PARISH COUNCIL MEETING – Thursday 17th SeptemberThe latest meeting of the Parish Council took place on Thursday 17 September 2015 at 7.30pm in the village hall, Stambourne. All were present.

Bonfire Night – It was agreed to hold bonfire night on Saturday 7 November.

Playing Field – There will be some repainting of play equipment being carried out in the near future.

Mesh Matting – The mesh needs to be installed before bonfire night and the ground is softening up now with all the rain. It will be done towards the end of October with Neil liaising with Michael and Andrew to carry out the work.

Highways – The problems on our local roads with potholes and damaged signs continues. A letter will be sent to Essex County Council Highways Department detailing all the problems and the lack of action by Essex County Council. Please remember that anyone can report a highway problem by going onto the Essex County Council website and following the links.

The next meeting will take place on Thursday 19 November 2015 at 7.30pm in the village hall.

There being no further matters to discuss the meeting closed at approximately 8.30pm.

Full minutes and agenda are available on the village website at www.Stambourne.com

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

STAMBOURNE BONFIRE NIGHT
SATURDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2015
6.30PM
DON’T MISS IT!!

ST. PETER & ST. THOMAS BECKET PARISH CHURCH
CHURCH NEWS

On the 15th August, Stambourne Church was the venue for the wedding of Captain James May and Lisa Amy Wiffen. What a wonderful wedding it was. The weather was perfect, the decoration of the church was lovely and the bride and groom looked so happy.

It was the perfect country wedding and we wish James and Lisa much happiness in their married life together.

The services continue with the first Sunday in the month at 11.15am and the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 9.30am. The only change for the month of October will be our Harvest Festival on Sunday 11th October at 4.00pm conducted by our Vicar, Barbara Hume.

From early January we hope to have services on the first Sunday back to 9.30am.

Looking ahead:-

- Remembrance Sunday 8th November – service for the village at 10.15am by the War

Memorial, followed by a short service in the Church taken by Adrian Burr.

- Carol Service Sunday 20th December at 4.30pm with the Stambourne Singers.
Followed by refreshments, including mulled wine and mince pies.

- Christmas morning service will be taken by Joan Redmond at 9.30am.

Church Wardens
Richard Day
Val Kerrison

ST PETER AND ST THOMAS BECKETT CHURCH

HARVEST FESTIVAL

SUNDAY 11TH OCTOBER 2015

4PM

Everybody is very welcome.

All decorations and food produce to decorate the church would be gratefully received in the church between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 10th October 2015.

After the service there will be refreshments served in the Tower room.







STAMBOURNE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH Adrian BurrFrom the Chapel:

The chapel has been putting Stambourne on the map! We have had visitors from Texas, Ireland, Kent, South Essex, Cotswolds, Colchester, and Chelmsford (plus more local people!) over the last few months, and all to find out about family history (their own or that of the Spurgeon family!!). We joined the National Heritage weekend on 12 September and people travelled from afar to find out more! Do you know how your family has been involved with the chapel over the last 200 years? We have church records going back that far which gives insight into their lives!

But that isn't why we are here! Our aim is to serve Stambourne and the surrounding villages. We gather together as Church to show the love of Christ. We are not perfect and often get it wrong, but where we see people suffering, or in trouble, mourning or angry, or frustrated by life's complications, we aim to provide support and practical help wherever possible.

And of course the refugee crisis is one area where we are continually shown pictures of people in trouble. Parents and children fleeing their homes and expecting to come to Europe and claim the benefits of their rich neighbours. And who are we to say that we should shut them out? Canon J John puts it this way: We should deal with them by being involved, by being intelligent about how we help them and with integrity - that is making decisions based on justice for both them and for the people of this country. And finally we should be in Intercession, that is prayer, for their plight and for those who have caused it.

So how can the Chapel in Stambourne help? Well, there are many ways we can give and we are happy to pass on gifts to OpenDoors, Barnabas Trust, Tearfund, Christian Aid, or to a local collection charity where we know 100% of what is given will get to the people who need it. Initially money will help, but there are charities collecting clothes and essentials. Contact us for more information.

While we can't directly deal with the people intelligently or with integrity, we can campaign for our government to do just that. There are various agencies such 38 degrees and Christian Concern who are campaigning. They are trying to ensure that those who are allowed in come because they have needs that can't be met elsewhere. They are campaigning to ensure that the burden doesn't fall on the poorest of our society and is shared by those who have much, and is not taken from those already struggling.

And finally the one thing the church should be good at is intercession. Intercession is prayer, both for those who find themselves in this terrible situation and for the causes of their dilemma. Most would not want to leave home like this, but the war in their own country is causing them to leave everything behind and flee. What would we do given the same circumstances? How are we to react?

We are told to first love God, and then to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. And an example of how to do this is given in the parable of the good Samaritan. (Luke 10:30 – 37). The Samaritans were people the Jews did not speak with, and so Jesus used a Samaritan to show how to be a good neighbour and have compassion even to those who would reject our values and principles. As we watch these travellers, journeying through difficult situations we can only ask the question "how can we help?" If not don't we "walk by on the other side", as did the priest and the teacher, with no love for our "neighbour"?
Come talk with us about how we can help ....
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 the fun! Every Tuesday - REACH Worship 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. Our Worship Service is held at 10:45 am every Sunday followed by coffee 1st Sunday - Communion Service
4th Sunday - Service led by the REACH worship group and followed by lunch together

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

OCTOBER

Understanding The Christmas story. We are planning to get together to explore who prophesied what and how was it fulfilled in that first Christmas. We will be looking at carols and songs to understand who the characters are and how they came to be set to music! Who was King Wenceslas? Who were the three Kings? Call to get dates and times – starting in October.

17th Samaritans Purse shoe Box packing day 10-12am. We send over 100 shoe boxes and have collected the majority of the contents over the last year. However every box costs £3 to send and so we need to find £300 for these boxes to be delivered to children who have very little that they can call their own.

24th Film Evening at 7pm We hope to show Amish Grace, preceded by a Hot Potato supper. Proceeds by donation will be for the Shoe Box delivery.

NOVEMBER

1st November John Cartledge will preach at our morning service. John runs a Christian library in Ghana and is in the UK to talk about his work. He will be collecting Christian books as well!

8th November - Remembrance at the Village War Memorial at 10:45am and afterwards for a short service in the Parish Church.


DECEMBER 5th December Christmas Fair Come along and see and take part in craft work and find those special gifts.

13th December The Christmas story in song and words – a service of celebration

CHRISTMAS DAY AT CHAPEL. Celebration service at 9:30am followed by refreshments, allowing you to get home to enjoy the rest of your festivities.
However, if you have no where to go this Christmas, or no-one to share dinner with, then we will be serving Christmas dinner at midday in the chapel, preceded by some fun and games as your meal is prepared. If you have no transport, we can arrange to pick you up and return you home after a Christmas to remember!

Numbers will be limited as we can only cater for 20 people and some of those are taken already! So get your name in quickly! Call Brian Mead to book.

Adrian Burr (Rev) 01440 730211    0798 3 656166 Brian Mead, Secretary   01376 345337

 

STAMBOURNE VILLAGE FETE

We are pleased to announce that, despite the awful weather, we came away with a profit of £1461.10. We owe a huge thank you to everyone who gave their time and energy to make the day such a success and to those who contributed to our raffle prizes.


We hope to improve on the weather AND our profit for next year and to this end we are holding an AGM at 7pm on Wednesday 21st October 2015 in the Village Hall to vote a new Committee in. Come along and take this opportunity to make a difference!

Our 2016 fete will be held on Saturday 18th June.



TOPPESFIELD SCHOOL NEWS

There is currently a vacancy for a Community Governor on our Governing Body.

Our school governors are people who want to make a positive contribution to children’s education by being a critical friend to the school.

If you are at all interested in joining us in this challenging, but immensely rewarding role, please contact me on 01440 785289 or Mrs Hall, our head teacher on 01787 237354 and we would be pleased to give more information.

Martyn Fall
Chairman of Governors

martynfall@aol.com

CHARITY BARN DANCE – THANK YOU


Back in June a Charity Barn Dance was held in Birdbrook, Raising money
for the Essex Air Ambulance and The Stroke Association and although it was a couple of months ago we would just like to say Thank you to everyone who supported the event. we had a sell out evening and raised a massive £3184 which was spilt equally between the 2 charities.'


NEW LOCAL BUSINESS, SIGN AND SEE

My business is 'Sign and See' and I offer British Sign Language (BSL) tuition to beginners and babies/toddlers via either 1:1 tuition or 'Toddle Talk' classes (5 months - 3 year old children accompanied 1:1 by their carers / parents). 


I am offering free taster session classes on Tuesday 25/08/15 10:30-11:30 and Thursday 03/09/2015 followed by weekly term time Toddle Talk classes on the same days and times from the 08/09/15. All at the same venue, The Nurture Barn at the Blue Egg, Great Bardfield.


For further information regards my business please see my website: www.signandsee.co.uk (I am also on twitter: @signandsee and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/signandsee).


NEW VILLAGE SIGN

The new village sign was unveiled at the fete on the 28th June. This replaces an earlier sign that was damaged beyond repair in high winds a couple of years ago. The original sign was kindly donated by Joyce Jousiffe and her family in memory of Frank, Joyce’s husband.

In replacing the sign the Parish Council thought it important to ensure that any new sign should be robust and need minimum maintenance, and after a careful search Sonia Antonioni tracked-down a company called Iron Oak Forge based in Buxhall near Stowmarket. www.ironoakforge.co.uk

The proprietor, Graham Chaplin, has created many village signs for parishes around East Anglia and after some discussions on our ideas, the design was finalised. The finished item is made of steel that has been heavily galvanised and painted, and the new supporting post is oak, so we would expect a long, trouble-free life.

Hopefully, the sign will be approved of and will be a source of pride in years to come.
Martyn J Fall

BUS TRIP TO NORWICH

BUS TRIP TO NORWICH

Saturday 14th November only £18 a seat.

Leaves Toppesfield Pump 8am, returns around 4pm.

50/50 raffle held on trip with any profit going to St. Margaret’s School TSA.

£5 deposit when booking plus full payment by 1st Nov.

Please contact Zoe on 01440 785778

SULLIVAN JOINERY

A new joinery in Stambourne

As well as producing high end garden studios we also carry out all aspects of joinery and cabinet making. With over 20 years combined experience in joinery and carpentry there is no job we cannot undertake. We can also provide a full spray finish service on all joinery work where required with our in house spray booth facilities.

Visit http://www.universalgardenstudios.com/about.html for more info.

CHRISTMAS QUIZ NIGHT & GRAND DRAW

SATURDAY 5th DECEMBER 7.15pm start
2 Course Meal
Xmas & pantomime theme.

If you’ve got the courage, please dress up.
£10 Adult, £5 Children under 11

To book a seat or table, please ring Cath 01440 785 678
And remember : space is limited so get ringing!

DIARY DATES

11th October Harvest Festival, The Church
7th November 2015 6.30pm Stambourne Bonfire Night

14th November bus trip to Norwich

5th December Christmas Quiz 5th December Christmas Fair, The Chapel 20th December Carol Service at 4.30pm with the Stambourne Singers.

NEWSLETTER
Items for the next newsletter by 17th November
Steve Platt Email : me@stephenplatt.com or phone 07767 357016