March Parish News
ST ANDREWS CHURCH
Services for February
Holy Communion each Thursday at 10.30
3rd 10.0011.00 Family Service Informal Communion
6th 10.30 Pram Service
10th 10.30 Morning Praise
17th 10.30 Holy Communion
20th 10.30 Pram Service
24th 10.30 Morning Praise
31st 10.30 Morning Praise
Open Gardens
St Andrew's Events Committee are planning an Open
Gardens event in Slip End. This is to be held on Saturday 13th
July and will be open to the whole community. We are hoping
that many of the keen (and not so keen) gardeners in the
village will participate. Your garden does not need to be
anything special. You just need to be enthusiastic and
prepared to interest folks looking round. This is not a
competition. We are, however, hoping to run a hanging basket
competition at the same time, and again, anyone in the
village is welcome to enter. The more the better. There will
be a collection for charity and we will probably make a small
charge for programmes. If anyone feels like offering
refreshments or have a plant sale to raise extra money that
would also be very welcome.
We would like to know as soon as possible how many people are
interested in taking part so please fill in the entry form
which you will find in this Parish News and send it to
Valerie Church, The Old Bakery, 2 Summer Street, Slip End, or
fill in the application form on the St Andrew's web site, or
just ring 458443 giving your name, address and phone number.
Sunday March 10th
Winter Classics & Jazz
Grit Brunssen and eight of her colleagues will be
entertaining us with a mixture of Classical and Jazz Music on
piano, flute and saxophone, as well as voice. This promises
to be a wonderful evening in the tradition already set at St
Andrew's.
During the interval wine and light refreshments will be
served. Profits will go to the music department of the London
Bible College, which they all attend.
Tickets from Roger Duncombe,
tel. 404988, at £5.00 each, include light refreshments and a
glass of wine.
St Andrew's Diary
| May 11th | Spring Fair Village Hall |
| July 13th | Open Gardens and Slip End Village Hanging Basket Competition |
| September 27th | Harvest Supper Village Hall |
News from the Diocese of St Albans
Easter Pilgrimage:
Hundreds of pilgrims are expected to make their way to St
Albans Abbey for the diocese's annual Easter Monday
Pilgrimage. The all-age event culminates with a short service
in the Abbey. This year's theme is 'The Wise Fool' to mark
the April 1st date. Pilgrims are invited to gather on Abbey
Orchard at 1 pm with a picnic and, at 2.30 pm, to process
singing into the Abbey.
Abbey on air:
BBC TV will be broadcasting live the 10 am
Easter Sunday eucharist from St Albans Abbey - and will be
returning on Easter Monday evening to record a 'Songs of
Praise' programme for broadcast during April.
Bishop retires:
The Rt Revd John Richardson, Bishop of Bedford, retires this
summer after more than eight years as a bishop and over 39
years in Holy Orders. A farewell service will be held at St
Paul's Church, Bedford on Saturday July 13 at 5pm.
PARISH NEWS
We are well into 2002 now and the Parish News
team is planning for the coming year. Our finances are sound
and it is hoped to retain prices yet again, whilst improving
quality. There are plans to include more colour, following
the very favorable reaction to our Christmas issue.
Have you payed yet? To the few
readers who have yet to pay their £3 for the year ending
this spring, please drop it to Sue Horton, 26 Rossway.
ROMANCE IN ALEY END, SLIP
GREEN (BESIDE A WOOD!)
On October 6th 1999, Jeremy Purcell came
a-wooing Rachel who lived in Mancroft Road with her parents
Rev. Tony and Mrs Patricia Higton. They had met at Ayletts
Nurseries just south of St Albans and they didn't know how
much their lives would change in two and a half years.
After trips to the surrounding sites - Woburn, Ivinghoe,
Whipsnade area, St Mary's Luton, the cinema, Hatfield
Galleria etc. visits were made to Mancroft Road with lengthy
goodnight xxx and to Jeremy's family in Bishops Stortford and
Rachel's near Nottingham and South of Lincoln.
On December 16th after a very positive job interview, Jeremy
asked Rachel to marry him, on bended knee, in the front porch
of St Albans Cathedral. Jeremy moved into Woodside rented
cottages near the Plough Pub in mid January, having to watch
his head on the 6 foot door. They had visited a couple of
churches for Sunday worship and had been at the Millennium
New Years Eve service/party at St Mary's Caddington (prayers/chimes/fireworks).
By late January, Jeremy and Rachel decided they would like to
settle at St Andrew's Woodside where they started attending
wedding classes on Wednesday evening with David Bolster. The
worship there was alive, real and hopeful with continuity
from Bible, God's message, his story of love for us.
Jeremy and Rachel were the first marriage of 2000 on March 4th.
A year later
they had some involvement contributing to services and always
singing, often with the morning praise group twice a month.
They both took parts in Oklahoma, the Harvest musical at Slip
End Village Hall. Jeremy spoke to the Mothers Union on
Church's Ministry to Jewish people and co-led an Alpha Course
in Slip End, Summer 2001. They have lived in Mancroft Road
for a year. Rachel recently hosted the Monday prayer group
whilst nursing full-time her 94 year old grandmother, Hetty
Higton. In March they should all be in their new home in
Clarence Road St Albans.
Many thanks for all your help and contributions Rachel and
Jeremy, we will certainly miss your friendly smiles. We wish
you every happiness for the future and do hope you will come
and see us often. Good Luck with the move. God Bless.
If anyone - or you think you know someone - who
lives in Caddington, Woodside, Slip End, or Pepperstock and
who may benefit from having a two course freshly cooked
dinner delivered to their door lunchtime twice a week, this
service is available.
The dinners are cooked locally at the Slip End Lower School
and are available every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The
food is delivered hot by a small friendly team of volunteers
belonging to the WRVS. They work on a rota basis, and each
van has a driver and an escort.
If you have special dietary requirements, these can be
catered for, e.g. diabetes etc. Each meal consists of a main
course and dessert at a cost of just £2.45 per meal.
If you would like further information regarding this
service please do not hesitate to contact Margery Brett on
Luton 724058 or Christine Allsop on Luton 727056.
MOTHERS UNION
March
meeting: Thursday 14th we meet at 8pm At 8 Crawley
Close (Edie's
home). An evening "Celebrating Mothers" with Photos
and Memories. Please
bring a photo of either Mum or Grandma for our 'guess the
relative' competition. Also if you have a poem, prayer, story
or reading that brings special memories please bring that too.
Edie will run her Bring & Buy stall as usual and the
evening will not be complete without refreshments.
April 24th: we hope to show the video "Roots
and Fruits". This will be at
8pm, at 29 Crawley Close.
Any one interested in any of our topics is most welcome to
join us
irrespective of being a M.U. member or indeed attending St
Andrews Church.
All are most welcome to join us,.
Plans for our summer programme are well under way. We are
hoping to
arrange an evening to give Mums ideas for the School summer
holidays, so
watch this space.
Mary Barker
ALEY GREEN METHODIST CHURCH
I the lord of snow and rain
I have borne my people's pain;
I have wept for love of them - they turn away.
I will break their heart of stone,
Give them hearts for love alone;
I will speak my word to them.
Whom shall I send?
At Aley Green we have started our five weeks Lent course
'In the wilderness'. Our Lent projective is to fill Smartie
tubes, with small change, for Christian Aids Goma Volcano
Emergency Appeal.
Don't forget to come along: Spring Fayre on March 9th at 2.30p.m.
On April 27t at 2.30 it is our Good as New Sale. Skirts,
Dresses, Trousers and Tops @ 40p each, or 3 for £1.00.
Coats, Dresses, Suits & Jackets @ £1.00 each. Lots of
household items, books & children's clothes from 10p.
Teas will be served in the school room and cakes and
preserves will be on sale. Come along to these events and you
will be given a warm welcome.
With love and prayer
from all at Aley Green.
Ann Meader
1ST AND 2ND WOODSIDE
BROWNIES
We are still
waiting for the right kind of night for us to finish off our
Stargazing Badge. On Monday February 18th, we will join with
rainbows, Brownies & Guides from our District (Stockwood)
for an Activity Day, held at the Village Hall.
OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD
We
were extremely lucky to have a visit from Sheila Heaton and
Colin Ridgewell on February 3rd at St Andrew's Church. They
are the co-ordinators for our area for Samaritans Purse who
organize the worthwhile project - Operation Christmas Child.
They live in Essex so had begun the day very early to reach
us for the ten o'clock service. Lucky for us the day was
overcast so we were able to see some of their slides showing
a large part of the operation. The warehouse at Chelmsford
had been loaned to them for six weeks by the Royal London
Insurance and Frogmore Estates and mountains of shoe-boxes
are collected there before they depart all over the world.
Every year 120 volunteers help to sort, pack and label the
boxes, which are then loaded onto huge transits. Sheila told
us that last Christmas 20,000 of the boxes from Chelmsford
went from Stansted to Afghanistan - yours may well have been
amongst them! We were shown some slides of children receiving
their boxes and how happy these small gifts made them. I
remember seeing a street in Armenia filled with huge water
tanks - this was home to many families and it was called
'Water Tank Road'. We saw pictures of orphanages, schools and
families living in one room and all so grateful for their
'Love in a Box'. Sheila also told us that Samaritans Purse
are setting up a crisis center in Afghanistan to help the
people whose lives have been shattered by the recent war.
Sheila and Colin with poster
Chatting after the service.
It's not too early to start making up your shoe box for
this year. Please try and help this very worthwhile cause.
Sue Cowell, Organiser
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