Latest News from the Rector
16.4.21
Dear Church Family,
Well, after much deliberation, discussion and prayer, I’m delighted to say that our church weekend away at Wydale Hall is scheduled to go ahead on Friday 9 - Sunday 11 July. Sadly, our guest speaker Nick Page has had to withdraw for health reasons (unrelated to Covid) so we are now planning a gentle programme with an emphasis on being together. If the Government ‘road map’ runs to plan it will be a timely opportunity to catch up with one another in beautiful surroundings. There will be special activities for children and young people. I stayed at Wydale for a two-day conference in November when restrictions had eased a little and I can vouch for the care taken by the team to keep us all safe. If you have not already booked for the weekend and would like to come, please contact Alison in the church office. Prices are £159 per adult for full board in the Hall (from tea on arrival on Friday evening until Sunday lunch) and £35 per person for self-catering in the Emmaus Centre. There is also a paying bar. See you there!
God bless
Ian
Saturday 17 April
All Saints will be open for private prayer 10.00 am - 12.00 noon. You may like to drop in and pray for the Queen and the Royal Family following the death of HRH Prince Philip on the day of his funeral. If you aren’t able to come to All Saints, here is a prayer you could use: Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding, surround the Queen and the Royal Family with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sunday 18 April
10.30 am Family Worship livestreamed from St Andrew’s via the church Facebook page. Children may like to have materials for drawing or painting available for an activity during the talk.
11.30 am Coffee and Chat via Zoom hosted by Dot Bevington.
https://zoom.us/j/94760956686?pwd=L3pUWGpnb3lIdGxXS0x1RmhKbjJoZz09
Meeting ID: 947 6095 6686 Passcode: Coffee
Prayer Ministry is available during Coffee and Chat in a separate break-out room. If you would like someone to pray with you, email Dot in advance dot.bevington@huntingtonparish.org.uk or use the Zoom private chat facility to let her know at the beginning of the meeting.
4.00 pm Holy Communion at St Andrew’s. A simple 30-minute service. Places are limited so please contact the church office to book in advance. Please remember your mask.
7.00 pm Youth Church at St Andrew’s for all secondary school students. Contact James to book a place. James writes: Items required. Youth Church is a fortnightly worship service for young people. This term we are planning to be outside as much as possible with a service round a campfire. If you have a firepit we could borrow until the end of July or suitable wood for burning, please contact me on 07500 833475 or james@huntingtonparish.org.uk I would love to hear from you!
Monday - Saturday this week
Daily at 12.00 noon Daily Prayer livestreamed via the church Facebook page. Daily Prayer sheet is here.
Tues 20th at 6.00 pm Kidz Klub resumes in person at St Andrew’s for primary school children. This week is the turn of Bubble 2 (children from New Earswick and Yearsley Grove schools, and home-schooled children). Numbers are limited so please contact Sarah or the church office to book a place.
Wed 21st at 7.30 pm Alpha for Small Groups via Zoom. The link for the beginning of the meeting is
https://zoom.us/j/91235468705?pwd=T3V2YXRrbXBadS9tKzBJamZJK3c3QT09 (Meeting ID: 912 3546 8705 Passcode: Alpha21) Your group host will send a separate link for the second part of the meeting.
Thurs 22nd Thursday Club and Thursday Group in person at St Andrew’s. Now weekly due to changes in the restrictions. Thursday Club is from 6.30-7.30 pm and Thursday Group is from 8.00-9.00 pm to allow time for essential cleaning in between. This term Year 6s are invited to Thursday Club and Year 9s to Thursday Group. Please contact Sarah or James to book a place.
Coming Soon - our APCM
Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting will take place on Monday 26 April at 7.30 pm at St Andrew’s. There are limited places for those who would like to attend in person - please contact the church office to book a seat. Others will be able to join in via Zoom. Reports for the meeting and nomination forms are now available on this, the church website (look for PCC-APCM 2021 in the About Us menu) or by email from the church office. You may also view or collect paper copies from the office by arrangement with Alison. Nomination forms need to be completed, signed and returned to the church office before the meeting. The Rector’s Report will be delivered at the meeting and copies will be available afterwards. There are several vacancies for the PCC and we are looking to elect two new churchwardens to serve at St Andrew’s. Please pray (hard!) that the Lord will call the right people into these roles. Liz Barker, who is stepping down after six years as warden, has generously volunteered to serve as Venue Manager for St Andrew’s to share the work of looking after the building.
Job opportunity
We are looking to recruit a new cleaner for 6 hours each week - 4 hours at St Andrews and 2 hours at All Saints. Salary is £9.30ph. If you, or someone you know might be interested please contact the church office for more information.
Growing our Giving - Thank You
Thank you very much to everyone who responded to the invitation to review our regular giving by Easter Day. There were 37 responses (five more than in 2020) with a promised increase of 3.4% which is above inflation and will help to minimise any shortfall this year. There is still time to send your response to Andrew Coombes!
Other Information
Church Office Open Monday—Friday 10.00 am - 1.00 pm when Alison will be there to respond to your phone calls (768006) and emails office@huntingtonparish.org.uk
Worship Hotline If you would like to hear the Sunday service by telephone, call 01904 948480 later in the week. Dial the number, follow the instructions and wait to be connected (it takes a little while).
Giving Online You can support All Saints and St Andrew’s Church through our online donation page or via the church Facebook page (‘Shop Now’) or the church website. If you are a UK taxpayer, please confirm that you would like to reclaim Gift Aid on your donation. This will add 25p to every £1 you give.
FAITH LINK
Copies of the recent Faith Link magazines can be found here:
All Saints Churchyard and Trees
Please read our response to the recent concerns expressed by local people to the planned work in the churchyard:
The work to the trees in the Churchyard was planned as follows:
Pruning and Shaping of the Yews: This was advised by the Tree surgeon to keep them in
shape as it has not been done for some time.
Holly Tree: we would like to reduce the height for aesthetic reasons and lift the crown to
allow better access to graves which are still tended.
Grafted Cherry Tree: This has died so we would like to replace it with a native crab apple.
We intend to use the dead wood to create a log pile habitat.
Laburnum and old Hawthorn: The advice we have received is that they should be felled for
safety and the Council agree with this. We would use the dead wood to create a log pile
habitat.
Sycamore crown clean: Advised as needed.
Lime to be felled: The thinking behind felling this lime is that it already overshadows the
Cremated Remains Area making the sitting area dark and muddy. We would like to make the
area more welcoming to the bereaved who attend it. Over the past 2 years we have been
improving the planting of the Cremated Remains Area with low growing insect friendly
sedums etc because these can cope with some shade. Over the longer term the wall will be
under threat.
Lawsonia: The original reason for removing this was to improve the view of the church on
the approach as we have had feedback from locals that they think that the view of the
church is obscured and they would like this to change. We also would like to allow the
adjacent native Yews to be able to grow properly. We did not know it might be a different,
possibly rare species of Cypress.
Next Steps:
We still need planning approval from CYC.
We still need to submit a Faculty to York Diocese.
To do both of the above we need to get an Aborculturists report completed.
We would also like to involve local people who have an interest in the churchyard, it
would be really great to have your input. With that in mind we would like to invite
some of you to be spokespeople in our Green Working group which has been set up
to try to improve our Ecological footprint in the parish.
Please note that the churchyard is maintained jointly by the Parish Councils of Huntington & New Earswick along with the Church.
We hope this information is useful. Please do get in touch via Facebook or email if you would like to be involved.
Thank you.
