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

For the 10.00am Parish Eucharist  for today click here

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

Sunday 21 April                    4th  Sunday of Easter

THIS WEEK'S READINGS Please ring for support:-
Wendy: 218432

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:-
Janice, Alex, Liz, Clive,
Mo, Maureen.
The long term sick and infirm:-
George, Peter, Diana, Keith, Rob.
The Ministry Team:-
Wendy, Ruth, Fiona and Marilyn.

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.

In order to watch the livestreamed services please
‘click’ on this link to
make your way to YouTube site:
https://www.youtube.com/c/StokeDamerelChurch

Sunday 21 April            Easter 4
0800 Said Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev Preb Jennie Appleby
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: The Ven Jane Bakker,
Archdeacon of Plymouth

Wednesday 24 April
1000 Morning Prayer

Sunday 28 April            Easter 5
0800 Said Holy Eucharist
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
followed by APM & APCM
Celebrant: Rev Mike Wagstaff

WELCOME
To the Revd Preb Jennie Appleby, who will be
leading our 8am service today, and to the
Archdeacon, the Venerable Jane Bakker, who will
be leading our 10am Eucharist.

Electoral Roll
The Electoral Roll has closed and is now displayed
on the church door until next Sunday.

Annual Church Meeting and Annual Parochial
Church Meeting
Just a reminder that our annual meetings take place
immediately following the 10am Eucharist next
Sunday.

FIONA’S FOOTNOTES
As I write this the sun is beaming down and it is a
glorious spring afternoon. My favourite kind of
weather. The temperature is just right, although I
may be regretting my choice of attire to sit in a car
- a jumper! I am sitting in a car because I am doing
the daily school run. The one thing I enjoy missing
when Ross is off school is the daily opportunity to
join the daily commute.
But this week I returned to work after a two week
break. As many of you will know I work for
Aggies at the Royal Navy chaplaincy and this
week most people returned from ‘block leave’ and
so on Wednesday we had our very popular ‘Bacon
Wednesday’. It was lovely to see everyone again,
refreshed from their short break. Sadly for most
people the weather hadn’t behaved itself, but we
were all grateful for a break.
I am also nearing the end of another academic year
with SWMTC. We had a further two residential
weekends to go and another two assignments to
hand in. Hooray, the end is in sight! I shall be very
glad of a break this year and plan to make use of
my newly minted National Trust membership to
visit some places around Devon and Cornwall. I’m
particularly looking forward to visiting some of the
gardens to compare their grandioseness with my
own windowsill grandness!
As I do not have an outside garden at home, Ross
and I have opted for a small but perfectly formed
collection of plants on windowsills.

Ross is growing some poppies, which are doing
very well and showing many green shoots.

I am attempting to grow some lavender, plus trying
to maintain some Dianthus alongside Hyacinth
plus peace plants. The lavender has so far shown
one green shoot. Not much, but I’ll take it! Having
never had my own garden I’m not much of a
gardener, but I’m hoping that Ross’ enthusiasm
will inspire me (and remind me to water the
plants!!). I will keep you all updated.
Our final session of The Bible Course is this week,
11.00 to 12.30 on Thursday. We will then begin
watching The Chosen, which I am very much
looking forward to sharing with everyone. If you
would like to take a little peek at The Chosen then
you can find the season one trailer by following
this link:

https://watch.thechosen.tv/video/184683594442

Everyone is welcome to join us as we begin
watching The Chosen. Most of the episodes last
around an hour and so we have some time
afterwards for fellowship.
With love and prayers
Fiona


MARILYN'S MEMOS

MANY DESSERTS TO ENJOY
We had so many delicious desserts offered for Fr
Keith’s celebration lunch, we made an executive
decision not to open them all up for fear of
wastage! Last week we enjoyed a selection of the
remainders and this coming week we will finish up
the rest!
Thank you again for the generous contributions.


CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH A
RELATION OF TOBIAS FURNEAUX
How fortunate is that? Whilst we were waiting
for everyone to arrive for our second to last Bible
Course session, a few weeks ago, a group of
people walked into church who had arrived in
Plymouth on a cruise starting in Tilbury and
ending in Bristol. How fortuitous they arrived on
a day when the door was open!

One of the gentlemen, Paul Childs, asked for the
whereabouts of the Tobias Furneaux grave.........
because his mother was a distant relation of
Tobias’!
Well......wasn’t that an exciting reason to delay
the start of the session (apologies to Fiona et al)?
Paul’s aunt, Shirley Furneaux: his mum’s sister,
lives in Newton Abbot and her son, Mike Maddox
(Paul/s cousin) lives 15 minutes’ walk from our
church.
Not only that, Paul’s uncle, Michael Furneaux, has
spent 40 years researching the life of Tobias and
has 400 kg of Furneaux family history! More and
more amazing. Of course, Paul, wife and friends
were fascinated to see the actual memorial and
Paul has been in touch, very willing to share
details. Maybe it would be a plan to produce a
small booklet, like the church history one, because
Tobias Furneaux is a very important sea farer. He
sailed east and west around the world in the
company of Captain Cook charting the waters
around what is now known as New South Wales in
1770 (following the Dutch navigator Willem
Janszoon who landed in the north coast of
Australia in1606), and claiming it for the England.
Three years later having been separated from
Cook’s ship, he sailed with one Captain Matthew
Flinders charting the east and south coast of
Tasmania and, in doing so, discovered the Flinders
Islands; the largest of which is home to the
Furneaux Museum. The Furneaux family were
originally from Normandy and involved in the
Battle of Hastings. It seems there is also a rather
ugly scorpion fish named after the family, which
frequents the waters around Tahiti.

Paul Childs by the Tobias Furneaux memorial.

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS
or little things mean a lot!
During a recent visit to Lidl, I discovered on my
Lidl app that I had vouchers to activate for a free
bakery item and a free packet of special chocolate
chip biscuits. How exciting I thought. I had spent
several hundred pounds to gain two free items, but
let us not scoff! The psychology is positive so I
presented them to the till assistant only to discover
I had the wrong packet of biscuits (not the special
one), which were not free: so, I sacrificed them for
the sake of my waistline and the assistant put them
behind her counter. As I walked away, the
gentleman standing behind me shouted: “you’ve
forgotten your biscuits”..........he PAID for them
for me! “I could not see you go without a little
treat”, he so kindly said. It made my day, I can tell
you.


STREET PASTORS
I wonder if you have seen the Street Pastors in
Plymouth? I believe Rev. Sue is one such
volunteer. In the Herald last week, a sad situation
was described where Pastors were moved to help
a lady with a problem. The article questioned what
motivates them to volunteer in such a way, as they
are often disregarded and quite often insulted. The
response was their motivation comes from the
realisation that all the care and love they give
ultimately comes from God. The author wrote:
“ I can’t put it better than God’s description of
Himself in the Bible:... compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands,
forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin”.
What a wonderful and challenging example to
follow.

HELEN CHADWICK WORKSHOP
AND CONCERT
On Saturday afternoon we welcomed Helen
Chadwick and her four colleagues who were
organising a 2 hour singing workshop followed
by a short concert.

Helen composes song-theatre, site-specific choral
events, and replicates seminal poets’ words in
song. It was a very interesting experience for all
attending and quite an unusual and unexpected
presentation.
Helen and colleagues tour the country organising
such events. You can see her work on YouTube
videos We were quite honoured in fact, as she
performs at the Royal Opera House, composed
for the BBC, the Royal Shakespeare Company and
the National Theatre and has travelled extensively
in many parts of the world. She draws inspiration
from her travels and experiences and has produced
eleven albums.




Lovely display at the rear of the church and entrance to
the Parish Centre: Thank you Kelly and Ann.

THANK YOU
A huge thank you to those of you who made a
donation towards the Easter flowers. The six
weeks of Easter continue until Pentecost on 19th
May, so we are very grateful for your help to cover
the expense over that period. Many people
expressed how lovely the church looked on Easter
Day. It is encouraging to know that our time and
arrangements are appreciated all the year round,
especially for festivals.
We would welcome more practical help if anyone
would like to join our small flower arranging team.
Thank you.
Julia and Pam

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN APRIL
Chris Tozer, Jenny Storey, Matt Forster.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Apr 28 APCM
Jul 13 Summer Fair
Sep 7 Devon Historic Churches Open Day
Oct 13 Harvest Thanksgiving
Oct 20 St. Luke’s Thanksgiving
Nov 22/23 Christmas Fair

SPRING WEATHER – AT LAST!
For so long now we have suffered such miserable
grey skies, frequently accompanied by rain in
various forms. Sometimes it has been misty for
hours on end, frequently drizzle dampens
everything and there have also been numerous
deluges, as well as strong winds. The birds visit
the feeders less frequently in these conditions,
although persistent Squirrels still raid the bird table
and bird feeders and then end up appearing very
bedraggled.

The only good thing about this spring has been the
temperatures frequently being slightly above the
norm for the time of year.
This week, at last we are really enjoying much
drier weather as well as much appreciated sunnier
blue skies. Temperatures at times are now a little
below the norm, but the difference is hardly
noticeable and everything looks so much more
cheerful.
Regardless of the weather, when passing the local
Laurel trees, Sweet Box and Witch Hazel bushes,
they have all provided heady scents. Now nearly
finished flowering, other plants are taking over.
The two Lilac trees in our garden are just coming
into full bloom and will provide a new scent for us
to enjoy.

The scent of other flowers now appearing around
the garden may not be discernible to us but are
very attractive to the many Bees and numerous
other insects now to be seen in the garden, such as
on the white Azalea below.

The Magnolia tree has only a few flowers left now,
but down at ground level in the shade of its fast-
growing leaves, the blooms on the Honesty plant
now glow in the dappled shade.

I have read that Bluebells are flowering at least
two weeks earlier this year. This is certainly true of
the few we have around the garden. We will need
to keep a check on Enys Garden’s website to see
whether they have to bring their Bluebell open
days forward this year.

What I am most pleased to see though are the
flowers and now developing fruits on the newly
purchased Strawberry plants.

Tony Barnard