February 2020

 

1st 12.30pm Soup & Chat (Hall)

2nd 8.00am Holy Communion [Candlemas]

10.00am Prayer Time (Lady Chapel)

10.45am Family Communion

4.00pm Taize Service (Lady Chapel)

4th 7.30pm Matlock Churches Together

5th 9.30am Holy Communion (1662) (Tansley)

1.00pm Wednesday at One (Lady Chapel)

6th 2.00pm Longmeadow Services

7.30pm Choir practice (Lady Chapel)

9th 8.00am Holy Communion [Third Sunday before Lent]

10.00am Prayer Time (Lady Chapel)-

10.45am Family Communion

4.00pm Bank Road Messy Church (MMURC)

12th 9.30am Holy Communion (1662) (Tansley)

1.00pm Wednesday at One (Lady Chapel)

13th 7.30pm Choir practice (Lady Chapel)

15th 2.00pm Holy Baptism

16th 8.00am Holy Communion (1662) [Second Sunday before Lent]

10.00am Prayer Time (Lady Chapel)

10.45am Family Communion

18th 2.00pm Valley Lodge Service

19th 9.30am Holy Communion (1662) (Tansley)

11.00am Lilybank Service

1.00pm Wednesday at One (Lady Chapel)

23rd 8.00am Holy Communion [Sunday next before Lent]

10.00am Prayer Time (Lady Chapel)

10.45am Family Communion

4.00pm Confirmation Service (Darley Dale)

25th 7.30pm Lent Group I (Meeting Room)

26th 9.30am Holy Communion (1662) (Tansley) [Ash Wednesday]

1.00pm Wednesday at One (Lady Chapel)

7.30pm Holy Communion & Imposition of Ashes (Tansley)

 

Baptisms

 

Weddings

 

Funerals

 

7.1.2020 Pansy Towndrow (89) (Crem)

27.1.2029 Susan Lang

 

Letter

Letter from the Curate
Dear Friends,
It’s February. With the celebrations of January 1st now a distant memory, we’ve reached another
new year this month, one signalling a far more significant new beginning. We enter this new year,
this new era, with either trepidation or excitement facing a closure and opening with
consequences more far-reaching over time that the smooth transition from one calendar year, or
even decade, to the next. We have taken the first definitive step to leave the European Union and
begun the process of negotiating our future relationship with our closest friends and neighbours
which could still lead to the hardest of divorces, and on-going dis-ease throughout our four
nations. We pray that all those in positions of responsibility will in the months ahead make wise
decisions for the good of all, especially the smallest and weakest.
A new year is a funny thing, and in reality a moveable feast. January 1st is accepted universally for
practical and business purposes as marking each new calendar year, but for many nations, faiths
and cultures new year is traditionally celebrated on different dates: hardly a month goes by
without there being a new year somewhere in the world, spring and autumn being favourites. A
fascinating - and lengthy - list can be found on Wikipedia. In our own history new year has been
marked at different times, and with more logic than January 1st. March 25th the Feast of the
Annunciation (Lady Day) has long been popular. Christmas, or Easter, or Pentecost marking the
birth of the church also have solid claims within our Christian heritage. Then there’s the first
Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the liturgical year. We live too by other, secular, new year
dates - the end of the fiscal year is in March, the financial year ends on April 5th, and the new
academic year begins in September.
What all this points to is that as the earth revolves around the sun, something deep in the human
psyche wants to mark the corresponding seasonal variations wherever we are on the planet,
seizing the opportunity to bid farewell to the past with its share of failures and sadnesses, and
look forward in hope to the new. And it doesn’t really matter at what point in the cycle that
happens.
This mirrors the work of God - but we don’t have to wait for a new year, for as the earth spins on
its axis on a daily basis, so God remains active, 24/7, on the move seeking us out anew. Turning
to us in love, God yearns for us in each moment to respond and turn Godward, to see ourselves
both flawed and beautiful, and be loved and forgiven. There lies our hope, especially when life
seems especially dark. I’ve stressed that word ‘daily’, for with God we don’t need to wait for an
annual ‘return’. God is there for us all the time, whoever we are, whatever we’ve done, calling us
to turn and receive abundant love, as scripture reminds us:
‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ (Lamentations 3. 22-3)
Whatever happens in this uncharted pathway on which we are now embarking, may we daily
(re)turn to God, receive the abundant forgiveness, love and life that is promised to us in Christ,
and set out in faith and with hope, knowing ourselves as beloved children of God, and committing
ourselves to sharing that love with all around us, day by precious day, wherever that leads us.
With every blessing, Anne