PARISH COUNCIL MEETING – Thursday 19th MayThe Annual General Meeting and Parish Assembly took place on 19th May 2016 at 7.30pm in the village hall. The first item of this Annual General Meeting was to elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman for the coming year. It was agreed to elect Martyn Fall as Chairman and Michael Crago as Vice-Chairman for 2016/17.

The Parish Council also appoint Councillors to act as representatives for certain areas and these were appointed:


Village Hall Committee
Vanessa Young

Emergency Planning
Michael Crago

Footpaths
Jenny James

Public Transport
Michael Crago


Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebrations
Stambourne Chapel is organising an event on 11th June 2016. It was agreed to donate the sum of no more than £100 towards food and commemorative books from the Bonfire Fund towards this event.

Transparency Code
Debbie reported that a grant of £643.30 had been received from the EALC towards the cost of a new laptop and scanner, together with additional staff time. She will order the equipment.

Pavilion
Some new folding tables have been ordered to use in the pavilion and for village events.

Playing field
You will see that the rocking horse is currently fenced off whilst it is repainted. The work should be completed soon and following this the slide will also be repainted. The play equipment has had its annual safety inspection.
You will also see that two concrete plinths have been installed. These will soon have picnic tables on them for everyone to enjoy. This was part of the grant secured from Essex County Council Community Initiatives Fund which also financed the new roof on the pavilion.

Fingerpost signs
We continue to lobby Essex County Council Highways over the state of these signs and will keep you up to date. It seems that it is not just Stambourne which is affected by this problem as other parishes have also been trying to get their own signs dealt with.

Potholes
Again potholes are an on-going problem and we continue to report them in. Please remember that anyone can report in a highway problem by using www.essex.gov.uk and follow the links.
War Memorial
the work on the War Memorial is nearly complete and we are extremely pleased with how it looks. Thank you to Matthew Beasley of Gem Construction who have been doing the work and the War Memorials Trust who have provided a grant towards some of the cost.

Accounts for the year 2015/16
These have been agreed by our internal auditor and will now be sent for external audit.

The next meeting will take place on Thursday 21 July 2016 at 7.30pm in the village hall.

Debbie Hilliard
Parish Clerk
Tel: 01440 785629
Email: debbiehilliard614@gmail.com

ST. PETER & ST. THOMAS BECKET PARISH CHURCHWell, the scaffolding has now come down from the Church & we have now completed the re-roofing of the nave & chancel.
What a lovely Service we had on April 10th with the Bishop of Colchester, Roger Morris to help us celebrate this. Many thanks to those who joined us to make it such a special Service. Our thanks also to the Hedinghams Choir who kept us all in tune! Services at the Church remain the same on the 1st, 2nd & 4th Sunday of each month @ 9.30am with a Benefice Service on the 5th Sunday. Services for all the Churches in the new Benefice will be displayed on the notice board outside the Church.

I would like to thank Richard Day, who resigned as Church Warden at the recent Annual meeting, for his hard work & commitment to the role over the last 15 years. I have a hard job to follow this on my own now!

Finally, Liz Paxton who is now the Vicar for Stambourne since the new Benefice came into being recently would like to introduce herself to you all & sends the following:

Liz Paxton studied at St Mellitus’ college in Chelmsford leading up to her ordination in June 2013 . Following her deaconing, Liz took a curacy in Castle and Sible Hedingham under the watchful eye of Rev. Laurie Bond. When Laurie left, Liz looked after the two churches for the next 18 months before the new benefice was formed.

She has had a career in IT, working with companies like Levi Strauss, Columbia Pictures and most recently with Diageo. Some years ago she left to become an independent Management Trainer and coach, and to be able to spend more time on Parish work. As Liz has a half-time post with the Church of England, Rev Liz still does this from time to time. She is also a Member Nominated Director of the Diageo Pension scheme and chair of their Discretions Committee.

Rev. Liz is quite sporty, loves netball and plays for Haverhill ladies. Her hobbies include reading and music. Liz is married to Garry and has two grown-up sons.

I am really looking forward to helping the church in Stambourne with their worship and helping them grow in their love of Jesus. I love to meet new people and would welcome a chat with anyone who would like to meet me. I will always be doing the 9.30 service on the Second Sunday of the month so come along to church and see me – or drop me a line on liz@paxtonconsulting.co.uk and I will come and see you!. Blessings, Liz





FROM THE CHAPEL

News travels fast, particularly bad news! And we are saddened to hear all the bad news that travels round this world so quickly. Are heart felt sympathies go to all who are affected by the atrocities we see in our papers, TV's and on the web, every day, both going on around the world and closer to home.

People often ask me why there is so much bad in the world. And that is a really difficult question to answer satisfactorily. For we can glibly say, “Well it's all down to human nature”, and say that God has a remedy for that. Or we can say that we know that there is bad in everyone, but some choose to try not to do bad things. They choose to treat everyone as equal and to love everyone and care for all equally and to be good in all aspects of their lives. Let me know if you ever find anyone who has achieved this sort of goodness and niceness. They are very few and far between and the Bible says we deceive ourselves if we think we have achieved that sort of perfection!

For most of us the choice is to try and be as good as we can, but if we are honest with ourselves we all fail, for if we say we have never done anything wrong or bad then surely we deceive ourselves and others too! (which in itself is wrong!!) The problem in this world is that some people choose not to try to be good, but to use bad to their own advantage – and see no problem in doing this. Now I know that it is the few who do the really bad things that we see in our newspapers and on the web.. But it's all a matter of perspective. If we truly believe that we all do some bad things, then surely some will do really bad things and some will do their best to try and never do anything bad, but will still do a few things. Many would argue that people in church are no better than anyone else – and that is very true! But those who believe in a God believe that He can help us on this road to being as good as possible – but we will still get things wrong and do things wrong. You see a Christian is someone who believes in Jesus Christ, not some one who is good – there are good people in all faiths, cultures and even those who have no faith at all!

Our Queen is a good example of someone who has tried to serve her country, all of her life, and has done it with an underlying faith that she believes has truly helped her get through the tough times as well as celebrate the good times. If we said she has never done anything wrong we would deceive ourselves and do her a dis-service. But in trying, she has achieved so much more than most of us ever achieve.

And so this month we celebrate her 90th birthday – official – and her long service to us, the country we live in, and to the wider world. And we wish her many more birthdays that she might continue to serve in ways we can't even imagine.

And as we come together over the coming months we gather to enjoy company and friendships, aware that no-one has a monopoly on being good, least of all those who are Christians!

Let's just all enjoy trying our best together and pray for good fête weather and for those other outdoor activities we look forward to through the summer months!
Adrian Burr Minister,
Stambourne Chapel
07983 656166, 01440 730211

NEWS
Our weigh in for our Lent Slim raised a total of £729 Our thanks to everyone who donated and helped. We achieved 48lb weight loss between the seven of us (our target was 50lb!) and the money was distributed between Belarus Trust, BGM India Orphanage and Essex and Herts Air Ambulance. More recently we raised £62 from the sale of cakes in support of Multiple Sclerosis Society. Again thanks to those who baked and those who bought and ate and donated!


DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

11th June at 6pm
Come and join us and the CofE at the Village Hall for a party to celebrate the Queens 90th Birthday. Music, newsreels and food from the decades.
Tickets are FREE! (Donations welcome) from the Chapel or Church or call 01376345337 email:
stambournepraise@gmail.com
Supported by Stambourne Parish Council

12th June 11:45am Celebration Service for the Queen's birthday in the Chapel

24th July 4pm Chapel Anniversary Service and tea

10th September Heritage Day – Church is open all day for research into your family history

24th September Harvest Service and tea - 4pm

30th September Macmillans BIG Coffee Morning – 10 am until 12

WORSHIP EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
Every Tuesday - 10-12am Coffee and Chat. We enjoy discussion on wide ranging issues over coffee and biscuits. Come and join a little time out for fun and friendship!

Every Tuesday – Stambourne Worship Team Practice evening. The band gather to practice and worship together. Join us at 7pm for prayer, and 7:30pm for the music. If you play an instrument or sing we would welcome you to come and see whether you could join us.

Every Wednesday - 7pm Intercessory Prayers. If you have prayer needs then let us know or come and join us. We will pray for healing, for situations and for troubles, for worries and concerns, relationships and family life (among many other things!!). Let us know your prayer needs.

Every Thursday – 7:30pm House Group – Call if you would like to join with us Our Worship Service is held at 10:45 am every Sunday followed by coffee 1st Sunday join us for a Communion Service

2nd and 3rd Sundays Lively Worship Services sometimes with visiting preachers

4th Sunday - Service led by the Worship group and followed by Lunch together

DIARY DATES
8th June - Stambourne Ladies Group - open to the community 17th June - The "Queen" scarecrows will be judged 18th June - Village Fete 13th July - Stambourne Ladies Group - River Stour cruise to The Henny Swan
See the “From the Chapel” section for events taking place there
NEWSLETTER
Items for the next newsletter by 17th July Steve Platt Email : me@stephenplatt.com or phone 07767 357016