Benefice of Goring and Streatley with South Stoke : Sunday 29th January 2023

Sunday 29th January Epiphany 4

Welcome to our weekly newsletter

This Sunday at 10.30am please unite together across the parishes, meeting for a special service in Goring.

It will also be the unveiling and re-dedication of the organ there.

We end our season of Epiphany and desire to have the light of the gospel ever clearer in our hearts and lives and encourage each other in our callings.

Photo: Bernard Novell

The Collect, the prayer for the week
God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Readings for Sunday: 1 Cor. 1: 18-end, Ps 36: 5-10 and John 2: 1-11.

This Sunday:
8:00am BCP Holy Communion at St Thomas’
10:30am Benefice Holy Communion service and
re-dedication of the organ at St Thomas’

Following discussion on how to be more prayerful:
Daily Prayer happens and anyone is welcome. We listen to the Bible and pray for our world and church.
Following a request we are trying a new time on Friday this week:
Monday: 8.30am Goring, Tuesday and Thursday: 8.30am Streatley
Friday: 9am Goring

Ecumenical Lent course
The ecumenical Lent course will commence in the week beginning 27 February. The focus this year is on the prayers that Jesus prayed. The Lent course provides a wonderful opportunity to meet with fellow Christians from different denominations and learn more about our shared faith. Look out for the sign up sheets at the back of the churches. Please pray about joining a group and also about whom you might invite to join you.
If you feel you would like to host a group or indeed lead a group, please contact Catherine Coulson via email.

News from Honduras
We have received a newsletter from Steve and Lindsey Poulson updating us about their work for CMS in Honduras. They have just been to the first regional CMS Latin American conference in Argentina which has given them time to be refreshed for the year ahead. Please click here to read more about how things are going for them and where they would welcome our prayers.

Try Out the Organ Day at St Thomas'
This Saturday, 28th January, in the afternoon there will be the opportunity for young musicians up to the age of 25 who are interested in learning to play the organ, to experience playing the rebuilt instrument under the guidance of local organist Bryan Almond.
If you are interested in taking part, please contact the parish office (e-mail officeofgsandss@yahoo.com or call 875651) to book your place. More details about the event can be found on the benefice website by clicking here.

“Ring for the King”
Also on January 28th but in the morning, between 10am and noon, the bell ringers of Goring and Streatley will be holding an “Open tower” event at St Thomas’ when you can come and learn more about church bell ringing. They are hoping to ring for the coronation of King Charles III in early May and

would like to invite anyone living within a reasonable distance of the towers to learn to ring and join them for this occasion.
The ringers will explain the art of bell ringing and give you a chance to ring a simple method on hand bells. You will also be able to go up the bell tower to see the church bells and see how they are rung.
For more information (even if you can't make the 28th) please see https://tinyurl.com/2emzk54t or https://ringfortheking.org or e-mail Josie Irving (Tower Captain at St Thomas') at josieirving@hotmail.co.uk.

Warm Space
Our doors are open on Mondays, 10am-12 noon, in the Canterbury Room, offering a warm space, a welcome, company, tea, coffee and toast.
Do come, or invite anyone who might be alone.

Please pray for this venture. Do ask if you need help with a lift.
Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to make it possible.

Inaugural Organ Recital, Saturday 11th February 2023 at 7pm
To mark the completion of the organ rebuild project at St Thomas' there will be a recital by Thomas Trotter, an organist of international renown.
Tickets are £12 and are available online at eventbrite.co.uk (click here) or there may be limited availability on the door.
The concert will include music by Handel, Stanley, Mulet, Dupre, Dove and more and promises to be a wonderful event.

Review of last week’s Piano Recital at St Mary’s by Paul Page
We were treated to a delightful piano recital by Paul Page. He began with J S Bach’s French Suite no 5 which is a very pretty sequence of varied movements based on dances, Allemande , Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte, Bouree, Loure and Gigue. Then he moved on to the main work of the evening which was Janacek’s “On an Overgrown Path”. This was one of Janacek’s best known works in his lifetime but it was new to most of us. The Overgrown Path is the path of Janacek’s memories through his life, an evening in the countryside of his childhood, a love song to a forgotten sweetheart, a letter filed away for good, a church full of processions and pilgrims, young girls playing, music for parting, the anguish of his daughter’s illness and death from typhoid and the ill omen of an owl that stays on the roof. All the movements were very different and very emotive, painting clear pictures of the memories, which were not just Janacek’s alone but seemed to contain all of our memories too. Paul finished with two movements from Debussy’s Estampes, Pagodes, based on Indonesian Gamelan music and La Soiree dans Grenade which was very Spanish and finally an encore of Debussy’s Au Claire de la Lune. We all had a wonderful evening, despite the frozen fog lowering the temperature, and very much enjoyed the cake and tea in the Morrell Room afterwards too! Thank you very much to everyone who helped run the concert and provide the tea and cakes and especial thanks for Paul. Stella Robinson

We are asked to pray

For the marriage preparation course next Saturday.
For the bereavement group continuing this week.
For the Warm Spaces initiative on Monday mornings.
For a right candidate to respond to the advert now out for a new organist/director of music at St Thomas’.
For Steve and Lindsey as they continue to lead Proyecto Alas/the businesses, and continue to connect with other projects working with at-risk children and young people.
For the new school year in Honduras with the 50 Alas kids and the six university students.

General Synod meets soon to govern the Church of England and decide on painful issues which can easily divide us, such as understandings of God’s wishes for marriage and same sex blessings, appropriate Climate Action etc. Please pray for them.
We also pray for the sick.

Diary for next week:

Monday 30th January
10:00am Warm Space in the Canterbury Room

Wednesday 1st February
10:30am    BCP Holy Communion at St Thomas’
followed by coffee in the Canterbury Room
The readings will be Heb. 12. 4-7, 11-15, Ps. 103. 1-2, 13-18 and Mark 6. 1-6a.

Saturday 4th February
9:30am      Marriage preparation course in the Canterbury Room

Sunday 5th February
8:00am      BCP Holy Communion at St Thomas’
9:30am      Family service at St Thomas’
11:15am    Holy Communion at St Mary’s
11:15am    Family service at St Andrew’s
4pm           Evensong at St Mary’s

The monthly calendar for February can be downloaded by clicking here.

Daily readings for the week beginning 30th January

Monday am:	Ps 57	Hos. ch. 9	1 Cor. 12. 12-end	pm: Ps 20	Matt. 27. 11-26
Tuesday am:	Ps 93	Hos. ch. 10	1 Cor. ch. 13	pm: Ps 19	Matt. 27. 27-44
Wednesday am:	Ps 95	Hos. 11. 1-11	1 Cor. 14. 1-19	pm: Ps 118	Heb. 4. 11-end
Thursday am:	Ps 48	Exod. 13. 1-16	Rom. 12. 1-5	pm: Ps 132	John 2. 18-22
Friday am:	Ps 19	Hos. 13. 1-14	1 Cor. 16. 1-9	pm: Ps 22	Matt. 28. 1-15
Saturday am:	Ps 23	Hos. ch. 14	1 Cor. 16. 10-end	pm: Ps 24	Matt. 28. 16-end

Please send any notices or articles for the next news sheet by noon on Thursdays to vicarofgsandss@yahoo.com.