North Tamar Churches

From The Parish Priest

Dear friends,

The Autumn colours, together with the earlier onset of darkness are letting us know that we are approaching winter and the end of the year. That means that many of us are getting quite busy planning and preparing for Christmas. Yes already! Well, let’s be honest, there have been Christmas goods in the shops for weeks!!

I am not a great fan of early Christmas, but I am a fan of ADVENT. A time of watching, waiting and preparing. “All good things come to those who wait” is a proverb that means a great deal to me at this time of the year, and on Advent Sunday, the last Sunday of this month, the church starts to look forward with eager anticipation to the celebration of Jesus’ birth, with themes of hope and light.

There are so many stories around us that seem to be about darkness and despair. I hope and pray that as we approach the Advent Season we may all be given new hope in and through the love of Jesus, and be ready to welcome him with real joy.

With love and prayers

Philip

Dear friends,

As I write this letter, I am sorting out all the arrangements for the celebration of Harvest Thanksgiving across our churches.

Since Victorian times, the celebration of the Harvest in the Autumn has become part of our annual pattern of events. The Farmers sow, nurture and reep. We then thank God for his gifts.

The harvest, or lack of, has been a major news item over the past few weeks. A combination of the hot weather, lack of rainfall, and other world events such as the war in Ukraine has meant that the world faces a shortage of food, and the inevitable rise in the cost of food for the customers in the shops.

I read in an information leaflet this year that approximately, worldwide,  One Third of all the food grown prepared, packaged and cooked for human use is thrown away before it is eaten. And yet there are still millions of people who are starving in this world. This is a disgraceful situation, and something that all of us can do something about, not only by lobbying those who make policy and decisions, but also in the way we manage our own households.

Thanking God for his gifts in Creation does not mean taking them for granted.

This harvest, let us think again of the effort that goes into providing our food, and the real human cost of wasting the earth’s valuable resources.

With love and prayers,

Philip

From The Parish Priest

Dear friends,

It was such a joy on every level to celebrate with you in the various Platinum Jubilee events that have been organised across our local communities.

Her Majesty’s amazing achievement, combined with a two-year deficit in gathering together made all our Jubilee events eagerly anticipated and much enjoyed by all of us.

Celebrations such as these are one-time expressions of what makes us tick as villages and communities, and reflect the community action and activity that takes place day by day.  This community activity needs to be fostered continually, and as we approach the summer, let us all recommit to being good neighbours to each other so that the community spirit that was reawakened and noisily celebrated across the Jubilee weekend may continue to flow in the DNA of our community life.

Jesus commands us to love our neighbour. This is not always easy and can sometimes be hard work, but the result of working to love our neighbours, bears abundant fruit which gives glory to God and makes our communities a great place to live.

With love and prayers

Philip

From The Parish Priest

Dear friends,

There is much excitement in all our communities in anticipation of the events to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.  From Beacons, to concerts, to children’s races, barbecues and celebration services. There is a lot going on!

I have not known life without Her Majesty on the throne, and have very fond memories of, as an eleven year old, being fully involved in the celebrations for her Silver Jubilee in 1977!

These celebrations happen not in their own right, but as a result of the everyday life of our nation, and the contribution to it from her majesty. These great events are an opportunity to celebrate the everyday, and for us to appreciate how fortunate we are to live with the freedoms and blessings of this nation and time.

That does not mean that we rest on our laurels, we must always work for our society to reflect the values of God’s Kingdom, and that we do in the way we treat each other, and care for those, near and far, who do not share our good fortune.

Congratulations to Her Majesty, and Best Wishes to all of us as we continue to make our society fit for the King of Kings.

With love and prayers,

Philip

Dear friends,

The lengthening of daylight hours, and the reappearance of colour in our gardens announce that Spring is well and truly on its way.  There is much more activity around the Rectory Bird Feeder, and that brings cheer to us all.

Daffodils and Snowdrops, Blackbirds and Dunnocks were not restricted by Covid Regulations and they are just getting on with their normality.

Our Normality has been severely restricted over the past two years, and for some of us this time has been very hard indeed.  The hope of “getting back to normal” has always been there as a faint pinprick of light at the end of the Tunnel.

Unfortunately, the appalling events in Ukraine seem to have dimmed what light was there as we are all trying to understand what “war in Europe” actually means, and as we, quite rightly, look at what we can do as individuals and communities to assist those whose lives have been utterly destroyed by Evil.

In the middle of this very dark time, we celebrate the Joyful news of the Resurrection of Christ. The utter and total Triumph of Light over Darkness symbolised by the Lighting of Fire and Candles.

That same celebration will be taking place in shelters and hiding places under the bombardment from enemy forces in Ukraine.

Just as Daffodils are not restricted by rules and regulations, neither is God’s love negated by Human action.  It may well seem to be impeded by the wickedness that Humankind is capable of, but the Easter Story tells us that Christ’s light and Power is boundless.

Those of us who claim to be Children of the Resurrection should use every opportunity to shine as lights in dark places. Let us witness to the Light of Christ’s resurrection by demonstrating his love in caring for those for whom light and peace seem but a distant dream. In putting pressure on our elected officials to work for an end to this conflict and to show hospitality and mercy to refugees.

I do hope that you will be able to join us for our Holy Week and Easter Services, and join us in praying for those who have neither the safety or freedom to celebrate Easter in their own country.

With love and prayers,

Philip

From the Parish Priest

Dear friends,

Have you had a well disciplined start to the year?  How are your New Year Resolutions going?

Did you join in with Fry January, or a Veganuary?

It is amazing what human beings will do to challenge ourselves to look after our bodies and souls. But there is nothing new, and if you are still looking for something to work with to “improve yourself” could I humbly suggest keeping Lent.

Lent is not a miserable time, or it should not be! It is a time to think about how much God loves us, and how we can respond to that love. That means thinking about ourselves, how we relate and behave towards each other and God, which can sometimes make us feel a little uncomfortable, but that is because God’s love is so beautiful.

Lent is not just about giving things up, it is about exploring more fully God’s love for us. In our churches we will be following the Live lent, daily programme, which will be both online, and also uses a attractively designed booklet which will be available in all of our churches.

Lent has two purposes, for us to discover how we can be better Christians, and to prepare for the commemoration and celebration of Jesus Passion, death and, resurrection over Holy Week and Easter.  Great events are always better when they re prepared for properly, so I invite you to join me and our church communities in keeping lent together so that we may grow in love together and rejoice together at Eastertide.

With love and prayers,

Philip

From the Parish Priest

Dear friends,

The month of November is, in church, community and national life, a month of remembering.

Whether in church: remembering the great saints of the Church, or those loved ones that we still miss and mourn on All Saints day and All Souls day, or around bonfires in community and family groups on the 5^th November, or standing round a War Memorial on Remembrance Sunday as a nation, remembering those who have given their very lives in service of our country.

What we are doing, in all these acts of remembrance is making sure that essential parts of our community, be they the great characters of the past, or events that have shaped us, are held and treasured and learned from.  The Act of Remembrance that we repeat day after day and week after week does exactly the same thing. “ Do this in Remembrance of Me”  Said Jesus to his disciples.. and we do… we make sure that Jesus, and his example of love and sacrifice are central to who we are and how we love each other.

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When Bishop Robert came to install me as your priest 22months ago, I was looking forward to all the things we would do as Mission Community and Benefice: the worship,  community outreach, and working together.

Unfortunately, Covid came, and for most of the past two years, we have had to deal with a situation that has caused havoc in almost every area of church, community and family life.

Despite the difficulties of the past few months, we are still called to be a community of Christian people, and so I would like to invite you to a celebration of our partnership.

There is nothing like an approaching New Year to gather our thoughts and to encourage us to make resolutions for the future, and we are going to celebrate this new year. NOT in January, but at the start of the Christian Year on Advent Sunday. So please, do come and join us for a Joyful Celebration of our shared mission at 10am at St. Mary’s Lifton Advent Sunday, 28^th November. Everyone is welcome, and Katie and I are looking forward very much to welcoming you to the Rectory for a Celebration Lunch at the Rectory afterwards.

Let us start our new year off as we mean to go on:

with joyful and prayerful worship, friendly Christian fellowship, and Hope in Christ for our growth in faith, understanding and strength of numbers.

With love and prayers,

Philip.

From the Parish Priest

Dear friends,

The last few weeks have seen more of us about!  It has been wonderful to see so many people taking part in community events, Sunday services,  weddings and even funerals.

We do seem to have said farewell to a number of people in the past few weeks, but we have also seen many families come to church for the baptism of their newest members. These occasions have been most joyful.

The last Sunday of this month is actually on the 31^st . Halloween. Or All Hallow’s Eve, as it is formally called. All Hallow’s day is the old fashioned name for the Feast of All Saints, when we thank God for all those people, some famous and well known, and others whose memories are lost in history, who have followed the call to be the saints of God…  People who have had the love of Jesus at the very centre of their lives, and have had that love recognized by the community.

As we have a benefice Eucharist that day,( a Fifth Sunday) it gives us a fantastic opportunity to recognise the saintliness of each other, and to rejoice in the fellowship that we have with the saints of the past who we look to for inspiration and encouragement.

The great saints of the past had to cope with the same trials and tribulations that we do today. The faced plagues and sickness, poverty, war, some of them were in constant argument with each other and the church they loved, and yet between them they contributed to enrich the church with their lives, prayers and witness.

Do please join us for our Festival of All Saints. We are, after all, all called to be saints, not two dimensional figures on the wall, or in stained glass windows, but real people, living real lives, surrounded by the real love of God.

With love and prayers,

Philip

General Update for the Autumn

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is really good to be able to give you an update on church life after the hiatus over the postponement of the end of lockdown and the postponement of all our church plans. Although there is still a great deal of caution and nervousness, it does at last look as though life is returning to something a little like normal!

The last year and a half has been very trying for everyone. Every aspect of our lives has been turned upside down. Most recently we have been frustrated even more by the continued uncertainty over the end of lock down and the, what seemed like, never ending postponement of the return of normality.

As you know we had planned for this in June and July, but we had to postpone all our events and planning.

We now feel confident to reschedule our return from lockdown after the Summer Holidays.

There are four things that I would like to point out particularly in this update. All of which are of the utmost importance to the building up of the church in this Mission Community.

The First is the new date for our Vision and Opportunity Day: Saturday 18^th September at the Coronation Hall, at the Fox and Grapes. It starts at 10. For 10.30 and will finish by 3.30pm at the latest. A huge thanks to the Fox and Grapes, who are providing tea and coffee for us. Lunch can be purchased for between £5 and £10 per person. The notice for this is attached. If you can do please print and display it, and talk about it to your friends. The more people who come to this, the better we will be placed to move forward together.

The Second is our First in a series of courses to help us grow in faith, love, trust and understanding.

The Worship Course is for everyone. Worship is our first priority as the church, and we all take part in it and have a responsibility to make it successful. However, there are some who have specific roles in preparing for and leading worship. This may be reading the scriptures, ironing linen, serving at the Altar, or producing and leading music etc. Whatever our role in worship, and particularly if we have a specific responsibility, it is only right and proper that we regularly refresh our understanding and continue to grow and develop our knowledge and skills. 

To this end, we are holding a three-session course on Worship: the church’s first calling.

Again, the notice is attached, and I encourage all of us to come and take the opportunity to our understanding and give us more confidence in our worship.

The Third is the restart , finally, of our church governance. Both the individual PCCS and the JPCC have basically been on hold over the pandemic and lockdown.  There is always much to do when planning and organising the life of the church and the proclamation of the kingdom. After the lockdown, and with a new priest, there is a vast amount to do. We should be excited about this. Here is an opportunity to work together to proclaim Christ Crucified, something that we should always be itching to do.

The JPCC is meeting once a month in September, October and November.  This is far more meetings in a short space of time, than we would usually, but I feel that after the past eighteen months, we need to get moving! Those of you who are on the JPCC will be notified about this soon. The Individual PCCs will be meeting as soon as possible after Monday 20^th September. We are currently working out exactly when these will occur.

The Fourth is really exciting!  It is about Church growth. To be exact about Baptism and confirmation.

We currently have 17 Baptisms performed or organised within our benefice over the summer and autumn. As a result of this, we now have three adult confirmation candidates, and Bishop Robert will be coming to this Benefice at some point in the Autumn to conduct a Confirmation Service for our Deanery.

If you know of anyone who would be interested in being prepared for confirmation, please let them know, and ask them, or their parents, if they are children, to get in touch with me. If you yourself have not been confirmed, or even if you have, but would quite like to refresh your understanding, then please do get in touch. A notice is attached.

I am very heartened by our recent worship, and the attendance at our post lockdown services. I do hope that we will all look forward to being fully part of the worshipping community once more and have the confidence to invite others to join us in the worship of God and in the service of our communities.

The Summer season has begun, and many people are travelling to and through our parishes. I hope and pray that that with courtesy and common sense, we will all benefit from the business that the tourist season will bring to our local economy.

Katie and I are having a summer break away. There are some changes to the usual rota of services, and these are detailed in the final attachment that came with this letter.

Finally, we want this letter to be sent to as many people as possible. If you are aware of anyone who may be interested but is not yet on our contact list, then please forward it to them, or print it out and pass it on.

I hope all of you, whether travelling or staying put, have a wonderful Summer.

With love and prayers

Philip

The Revd Philip James Conway B.A. Dip Min

From the Parish Priest

Dear friends,

The Church of God is a community of Life, faith, and hope. And it was with hope that we looked forward to the beginnings of an unrestricted life in July. Sadly, on this occasion, this is not to be.

It is very sad that we have had to postpone or cancel all the church events and celebrations that were scheduled for the end of June and throughout July, but we have no choice but to follow the scientific advice and government instructions.

As I have said and written many times in the last few months, our first priority must be to work for a safe and healthy environment for all, and although I am personally disappointed and frustrated by further delays, it is only right to make sure that we do all we can to support the national and international efforts against this awful virus.

We will try to reschedule our events when the time is right, and the current restricted worship timetable will now continue through July.

Do all please take care, and stay safe.

With love and prayers,

Philip