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| Reports |
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| April Mothering Sunday (Mothers Day), New Altar Table, Easter Activity Morning, Palm Sunday, Easter Day, Royal Wedding |
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| Royal Wedding | |||||||||||||||||
 Dymock celebrated the Royal Wedding in style when over 20 members of the ministry team and their friends gathered by kind invitation of Ruth and David Clowes. (Return to Top)
Each had watched the wedding ceremony itself at home, but then gathered in the Clowes' garden to shared a substantial buffet between the end of the wedding ceremony and the appearance of the royal couple on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. (Return to Top) The group retired indoors to watch the balcony appearance and toast the couple in sparkling wine and 'Bucks Fizz' before returning to the garden for a variety of deserts. Despite the weather forecast of showers, the sun came out enough to make the whole experience very memorable. (Return to Top) |
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 Easter Day (April 24th) saw around 60 people gathered to celebrate the fantastic account of the return of Jesus from the dead the first Easter morning. We heard the familiar account from Saint Matthew's Gospel of how Mary went to the tomb expecting to anoint the dead body with the traditional spices, only to find the tomb empty - Jesus had defeated death and was alive again. (Return to Top)
As well as five joyful Easter hymns sung by all, the combined choir began the Service by singing the anthem "This Joyful Eastertide", the 'Young Voices' (junior choir) led another anthem between the Gospel reading and the Sermon, and the combined choir sang a third joyful anthem whilst we received the communion of bread and wine - after which most stayed to share refreshments. (Return to Top) To add to the festive feel, the church was extensively decorated with flowers making a thankful return after the austerity of Lent when no flowers are displayed, including many lilies given in memory of departed loved-ones. (Return to Top) |
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| Palm Sunday | |||||||||||||||||
 A week before he was executed as a criminal on a cross, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding, not on a fine horse as a conquering hero, but on a humble donkey (Matthew 21:1-11). Many people lined the roadside and tore down branches of trees to throw in his path as a sign of respect, traditionally palm trees, and cried 'Hosanna' which is Hebrew for 'Save, we pray'. Hence the Sunday before Easter is known as 'Palm Sunday'.
(Return to Top)
For many years, we've remembered this with our own procession from Ann Cam School round the corner to St Mary's Church, led by a donkey and the church choir singing songs of praise. (Return to Top) This year the weather was warm and sunny and a large group with fronds of pampas grass standing in for palm trees walked behind the donkey, which went into the church ahead of us and stood patiently in the aisle whilst we sang the hymn "We have a King who rides a donkey". Everyone was given a cross woven from dried palm leaves to keep until 'Ash Wednesday' next year when they're traditionally burnt. (Return to Top) |
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| Children's Activity Morning | |||||||||||||||||
 April 15th was the date of our latest morning of Easter-themed craft activities for all children in the Benefice, held this year in Redmarley School Hall. The morning began with a reading of the sad Bible account of Jesus' execution on the cross on Good Friday, but ended with a dramatised enactment by some of the children of his happy resurrection back to life on Easter Day. (Return to Top)
In between, there were eight different crafts to try your hand at, including artistic one's making pictures by scratching with a stylus or putting small coloured beads onto a matrix of pegs, colouring-in Easter cards, making living 'hair' on an empty eggshell using cress seeds, making a prayer tree and making chocolate-flavoured crispy cakes topped with an egg and fluffy chicken. For more pictures: click here. |
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| New Altar Table | |||||||||||||||||
The new table was commissioned from Mr. Brian Porter near Worcester. It's made of polished oak in a style that reflects the shape of the main (East) window behind it. It was purpose made to fit through the doorway into the side chapel so it can be moved there when we have concerts in the nave. (Return to Top) The front rail is engraved with a passage from Scripture "I am the Bread of Life" (John 6:48) and the rear rail is engraved with the name of our church "St Mary the Virgin, Dymock". The end rails have a small engraving of daffodils, reflecting the connection of Dymock with the old daffodil trade. (Return to Top) |
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| Mothering Sunday | |||||||||||||||||
 April 3rd was 'Mothering Sunday' commonly called 'Mothers Day'. Mothers Day is an American idea that happens there on the 2nd Sunday of May. 'Mothering Sunday' has been celebrated in England since at least the Middle Ages, click here for more details. (Return to Top)
This year, a sizable and truly "all age" congregation were surprised to have their hand prints taken on entering the church. All was revealed towards the end of the service following the children’s activity session that placed everyone’s print on a "big tree". The visual message of all belonging to one big family echoed the theme of thanking mums for all their devotion and care, delightfully summed up in the "Young Voices"* rendition of the song Super Mum. (Return to Top) A lively mix of hymns and choruses together with a choir performance of "I believe in Springtime" by John Rutter, summed up the essence of thanksgiving and the distribution of delightful potted pansies to every mum present. The lively service was led by Caroline Dunnett and prayers were led by several young people in the congregation and choir. (Return to Top) The occasion also marked the culmination of the "Seeds for Life" project launched last Harvest, encouraging everyone to generate some income from a seed of a pound coin that were handed out on that occasion. Bob May described some enterprising fund raising activities that have been taking place in recent months and the collection was received by Rev’d Andrew Perry on behalf of the Church Restoration Appeal and TRAC, which is our local charity again this year. (Return to Top) *Our Junior Choir has been renamed "Young Voices". |
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