St Peter and St Paul’s Church News

Circle

It was a real party atmosphere which greeted us when we arrived for our meeting on February 24th. as this meeting was billed as a ‘Pancake Party’. The tables were covered by pretty tablecloths and on the tables were several lovely pot plants. We were served with warm pancakes and offered orange or lemon slices with sugar if requited. After this a selection of cakes and biscuits and the usual cups of tea or coffee rounded off the meal. Then followed a light-hearted quiz. As usual there was a raffle when the lovely plants which had adorned the tables were the raffle prizes. ‘a very successful and enjoyable evening. It was a capacity crowd boosted by several visitors who came to our meeting on March 10th when Rebecca Castle came to speak of her life as a ‘’Vicar’s Wife’. From an early age Rebecca was interested in food and that was the career she followed on leaving school. She qualified in all aspects of food and besides cooking she went into corporate management and all aspects of that which included food. After a short but unhappy marriage she continued her career but found she was being drawn into exploring her Religious beliefs and faith. She had always been a practising Christian but felt she had ‘a calling’ to do more and it was whilst doing this she met and married Martin who was studying Theology at Cambridge. After ordination Martin was appointed priest at the very church where Rebecca had lived during her childhood. They now have two children and Rebecca spoke with enthusiasm or the work she is able to do as she supports Martin in his ministry. This evening was at times amusing, at times tinged with sadness but at the end thought provoking and for Rebecca very fulfilling. The evening ended with the usual raffle followed by tea and biscuits. Future meetings.There is no meeting on 13th April as this is a Bank Holiday April 27th, Call My Bluff ‘ a members night’ Visitors are welcome at any of our meetings –7.30 pm. in the Church Hall, Lower Church Street Doreen Payne Eleven30 On the first Sunday in March, we met to consider Jesus temptation in the desert by the devil. We thought about temptation while working with 2 bags of groceries putting them into two piles, the food we want and the food we need, pausing to reflect on how we resist temptation of the “naughty “things. We used building blocks to represent the worldwide church and bread and stones to visualise the devil asking Jesus to turn the stone into bread.?Lent allows us all to reflect on the period building up to the crucifixion of Jesus on good Friday, and this year all our families were given a Live Lent booklet, with activities to do across the 40 days all relating to caring for our world. The focus for the weekend was looking after a pet or wild creature so Ruth made Bird feeders with the children. Coffee and biscuits rounded off the session. 1130 is open to anyone, any generation, we run 1st and 3rd Sundays,11.30am for a little under an hour in the church.?Next month we will have a special all age service on Good Friday, April 10th, at 11.30am which lasts about an hour and a half. We hear the passion story, sing songs and hymns, say prayers and have several activities concluding with refreshments. Licensing of the new Priest in Charge Despite all the concerns and with rather inclement weather the congregations of Barkby and Syston met in St Mary’s, church Barkby to witness the licensing of The Revd Canon Lee Francis-Dehqani as Priest in Charge of the Fosse Team with special responsibility for Syston and Barkby by the Venerable Archdeacon of Leicester Richard Worsfold. The president at the service was the Bishop of Loughborough Gulli, the wife of Revd Lee. With two of their children there it was a real family occasion. Revd Lee has been the Interim Priest in the Fosse Team for the last couple of years so he is known already to many people in the area and we look forward to progressing with him over the next few years. Due to the current restrictions we had to forgo the usual refreshments but the service and the fellowship were a time of comfort and encouragement for us all.