This year, as last year, we are collecting Harvest Gifts on behalf of the Birmingham charity CARE (Christian Aid to Romania and Elsewhere) based at Knowle Parish Church in Solihull.
The group will shortly be taking a shipment of goods to Romania for use in an orphanage and a new home for teenagers who have to leave the orphanage and have nowhere else to go to.
The list of gifts which would be useful and appreciated includes:
Henry Martyn was born at Truro in 1781. While an undergraduate at Cambridge he became a friend and pupil of the Revd Charles Simeon, the renowned evangelical Vicar of Holy Trinity Church. Martyn was ordained deacon at Ely on Sunday 22nd October 1803 and became Assistant Curate to Simeon at Holy Trinity. But he also took charge of the parish of All Saints', Lolworth, seeing as the Rector of the time did not reside in the vicinity.
Martyn preached his first sermon at Lolworth on Sunday 29th October 1803. His text was from Job 14.14: "If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time shall I wait, till my change come." Over the next eighteen months or so, he ministered in the village whenever he was in Cambridge, riding out from St John's College to lead worship and to visit the parishioners and finding a great satisfaction in his ministry here.
But early in 1805 Martyn received a call to ready himself for ministry in India as a Chaplain to the East India Company. In March he was ordained priest in London and in early April left Cambridge for ever.
During the next seven years, Martyn travelled to India, where he set about learning the local languages. He oversaw the work of translating the New Testament into Hindustani, Arabic and Persian, taught in mission schools, and enthusiastically preached the Gospel.
In January 1811, his health failing, he left India for Persia but died at Tocat in Armenia in October 1812.
Henry Martyn is commemorated each year as a Translator of the Scriptures and Missionary on 19th October.
This year, the Henry Martyn Centre in Cambridge is holding a series of seminars to mark the bicentenary of Martyn's ordination. Details can be found here.
At All Saints', Lolworth, there will be a special Evensong at 6.30pm on 1st November, the Feast of All Saints, our patronal Festival. The preacher will be the Rt Revd Simon Barrington-Ward, the former Bishop of Coventry, and a member of the Council of the Henry Martyn Centre. All are warmly invited to come to this service and share in the remembrance of Lolworth's most famous curate.
This autumn our local Swavesey Ten Sing, is running monthly workshops for primary school children in the area.
The children can choose between Singing, Dance and Drama workshops and everybody may be involved in Art activities. The project will culminate in a Concert on Saturday 13th December at Swavesey Village College. The theme is 'A Better World' and all the workshops will reflect aspects of working together. Adult helpers will be present.
The local Ten Sing group has received funding from the European Community under the Youth Initiative scheme. The money will be spent on training and equipment to enhance concerts, including video recorder & projector.
Georgina Overall, 16, from Swavesey, headed the successful application and she is responsible for the Singing workshops. She is full of enthusiasm for Ten Sing, an international YMCA youth work concept. Swavesey Ten Sing meets at the college Wednesday nights during term time.
Emma Matthews, 16, from Over, is responsible for the Art activities. Also Emma is a keen 'Ten Singer', who has taken part in national Ten Sing events like entertaining during the London Marathon and attended international exchanges.
The next monthly children's workshops (for Years 4, 5 & 6) will take place at Swavesey Village College on 17th Oct and 21st Nov, all at 6.45 till 8 pm. The concert is 13 December. To enrol your child, please contact Georgie Overall on 01954 202875, or Mrs Iréne Butlin, Ten Sing Co-ordinator for Cambridge YMCA, on 01223 234383.
The latest edition of Ely Ensign, the Diocesan Magazine for the Diocese of Ely, now has four pages in full colour - sporting a colour picture of the Bishop of Ely and the new Dean of Ely, the Very Revd Michael Chandler, outside the Cathedral on the front page. This generous quality of production is a far cry from what was allowed when the Vicar started up the Ely Ensign back in 1989. Needless to say, he is green with envy.
Sadly, our budget does not allow The Fisherman to match Ely Ensign's production resources, but there are lots of good pictures around of events in the life of our churches which it would be good to share. Well, it seems that the next best thing to having colour pictures in our magazine is to include them in a 'Colour Supplement' on the Vicarage Website.
While we recognise that not everyone has web access, an increasing number can see web pages through their computers or on television. Perhaps it could be a good excuse to 'ask a friend'.
You can get to the 'Colour Supplement' from the Vicarage Website home page at www.honeyhill.org [which, of course, you already know]. You can also find there back-numbers of articles in The Fisherman from 2000 onwards.
The new, improved 24-page Ely Ensign is available from church (or delivered to every door in Conington). Do ask for a copy: it's well worth a read.
The Choir will be singing a lively anthem by John Rutter at the 11.00am service on Harvest Festival Sunday, 5th October, and in the evening the Festival Evensong will include settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by F. W. Read and a festival setting of the Te Deum by C.V. Stanford as the Anthem. The singers need your support and encouragement and hope you will come along and join them for both services.
We have recently welcomed two new members Lynn McGoff and Justin Looper and we hope they will enjoy singing with us.
There is to be a Confirmation Service for the North Stowe Deanery (of which our parishes form a part) early in 2004 at St John's, Waterbeach.
Those who are considering confirmation should please contact the Vicar to arrange a suitable course of preparation. Candidates should be of eleven years or older at the time of their confirmation.
You are welcome to join the Friday morning Bible Study group which meets at 9.30am at 27 Over Road. Details of dates and themes are advertised on leaŸets which are available from church or on the Vicarage website on the News Page.
Details of meetings of the Emmaus Group can also be found in the same webpage. The Emmaus Group, which meets on Wednesday evenings at 8.00pm, also at 27 Over Road, also welcomes new members. But do check to see which on dates we are meeting.
Warmest congratulations were shared with Mrs Olive Winterbone at a service in All Saints', Lolworth, in early August, in thanksgiving for her one hundredth birthday a few days earlier. On her birthday, Olive received a hand-written card from the Bishop of Ely, to go alongside those from HM the Queen and other dignitaries.
After the service the congregation shared in a tea which was held under awnings in the churchyard and at which Olive cut a birthday cake and the celebrations continued.
Each year we commemorate the faithful departed - those who have taken the road to heaven before us - on the Sunday nearest to the Feast of All Souls (2nd November).
The names of all whose funerals have taken place in the benefice in the past year will automatically be included in our remembrance, but the names of others to be remembered at this time may be given to the Vicar and will be read out during the service.
Relatives and friends of the recently departed are warmly invited to join in the commemoration, which will take place this year during Choral Evensong on Sunday 2nd November itself in St Andrew's, Swavesey, at 6.30pm.
This year there will be two Christingle Services in the benefice, both of which will, as usual, be held in aid of the Children's Society.
The Christingle Service at St Andrew's, Swavesey, will be held in church on 30th November, at the slightly later time this year of 4.30pm, accompanied as usual by the St Andrew's Music Group.
The following Sunday,7th December, the Christingle Service at St Mary's, Fen Drayton, will also be held at 4.30pm.
The Vicar is always happy to offer the sacrament of holy communion to the housebound at home. Please ring him on 01954 231903 to arrange dates and times. A regular monthly or bimonthly pattern of visits can also be established.
The Vicar is also always ready to talk with parishioners, whether regular churchgoers or not, about arranging weddings, baptisms, funerals, services of thanksgiving, etc.