The Parish Church of
HOLY TRINITY, TARLETON
Parish "Webzine" January 2006

EPIPHANY

From the Rectory

Dear Friends,

I hope you have all had a blessed Christmas, and may I take this opportunity to thank all of you who have given me cards and gifts, and have shown such kind hospitality over the festive season. I hope you all have a very happy new year. As we begin to pack away the decorations for another year, please don’t forget that in Church our Christmastide celebrations actually continue right up to February 2nd when we keep the feast of Christ’s presentation in the Temple. This festival, which in the Prayer Book Calendar is known by its other name, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and is also widely known as Candlemas, marks the proper end of the Christmas / Epiphany cycle.

Epiphany is one of the most important feasts in the Christian Calendar, and we will be keeping it on January 6th with a Sung Eucharist at 7.00pm. It commemorates far more than just the visit of the Wise Men, or Magi. The word ‘epiphany’ means ‘manifestation’, and in remembering the adoration of the Magi we are celebrating the revealing of God’s glory to the Gentiles. The young Messiah came not only to fulfil the hopes of God’s chosen people, Israel, but to be the light for all nations. Throughout the Epiphany season the Sunday Gospel readings remind us how God has revealed his glory through the person of Jesus. We are invited to recognise and celebrate ways in which God’s glory is made manifest in our world and through lives today.

Jesus came to bring salvation to all who call upon his name, and his desire was that all who call themselves disciples should be united as members of his body, the Church. It is very fitting that in the middle of January Churches of all denominations keep a week of prayer for Christian unity. This year the people of Holy Trinity are invited to join with our neighbouring Methodist Church for a special service at the Chapel on the evening of Sunday 22nd January. It would be wonderful to see this well supported. It is important to remember that what Christians can, in good conscience, do together – we should not do apart.

With my prayers and best wishes,
Fr Nicholas

A prayer for the New Year
Help us, O Lord, to enter this new year as your people of old entered their promised land:
give us, like them, a sense of vocation;
give us, like them, a sense of your presence:
so may this year, in all its possibilities for good and ill, be lived with power, in fellowship with you, in harmony of spirit, and for the good of all mankind:
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Dick Williams

OUT AND ABOUT – FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Parish Visiting Team
If you know of anybody who would welcome a visit, either because they are in hospital, or because they are confined to the home for whatever reason, or because they are new to the parish, would you please fill in one of the slips at the back of the church and place it in the box or contact Fr Nicholas on 812614 or Pat Heap on 812991.

Bible Study; St Mark continued
The study resumes this month with both groups merging at Joan Wynne’s house (8 Willow Hey) with the sessions led by Beryl. Meet at 7.45 for 8; finish by 9.30
The first dates are: January 19th 26th February 9th 23rd
New members always welcome.
Confirmation classes
Forms available in church or from Fr Nicholas

MOTHERS’ UNION: January
The theme for the Mothers’ Union in 2006 is “Answering God’s Call” and I understand that there are posts to be filled within our Organisation in this Diocese.

The monthly Prayer meting will NOT be held this month as the first Monday is a Bank Holiday. Our first meeting of the New Year will be held on Wednesday January 11th at 7.30 pm in the Parish Room and it will be a DIY evening.

Our afternoon meeting on Wednesday 25th January will begin at 1.00 pm with lunch in the Parish Room, followed by our AGM at 2.00 pm.

We extend a warm invitation to anybody who would like to join us and we wish everybody peace, good health and prosperity in the New Year.
Pat Heap

Week of prayer for Christian Unity
This runs from Wednesday 18th to Wednesday 25th (the feast day of the Conversion of St Paul).
Our joint service this year is at the Methodist Church on Sunday 22nd at 6.30 pm. Come and join us.

Mistype provokes a thought ….
Checking one of our weekly pew sheets, I discovered I had typed Churched Conservation Society as a prayer intention. Some members of the congregation sometimes seem to feel that is the working definition of a local church. However, we all need to remember what a former archbishop said: “The church is the only organisation that exists for the benefit of non-members” - the unchurched, not the already churched.

THE LEPROSY MISSION
World Leprosy day in 2006 is Sunday 29th January. Our local celebration of the work of the The Leprosy Mission will be on the following day, Monday 30th, when we have a joint evening service at 7.30 pm with members of our other cluster parishes. The Speaker will be Derek Hartley, our regional TLM representative. This is an open service, with invitations going out to members of other churches locally, so please invite any friends who are already interested or who may be interested in TLM’s work. Please bring your L-boxes then or earlier.

More TLM Events for your diary in 2006

Splash Out for TLM
Saturday June 3rd, starting at 11.00 am, there is the sponsored Morecambe Bay Walk. This is 8 miles, from Hest Bank to Flookborough, led by Alan Sledmore. £6 per walker and sponsor forms available!

Venture out for TLM A one day (long day!) Pilgrimage to Holy Island, with worship led by Eddy Askew.
If we get ten people, we’ll have our own bus pick-up (6.30 am-ish). Cost will be £29 each or £60 for a family ticket (two adults, two children.) You can walk the pilgrim route over the sands or stay on the bus, then explore the island and eat a picnic lunch before worship in the abbey ruins.
Please let me know if you would like to go on either or both of these events.

Please keep dropping in your used stamps (trimmed if at all possible!) and intact postcards, and do ask me for a new L-box whenever yours is full! If you would like an L-box, please let me know.
Thank you all very much Sue Wells

Some thank you’s
Thank you to Jim Perkins who has distributed magazines for nigh on 40 years and is finally giving up as his round has shrunk away. We thank him very much and also all who are still carrying on. It’s no fun, especially in the winter, and both Jim and the others have done and still do a great job for us.

Thank you!
Phoebe wishes to thank everyone for their cards, prayers and good wishes.

Advent Coffee Morning
Many thanks to all those who helped to make the Advent Coffee Morning such a success.
To Fr Nicholas for the loan of the Rectory, to Angela, Beryl, Dorothy H and Doris who worked so hard serving refreshments and to Jim Aldridge for providing the delicious mince pies. To Mary, Joan, Evelyn, Stella, Dorothy R, Margaret & Jennifer, Dave, John, Ian and Sue, pat and Edna.
Thank you to everyone who donated gifts, cakes, bottles, and books etc. Your generosity was, as usual, amazing.
Last but by no means least all our friends who attended the Coffee morning – we couldn’t have raised £640 without you.
My sincere thanks to you all.
A Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year to you all.
Dorothy T.

Editor’s note: The £700 reported in church by Father Nicholas included £60 of sales of the giant hamper raffle tickets, which will be reported separately.

ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO START THE NEW YEAR

INFORMAL WALKING GROUP
Start the New Year in fellowship. Join our friends from our fellow cluster parishes and further afield for a bracing local stroll, chat, food and drink.
NEW YEAR WALK
Monday 2nd January 10.30 am
Meet in Croston at the village centre car park.
Lunch at The Original Farmers Arms, Eccleston
This is a rerun of a walk we haven’t done for some years.
Out across the mossland between Croston and Bretherton to Eccleston. Back along the Yarrow.
The usual around six miles, with more before lunch than after! Moss tracks and tarmac roads – completely flat with some stiles by the river.
Queries? Ring Ian 07767 638996

OPEN DAY
Something Different for New Year Bank Holiday
Bishop John & Vivienne invite you to an Open day on Monday January 2nd
At their home Dean House, 449 Padiham Road, Burnley
Tour the house
See the ‘different’ decorations
Enjoy a drink and a mince pie
£2/ head towards Cursillo funds

Programme:-
10.00 am Eucharist (Standing room only in the shed!)
10.30 am to noon Coffee (or tea) and mince pies
2.00 pm -4.15 Tea (or coffee) and mince pies
4.30 Evening Prayer
7.30-10 Glass of wine and mince pie
10.00 pm Compline
Come along to any part & bring your friends.
For tickets, please contact Vivienne (stating which session you hope to come to) or pay at the door. Cheques made payable to Cursillo Blackburn

Book Review
Traipsing from a Lancashire Toll Bar
This is a fascinating book, from the cover photo of Church Road with children playing outside the Cock & Bottle and Holy Trinity church spire in the background, to the request for help with unknown houses at the end.
Betty Gilkes and Stan Pickles have teased out the local history behind an old series of picture postcards covering Bretherton, Croston, Hesketh Bank, Hoole, Tarleton and Walmer Bridge.
The areas covered were once all parts of Croston parish, yet are now split between three local authorities, with the three-way boundary very close to the former toll bar cottage at the junction of the A59 and the Bretherton road – which, alas, now only exists in memory and photographs, as it was demolished to make way for the roundabout.
Each ‘traipse’ begins from the site of the toll bar and so Tarleton is entered over Bank Bridge and past the old church, before proceeding to the Windgate/ Liverpool Road crossroads, and into the village along Church Road, and then down Hesketh Lane to Hesketh Bank.
The book is published by Landy Publishing at £8, but you can get copies from the back of church, still £8 but £2.50 of this goes to our church funds.
Co-author Stan Pickles is the Reader at Hoole, and has generously made copies available to us on the same terms that he has sold them at Hoole Parish Church.
This book will certainly spice up our local walks, as I tease out background information of the places we pass. Now, just where was the abattoir in Tarleton?
If no-one gave you one for Christmas, we still have them on sale! Ring me on 813267 if you can’t get to church to buy one there.
Ian Wells

JOINT PILGRIMAGE
of the Dioceses of Blackburn and Chichester
18th September to 22nd October
From Paul to Constantine
Tracing one of Paul’s missionary journeys
and the historical development of the early church,
ending in Istanbul
The Bishops’ full letter is online on the Diocesan website, but does not contain any idea of cost.

If Christmas hi-jacking Advent wasn’t enough ….
… the Guardian guide to activities ‘over Christmas’ in G2 on November 28th had this happening on Advent 3:-
Torchlight weekend in Haworth
The Traditional feast of Candlemas is celebrated on December 11th with a weekend of festivities in the Bronte village of Haworth. … The culmination is a torchlight procession on the Sunday night.
Candlemas is the old name for The Presentation of Christ in the Temple and falls on February 2nd: as Sue commented, “How can we present him before he’s been born?”
The Guardian printed a correction on 2nd December saying:
In describing the traditional torchlit procession in Haworth … we mistakenly said that the date is Candlemas as does the community website at www.haworthvillage.co.uk. Candlemas, or the feast of the presentation of Christ in the temple, is celebrated on February 2 (40 days after the nativity).
When you check the village website it refers to Candlemass – but does mis-spelling reduce or increase the error?
We will be celebrating Candlemas on its correct date of Thursday 2nd February with a Eucharist at 7.00 pm

The Mission Action Plan Prayer
God of new beginnings, we pray that you will transform your church as you renew us by your love.
Give us vision for the journey that we may travel light, and live increasingly by faith.
Inspire, enliven and empower us, so that along the Way we may be sustained by the life of Christ in ourselves, in one another, and in the world. Amen

Looking forward

Walking Day Quiz Night
Saturday February 10th
Our Lady’s Church Hall

Maybe I should have rephrased that …
Noted by The Guardian, 19.12.05
Stiff competition for best cemetery Yorkshire Post
Council to make rubbish decision Belper News
Fire alarm help for dead people Worksop Guardian
Turkey gives itself all clear on bird flu Eastern Daily Press

A NEW YEAR THOUGHT
Ten things God won't ask you when you die

1 God won't ask what kind of car you drove,
He'll ask how many people you drove who didn't have their own transport.

2 God won't ask the square footage of your house,
He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

3 God won't ask about the clothes you had in your wardrobe,
He'll ask how many people you helped to clothe.

4 God won’t ask which diet you were on,
He’ll ask how many hungry people you helped to feed.

5 God won't ask what your highest salary was,
He'll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

6 God won't ask what your job title was,
He'll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.

7 God won't ask how many friends you had,
He'll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

8 God won't ask in what neighbourhood you lived,
He'll ask how you treated your neighbours.

9 God won't ask about the colour of your skin,
He'll ask about the content of your character.

10 God won't ask why it took you so long to seek Him,
He'll lovingly take you into his Kingdom, not leave you at the gates of Hell.
From a Christian website

PARISH DIARY for January
Sunday 1st The Naming of Jesus
No 8.00 am Service
10.30 am Sung Eucharist
Monday 2nd Bank Holiday
10.30 am Informal Walking Group leaves Croston village car park see above
Tuesday 3rd 6.30 pm Choir practice
Wednesday 4th 10.00 am Holy Communion (BCP) followed by coffee and fellowship
Friday 6th Epiphany
7.00 pm Sung Eucharist
Sunday 8th The Baptism of Christ
8.00 am Eucharist
10.15 am Sunday School resumes
10.30 am PARISH EUCHARIST
Tuesday 10th 6.30 pm Choir practice (adults 6.50 pm)
Wednesday 11th 10.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
7.30 pm MU: Parish Room: DIY meeting
Sunday 15th Second Sunday of Epiphany
8.00 am Eucharist
10.3 0 am CHURCH FAMILY EUCHARIST
Monday 16th PCC meal: Rufford Arms
Tuesday 17th 6.30 pm Choir practice (adults 6.50 pm)
Wednesday 18th 10.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
START OF WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY
Thursday 19th 7.45 for 8 Bible Study: Mark: 8 Willow Hey
Sunday 22nd Third Sunday of Epiphany
8.00 am Eucharist
10.15 am Sunday School
10.30 am PARISH EUCHARIST
6.30 pm Joint Evening Service at the Methodist Chapel for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Tuesday 24th 6.30 pm Choir practice (adults 6.50 pm)
Wednesday 25th Conversion of St Paul
10.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
1.00 pm MU Lunch; Parish Room
2.00 pm MU AGM
Thursday 26th 7.45 for 8 Bible Study: Mark: 8 Willow Hey
Sunday 29th Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
8.00 am Eucharist
10.15 am Sunday School
10.3 0 am PARISH EUCHARIST
Monday 30th 7.30 pm TLM Cluster service see above
Tuesday 31st 6.30 pm Choir practice (adults 6.50 pm)
February
Wednesday 1st 10.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
Thursday 2nd The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas)
Eucharist
Sunday 5th Fourth Sunday before Lent
8.00 am Eucharist
10.15 am Sunday School
10.3 0 am PARISH EUCHARIST
Monday 6th 2.00 pm MU Prayer Group:
Blessed Sacrament Chapel
7.00 pm Eucharist
7.30 pm PCC Parish Room
Tuesday 7th 6.30 pm Choir practice (adults 6.50 pm)
Wednesday 8th 10.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
Thursday 9th 7.45 for 8 Bible Study: Mark: 8 Willow Hey
Friday 10th Walking Day Quiz Night