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
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Sunday 19 January            2nd Sunday of Epiphany

THIS WEEK'S READINGS 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.
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.

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 19 January                2nd Sunday of Epiphany
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Brian Wood
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Sue Nicholas

Wednesday 22 January
1000 Morning Prayer

Thursday 23 January
1000 – 1200 Bible Study

Friday 24 January
1830 Burns Night

Sunday 26 January             3rd Sunday of Epiphany
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Trevor Filtness
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Trevor Filtness
1130 PCC Meeting

WELCOME BACK
To the Rev’d Brian Wood at 8am and Rev’d Sue
Nicholas at 10am. Next week we will be joined by
Rev’d Trevor Filtness for both Sunday services.

PCC MEETING
The next PCC meeting will take place immediately
after the 10am service next Sunday.

Farewell to Gerry and Debbie Turner
We say farewell to Gerry and Debbie. They have
been with us for a year or so. During that time they
have joined in enthusiastically with our worship
and social activities. Debbie bakes excellent cakes
and Gerry paints watercolours. Gerry told me his
great great grandfather was married in this church.
This is their message to us:
Gerry said "The Lord has called us back to
continue his work with the marginalised and
oppressed in society. We will be returning in God's
timing".
They will be returning to a town in New South
Wales. I looked it up on google and it said it is an
ideal place for growing pecan nuts and has thermal
springs.
Praying our Farewell
God of our beginnings and endings, we celebrate
all we have shared with Debbie and Gerry, and ask
your blessing as they continue on their journey.
May the love that is in our hearts be a bond that
unites us forever wherever we may be. May the
power of your presence bless the moment of our
leave taking. We ask this for the sake of Jesus
Christ our Saviour. Amen.
Wendy


FIONA’S FOOTNOTES
This weekend I’ll be on the next residential for
SWMTC, so I’ll miss you all. After last weeks’
service I decided that I would go for a little stroll
to Devil’s Point. I had intended for it to be a short
wander, but the weather was so nice and since I’d
never really explored that area before my short
stroll ended up being three hours long! My feet
hurt quite a lot afterwards!! I thoroughly enjoyed
the walk and was able to get really close to the sea.
My only complaint would be that the staircase
down to the Royal William Yard is closed until
next month and so I couldn’t continue my walk
that way. However, it was a delightfully peaceful
way to spend my Sunday afternoon.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Bishop Mike’s sermon
on Sunday, as I’m sure you all did too. One line
from it has particularly stuck with me, that Jesus
died for us, so that he could live through us, so that
he could spend time with us. I take full
responsibility for that line ending up in either an
assignment or a sermon at some point.
This weeks’ Gospel is The Wedding at Cana,
where Jesus performed his first sign, at the request
of his mother. Since starting to watch The Chosen I
have a really rich visual image of what these
verses meant. It seems that Jesus isn’t planning to
make himself known yet, but because his mother
has asked him to, he does. He also turns the water
into the best wine the guests have received, in
doing so turning normal social rules on their head
by serving the good wine last instead of first. This
reminds me of another verse, Matthew 20.16
where we’re told that the last shall be first and the
first shall be last. Apparently that also includes
wine!
On the subject of The Chosen, we’ll continue to
watch episodes from this Thursday. Even if you’ve
never joined us before do feel free to come into
church at 10.00.
As it’s Burn’s night this week I shall see you on
Friday for our annual supper of one of my
favourite meals, haggis!
With love and prayers,
Fiona

MARILYN'S MEMOS
The visit of Bishop Mike, the Rt. Rev’d Dr Mike
Harrison 72nd Bishop of Exeter
We were greatly honoured on Sunday by the visit
of Bishop Mike, who has been in post in Exeter
since November 2nd. Our only instructions were to
meet him at the front door and expect him to arrive
20 minutes before the service was to begin! The
bollards were duly put out in our parking space
and we hovered at the door only to be told he had
already arrived in a very humble manner through
the back door, minus escort, mitre or crozier!!
Fiona kindly explained our “procedure” and all
went very smoothly throughout the service. I think
we all found his sermon very inspiring and thought
provoking: please take some time out to view or
review the Eucharist on our YouTube channel. I
think you will find it very worthwhile. We were
delighted to share our coffee time with him,
finding him very open, friendly, unassuming and
approachable. He was able to meet many of our
congregation and readily spent the full social time
with us. In all the excitement, I regret missing the
opportunity to photograph him in our Bishop’s
throne, which Ian kindly placed in the strategic
position.


LAST CALL FOR BURN’S SUPPER
We are anticipating around 50-60 participants and
will have to draw the line after Sunday!! It will be
juggled between a new hiring on Thursday evening
for G and S Productions rehearsals, and Saturday
yoga and textiles!!
So all tables will need to be back in the parish
centre on Friday evening!! Looking forward to a
jolly evening and catering courtesy of Emma,
Russell, Andy and Mags!
Marilyn

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN JANUARY
Liz Neil.

NEW YEAR’S DAY CELEBRATIONS
On Monday of last week, I was surprised to read a
report that, on a small island in the Shetlands, New
Year’s Day was being celebrated, twelve days after
the rest of the United Kingdom, although I cannot
discover why. The remote island of Foula, twenty
miles west of Shetland, is home to thousands of
sea birds, hundreds of extremely hardy and unique
Foula sheep (which are reputed to provide the best
Shetland wool), Shetland ponies, a variant of Field
mice, and about 35 human inhabitants. The name
of the island is derived from the Norse ‘Fugla-ey’
meaning ‘bird island’, Great Skuas, Puffins,
Kittiwakes, Guillemots and Fulmars no doubt
more common then than they are now.
The Foula inhabitants were about to celebrate New
Year because they still follow the Julian calendar,
unlike the rest of this country, where we follow the
Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar was
introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC when the
earlier Roman calendar was reformed. The length
of the year was determined by Cleopatra’s Court
Astrologer, Sosigenes. However, he miscalculated
the year’s length by 11 minutes. It was not until
1582 that two astronomers, Dr. Aloysius Lilius and
Christopher Clavius noticed the discrepancy. Over
the centuries that variation had built up into a
number of days. On 24th. February, Pope Gregory
XIII issued a Papal Bull, which decreed that later
in the year, 5th. October would become 15th.
October, at a stroke. Many were not happy with
‘losing’ ten days of their life and different
countries converted to the Gregorian calendar at
different times. Only Italy, Spain, Portugal and
Poland initially complied with the decree. Within a
couple of years, France, parts of Germany,
Switzerland, and the Dutch Republic joined them.
Hungary followed in 1587, but European
Protestant countries took more than 100 years to
comply, by which time another day had been lost.
Scotland converted in 1600, but the rest of the
British Isles (and the American colonies) took until
1752, which is no doubt why some of the older
wall memorials in our church have confusing
dates.

Pictured above is part of the memorial to James
Blackborne, which is located in the north-east
corner of the church and gives the date as 169 3/4.
The actual location of the wall tablet can be seen in
the following photograph.

There are other similar memorials within the
church. The most well-known is in the dark area
above the entrance doors in the south-west corner
of the church, in the top right of the south wall in
the photograph shown below.

A closer view of the tablet clearly shows the date
of a Thomas Taylor’s departure as 169 8/9.

Interestingly, I then saw a television news item on
the same day which reported that the residents (just
over 300 of them) of Cwm Gwaun in Wales are
still using the Julian calendar, seemingly because
they originally did not wish to be associated with a
‘Catholic’ dictum. I wonder how many more
‘rebels’ there are around Britain?
Tony Barnard