Appointment of our new Priest in Charge

The churchwardens and parish representatives elected by the PCC to act on their behalf throughout the vacancy selection process, are delighted to announce that Revd Mark Brown has been appointed to be Priest in Charge of All Saints, Ecclesall and Oversight Minister in this mission area, sharing that oversight with Revd Alistair Stevenson, Priest in Charge at St Gabriel's, Greystones.

Mark is currently Vicar of St Peter and St Paul parish church in Tonbridge, Kent and Honorary Canon of Rochester Cathedral, in the diocese of Rochester. Mark is planning to move to Sheffield in early January and we are hoping that he will be licensed to All Saints in the second half of January. This announcement is also being made at Tonbridge parish church this morning, and so it’s important that we pray for that church family as they receive this news and pray for Mark over the next few months as he prepares to join us. 

There will be more information about Mark in the November edition of 'From the Churchwardens'.

We Pray.....

Father God,

At this happy moment we pause to give you thanks. We look back at the last 18 months and recall your faithfulness, our prayers heard and now answered. Thank you for calling Mark Brown to serve with us here. Be close to both Mark and his wife Allison as they prepare for this new chapter, keep them in good health and allow them a smooth transition into life in Ecclesall. Prosper them here we pray. We think of your people in the parish of St Peter and St Paul in Tonbridge today as they hear the unexpected news. Give them hope and peace as they contemplate the coming months and the next season in their shared life. For the ministry and operation teams at All Saints, sustain each individual with your Holy Spirit, enable and make generous provision for them as they continue their demanding work and prepare to engage with a new priest in the new year. Unchanging God, in these turbulent times, may we encounter your grace and love in abundance, and the fullness of your Holy Spirit that we may partner with you in blessing others and making Jesus known.

Amen

Knitted Poppies Appeal 2020

In 2018 we created a poppy display for Remembrance Sunday for the 100 year anniversary of the end of the First World War.

2020 is the 75th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War and we want to create something to commemorate this.

Due to Covid-19 this will be outside the Church building and we need your help please.

We need lots of knitted, crochet or sewn poppies.

Sizes up to 30cm diameter if possible. There are loads of free and simple patterns on the internet, any design will do. A few green leaves would also be great.

Quantity is more important than quality. We need the poppies to reach us by 28th October.

Poppies can be left in the box in the Welcome Area at Church on Sunday or any weekday morning.

Any queries please contact the office on 0114 268 7574

Thank You.

From the Churchwardens - October 2020

Church Inside Out

‘You are a letter from Christ… written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on human hearts’ 2 Corinthians 3 v3

October already! How the months have rolled by since March, when the first wave of Coronavirus struck. ‘Lockdown’ was imposed and the routine of our daily lives was changed drastically. Any hopes we might have harboured then that, by October, we would be ‘coming out’ of the restrictions and resuming ‘normal’ social contact. We now know this to be false. Now we face more weeks and months risk-assessing and navigating our lives with Covid-19 in our midst until a successful vaccine arrives.

We now know that however much we may wish to return to worship at All Saints in person together as a ‘multi-generational family’, as we once did, all the various guidelines and restrictions make this impossible for the foreseeable future. We cannot all gather inside our church building in the same way to celebrate Harvest, Advent and Christmas, or join together as we used to do on Remembrance Sunday.

Hence the concept of ‘Doing Church Inside Out’. The Ministry Team have put together plans for all these services to reflect and celebrate through these coming weeks as much as possible in the way we used to do, following the theme of ‘What is the Church?’ within the concept of ‘Doing Church Inside Out.’  The hope had been that some aspects of different services could be held outside, but sadly this is looking less likely given the present situation.

What we do know, however, is that we are not dependent on a building for our faith, but that each of us is, in Paul’s words ’a letter from Christ Christ’, as we demonstrate His love for the world in the way we live our lives.

One way we can bring this ‘letter of Christ’ – a letter of love, forgiveness and hope - is simply by taking the message outside our church building to the surrounding grounds and pathways; thus, complimenting the church’s festivals with relevant visible displays throughout the coming months. In this way all who pass by can look up, acknowledge, and maybe take with them, a message of hope and love through these dark winter days to come.

Harvest: Look out for Harvest Hearts made from plaited straws of wheat. These will be hung from trees along the path with a Harvest message from All Saints. After services on the 18th October, the hearts will be given to the congregation to keep or give away as a gift of hope. An arch of flowers over the West door will be arranged by the Flower Team, led by Sue Smith. There will also be a planter of flowers on either side to celebrate Harvest Festival on 11th October.

This year arrangements for harvest gifts are different, with the option of making monetary donations to the charities we support instead of food. Please look in the notices to find out more details.

Small potted plants will still be distributed to those members of the church family in special need of our love and prayers at this time. They will be delivered in bags which have been colourfully decorated by some of the children from All Saints.

Remembrance: Alongside services of remembrance on Sunday 8th November, there are plans in progress for poppies to be displayed both inside and outside the church.

Advent to Christmas: The Ministry team are developing plans for services to celebrate these festivals inside the church in as many ways as current restrictions allow. At the same time we can decorate the outside in various ways, including stringing lights through the trees lining the paths- to lighten the darkness and carry a message of hope and salvation through Christ into the New Year.

These projects have evolved from PCC Exec meetings about how to ‘do Church Inside Out’ and so the notion of a small Creative Group was formed. If anyone would like to get involved, either with helping or making, or offering other ideas then please do contact Ruth Watkin email.

Lots of other ideas may be developed to use our outside space in witnessing to the community around us.

We already have a Prayer Labyrinth looked after by the Churchyard team. Prayer walks could be developed, maybe a Prayer Tree could be set aside for anyone passing by to use. We could explore making fact-finding history trails and nature trails throughout the churchyard.

Throughout these months we have been grateful for all the work that has been, and is still being, done by members of the PCC in three working groups:

Back to Church group; working out how to open church safely for services.

Fund-raising group; which has already organised two very successful Open Garden events and has plans for an event in November, depending on restrictions.

Halls group; navigating all the complex issues around opening up safely to groups that are able to return, plus exploring to what extent All Saints regards the Halls as being integral to its focus on mission within the local community.

Communication is the key factor for us all as we try to come to terms with where we are and where we go from here. Thankfully, we can be encouraged by the words of St Paul that as ‘letters from Christ’ we carry within us the spirit of the living God to share and spread as many messages of light, hope and compassion in every possible way to the world around us.

APCM Update

Work is in progress for our APM and APCM on Wednesday 21st October. All those who can are asked to register to join these meetings electronically. Sarah Leighton will be stepping down from the role of Senior Churchwarden after 18 months rather than the usual year. This has happened because from 2020 the final date by which APCMs needed to take place moved from April to May, then five more months have intervened owing to all the restrictions and challenges presented by Covid-19!

We are very grateful to all those members of the PCC whose term of office would have ended in May, but who have remained on PCC for these five extra months. Our thanks go to them for all the time they have given and all the ways they have served at All Saints.

We look forward to welcoming new members onto PCC following the APCM. We also look forward to welcoming two new senior churchwardens supported by two deputy churchwardens. Ruth Watkin and Dave Coleshill have agreed to stand for election into the office of Churchwarden, and Alison Fletcher and Richard Blyth have agreed to stand to be elected as Deputy Churchwardens. Our thanks go to Julia Newton, who is standing down from being a Deputy Churchwarden, having been elected as Treasurer at the PCC meeting in June. Please continue to uphold all those who hold office at All Saints in your prayers and discern, for yourself, whether you might stand for election onto PCC or as a Deanery Synod Representative at the APCM.