ST. MARY'S CHURCH, CHAPEL LAWN

One of seven parishes in the Middle Marches Benefice which comprises the parish churches of Bedstone, Bucknell, Chapel Lawn, Clungunford, Hopton Castle, Llanfair Waterdine and Stowe.- find out more

Church Wardens: Christine Oakley 01547 530585, James Middleton 530247

PCC team: Barry Palmer 530106 (Treasurer), Karen Limbrick 530002 (Secretary), Di Cosgrove 530347, Pat Hancock, Andrew Gibbs, George Roberts, Mark Limbrick, Janet Tudor and Helena Lane

Our priest Rev Annie Ballard has retired recently and moved to Knighton. The Benefice is subject to a “suspension of the right of presentation”, which means that we will be without our own priest for a period of up to five years. In the meantime the diocese has offered “someone to step in and undertake an interim Ministry” which is currently under review and we await developments.

Chapel Lawn Services

Sunday 20th March   9.30am Morning Prayer – led by a member of the congregation

Sunday 3rd April  9.30am Holy Communion service led by Rev Martin Quayle

Friday 15th April   9.30am Good Friday (Stations of the Cross) service led by Rev Martin Quayle

2.00pm  Children’s Easter activities at St Mary’s. Easter egg hunt with hot cross buns and Easter gardens.

Sunday 17th April  9.30am Easter Sunday service – led by members of the church

Sunday 1st May  9.30am Holy Communion led by Rev Martin Quayle

All are very welcome to attend services.

On Sunday 6th June we welcomed Rev. Richard Shaw to lead our Holy Communion service. It was a lovely sunny morning, so we set up a table outdoors afterwards and shared coffee together.

Thank you to James who organised the seasonal churchyard grass cutting session on 8th June – lots of folk turned up with strimmers, wheelbarrows and rakes for the task. The evening concluded with some well deserved beer and catch up time!

A big THANK YOU to Barry! On 18th June a special presentation took place in Chapel Lawn marking Barry Palmer’s 17 years of service delivering the Deanery Magazine and The Redlake across the Parish. Over the years Barry has walked almost 2000 miles delivering the magazines in the hamlets of Pentre Hodre, Obley, Bergam, Hobarris,  Pen-y-wern, Menutton and Pentre and further afield. An eight mile round trip literally up hill and down dale. He has done this in all weathers ensuring the magazines got to their readers as well as keeping up contact with local folk. Now he has hung up his walking boots, we thank Barry for his many years of service on the delivery round.

Readers can rest assured that Barry has made sure the delivery of the magazine in the Parish will continue, having trained up more enthusiastic team members!

*****

A Teddy Bear’s Picnic is being planned by Christine and Karen for younger children on Friday August 27th from 2pm. We are gathering at the church.

*****

It is with great sadness that we report that friend of the church, Canon John Greaves, passed away on 21st June. He was a remarkable man of God and well respected by all who knew him.

CHURCH NEWS

Services

1st Sunday at 9.30am Holy Communion led by Rev Dr Martin Quayle

A Holy Communion service generally takes place somewhere within our Benefice every Sunday.

3rd Sunday at 9.30am Morning Prayer (lay led by members of the PCC. The service will be based on Common Worship, Book of Common Prayer or have a Celtic Iona format.)

We have had a busy Autumn with lots of church events taking place .

Teddy Bear’s Picnic -27 August

Several families spent the afternoon by the river Redlake dipping in the waters and spotting small fish, crayfish and all kinds of underwater creatures. Later we shared a picnic together and listened to a bible story about Jesus and the storm on the lake.

Ride and Stride – 11 September

Every year, since about 2011, we have welcomed all who take part in this annual event, especially since we received a substantial grant from the Shropshire Historic Churches Trust towards much needed renovation work. Coffee and cakes are always ready for weary riders and striders to enjoy on their journey around local churches.

Ramble and Lunch - Sunday 12 September

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who supported us at our annual ‘Ramble and Lunch’ event. Those who set up and took down, those who volunteered for many hours on the day, those who rambled and those who ate the lunches!

We took a year off in 2020 for obvious reasons and were hoping folk would come together for the church this year as funds had been affected by all the Government restrictions.

We had good walking weather for the event and were able to seat many outside the hall under two gazebos and seats lent for the day.

Thank you to all of you who donated salads and puddings, as this cut our costs, so we were able to make even more profit for the church funds.

We reckon we provided a hearty lunch for about 120 and currently we have made a profit of over eleven hundred pounds (it was our best year ever!!). We believe it was well worth all the hard work put in by so many friends of the church. Thank you so much and we look forward to seeing you again next year!

Rev Martin Quayle’s licensing– 19 September

Several members of the church were present to witness our new Vicar’s licensing at St Cuthbert’s church, Clungunford.  We were pleased to welcome Rev Martin to a community event in Chapel Lawn when he spent an hour at our Macmillan fundraiser a few days later.

Harvest service – Friday 1 October

The church was beautifully decorated by Jenny Dale and Clare Davies with a riot of colourful dahlias and sunflowers from Christine’s garden. The talented friends decorated all flat spaces and windowsills, including the font and altar. Children in the congregation brought up offerings of soil, water, grain, milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables as part of the service. Afterwards over thirty parishioners enjoyed a harvest supper in the village hall, washed down with cider provided by James.

As the altar was full of flowers, it was hard for Rev Martin to find room to rest his books for the communion service with a harvest theme, the following Sunday (3rd), when we welcomed him to our church for the first time.

PCC members and churchwardens were invited to a Benefice meeting on 2.10.21 to hear Rev Martin and the Diocesan Parish Giving adviser speak about the need for all the churches in the benefice to consider their capacity to give more financially to the Diocese. These matters and our response are currently being considered by the PCC.

We are sad to report the death of Mrs Beryl Palmer on 18th October. Beryl had been bravely fighting cancer for over a year. Beryl was a long standing church warden, very well respected within our church community for her unstinting work on our behalf. She had undergone lay reader training and each summer attended Christian ministry courses. She managed the upkeep of the church building alongside other wardens and PCC members and the smooth running of all services throughout the year. Beryl had to stand down due to her illness.

Beryl was very well known throughout the locality, to be seen at many local community events and often organising them behind the scenes or from the kitchen. Beryl was a kind, generous and thoughtful ‘good neighbour’ to many people. She will be greatly missed.

Our Remembrance service on Sunday 14th November was again led by James Middleton. A special time when we remember those who came from Chapel Lawn and who perished in serving our country in the Wars. The Parochial Church Council members and partners enjoyed lunch together afterwards at the Baron in Bucknell.

We welcomed many people to our Carol Service on the 19th December when the church was decorated for Christmas. We were particularly happy to receive the donation of a large wreath for the church door from our local florist - Jenny. As the service was about to begin we found the organ was not cooperating due to an electrical fault, so Wayne Davies returned home and came back with his accordion, to save the day! The accordion lent a lovely informality to our service, especially with sherry and mince pies to follow! On a very sunny Christmas Day morning, Rev Martin led us in Holy Communion when again the pews were filled with parishioners.

LENT -  a time for self-reflection in the church calendar, begins on Ash Wednesday (2nd March) and some members of the seven churches in our Benefice will be coming together for Bible teaching and prayer each week. This culminates in solemn services on the three days before Easter, remembering Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, before the celebration of his resurrection on Easter Day (17th April). Service details to be announced on the CL website.

We are looking forward to contributing to the village’s response to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (4-6th June) by taking part in the national beacon lighting on the Camp. St Mary’s is hosting a wedding in the middle of May and we hope to hold a concert on Sunday 16th May, when the church will be full of flowers.

Good Friday children’s activities on 15th April   

All children are invited to spend Good Friday afternoon at St Mary’s Church with their parents or carers. There will be an Easter egg hunt around the churchyard, Easter gardens to make for the Easter Day service on Sunday 17th April and an Easter storytelling in church. Come and find out what Easter is all about!

Hot cross buns to eat too!