Letter for October 2019                              

Dear Friends,    

The wonderful Scarecrow Festival is over for another year and we have reached October and turn our thoughts to Harvest and giving thanks to God for plentiful  food from land and sea – as well as the other resources we enjoy and almost take for granted, clean water from our taps, energy, telephone and broadband. Most of this area’s crops are ‘safely gathered in’ and our Harvest Thanksgiving services are on 6th October at 9.30am in St. James and 11.15 on 13th October in St. Mary Gilston. At St James we will serve a ‘Ploughman’s Brunch’ of harvest loaf, cheese, cold meat with a glass of wine as an alternative to coffee and biscuits after the service.  At St. Marys a similar Harvest lunch will follow the 11.15 service using a lovely homemade loaf.  It will be great if you would join us.    
You may remember last year Bishop Alan’s appeal was to provide pigeon peas for Malawi – they were a new crop but drought hardy and full of protein and the leaves provide food for the animals too - an amazing £59,363 was collected! Thank you if you were part of that total. This year we are collecting to give simple solar panels to people living in Singida in Tanzania so that families and a school, can benefit from solar energy in a project called ‘Light up Tanzania’. 80% of people in the area rely on agriculture but the area is very dry and the seasons much more unpredictable so there is urgent need for electric power to bring alternative work and the light to use the evenings to study or make. Training for people and pupils to maintain the panels is part of the project. Those of you living in the more rural parts of the Benefice can identify with how it is to rely on candle power and oil lamps when the electricity fails!  It’s worth remembering that God expects us to care for those who are poor and to uphold justice. Jesus told us ‘love our neighbour as we love ourselves.’ [Matt 22:36; Micah 6:8]; that in giving away we gain life.    
October is also the time when we gives thanks for those who have been part of our lives but now live beyond our sight, in heaven, a harvest of human souls - we will gather to remember and name our loved ones at an All Soul’s service at 4.30 pm on October 13th in St James. If you want a loved one named, give me a ring or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. There will be an opportunity to take a flower and a candle [both provided] to the altar as names are read aloud, and there will be tea and cake afterwards for those who would like to stay a little while. 
On Friday October 5th our Brownies will be hosting a McMillan Coffee evening from 5.45 -7.00 pm in St. James -come and support them and the funds for cancer support and care.    
Messy Church is back – we try to do 4 a year – this time in St. James on Sunday October 20th  4.00 -6.00 pm – the subject is a surprise but it involves family activities for infants and juniors, lihjt hearted worship and will finish with food before we go home.  Always a fun event – bring friends with you!    
Don’t forget that on 10th November, Remembrance Sunday Bishop Alan of St. Albans will be at the Eastwick War Memorial for the service 10.45 and he will preach in St. Botolph’s church following the Act of Remembrance.   
  God Bless you and yours Revd Wendy       
 Baptised Isla – Rose Ingham born on 6th February 2019, only daughter of William and Victoria Ingham of Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex; sister to Harry.  Baptised in St. James the Great on Sunday 1st September     
Deaths Lillian Alice Mynott of High Wych, died at home on 27th July 2019 aged 95 years.  Thanksgiving service and Burial at St. James on 19th August 2019    
Interment of Ashes Ronald Percy Cox died in New Zealand 22 May 2018 aged 91years; interred in St. James churchyard 9th September 2019.