St Peter and St Paul’s Church News

New Priest in Charge The Revd Canon Lee Francis-Dehqani who has been the Interim Priest in Syston for the last eighteen months has been appointed as permanent Priest in Charge of Syston and Barkby. He will be licensed on Sunday 15th March at 10am by the Archdeacon of Leicester in a service in Barkby. Church. The service will be led by The Bishop of Loughborough, Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, who is Lee’s wife.  Eleven30 To open the new year at the first service we did an Epiphany blessing which is now written on the inner church door. 20-B-C-M-20, standing for the year 2020 and Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior the wise men. We retold the journey of the wise men and talked about the significance of the gifts they brought to Jesus. We remembered that the gold was for the kingship of Jesus, Frankincense for his priestliness and Myrrh to foretell His death. Together the ‘follow the star’ was turned off. At the second service the theme was encouragement thinking how important this is in our lives. The congregation thought of people that they would like to encourage and wrote their names on to small bricks and constructed a wall of support. Each person took a b rick home to pray for the person on it. Wendy recited the Lord’s prayer using small articles for each section. If you have children up to 12years why not come along with them any 1st or 3rd Sunday..for story.. activities..music.. craft.. refreshments…make new friends ….warm welcome.  Ladies Friendship Circle On January 11th we all enjoyed our New Year’s Lunch at the Britannia Inn in Queniborough. This was a great opportunity for everyone to ‘catch up’ with all the news of the Christmas period. The first of our usual meetings was on January 27th when we held the first of our efforts to raise funds for this years chosen charity Alzheimer and Dementia. We had previously been asked to bring along items for a Bring and Buy table. The table was laden with books, toiletries, biscuits, marmalade, scarves, and gifts of many kinds. This event raised £90 which gave us a good start for our charity.  Despite the cold and the threat of snow a good number of ladies came to our meeting on February 10th to hear Felicity Austin tell us of Syston in the Twentieth Century. Felicity had brought along many items which she displayed and talked about. These were mainly of ‘Times Past’ but many of us found we could relate to especially Wash Day which seemed to take up most of Monday, playing in the street because there were very few cars and playing games which seemed to go in seasons of the time of year. We were also reminded of shops and businesses in Syston and Leicester which have been long gone. What wonderful memories and was it really so recent but in fact fifty or more years ago. Felicity had arranged a number of items which included an apron which had obviously been made by a child at school. books which recounted memories of past times and which some of us could remember. Felicity hopes to collate all these memories in a book which will be published in the coming year. What a pleasure to listen to memories in which so many of us had been part. We also had our charity table which is on-going throughout the coming year. – the proceed s of this will be for Alzheimer and Dementia. Meetings in March are Monday 9th March – Being a Vicar’s Wife by Rebecca Castle and Monday 23rd March – Care as we Age by Annee Soar Meetings Doreen Payne Superstar-A Lent Course by David Wilbourne Thursday evenings from March 5th in the Parish Church.  Join us and explore this intriguing course.