April
The Vestry Meeting and Annual Parochial Church Meeting
will be held on 3 April 2018 at 7.30 pm in the church vestry.
Contributions from parishes towards Diocesan costs was
discussed at a recent Deanery meeting. The Diocese of Truro,
like all other Anglican Dioceses, provides certain services for its
parishes [these include legal and financial support and advice,
training and support for parish priests, management of clergy
houses and glebe land etc].
Unlike many other Dioceses, Truro, as a new creation in 1877,
has no ancient endowments, land or investments, and is largely dependent
on contributions from individual parishes to provide the funding to run the Diocesan office and its obligations.
Currently the income from parishes is not enough to maintain the
Diocese which is having to dip into its modest reserves to balance
the budget.
Recent arrangements have allowed parishes to make an offer that they feel they can afford, so that in theory richer parishes can support those which are less well off.
The Diocese suggests that this is not working and is asking for a
cost-based system whereby each parish pays the full amount of its ministry and other support costs.
Our cluster clergy have responded to this:
•reminding the Diocese of the many hours of volunteer time in parishes which seem not to be acknowledged by the Diocese as ‘in kind’ support, worth, in money terms, a very considerable amount. This of course includes
the chairmen and members of numerous Diocesan committees who give their time and expertise freely.
•The cost of ministry is known but we have no idea of the overall cost
of Diocesan staff salaries and other costs.
•Many active members of congregations are pensioners who should
not be expected to bridge the gap in the Diocesan pensions fund.
•If it isn’t good practice for the Diocese to meet the shortfall out
of its reserves, it is equally unfair to expect parishes to do so.
•Given that parishes have to work hard to generate income, maybe
the Diocese could organise a few fund raising activities of its own? .
Easter Vestry
The Easter Vestry Meeting and the Annual Parochial Church Meeting took place on 3rd April and was attended by five parishioners.
Mrs Patricia Farr and Mr David Hughes were re-elected as Churchwardens.
Mrs Joy Evans after many years of loyal service to the parish both as Churchwarden and member of the PCC gave notice that she wished to resign. A vote of thanks was proposed.
Mrs Carol Hughes and Mrs Caroline Martin were re-elected to the
PCC and Mr Philip Martin was proposed and elected as a new member of the PCC.
Other elections included Mrs Caroline Martin as our representative
on the Deanery Synod and Mr David Hughes as Safe Guarding Officer with
Mrs Carol Hughes as Deputy.
New editor needed!
After many years the editor has reluctantly decided for a number of reasons that this year will be her last as editor of ‘Parish News’ – your last magazine in this format may well be December’s issue.
Anyone who would like to take on the rôle would have a free hand in the size, design and content – from the current A4 ‘newsletter’ to something a bit more ambitious. Call Christine if you’re interested: ’desk-top
publishing’ can be fun!
May
Building Work. The scaffolding is now going up in the Transept and the builders will be returning soon to finish the work on the ceiling in the Transept. This area will be out of bounds to the public.
June
On the 25th June members of the congregation attended the Annual Meeting of the Cornish Historic Churches Trust at St. Gerrans Church.
The guest speaker, Dr. Stuart Blaylock, a noted archaeologist and architectural historian, gave a very informative talk on the
Early English Period of English Gothic which covers the 13th century in
Cornwall. Several of the examples that he used to illustrate his talk are to be
found in St. Rumon’s church.
July
What a marvellous day we had for our annual cream tea afternoon in the garden of Glebe House on the 14th July. Despite clashing with
a certain football match and a tennis final it was very well attended. It was lovely to welcome people from not only the village but also
from all over the Roseland. We raised an amazing £408
for church funds. Thank you to everyone who came and a
very big thank you to Caroline and Philip for hosting the event.
September
Our Patronal Festival will be celebrated during the service of Holy Communion on the 2nd September at 9.30am.
On the 23rd September at 6 pm there will be a service of Evensong to celebrate the Harvest Festival. We will be decorating the church on the 22nd from 10 am. All help appreciated
On the 29th September from 2 pm until 4 pm we will be holding a non-stop sponsored Folk music afternoon in the church in aid of Cornwall Historic Churches Trust and the church. Philip will be playing his fiddle and singing traditional folk songs accompanied by guitar or English concertina. We think this is going to be a great afternoon so please come along and sponsor a tune or two. Both our churches have in the past been supported by the Trust, so this will be a chance to say thank you. Refreshments will be available for you to enjoy whilst listening to the music.
Sponsored Fiddle
On the 29th September we held a sponsored fiddle. The Reverend Philip Greenhalgh played the fiddle, guitar, squeeze box, mouth organ and sang various folk music.
Over the two hours there was a steady flow of people and many who just popped in for a few minutes ended up staying for the rest of the two hours.
A very enjoyable time was had by all.
October
From the Editor of the Parish Magazine.
Well, nobody has volunteered to take on ‘Parish News’ in any format, so this is the penultimate issue .
It has been fun to edit the magazine for what I was surprised to discover has been fifteen years.
In February 2003 Graham Salmon asked me to share the editing after Mike Lane retired. When Graham also retired Brian Perman for a short while shared the editing, and he developed the magazine from a modest
A5 booklet to the present 16-page A4 format with illustrations.
More recently I have been the only editor, and with Paul Robins’ help the magazine now appears in full colour on our church websites as well as in ‘hard copy’ for local distribution and posting ‘out of parish’.
I want to say a huge ‘thank you’ to all our contributors, regular and occasional, our ‘church’ reporters, organisers of local events, and our school, for providing varied and interesting articles and reports over so many years. It all takes time and commitment and a strict adherence to
deadlines and I am deeply grateful to you all. And of course our loyal advertisers have supported the publication of the ‘News’ for many years.
So what next?
In the past year we have issued in alternate months a brief ‘newsletter’ with brief notices and information about events and activities in our churches and parishes. And we would like to continue this in 2019 with an issue each
month, BUT chiefly as an emailed or online version. Our delivery team’s average age is well over ‘retirement’ and a few would like to retire. Given that many of us have access to email, all we need is your email address and an agreement to receive the newsletter in electronic format.
Please email me [c.edwards531@btinternet.com] to say ’please email me the benefice newsletter in 2019’ with your name and email address and I’ll make sure it arrives in your in box!
For those without computer access, a few copies will be printed and left in our churches for you to collect. There will be no copies delivered or posted.
This new format will allow the newsletter to be flexible in size and content – and of course it will be free both by email and on the church websites. Yolande will help with the editing – a [fairly] willing volunteer!
And finally, thank you to you, our readers, for your
loyalty and support over the years.
Christine
November
Thank you to those that attended our Centenary Remembrance Service.
The memorials had been decorated with three flags:- White ensign, Red Ensign and the Union Flag. In front of this a vase containing paper poppies bearing the name of each deceased was accompanied by a few white flowers.
Reverend Marian Bond started the service by explaining that there were five extra names in the booklet to what is displayed on the memorials. Four of these were relatives of current parishioners and the fifth was a young Canadian RAF pilot who died when he crashed his Spitfire into the Rectory field.
After the names of the fallen were read and the Exhortation done, wreaths were laid by the chairman of the Parish Council, Mr David Giles, and by the churchwarden, then the church bell was rung eleven times and followed by two minutes silence.
The Reverend gave a very moving sermon, telling us about how her father never spoke about his time in WWI. It was not until many years later that her mother told her about her fathers ordeal and the constant nightmares he suffered. She reminded us about Edith Cavall, a nurse who was shot by the Germans. Edith had helped both British and German soldiers. There was also a brief history of the four men on the WWI memorial.
A list of the men and women who served in both wars but returned was also read out, followed by current parishioners relatives.
A collection for SSAFA and Help for heroes raised £120.
The exhibition on the First World War will remain in the church until the end of November.
December
Thanks to all those that attended our Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols last night. We had a full church with people in the transept as well. It was also nice to see so many children and youngsters. After the service people stayed for a glass of mulled wine, a mince pie and a chat. A good time was had.
Thanks also to Louise, Pat and Carol for decorating the church and David for the lighting outside.
Thank You
The PCC and churchwardens would like to say a big thank you to all those that have helped decorate or clean the church, mow the grass in the churchyard or strim around the headstones, throughout the year. We very much appreciate what you all do to help keep our church and churchyard looking beautiful.
We would also like to thank all those that have supported the church by attending the various fund raising events throughout the year. Without your support we could not continue to maintain and keep the church open.