Church Matters – Sunday 26 July | Itchen Valley Churches

Sunday 26 July

8.30am Holy Communion – St John’s, Itchen Abbas

10am Morning Worship – St John’s, Itchen Abbas

A message from the Rector!

Praise the LORD!
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD!

Blessed be the name of the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the LORD is to be praised!

Psalm 113:1–3

These verses were shared with me by my sister-in-law on the eve of my Institution service on Monday evening at St Mary’s, Easton. They have stayed with me. The image of the rising and setting sun is a wonderful reminder that, as one season draws to a close in one parish, a new season begins for all of us together here in the Itchen Valley. Through every transition, the name of the Lord remains constant. He holds both places in His hands, and it is He who will sustain and resource us in all that lies ahead.

Before anything else, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has stewarded the life and ministry of our four churches so faithfully and wisely throughout the interregnum. Your commitment and care have been a great blessing.

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the Institution service such a joyful and memorable occasion. I know just how much planning, organisation, and effort went into it.

Thank you to Tim and Malcolm for bringing the choir together and to the choir itself; the bell ringers for their celebratory welcome; Theo for overseeing the logistics and planning; Judy and Sara for applying their long experience in ensuring all worked so seamlessly at the service: Chris for ensuring that every detail of the audio and sound was covered; Sir David for representing our Patron – the King; Rollo for leading our worship; John, Beccy, Revd David Chattell and Revd Kate Seagrave for preparing the service sheet and for orchestrating the service; Jill and Sue for the wonderful hospitality and everyone who contributed such splendid canapes; Rolls for organising the refreshments; Penelope, Pauline and their team for the beautiful flowers; Penelope for so generously opening her home to the Bishop and clergy; the meeters and greeters (Beccy, Jude, Sally and Simon) and parking stewards (Katy, Paul and Steve) for making everyone feel welcome and helping all those logistics to work so smoothly. It truly was an all-hands-to-the-pump occasion, and we are grateful to you all. If I have inadvertently missed anyone, please accept my sincere thanks – you all played a part in making it such a special evening.

We also thanks James for his wonderful photographs of the evening, more of which can be seen by clicking this link

When you receive this in your inbox, my family and I will be camping at a Christian festival, so our first Sunday with you will be on 2nd August where I will be taking Parish Communion at St Swithun’s in the morning and we will all be at Church with a Splash in the afternoon (details above). We are very much looking forward to meeting you all over the coming weeks and months, we have some social events planned in August, more information will follow. We hope there will be many opportunities to get to know one another, to worship together, and to discover all that God has in store for us as we begin this new chapter in the life of our parish.

With every blessing,

David

David’s Contact Details

If you would like to contact David, his email address is david@itchenvalleychurches.org

His landline telephone number is 01962 582226 and he will obviously be living at Itchen Valley Rectory with Rachel, John and James.

Cool Church

If you are looking for shelter from the heat this summer, our churches are all open between 9am and 5pm and are all cool for sitting and relaxing.

St John’s, Itchen Abbas also has space for you to bring your children to relax and we will leave the kitchen open for cold drinks and so you can access the bathroom.

If you need any further information don’t hesitate to ask.

Winchester Cathedral ‘Stone by Stone’ Appeal

Revd Canon Andrew Micklefield has asked us to bring to your attention the new public ‘Stone by Stone’ fundraising appeal for Winchester Cathedral. For more information, please follow this link.