The Benefice Blog

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

2014 Lent course up and running

WOW! This is the first session of the benefice Lent course which took place this evening at Whatcombe House. Thank you Piers and Charlotte for hosting the 2014 course - and thank you Jimmy, for leading this thought provoking course.

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

A Concert for Tom Allen

There was a super informal concert held at St Mary's Church, W.Stickland last Saturday. The concert was for Tom Allen and in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. It was given by the talented D'Silva family and Helen King. Angela and her two daughters performed a variety of pieces for violin, flute, piano and voice. It was a enjoyable mix of classical and modern music. What a talented family!
This was followed by an equally delightful combination of pieces played by Helen King and her classical guitar teacher ( I didn't manage to catch his name). The guitar duet sounded enchanting in our small church of St Mary's.

Tea, coffee and superb cakes and scones were served before and between the performances so the audience was well fortified to join in the community singing for the final section of the concert. 'My Grandfather's Clock', 'Always' and 'Lord of the Dance' were just a few of the songs performed by all present.

It was such a pleasant, cheerful afternoon and a number of people were heard to say that they would like more of these concerts. The raffle and the contributed donations at the door raised £300 for Marie Curie Cancer Care - so well done to all involved in helping make this happen!

Saturday, 8 March 2014

Church Services at a church near you this Sunday

Church Services in the Benefice

Sunday 9^th March

Milton Abbas 9.00 Holy Communion

Book of Common Prayer

Rev’d Alan

17.00 Awesome Cake

An informal group for 11-15 year olds

Discussion, cake and fun activities

Rev’d Sue

Turnworth 10.30 Holy Communion

Rev’d Jimmy

W. Whitechurch 10.30 Holy Communion

Rev’d Alan

W. Houghton 15.00 Evening Prayer

Book of Common Prayer

Rev’d Alan

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Walking with God

Churches Together in Dorset

What: Spiritual exercise in Lent around two of Dorset’s iron-age hill forts, walking along the concentric ramparts, from the outer circles to the centre, bring your own picnic lunch and join in a short service, and then walk outwards again.

Why: To draw closer to God and to each other

When and Where:

Tuesday 18 March 2014, Badbury Rings, near Wimborne, BH21 5DD

Tuesday 8 April 2014, Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, DT1 2HH

Time: 10.30am gather in car park for briefing; 11.00am walk inwards around ramparts; 12.30pm picnic and service; 1.30pm walk outwards around ramparts; 3.30pm depart.

Leaders: Dr Graham Kings, Bishop of Sherborne and Chair of Churches Together in Dorset and other Church leaders

Who: Open to anyone to join in, of any church or none, of any age. School visits are welcome. Come to one walk or to both.

Contact: Katja Babei, County Ecumenical Officer for Churches Together in Dorset ctdorset@clara.co.uk 07500 984705

A letter from the Blandford Foodbank manager

Dear all

Many thanks for all wonderful donations recently, I am as always very grateful for the thought and care that goes into your donations. The same amount of care goes into packing every single food parcel that goes out and when we can put in something that is not expected it makes it even more special.

Today we had a young couple come into the Foodbank, they had two very small children and the husband is out of work through no fault of his own. His wife has recently had to have a spell in hospital she’s been very poorly. Because they have no family around he had to take two weeks off from his job as a delivery driver to look after his young children and because of this time off his company laid him off due to his unreliability!!

The family have signed on at the job centre, but again it takes up to 6 weeks to process any claim. They have done everything correctly, been to the Housing Association for help with their rent, they been to Citizens Advice Bureau for help with their outgoings, but they still have no money coming in. The husband actually said one of the expenses that they find quite difficult is that they go through 12 pints of milk each week due to the age of the young children. This is where the Foodbank steps in; we were able to provide the family with a family food parcel containing extra milk and also some foods especially aimed at the young children. This will allow the family to get through the six week period knowing that for the next few weeks there are a further two food parcels that they can access should they be needed.

So our plea for this weeks is:

Little tit bits that young children could eat

Rice

Tinned vegetables, particularly green veg: but no more sweetcorn please for awhile

Sugar

Jams and marmalades

We are also coming up to Easter, if anyone would like to put in an Easter egg or two that would be lovely as a special treat to find in a food parcel.

Please also find attached a poster about a forthcoming Quiz that the Foodbank together with the Cupola Project are running to raise funds. We would all love to see you there!! Tickets are available from Blandford Forum Parish Church and Set Fair 4 Trade and are priced at £7.00.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Gail Del-Pinto

Blandford Foodbank Manager

01258 456 093

Sunday, 2 March 2014

How not to treat the Rector!

Only in pantomime do you get away with this! You can see how much fun we had this year, joining the Valley Players for their pantomime at Winterborne Stickland.