St Mary's Church, Dymock

Reports

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This month saw the third annual Dymock Music Festival run by the local Cricket Club but with involvement of many local groups and commercial companies as well as well-known musicians and bands. A section of our junior Church choir, who call themselves 'The Maybelles', were one of the supporting acts. They were well received as they were booked to appear at the forthcoming 'Newent Onion Fayre'. Our Church also had a stall (see picture) with three main parts under the overall title "Serving the Community". (Return to top)

1. A display of photos of church activities covering 'Young People', 'Fellowship' and 'Church Life' (Click here for photo) 2. A 'Prayer Tree' for people to leave prayer requests for themselves and others. (3) Posters of forthcoming concerts including the internationally renowned Carducci String Quartet, the Folk Singer Johnny Coppin and our own local talent in a Summer Serenade. (Return to top)

Another traditional event each year is our joint Service to celebrate the return of Jesus to heaven - 'Ascension Day', which the church celebrates 40 days after Easter. We usually have an outdoor Service and release a small quantity of balloons to signify the 'ascension' before sharing a light lunch together. (Return to top)

Unfortunately the weather this year was very wet, so we held the Service in Redmarley church instead, after which 17 people withdrew to the Rectory where our Rector had provided soup, ham, cheese and bread with accompany drinks. (Return to top)

The Family Service this month celebrated the season of 'Rogation', when the church traditionally blessed the fields and newly-sown crops to ask for a good harvest. (Return to top)

The Service followed our usual 'All-Age' format for adults and young people, except the whole congregation went out into the churchyard and progressed round the church, stopping at the Lych Gate, the Village Hall and looking across the adjacent field to ask God's blessing on our life and expectation for this year's harvest. (Return to top)

Saturday 2nd May saw our latest breakfast for men in the Beauchamp Arms pub; this time our guest was Mr Ted Karnia, a retired police officer and member of the lay ministry team at nearby Gorsley Baptist Church. (Return to top)

Ted shared some if his experiences in the police - he was involved in helping to protect both the investigation and trial of Fred and Rosemary West before joining the Royal Protection Squad with responsibility for protecting Prince Charles, Princess Ann and other royals when they lived in, and visited Gloucestershire. (Return to top)

On one occasion, after he'd become a Christian, he took over the night shift as Sergeant-in-Charge at a Police Station in Cheltenham which had two rival groups of 'Travellers' in the cells who'd had been fighting... and were still near a riot. He said something told him it would be all-right so he he went down into the cells and spoke with the leader of one of the groups, and discovered he knew Ted's brother, who had told him Ted was a good man. As a result, the Traveller's leader spoke to the others and calm was restored. (Return to top)

Gorsley is a small collection of hamlets without a real centre, so the church is 'in the middle of nowhere' but it has a large and flourishing membership. Their previous minister moved on a year ago and they've been going through the process of finding a replacement, which they hope will happen soon. In the meantime Ted is part of the Lay Team on people keeping things going. He was pleased to report that their church membership continues to grow with men becoming members as well as ladies.(Return to top)