Happy New Year from Leesfield Parish
We're really pleased to bring you the first Action for Happiness Calendar for 2021 -
And here's a round-up of all the great things which have happened last year in Leesfield Parish -
A Round-up of 2020 in Leesfield Parish
What we’ve done, what we’ve not done, and what we’ve “sort of” done
This is how we’ve adapted throughout the year, sharing our joy and our sorrows as well as worship – with our friends in this parish and new ones from further afield.
January, February and early March started the year off quite normally, with plans under way for lots of social and fundraising activities as well as our regular worship. The Churches Together Week of Prayer for Christian Unity took place at St Thomas’ Church in January, and Springhead Congregational Church welcomed their new minister.
Lent began with the Ash Wednesday Eucharist, followed by the Ladies of Leesfield AGM, and the Churches Together Lent Lunches did actually start. The World Day of Prayer at Zion Methodist Church and Lent Taize worship at St Thomas’ took place as planned, and Harvest Queen Annie managed to squeeze in a Mothers Day Sparkling Afternoon Tea just in time, on the 15th March!
Then things began to change rapidly, and at our PCC meeting on the 16th March we started to make plans for how we would adapt our worship in the light of the changing rules. Initially St Thomas’ was open for private prayer for a short while before we went into full lockdown and all church buildings were closed completely.
Fortunately our parish already had strong lines of communication, which enabled the Pastoral Care Team and the Ladies of Leesfield to keep in touch with everyone by telephone. Edith provided prayers, readings and reflections for sending out to everyone by post and email, and for sharing further afield on our blogspot and facebook pages.
Sunday school also moved onto their facebook pages, with Karen providing prayers, colouring and activities for our young people, who were by now missing their school assemblies and RE lessons as well as Sunday School.
Neil wasted no time in getting the popular “Worship for all Generations” onto the parish facebook page by recording the services from his back garden – these services reached an even larger congregation than in church as our “regulars” shared them with their friends.
April saw a huge improvement in our on-line activities, although we continued to share as much as we could by post to those without internet access. Edith joined facebook and was able to record the Gospel and a reflection every week to share with everyone on line as well as the printed versions. Holy Week was observed with Compline every night at 9 pm, and there was a reading and reflection for each day.
Easter Sunday itself was marked by sharing the Church of England service on our facebook page and blogspot – something we would not ordinarily have done! The children made Lego Easter Gardens to share photos with us, and Paul played “Thine be the Glory” on the church lawn.
We also found hymns on Youtube, which we’ve been able to make available to everyone with internet access, and at the end of the month the Church of England introduced its new “Daily Hope Line”, where people can hear hymns and reflections for free by telephone.
May is always a busy month for our churches, Sunday schools and uniformed organisations, and this year was set to be even more special with the 75th Anniversary of VE Day and the 150th Anniversary of St Agnes’ Sunday School.
VE Day was commemorated with socially distanced street parties, and lots of our young families joined in by dressing up in costume for the event. St Agnes’ Anniversary was not able to be the grand event we had been hoping for, but was celebrated in our on-line Worship for all Generations and by the Sunday school on their facebook page.
We were unable to do the usual Christian Aid Week house-to-house collections and Big Brekkie, but we held our own “Little Brekkies” at home and invited friends and family to donate to Christian Aid.
The scout groups had lots of their usual activities, just done a little differently, including Josh being invested as Assistant Beaver Scout Leader via video link.
Our annual Whit Walks were of course cancelled, but the ministers of Churches Together in Lees and District put together a joint on-line service.
Several of our families would usually support the Race for Life in aid of Cancer Research UK during June, and this year the event still took place, with participants joining in in their own way and raising money on-line for this brilliant charity.
Our own fundraising for church had taken quite a hit due to the cancellation of most of our events, but appeals to congregation members resulted in donations coming in, to enable the church bills to be paid. We had our first “Zoom” PCC meeting, and started to make plans for the re-opening of our church buildings. St Thomas’ opened for private prayer on the 21st June.
Finally, after a great deal of preparation and form-filling, in July, St Thomas’ Church was able to open for Parish Eucharists on the 12th. Edith could at last lead her final Sunday services before her well-deserved retirement on the 26th. Although Edith’s last service was not as grand as we would expect, the church was as full as it is allowed to be, with parishioners of all ages coming together to wish Edith and Stephen well for the future.
August started with a Zoom PCC meeting with Archdeacon David Sharples and our Area Dean Lyn Woodall. At this meeting it was confirmed that Lyn would become Priest-in-Charge of Leesfield Parish as well as St John Hey in due course, although this would take some time to come to fruition. In the meantime, the Churchwardens and PCC secretary arranged for our services to be covered by a number of local clergy, and it has been wonderful to welcome such a variety of visiting priests.
As we were unable to have our usual Leesfield Parish Boundary Walk fundraiser, we had a little competition instead. Paul & Liz set off in one direction and Kingsley in the other, and we asked people to say where we met up, and what time it was. Kingsley’s mum won – but we’re certain that she didn’t have any insider information!!!
Then, right at the end of the month, it was Vivienne’s 90th birthday. Because of the restrictions it wasn’t possible for her to have a big family celebration, so the Ladies surprised her with a cake and gifts.
The schools came back in September, after what for many had been a very long break. Sunday schools still weren’t allowed to meet in the school halls though, but they continued to share activities and pictures on their facebook pages.
Worship for all Generations was able to re-start at St Agnes’ Church, bringing a much-needed family service back to the parish. The service was moved from Thursday to Wednesday, but recorded to air on our facebook page on Thursdays for the growing on-line congregation. Parish fundraising received an unexpected boost when prizes donated for the cancelled Rose Queen Dinner Dance were raffled on line. Plans were also afoot for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, which had been postponed at the end of April.
Early in October we celebrated our Harvest festival in St Thomas’ Church. Although we couldn’t have the extremely popular Harvest Lunch after the service, we were still able to collect donations of food items to be taken to Impact Community Church. Harvest Queen Annie was at the service, and the Sunday school children had written poems and drawn pictures about Harvest to display in church.
The APCM finally took place at the end of the month, and we were really pleased to welcome some new PCC members.
Our services for All Saints and All Souls were able to take place right at the beginning of November, before we were again closed for a four-week lockdown. The transition from all our services being in church to on-line and printed worship resources was much easier this time as we had continued to provide resources whilst our buildings were open, for those who had not felt ready to return just yet.
Remembrance Sunday was commemorated by our Sunday schools and uniformed organisations in very special ways, and the Ministers of the Churches Together in Lees and District prepared a video Act of Remembrance to share with all our congregations.
We were unable to gather in St Hugh’s school hall for our annual St Hugh’s Day parish service, but Mother Amy-Elizabeth, curate at St John’s, led a Zoom assembly for St Hugh’s Day, which was joined by Bishop Mark.
The first Advent candle was lit by Louie and Zoe, with prayers, and the recording was shared on our facebook page.
December – St Thomas’ Church re-opened for public worship on the 6th, and St Agnes’ on the 9th. After much uncertainty it was time to plan our services for the rest of Advent and Christmas, and how we could make sure that everyone could access some form of worship over the Christmas period.
The Sunday schools had already decided to have Christingle via Zoom, using the on-line resources provided by The Children’s Society. All the resources were bagged up and collected by parents, and the children made their Christingles at home and shared all the pictures on facebook. A link was provided so that donations could be made to the Children’s Society, as the collection from our usual service in church goes there.
The Harvest Queen Sponsored Christmas Tree display went up as usual, and raised £200 for church funds even though we weren’t able to advertise the event and welcome lots of visitors. Advent and Christmas services were popular at Worship for all Generations, and continue to be shared on the parish facebook page.
The Toy Service was held at St Thomas’ Church on Sunday the 13th December, and we were really pleased to welcome Bishop Mark to lead our worship. After a suitable quarantine period the toys were taken to a local Women’s Refuge, which is where they would normally go.
We wondered a lot about whether to hold our service of Nine Lessons and Carols, as it didn’t seem that it would work without being able to sing in church. We did it though, and the music selected by Neil was a great addition to the lessons read by members of our congregations young and old. The lessons and carols were also shared electronically and in printed versions with those of our congregations who were unable to get out to the service.
The Sunday school Nativity was on Christmas Eve as usual, but on Zoom! As it wasn’t possible to have Midnight Mass at St Thomas’ this year, we all gathered for a Parish Eucharist there on Christmas Morning, which was a lovely service led by David. There was plenty for people who couldn’t get out to share in - The Church of England “Comfort and Joy” booklets were given to those without internet access, and the same reflections were made available to those with the technology and know-how!
Overall, despite 2020 being such a difficult year for many of us, we have much to be grateful for in Leesfield Parish. So many people have volunteered to help out, filling gaps caused by both the pandemic and Edith’s retirement, and stepping out of their comfort zone to take on new roles. Thank you everyone, and have a great 2021!
