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

For the 10.00am Parish Eucharist  for today click here

Rector: The Revd Keith Robus RN                                                
Telephone No: 01752 509724

Email: keith.robus@btinternet.com                                                
www.Stokedamerel.church
www.facebook.com/StokeDamerelChurch

Sunday 4th June                  Trinity Sunday  

THIS WEEK'S READINGS
Sunday 4 June                            Trinity Sunday IF YOU ARE ILL OR NEED TO GO INTO HOSPITAL
Please ring for support:-
Revd Keith: 509724
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:-
Pat, Diana, Janice, Keith. 
The long term sick and infirm:-
Terry and Pat, Revd Peter Warland, Janet, George,
Michael, Claire, Thea, Dennis.
The Ministry Team:-
Father Keith, Wendy, Ruth, Fiona and Marilyn.

RECENTLY DEPARTED
We give thanks for the life of Audrey Sayers,
Ruth’s Mum, and we pray for her family at
this sad time.


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.

RECTOR’S RAMBLINGS
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.

Sung hymns and organ music
The Church of England, working with St Martin
in-the-Fields and the Royal School of Church
Music, is delighted to be providing a resource of
rights-free music for use on streamed services.

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 4 June                        Trinity Sunday
0800 Said Holy Eucharist
1000 Parish Sung Eucharist with baptism of Lilly

Wednesday 7 June
1000 Holy Eucharist

Sunday 11 June                    ?1st Sunday after Trinity
0800 Said Holy Eucharist
1000 Parish Sung Eucharist

Welcome to Lilly Rose with mum Katrina-Marie
and dad Darren and their wider family for Holy
Baptism on Trinity Sunday. For those with a good
memory we were meant to baptise Lilly before
COVID and this is the first chance for the family
to attend. Welcome to you all!

Steve Guffick

Steve with Father Keith
Please hold in your prayers Steve who will be
made a Deacon in Truro Cathedral on Friday 23
June at 1930. We will as a parish be giving to him
two of the Common Worship liturgy books to
complete his set. Send down your Holy Spirit upon
your servant Stephen for the office and work of a
deacon in your Church.
Steve will serve in the newly formed Fowey Valley
Benefice.
I am delighted to have received donations towards
additional gifts for Steve – I would equally be
delighted to receive even more...

Summer Fair – 1 July
A reminder that our Summer Fair will
take place on Saturday 1 July. Please
mark this event down in your diary and
be prepared to assist in as many ways as possible.
We need good quality bric-à-brac ( that lovely
silver vase from auntie Florence, or woodcut from
grandma), cakes and preserves (individually
wrapped with ingredients and dangerous
ingredients listed), your presence on the stalls:
books, b-a-b, cakes, refreshments.
Posters will be available from next week as will a
sign up list for volunteers. (A public sign-up list
may be easily checked for volunteers...)

Harmful materials found
It is regrettable to report of drug related
paraphernalia has been found in the churchyard
and up by the entrance to the bell-ringing chamber.
A ‘sharps disposal box’ has been purchased for
disposal of needles etc. and improved security
lighting is in hand. Please take care all who
volunteer in the churchyard and our bell-ringers –
and thank you for what you do!

Aprons
With our Summer Fair not far away there has
been great progress on a corporate image apron
available for all our volunteers. A sample will be
available next week. In short, the apron is made
of a good quality medium heavy cotton with five
pockets, and colour... (funny old thing) battleship
grey. On a central breast pocket will be the
wording – WE ARE STOKE DAMEREL
CHURCH, emblazoned in sunshine yellow.
The cost per item is £19 – bargain for many
years to come. The neck strap is adjustable to
three lengths according to taste.
Order forms also available next week. These
aprons to be worn when representing the church
to give us a corporate image and we maybe easily
recognised by our visitors – for Summer and
Christmas Fairs, concerts, plays – and Sunday by
Sunday for service of teas/coffees as the aprons
also form part of essential PPE.

Building Project – update
Some very good news! After what seems an age
we have had some steps forward on our building
project.
1. As mentioned last week John Mitchelmore
assisted with a complete and very thorough
survey of the church tower. This report
(anticipated very soon) will help our
architect to draw up a schedule of works
which then may be costed by a quantity
Surveyor in order for us to have a rough
costing. With this rough costing we may
then begin to fundraise to match fund what
has already been ringfenced by the PCC in
our accounts.
2. The pillars in the south have been tagged in
order to determine if there is any further
movement southwards. The stability of the
building, needless to say, is critical for
future works and longevity.
3. We have received a further interim
payment from the estate of the Revd Canon
Gordon Ruming of £10,000 which brings
his benefaction to our church to £70,000!
God Bless.
4. We now have a permanent architect for the
parish. Grant Elliot was a temporary
adviser for us until our permanent architect
Charlotte Shobrook returned from
maternity leave.
A. Charlotte and I scaled the tower of an
initial inspection (awaiting the report) to
give her a birds eye view. (and talking of
bird’s eyes there was a very annoyed Mrs
Seagull who was turfed off her nest with
her one egg when we opened the tower
hatch – that will be a nuisance once a
chick has hatched!).
B. Charlotte will return soon with a roofing
contractor in tow to scale all sides of the
nave roof to understand the extent of repair
needed. And whilst up there the roofer will
make good a hole which has appeared on
the south-east lower end of the chancel.
C. Charlotte and the contractor will also
assess the roof over the choir vestry to
understand what kind of replacement that
roof requires. There may be damage to the
wooden supports...but we shall see.
D. Before any repairs etc. to the roof are
made, we need to have a bat survey – not to
see who be batty about but if there are bats
about. These wonderful creatures are
heavily protected. There is an initial survey
to discover if any signs of bats are about –
droppings, bat symbol on the tower, bats
seen flying about. If there are no signs all
well and good. BUT if we do have bats....
E. Charlotte will be able to suggest
suitable trusted companies to undertake the
work as well as helping with the required
permissions from the Diocese.
All in all a very sensible way forward, yet a project
of this size and cost will not be quick, so we need
to be patient and support all those working for a
wonderful end goal.
Father Keith

CHURCHWARDEN'S WARBLINGS
POSTPONEMENT
We regret Les Mis, scheduled for 2nd June, has
been postponed. We will be looking for a new date
in due course.

SUMMER FAIR
I am very pleased to say we have a
few more stalls appearing. Please
keep prodding friends for beautiful
unwanted objects ( not human though)!!!
I will endeavour to make a helper’s chart before I
leave on Thursday. The cake stall is always
popular so freeze a few in advance??? We need
new bric-a-brac too please!! The team includes
Debbie, Kelly and Anne. I return from the USA on
Sunday 25th June and would be glad of a hand on
Thursday 29th at the close of play of City College
Cafe to put up tables 2pm...... just an hour or
even less.
Many thanks,
Marilyn Goldsbrough

READING GROUP
Our next Reading Group meeting is
on Monday 5th June at 2pm. We have
agreed to meet at the Devonport park cafe this time
so we can have a tea or coffee and maybe cake!
The book we have been reading is ‘Acts and
Omissions’ by Catherine Fox. Everyone is
welcome.
Christina Richardson

FIONA’S FOOTNOTE
As I write to you I have just turned off my
computer for the evening. I am writing my final
essay for year one, the theme of which is the
history of the Church of England in relation to a
church I know well. Once I have handed in this
essay in two weeks’ time I will give a little cheer,
knowing that I will have just over two months with
no essays – bar waiting for the marks for that essay
and a theological reflection I handed in a couple of
weeks ago. I’m very much looking forward to
having a little bit of time away from theological
textbooks!
I’m still quite shocked that I’ve reached the end of
year one; it feels as though I only started the
course a few weeks ago. In the time I’ve been
worshiping at Stoke Damerel I will have written
ten assignments - a mixture of essays and
theological reflections - plus one resource and
commentary. I will have attended seven residential
weekends and one residential week, all of which
have been wonderful experiences. I’ve lost count
of how many online lectures and reflective practice
seminars I have been to on Zoom, but let’s just say
quite a few. It will all begin again in September
when the subjects will probably be a little bit
harder because (theoretically) we have all gained
more knowledge. And in worshiping at Stoke
Damerel I have gained so much knowledge (not to
mention confidence) thanks to everyone who has
encouraged me and put up with me! I started the
year staring at the words in the weekly service
booklets to make sure I got the responses correct
and getting a little bit nervous if I had to read at the
lectern, and I end it in the privileged position of
serving at the altar. What an incredible year.
Next weekend I will go on the final residential for
this year. Having checked the weather forecast for
next weekend it looks like it’s going to be a
scorcher, so I’m hoping we get a good number of
breaks and that they open the classroom windows!
I hope you’ve all had the opportunity to enjoy
some of the wonderful sunshine we’ve had over
the past couple of weeks. I’ve managed to get out
almost every day to go for a walk, although with
the high pollen count that hasn’t always turned out
to be a good idea! If, like me, you are a hay fever
sufferer, I hope you’ve managed to enjoy some of
the sunshine without suffering too much. One
particular joy with the sunny weather is when the
sun goes down and streams beautiful light through
the windows. I find that I feel God’s peace in those
moments of stillness, feeling the warmth of the sun
and the beauty of the light.
I hope you all have a lovely week.
Fiona

Invitation to the Collation Service for
the Archdeacon of Plymouth

Everyone is invited to the collation
of the Rev’d Jane Bakker as
Archdeacon of Plymouth:
Tuesday 13th June 2023 at 7pm
St Eustachius Church, Tavistock.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Jun 22    DHSB Classical Recital
Jul 1        Summer Fair
Jul 6        PCC meeting
Oct 15    St. Luke’s Thanksgiving Service
Nov 17    Christmas Fair
Nov 18    Christmas Fair

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN JUNE
Lesley Morris, Steve, Dawn Brazier, Terry Hewitt,
Marlene Schuster, Margaret Wright.

And especially to Lesley, whose birthday is today
(4th ). We send Lesley our best wishes for a very
happy day.

EVERYTHING IS BLOOMING
With all of the sunshine that we have seen this
last week or so, all of the flowers in the garden
have suddenly bloomed in profusion. Below are
just three of the magnificent roses; a beautifully
scented white rambler, three stages of a large
pink rose showing the changes in colour, and a
cream floribunda by the Lounge.






Also, near to the Lounge, is an overwintered pot of
Nasturtiums, now in full bloom.

Another overwintered plant nearby is a well-
advanced globe of white Alyssum.

About halfway down the garden the large purple
Rhododendron has been full of colour for some
time but the blooms still look good.

However, one of the best plants currently
flowering is the large, very ‘blousy’ Peony which
has only two short-lived flowers but dominates
that area of the garden.

There are so many more colourful flowers not
included above that I will need to include more
next week. That is assuming that I will still be
able to type after carrying so many watering cans
full of water each evening! Everybody is enjoying
the early summer weather but the gardens, and
reservoirs, will soon desperately need a few
heavy downpours.
Tony Barnard