giving up this work just before they leave for their new home. She enjoys craft-work (needle-work, card-making, quilting, stained-glass work) and looking after their grand-daughter, Peter doesn't know which of these is the cheapest, and Mandy's not telling him.

Peter does not enjoy craft-work, but he dotes on his grand-daughter. He's been a priest since 1983 and has served in his present parish since 2005 (as Area Dean since 2008). He's been a parish priest for most of his Ministry, but was an academic for a short while before yearning to return to being with a worshipping community, which he did in 2005. His present pair of parishes are in the beautiful Diocese of St. Davids, and are either side of the beginning/end of the M4 in West Wales. They're both strong Welsh-language parishes, but are completely tolerant of Peter's poor and peculiar Welsh.

You will find Mandy is lovely. You will get to know Peter's weaknesses before long, while his strengths might take longer to recognize (even by himself he says). He has a keen sense of humour and is interested in people. He doesn't treat people like 'problems' or 'clients' but as people. Mandy says that you can tell Peter anything and he won't be shocked or tell others. He looks big and nasty (says Mandy) but is really quite a softy (say their boys); his granddaughter knows he's a soft touch. Peter wants to see himself and his fellow church-people grow as a community of Disciples; so good worship's a priority, as is sitting down together with the Bible and opening ourselves to what God wants of us. He's looking forward to doing things 'Church of England´ fashion….learning the delights of your 'Common Worship', and being taught to preside at worship according to the 1662 BCP. Socialising together is also important.

At the same time his appointment was announced in St. Luke's and St. John's, it was announced in his two churches (St. Gwynog's Church, Llangennech, and St. David's Church, Hendy). He found that to be rather an ordeal and was glad when it was over. However, he and Mandy want you to know that they are really glad that God has led them to you. They're looking forward to living with you.

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29/07/11 - Have you seen the YewTree Newsletter? If you are having problems with your Broadband connection speed, please complete the Staff's County Council survey before the end of August

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The Childrens' Society.

Elizabeth has recently sent £100 to the Childrens Society from the sale of books at the back od the church. Since then at least another £13 has been raised. Please help in this worthy cause by giving the occasional book and not forgetting to buy some bedtime reading. Thank you.

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Sponsored Cycle Ride

It is with grateful thanks to the congregations of St. John's and St. Luke's and the many friends of both churches, that following his recent sponsored cycle ride in memory of the Rev'd Canon Stuart Ansell to Blackpool and back, Gareth Stapenhill was able to present a cheque of £1800 to the Archdeacon of Kumasi on July 10th. A further £191 was added to this to bring the total to £1991 and will go to Stuart and Kay's dream of rebuilding St. Ann's school in Kumasi, Ghana. Whilst this is the largest amount Gareth has raised single handedly (or footedly) he is aware that it is only due to people's generosity and the love they hold for Stuart.

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The church is open every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon until the second week of September. Why don't you pop up and have a carefull look around, you might surprise yourself in what you see.

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Have you seen the good selection of books at the back of the church. Only £1 each and all in good condition. All money raised is for the Childrens Society so why not spare a quid, or if you've some books that you've tired of, give somebody else the chance to read them and do a good turn for the Childrens Society at the same time.

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We actually near enough filled a coach to take us to that lovely little town of Haworth for our annual day trip and what a great day it was.

Unbeknown to a number of people, it was their annual 1940's weekend where several 1940's re-enactment groups joined together in their uniforms and clothes of the period making the general visitor feel the odd one out.

Proctor's gave us a brilliant driver for the day, Graham, who was accompanied by his lovely wife Wendy, the neice of our dear late Lay Reader Alan Taylor.

Our Patronal Festival this year was a very special day for us, as not only was it the festival of our Patron Saint but also a celebration of the ordination of our Assistant Curate, Stephen Johnson, who had been ordained in Stoke Minster only the day before.

Sadly our Lay Reader, Mr. Alan Taylor passed away last year, but to celebrate his life and love for our church, his family presented the choir with new choir robes and these were dedicated during the service.

Fifty people from St John's and St Luke's enjoyed a magnificent day in the Derbyshire Dales on the second Saturday in June. Our first stop on this hot sunny day was for an hour in Ashbourne which gave opportunity to explore the street market, walk around the town or just drink coffee. Here we picked up our tour guide who filled the rest of the coach journey with interesting facts and anecdotes about the dales as we relaxed and delighted in the villages and countryside. Our picnic area was in a grassy meadow set high above Monsal Dale just outside Ashford in the Water. We returned to the village and were given a brief talk, on the coach, about the art of well- dressing by a gentleman who travelled annually from his home in the south of England to take part in 'petalling-week'. We then dispersed to wander around Ashford.

All six wells are dressed by different groups. Some are quite small, such as the one in Church Street, which this year focused on the scouting movement and in particular the youngest members, the Beavers. The most detailed decoration was the Greaves Lane well, celebrating 100 years of the National Trust taking over the Market House at Winster. The design had an amazing number of small figures, including Morris dancers and the perspective achieved in the buildings made the scene appear to be alive. The largest and most elaborate well was a biblical scene 'Receive Thy Sight' which celebrated the 75th anniversary of Guide Dogs for the Blind. This was at Sheepwash well.

Stuart had been anticipating the sheepwashing for weeks and a large group crowded with him on the bridge over the River Wye to watch this ancient art. This is nothing to do with sheep dipping. The idea is to cleanse the wool before shearing and remove some of the lanolin which will give a better price for the wool. Only six sheep were washed for this demonstration which involved three men in the river with one sheep while two other men remained in the old stonewalled fold to get the following sheep in line for the plunge……curiosity is now satisfied!

Before returning to the coach there was time to visit the flower festival in Holy Trinity church where the theme was 'Church festivals through the year' and to have tea and cakes in the school, produced and served by parents and pupils. Thank you Helen (and Roger too I'm sure!) for organising and managing such a splendid excursion. Notably there was a range of 83 years between the eldest and youngest participants, and Helen ensured we were all catered for and had a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable day.

Angela

P.S. Helen would like ideas for next year's outing please.

What a fantastic day, visiting a number of churches in Lincolnshire and enjoying their Flower Festivals. With Stuart kept everyone supplied with cups of tea virtually all day and what a change for him. it's normally wine he serves with such extravagence.