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 29 June           2nd Sunday after Trinity

THIS WEEK'S READINGS
Sunday 29 June            2nd Sunday after Trinity 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, John and Shirley, Margaret, Graham, Kathy.
The long term sick and infirm:-
George, Peter, Diana, Liz, Keith, Rob, Clive.
The Ministry Team:-
Wendy, Ruth, Fiona, 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.
This week the candle has been sponsored by
Wendy and Charles in thanksgiving for a happy
marriage. They are celebrating their 62nd wedding
anniversary this Sunday, and we send our
congratulations too.
Wendy writes " As in any relationship there have
been good times as well as difficulties, but hold
fast to what you know to be good. In the Bible it
says, “Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath ".
So when you have disagreements try and settle
them before the end of the day. If that is not
possible, and sometimes it may not be, then
resolve to settle things soon after. Oh and sitting
on the patio together after church with a gin and
tonic is beneficial.

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 29 June            2nd Sunday after Trinity
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Sue Nicholas
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Mike Wagstaff

Wednesday 2 July
1000 Said Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev Brian Wood

Sunday 6 July                3rd Sunday after Trinity
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Sue Nicholas
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Michelle Parkman

WELCOME BACK
Welcome back to Rev’d Mike Wagstaff at 10am
today and many thanks to Rev’d Sue for stepping
in at short notice to celebrate our 8am Eucharist.
We hope Ruth will soon be feeling better.

NOTES FROM THE CHOIR
The choir won't be singing an anthem today. For
each of the past twelve weeks we have sung a
piece of music appropriate for the festivals over
that period. Now we are taking, not exactly a
summer break, but not challenging ourselves
musically too much during the long period of
Trinitytide.
Having said that, today's hymns have been chosen
to relate to the theme of this Second Sunday of
Trinity; two of them echo the psalm set for today
(which won't be sung), and both the new testament
and gospel readings will be referred to in others.
We hope that the hymns will also be appropriate to
each point in the service, varying between a
rousing opening, a more reflective mood, and an
inspiring ending. Our hope is always that what we
bring to services makes a valuable contribution to
our worship.
John Steere

SUMMER FAIR UPDATE
From Debbie:
Here are the latest figures which are amazing:
Kitchen              £347.77
Cake                    £65.80
Bric- a Brac      £138.18
Books                  £11.50
Raffle                  £145.50
Plants                 £682.15
Sue's stall         £12.00
Table rent        £145
Donations        £280.78
Total income  £1826.68
Less Kitchen receipts -£138.50
TOTAL PROFIT so far £1688.18

MARILYN'S MEMOS

PIRATES OF PENZANCE and
APOLOGIES TO THE EARLY CHRISTIANS
Our concert on Friday evening is very popular and
we have 100 seats sold already. The show finishes
around 10 pm and it is possible that some of the
chairs will be put away if help is available. It is
also possible that the 8am congregation might find
a number of blue chairs still in place. So apologies
for any inconvenience. At the 10 am service, I am
sure we will find willing volunteers to help put the
chairs away. Many hands make light work!

PAT TESTING TUESDAY AM
Could everyone please assist and make sure any
portable electrical items which need testing are
placed on the coffee/tea table after use on Sunday?
There are many extraneous electrical goods around
the church/vestries/bell tower which need to be
checked and your help will be most appreciated.
Parish centre/kitchen gear will be done in situ.
Many thanks.

SUMMER FAIR AND MORE HELP REQUESTED
Many of you will have heard on Sunday that
Debbie calculated takings of £1300 at our Fair on
Saturday. No doubt a final amount will be
announced in due course. (See above).
All the stall holders were happy, although there
were not as many people through the door as we
might have wished! There were very many events
on the same day, unfortunately.
We now have several boxes of unwanted items in
church. IS ANYONE WILLING TO TAKE
THE BOXES TO A CHARITY SHOP
PLEASE? I will ask again during the notices if no
offers come in beforehand. Thank you to all the
volunteers who worked in the kitchen, prepared
our stalls and put them away afterwards.

Some photos from last Saturday's event.




Ann did well with the ever popular plant stall.





The books and Bric-a-Brac.



Fiona, we will miss you and your baking!

VISITOR RETURNS
Maybe some of you will remember Rita from
Nigeria, who has just finished her nurse training.
Her family are closely connected with the
Anglican church. Here you will see her with her
three little girls and her mum who is over for a
visit from Wari S. Nigeria. Rita was expecting the
youngest one last year when they came to church a
few times. She is hoping to organise the baptism
soon.


ON THE MOVE:
FAREWELL TO PETER HARRISON
I am sure we will all be saddened to learn that
Peter will be moving from Plymouth in a week or
so. His brother and sister-in-law are greatly
assisting in settling him in new accommodation in
Sidmouth, where he will be well looked after and
able to receive more frequent visits from his close
family. He will be happy to receive calls and visits
before he leaves providing he is given notice on
the phone. I have his permission to pass on his
telephone number.
Peter has been a very loyal and supportive member
of our congregation for many years and we will
certainly miss his presence. His former military
colleagues will be especially sorry to hear this
news and will miss his inclusion in the
camaraderie of the 10 am Eucharist. He was
greatly appreciated as treasurer of the PCC in
Sheviock for many years before he joined us,
hence his friendship with Geoffrey Bersey and
Rev’d Sue long before her ordination.


Peter Warland on the left; Peter Harrison on the right.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN JUNE
Mac Armstrong, Lesley Morris, Steve Baker,
Terry Hewitt, Marlene Schuster, Margaret Wright.

INHERITANCES –
SOME CAUTIONARY THOUGHTS
I once saw part of a programme, on one of the
commercial channels, which related the stories of
organisations which made a living by tracking
down people who had no idea that they might be
entitled to receive part, or all, of an inheritance
from someone who had passed away and was
probably unknown to them. Little did my wife, and
I, think earlier this week that she might be about to
figure in such a scenario. On Wednesday afternoon
one of our sons rang from his mobile phone. This
was unusual because he never contacts us during
his working day. On this day he was attending a
conference in the midlands and used a break period
to report the phone call he had just received from
an organisation in Kent trying to contact his
mother. They indicated that she might be eligible
for part of the inheritance from an unmarried
gentleman living alone in Dorset who had died the
previous week and did not seem to have made a
will. Our son could not figure out how his mobile
number had been found and stated that he thought
the whole thing might be a scam. However, the
name of the deceased did ring a bell, being the
same as a long-lost cousin of my mother-in-law.
We decided to investigate the company online.
They have a very professional website and the
phone number given to our son was correct. The
company states that they are “International
Probate Researchers, Genealogists & Heir
Hunters”. A call to the company received a
recorded message stating that they would call back
when not busy. Whilst we were pondering the
situation my wife’s cousin in East Anglia rang to
say that he had received a letter accompanied by a
large questionnaire from a different company of
‘Heir Hunters’, based in London. This had been
quickly followed up by a visit from someone who
indicated that twenty people had been sent letters,
and he wanted the questionnaire completed and
submitted within 24 hours. Checking the web
again we discovered that the coroner had placed an
advert in the local Dorset newspaper seeking to
hear from anyone who might be related to the
deceased. No doubt firms of ‘Heir Hunters’ pick
up this type of advert and vie with each other to be
first to persuade potential recipients to sign a
contract agreeing to paying over a percentage of
monies received by them. We found that this can
be anything up to forty percent! Hence their
urgency to get a contract signed. I also read advice
on a government website indicating who would be
eligible to receive part of an estate when a person
died without leaving a will. The ‘hierarchy’ of
eligibility is given as follows: -
 husband, wife or civil partner
 children, grandchildren, great
grandchildren and so on
 mother or father
 brothers or sisters who share both the
same mother and father, or their children
(nieces and nephews)
 half brothers or sisters or their children
(nieces and nephews of the half blood or
their children)
 grandparents
 uncles and aunts or their children (first
cousins or their descendants)
 half uncles and aunts or their children
(first cousins of the half blood or their
children)
It seems that as soon as someone is traced in one
of the higher categories, anyone in any of the
lower categories is no longer eligible to receive a
portion of the estate. Both my wife and her cousin
would be counted within category 7. as
“descendants of first cousins,” their parents (the
first cousins) no longer being alive. However, my
wife’s uncle is still alive, and he would probably
take precedent over the two of them. Knowing that
the deceased gentleman’s father was one of six
siblings it also occurred to us that many other
cousins could be found. As it was now getting late,
we decided to leave contacting my wife’s uncle
until the following morning. He confirmed that he
had received similar communications from both
companies of ‘Heir Hunters.’ On the same
morning the Kent company rang my wife back and
apologised for any inconvenience, as a will had
now been found. No doubt any inheritance will go
to charity or to good friends and neighbours of the
deceased.
All of this brought back the memory of a funeral
we attended a number of years ago of a Scottish
aunt in Greenock. We stayed overnight at the hotel
where the wake was to be held. The Tontine Hotel
took the name from a custom, originating in
seventeenth century France, whereby a group of
investors each paid a sum of money into a project
(e.g. construction of an hotel) and, as each investor
died, their share would be re-allocated amongst the
others. The last survivor could end up very
wealthy, but there was always the temptation for
the unscrupulous to hasten the passing of other
members. Thankfully, modern ‘Heir Hunters’ do
not follow this practice!
Tony Barnard