THE PARISH CHURCH OF STOKE                
DAMEREL (ST. ANDREW & ST. LUKE)

Email:   info@stokedamerel.church                                          
www.Stokedamerel.church
www.facebook.com/StokeDamerelChurch

Please note: Stoke Damerel Church does not divulge
personal information to third parties.

Sunday 4 January                      Epiphany

  Merciful God,
we entrust to your tender care
those who are ill or in pain,
knowing that whenever danger threatens
your everlasting arms
are there to hold them safe.
Comfort and heal them,
and restore them to health and strength;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

PLEASE PRAY FOR:-
The sick:-
Maureen, Margaret W, Graham, John S, Kathy, Mo, Matt, Bertie, Morwenna.
The long term sick and infirm:-
George, Peter, Diana, Liz & Keith N, Rob, John and Shirley.
The Ministry Team:-
Wendy, Ruth, Marilyn and Rhona.

BLESSED SACRAMENT CANDLE

If you would like to have the candle lit for a week
for a particular prayer / thanksgiving /
commemoration, etc., please send a £5 donation to
Debbie Smith, clearly marking your donation as
being for the candle. Details of your intention can
be emailed to:- sarah.lundstrom@virginmedia.com
so that a mention of the commemoration, etc., can
appear in the Sunday Sheet.

SERVICES THIS WEEK
Stoke Damerel Parish Church is a hybrid church
open for public worship and private prayer and all
services will be live streamed.
By attending a live streamed service, you give
implied permission to have your image captured
on CCTV and to be broadcast as participant in the
liturgy.

Watch our livestreamed services
Please follow the link to make your way to our YouTube page: 

 STOKE DAMEREL YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

Sunday 4 January                        Epiphany
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Mike Harman
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Mike Harman

Wednesday 7 January
1000 Said Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev Brian Wood

Sunday 11 January                    Baptism of Christ
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Scott Angell
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Scott Angell

WELCOME
To Rev’d Mike Harman, who is taking our
services this weekend.

MARILYN'S MEMOS

BURNS SUPPER
FRIDAY 23RD JANUARY
Having checked that we have a shopping/table
laying/preparing/cooking/waiting/clearing up
TEAM available, please keep this date in mind for
late January. More details to follow.
Burns Night is, of course, on January 25th but this
date does not suit our schedule!
Should you wish to attend, Marilyn will take
names as from now!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN JANUARY
Liz Neil.

RUTH’S REFLECTIONS
The Word became flesh
It is awhile since I was able to write an article for
the newsletter. I have had a challenging few weeks
and that included Christmas but whilst dealing
with those things that life throws at us, I found
myself watching the Christmas services from
Washington National Cathedral. Why would I do
that, you may ask? Two reasons I think. One, my
brother lives in Washington DC and often goes to
Evensong at the Cathedral. They broadcast all of
their services including Morning Prayer, each day
and I have found them very helpful. Secondly, I
really enjoy the preaching. The messages that they
give have spoken to me in recent weeks and
months and it is one of those messages I want to
share with you.
It was the turn of a Senior member of the
Washington Cathedral Staff to give one of the
Christmas messages this year. Her text was a
traditional verse that is quoted during the
Christmas period and yet its message is the
foundation of the Christian faith. We were told
about the time the Cathedral was built, September
2007 and how the foundation stone was laid.
Subsequently the majestic, magnificent building
rose from the ground and is a symbol of faith
throughout America. After learning about the
foundation stone, our preacher asked for the
opportunity to go and see it. It is right down in the
under Crypt, underneath all that magnificence.
Down many steps and a tight corridor there is a
stone which is the Foundation stone and on the
stone is written this verse from the beginning of
the Gospel of John “The word was made flesh and
dwelt among us”. Just think what an opportunity
this stone gave for preachers as a sermon
illustration!!
After my initial thought, I reflected on the message
that stone gave. The foundation of faith, our beliefs
and the will of God is in this message. God sent
His only son who came into the world, and this is
the son of God we celebrate at Christmas time.
God has spoken to the world through many things.
Creation, prophets, Scripture to name but a few
and yet, the world did not really hear the message.
God sent His only Son in the form of a baby who
became a man and dwelt among us. Surely, a
person who claimed to be the Son of God would be
believed. We know that it is not just the message
that leads people to God, it is the Holy Spirit, and
it is our ears that hear what God is saying. This
foundation stone may hold up a building, but the
words also hold up our faith. One of the problems
that Christmas brings is its familiarity. We enjoy
familiar carols, familiar readings, even those
traditions in our families, those things we have
always done. Nothing wrong with that and yet the
message we are given is another opportunity to
reflect on our own beliefs. The baby born is just
the beginning of the journey to the cross, that
fulfilment of God’s plan for our world and for us.
So, at the start of this journey may we travel with
the Son of God through the coming year knowing
that whatever happens He is with us.
“The word became flesh and dwelt among us”
John 1 v 14.

Washington Cathedral.

ROMANIAN UNION DAY
This national holiday in Romania was recently
celebrated in our church.
Oly writes:
“What was amazing was watching Cristina's
'Team' transform the church and parish rooms into
a haze of colour in both the decorations and
costumes, and plate up mazing arrangements of
food - real artwork and delicious - especially the
bread one is greeted with on entering the church
which is traditionally pulled from the home made
loaf and dipped in salt.*see below! The children
all spoke and danced with such confidence.”
*[In Romanian tradition bread and salt play a
crucial role. The bread, ancient symbol of life, and
the salt, “mother of God” as it is called in the
peoples’ sayings, were for Romanians, two
elements with sacred significance. According to
historians, the first evidence of this ritual of
hospitality are pre-Christian and offering bread
(initially were grains of wheat) and salt was a sign
of accepting those who visited someone’s house or
land. Bread and salt also stand for a lot of other
beliefs and customs.]




HAVE WE ALREADY LEFT 2025,
OR IS 2026 STILL TO COME?
The question in the title above is hypothetical in
our society today but would have been very
important in some European countries back in
1582 when a Papal Bull, issued by Pope Gregory
XIII, decreed that the existing ‘Julian’ calendar
would be replaced by what has since become
known as the ‘Gregorian’ calendar. This was
considered necessary because the Julian calendar,
introduced by Julius Caeser, was based on
inaccurate calculations of the length of a year,
made by an Egyptian called Sosigenes, the Court
Astrologer to Queen Cleopatra.
In 1582 astronomers discovered that Sosigenes’
original calculation had underestimated a year’s
length by 11 minutes. This meant that by 1582
all the minutes over the centuries had added up
and the year was now ten days adrift. This needed
to be corrected. The Papal Bull ordered that 5th.
October would become 15th. October at a stroke.
Many were not happy about ‘losing’ a whole ten
days of their lives, no doubt worried, in some
cases, how this might affect their income. Initially,
only four Roman Catholic countries complied with
the order. Others followed a few years later. Other
countries, where the Protestant faith was prevalent,
took many more years to change. Scotland adopted
the Gregorian calendar in 1600 and had to adjust
by an additional day. England took until 1752 to
change and then had to adjust by a total of 12 days.
I have written about this before but still find it
all fascinating, especially as there are memorial
tablets within our church which relate to the
differences between the two calendars.

When entering the building from the south there
is a small memorial high above the inner doors,
as shown in the photograph, to the memory of
Thomas Taylor. He died on the 10th. January in a
year when this country was still 10 (or 11) days
adrift from Europe. No doubt this is why the year
of his death is written as 1698/9.

There is another memorial located over the inner
doors of the entrance from the north porch,
dedicated to John Reynolds who died well away
from the new year, on 13th. March in either 1723 or
1724 when England was still using the older
calendar. The same method of recording the year is
also used on this tablet.

At the other end of the north wall is the memorial
to James Blackborne who passed away on 23rd.
February 1693 or 1694, and the same convention
is again used, on the fifth line, to record the year.
There may be others in the building yet to be
noted.
Interestingly, although the Eastern Orthodox
church uses the Gregorian calendar, their moveable
feasts still use the Julian Calendar.
Tony Barnard