The Church of England in Compton Valence, Dorchester, West Stafford, Winterborne Monkton, Winterborne St Martin (Martinstown), Winterbourne Abbas & Winterbourne Steepleton
Two carol singing events in Dorchester in December raised over £500 between them.
The first took place in Tesco's on the evening of the 23rd. A group of singers organised by the Dorchester committee of the Children's Society, accompanied by Allen Knott on guitar and Steve Kinnersley on keyboard, sang carols and Christmas favourites for 2 hours, raising £307.87 for the charity.
Many thanks to all of you who supported the The Churches Together Ecology Group’s petition about the Environment, either in Church or in South Street last week. We collected over 250 signatures asking the County Council to take the lead in tackling climate change in the county by reducing our carbon emissions, and actively promoting renewable energy and energy saving. Many of those signing mentioned lights being on all day and night in public buildings and in street lighting on Poundbury.
Over 20 Christmas trees decorated on the theme of "Christmas Music" were displayed in St George's Church for the annual Christmas Tree Festival. The Festival ended on Monday 7th, although some of the trees will stay in church over the Christmas period.
The following article has been written by Gerald Osborne who will be in St Mary’s Church on the 2nd December 2015 to deliver a dramatized reading of the Gospel of St Mark. Below he explains his inspiration…
The Gospel of St Mark is a thrilling and pacy account of the life and death of Jesus. It is too often neglected as a gospel, but my eyes were opened to it by tutorials with a retired priest in 1998. In very few words Mark seems to be able to create wonderfully evocative vignettes of each scene, proclaiming the identity and authority of Jesus.
Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Morning assembly in the local church school was under way, and the head teacher introduced the vicar, making her monthly visit. It was just before the October half-term so Hallowe’en was approaching, so the head knew she would want to stress that this meant the Eve of All Hallows, All Saints.
As usual, she began her talk with a question. “Now then, who can tell me anything about All Saints?”
An amazing Harvest workshop was held at St Mary's Church, Dorchester, led by Kate Woodhouse, Revd Teresa Stewart Sykes & YP@D, Revd Alison Whiting and Susan Press. The children started the afternoon with a story with Jono Parvin, then made a Harvest loaf, planted cress heads with eggshell, put prayers on a tree, and finger painted the harvest sun and moon. The Rector, Thomas Woodhouse, closed the afternoon with prayers.
