October News 2024
Hambleton Patronal Festival Weekend
In the middle of August, Hambleton celebrated their Patronal Festival. It was a glorious weekend. The “flower ladies” had been busy arranging displays that reflected the titles of Mary from across the globe. All who visited were treated to some wonderful cakes and the Patronal Festival weekend got off to a great start.
On the Sunday, Rev Maureen presided at the Eucharist. She spoke about sacrifice and like Mary and Elizabeth saying “yes” to God’s call no matter what the cost. Are we willing to say “yes” too? Following the service, we had lunch together in the hall.
Jeannette organised the children’s craft activities over the weekend and the adults joined in too – everyone who visited wrote a “thank you for …….” on a sunflower petal and there are quite a few! Thank you to all who worked so hard and made the weekend so successful and thank you to those who came to visit.
Coffee Morning
Thank you to Paul and Maureen Smelt who opened their home on a Saturday morning in August to host a coffee morning. Delicious cakes, pleasant company and pleasing weather made for an incredibly special occasion. The morning raised over sixty pounds for Pilling Church funds, for which we are incredibly grateful. Thank you everyone for a very lovely occasion.
Confirmation
The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated in the afternoon of 24th November and will take place at the Parish Church of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in Hambleton. Bishop Jill, Bishop of Lancaster, will celebrate our Confirmation.
Confirmation classes for young people will begin on Thursday 3rd October at 6:30pm. They will be held at the Church Hall in Pilling. The classes last three-quarters of an hour. Please let Fr Peter or Rev Naomi know if you have a child, grandchild or relative who is interested in being Confirmed.
The classes for young people are aimed at those in the top class at Primary School or the first year of Secondary School. Fr Peter and Adele will be running the classes.
Adult confirmation classes will run in November. Often when your child is being confirmed, it is an ideal moment for adults to consider confirmation. Again, do speak to Rev Naomi or Fr. Peter if you are interested in the next step in faith.
Christmas celebrations
We all have our particular traditions and customs surrounding the celebration of Christmas. We love routines and familiar activities which mark the start of Christmas for us all.
I am conscious that for many people their first Communion of Christmas, or what is often called Midnight Mass is an integral part of that tradition and celebration. However, I am equally conscious that in order to provide a celebration late into the night is becoming increasingly difficult for an elderly congregation.
I am particularly conscious of the great weight of responsibility placed upon wardens, sidespeople, organists and the celebrant. This responsibility is becoming increasingly difficult as we all become ever older. We all recall happy memories of a packed church at midnight with a number of those a little worse for wear adding to the sense of celebration and joy. However, since Covid the reality is that congregational numbers have steadily dwindled at Midnight Mass whilst our crib services have grown incredibly. Many now attend the crib service rather than venture out in the dark late at night.
Last year Out Rawcliffe made the decision to bring their first communion of Christmas forward significantly. As a result, it was the best attended Communion service at Christmas across the entire benefice.
As we look across all six of our churches we need to have a balance between crib services, first communion of Christmas and Christmas day morning services.
I am conscious that in order to staff a late-night communion, we are very heavily reliant upon our retired clergy. It does not seem fair to expect our PTOs to be at church for 11:30 p.m. at a service that will not finish until 12:30 a.m., they then have to drive home and unwind a little. They may not be in bed until 2:00 in the morning. These times are equally true for some of our organists.
I want you all to think, pray and talk about what you feel would be an appropriate pattern for celebrations on Christmas Eve.
It is important that we have one service at 11:30 p.m. However, we may have other first Communions at 10:30 p.m. or 10:00 p.m. to give people opportunity to be at church at little earlier if they prefer. Out Rawcliffe have asked that they retain the experimental time of 7:30 p.m. from last year.
I know this service is part of people’s customs and tradition, but with an elderly team of clergy and an ever increasingly elderly congregation, we need to ask if we can realistically sustain several late-night services across the benefice. We shall certainly need to offer one 11:30 p.m. service, but do we need to offer three?
Think and pray deeply about this and discuss it together in PCC. What do you feel would be the best time for our first communion of Christmas. Perhaps one at 10 p.m., one at 10:30 p.m., one at 11:30 p.m. ~ how do you feel, whilst being mindful of the capabilities of others? Particularly our elderly clergy and our organists.
Thank you!
Fr Peter