Parish web site: www.stcatherinesthurrock.org.uk

100 ClubThe July draw was a little bit late as Iwas waiting for some of the regulars togive me the £10 annual subscription. Thewinner was Patrick Doyle who we seeregularly at St. Francis. Congratulations toPat one of our very generous supporters.The 100 Club is an excellent fund raiserand as I have said at the P.C.C. meetingsmuch easier than pickling onions. Thenext draw will be at St. Francis on August28th. Any more members welcome.Julie Hobby of the Queen VictoriaSeamen’s Rest who run the Seafarer’sCentre in Tilbury Docks writes…… Everyyear we give out Christmas presents toseafarers who will be at sea or in the portsat Christmas. We have a target of 2,500presents to wrap this year. We appreciateany donations of toiletries, soap, flannels,shower gel, razors, shaving foam,deodorant, we are also looking for unusedChristmas cards so that we can get themwritten for each parcel. Donations ofsellotape is also a help. The dates thisyear for wrapping are October 22nd, 23rd,28th, 29th and 30th November 4th, 5th,13th and 14th times for all dates 11amuntil 3pm we provide lunch. To sign up forsessions please call 01375-840454.Congratulations to Vikki on the safearrival of Chloe Olivia Louise who wasborn on Sunday 11th August at 9.21 p.m.and weighed in at 9 lb 2 oz. Chloe hasalready been seen in church with hermum!Sunday August 11th was the Revd. BarryJohnson’s last Sunday as our “lead

minister” during the interregnum. However,on his return from a short holiday hereturns to take our Wednesdaycommunion services on 28th August andthe 4th September. He has also said thathe would be happy to return for theoccasional service if Revd. Michèle needscover and he is available. On his lastSunday, at the end of the service, Barrywas presented with a card and cheque tothank him for his months of faithful servicehere in the parish. Carol Bell alsoproduced on of her beautiful celebratorycakes to commemorate the occasionwhich was consumed then and on thefollowing Wednesday - Barry felt that hecouldn’t eat it all himself!Many of us will recall that the Revd.Rosemary Pritchard, who was the previousminister at the Linford Methodist church,went to Burkina Faso to help translate theBible into the indigenous language for theWycliffe Bible Translators. Sadly, due tothe very dangerous situation that hasarisen where she was working with risk toboth her life and those local people thatshe was helping, she has had to return tothe UK with little likelihood of her returningto Burkina Faso any time soon.The Thurrock foodbank had a successfulsupermarket collection at Morrison’s Graybranch on 17th August. Thanks to thevolunteers that gave their time to man theevent and those generous shoppers thatmade donations, 424 kg of food and £107in cash was raised - a great result as foodstocks are quite low at this time of year.The PCC have agreed that our Harvestfood donations would be for the foodbank.

B iE

Reflections from The RectoryWell, I say ‘Reflections from the Rectory’ but the truth ofthe matter is that as I sit and write this article for theSeptember edition of Pewtalk I am still in Bicknacre.If any of you have walked past The Rectory in Linford youwill have noticed for some weeks now a flurry of trade’smen coming and going and working extremely hard tomake good our new home. And I during the month ofAugust have been busily de-cluttering and clearing outthe items we no longer need.They say that moving house is one the most stressfulthings a person or family can do and it certainly makesfor a busy time with checklists a plenty. But moving to anew house, job and community is also very exciting.

I have often thought that the month of September is the month of new beginnings. Foranybody involved in education there will a new beginning as the next academic yearcommences. Teachers will have new students; pupils are likely to be in new classes; thosebeyond GCSE’s and A Levels may be off to vocational courses, college or university. Andsome will be venturing into the world of work.New beginnings are exciting and can broaden our horizons and perspective on life. Wemake new friendships, we learn new things, and we grow and develop. But new beginningscan also be a little bit scary. ‘Will I know where my new classroom is’? ‘What will life be likeaway from home and family and will I cope’? ‘Will my new congregation like the way I leadservices and preach sermons’?As Christians and people of faith we believe that God is with us all things. He is with us whenwe feel bold and happy about the new steps in our lives but also with us when we lackcourage and feel overwhelmed by all the changes happening around us. And in suchcircumstances it may be helpful to remember that God is always just a prayer away andeven hears the doubting and fragile ones we hold in our hearts.So, if like me, you are about to embrace a new beginning this September I wish you well andpray that this time of change goes smoothly.And hopefully, by the next edition of PEWTALK I really will be ‘Reflecting from the Rectory’. Ilook forward to meeting new neighbours, friends and members of the church and community.

Every Blessing, Revd Michèle.

The picture is of Michèle, husband Robin and son William at Williams graduation….Ed

Hopes for the Lambeth Conference 2020The Lambeth Conference, which begins next summer, must proclaim that Anglicansoffer themselves as ‘bridge-builders’ to a world which needs peace and reconciliation.So says the Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba, who chairs the conference’sdesign group. “We are there for peace, to address some of the social needs. We arethere, in our brokenness, to look at growth – to rebuild trust in the world.”The theme of next summer’s event is: ‘God’s Church for God’s World.’ Bishops fromevery Province in the Anglican Communion will meet in Canterbury for a week of Biblestudies, keynote speeches, seminars and discussions.The Bishop of Dallas, the Rt Revd George Sumner, also a member of the design group,said that Lambeth 2020 is a ‘remarkable opportunity to realise we inherit somethingwhich is ancient, which we want to pass on to our spiritual children and grandchildren,and that we share that with this amazing, fragile, beautiful communion of brother andsister Churches throughout the world.’Lambeth 2020 is the first such conference since the fractious conference of 2008, whichwas dominated by division over gay bishops. The organisers of 2020 will have theirwork cut out for them, as the lead-up has already been overshadowed by more rows andthreats of walk-outs.

C of E and Methodists inch closer to communion with each otherThe General Synod has recently given its backing to further steps towards bringingthe Church of England and the Methodist Church in Great Britain into communionwith each other.Members voted in favour of starting work on drafting a series of texts including aformal declaration of a new relationship of communion between the two churches.The texts would include inaugural services to mark this new relationship andpractical guidelines on how ministers from each church could serve in the other.The Bishop of Coventry, Christopher Cocksworth, called the Methodist Church“our close historical cousin and covenant partner”.The Revd Joyce Jones, from the Diocese of Leeds, said: “Our unity is vital for ourmission. If people see our two churches separately then they won’t see Christeasily. If they see us loving one another and working together to serve Christ, theyare more likely to be drawn to faith.”

Some things you may not know about our county of EssexThe great keep of Castle Hedingham, at over 100 ft (30.5 m)high, is the best preserved keep of its kind in England. Theroof of the Grea tHall on the second floor is held up by thelargest Norman arch in the world with a span of 28 ft(8.5 m).These days you can be married there.

St. Botolph’s church overlooking thethatched north Essex village of Hadstock has the oldest door inEngland. It’s possible that this church is the minster built by KingCanute to celebrate his victory over Edmund Ironside at Assandun in1016. The door dates from that time,making it not far short of 1,000years old. It is the only known Saxon door in England still in use.

A plain, inoffensive looking bungalow in the Essexcountryside south of Ongar hides a dark and sinister secretfrom the past. The bungalow, at Kelvedon hatch, was,originally built as a sector operations centre for RAF fightercommend. In the 1960s it was transformed into one of thegovernment’s top secret, Cold War nuclear bunkers.Burrowing into the hillside behind, rather like a Hobbit hole,is a labyrinth of secret passages and rooms where the Prime Minister and his staffwould have tried to run whatever was left of a post-nuclear Britain. Stretching 75 ft (15m) underground and encased in reinforced concrete 10 ft (3 m) thick, the wholecomplex was constructed without any of the locals knowing what was going on. Thegovernment must feel safer today as the bunker is now open to the public and worth avisit!

Another scam to be aware ofI recently read about a new scam which we need to be alive to. It works like this.A courier delivers to you a package which is clearly addressed to you but you have notordered. It will usually be something of significant value - a high end mobile phone forexample. As it is addressed to you, you accept it. Shortly afterwards someone purportingto be a courier calls and tells you that it is a mistake and that they will take it back and soyou give it too them. NO, NO, NO. What has happened is that someone is impersonatingyou, has ordered the item in your name and address and now wishes to claim it forthemselves.What we must do is contact the sender and explain that we did not order the item so thatthe perpetrator may be traced. It would also be a good idea to contact “Action Fraud”.

WHO WAS ST. CATHERINE?

We have been invited to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square on 24th September, tosee the Gallery’s new acquisition, the painting of St Catherine by Artemisia Gentileschi.But who was this St Catherine to whom our church is dedicated?St Catherine of Alexandria, born in 287AD, was the daughter of the Governor ofAlexandria. She was executed for her Christian beliefs in 305 AD. Egypt was then part ofthe Roman Empire and Alexandria was one of the great Roman cities and famous as acity of great learning. Christianity had been brought to Egypt and Alexandra a centuryearlier, though Egypt and the Roman Empire were still overwhelming pagan and theRoman Emperors of those years, Maximian and Marcus Aurelius Maxentius, persecutedChristians and the ChurchAt 14, Catherine had a vision of Jesus and the Virgin Mary and became a Christian.When Emperor Maxentius began persecuting Christians, she went to him and rebukedhim for his cruelty. Maxentius brought the leading pagan philosophers and scholarstogether to refute her arguments, but it was said many of them listened to Catherine andbecame Christians. Maxentius executed them and violently flogged and then imprisonedCatherine who never wavered from her faith, Maxentius then ordered her to be starved todeath but she somehow survived. During this time many people, impressed by her faith,visited her in prison. They included Maxentius’ wife who became a Christian; he had herexecuted too.Having failed to make Catherine give up her faith by cruelty, he then offered to marry her.Catherine refused saying she considered herself to be a “bride of Christ”, a phrase laterused by the Church to describe Nuns. In his anger, Maxentius ordered her to be killed bythe “breaking wheel” – a heavy cart or chariot wheel run repeatedly over her. The wheelrim had barbed metal to make the death of the victim more excruciating. But the wheel“miraculously” broke as soon as it touched Catherine, so she was beheaded by thesword. She was only 18 years old.Although many people think Catherine was martyred on a wheel, in fact the executionwheel failed to do its work {not unlike most firework Catherine Wheels named after her!)Her body was buried in the remote area of the Sinai desert at the place where Moses hadheard God speaking in the burning bush, and alongside the mountain where Moses hadreceived the Ten Commandments. A few centuries later the great fortified monastery ofSt Catherine was built on the site and it has been a place of pilgrimage ever since.

This article kindly supplied by The Revd. Canon Paul Robinson……..Ed.

Next time - Why is our East Tilbury Church dedicated to an Egyptian Saint?

HairdressersIn 1974,1 was working in the City in a firm of stockbrokers and lived in Rainham withmy mother and stepfather. Every week, I went to a Hairdressers in, I think, LeadenhallStreet, to have my hair done and always had the same assistant whose name wasSheila. Now, as everyone knows, ladies talk to their hairdressers, and gentlemen talkto their barbers.Well, in December 1974 my mother died quite suddenly and I decided that now wasthe time to save hard and buy my own flat. Of course, I mentioned this to Sheila whopromptly said, there were some nice flats being built where she lived in East Tilbury(she knew I lived in Rainham). “Oh, I had better go down and have a look at them ”said. I did this and, in fact, even paid a £50 deposit on a flat that was being built atAshlands Court. Then I started to receive details of various properties in the area andeventually I bought a downstairs flat in Northumberland Road, Linford and moved in inAugust 1976.Now, later that year, or it could have been the next year, I suddenly got a call fromSheila to say that I could no longer have my hair done at the Salon in the City as theowner had gone bankrupt and they had all been made redundant. So, she and herhusband had decided that now was the time to start a family. But, if I thought it was agood idea, she could come to my flat in Linford of an evening once a week to continueto do my hair. This was agreed and we carried on with this arrangement for manyyears.She and Mick (a lovely man) eventually had three sons, Sheila did my hair when Imarried Harry and when I married Pat — in fact the whole family came to thatwedding. I believe she even did my hair on my 70th birthday. Unfortunately, not longafter that Mick died of Pancreatic cancer and, as Sheila didn’t drive, our hairdressingassociation came to an end.Now for the tailpiece……. Luke, the eldest son, joined the RAF, fell in love with aLiverpool girl, also in the RAF, got married, left the RAF, moved to Liverpool andjoined the police. And a few days ago, there on the BBC News was Sgt. Luke Pennsaying how they were trying to stop children in care being swept up in the “CountyLines” drug problem. His dad would have been so proud of him as I am sure hismother is and, SO AM I!!

Valerie Doyle

Where now?A teacher was finishing up a lesson on the joys of discovery and the importance ofcuriosity. “Where would we be today,” she asked, “if no one had ever been curious?”There was a pause, and then one child ventured: “In the garden of Eden?”

FROM THE AUGUST MEETING OF THE P.C.C.The P.C.C. met at St. Francis with allmembers present except Janice, andKim who had other commitments andPatricia who was unwell. Revd. Michèlejoined our deliberations once again andopened the meeting with some thoughtsabout William and Catherine Booth(founders of the Salvation Army) whoseday of commemoration it was, andprayers.The meeting went on to approve theminutes of the May and July meetingswith no matters arising that would not becovered by the rest of the agenda.Under “correspondence” Chris explainedthat he had advised the TV licensingauthorities that we did not require a TVlicense for St. Francis and, afterexplaining how the broadbandconnection there had come about saidthat, for now our contract with Talktalkwas on a monthly basis. Sheilaexplained that conversations with MartinPiper had resulted in him visiting onMonday the 19th to check and servicethe organ which had “played up” duringa recent wedding. He had removed aquantity of spiders and their webs andnoted that the small lamp to keep themechanism warm in winter had failed.Colin advised the meeting that he hadbeen contacted by the forestryCommission who would be visiting thechurchyard as part of a survey of the“Oak processionary” moth.Revd. Michèle gave the meeting anupdate on the work on the Rectorywhich she felt was going very well. TheDiocesan work should finish this weekand then carpets and decorating could

be done. Mark Hurn would do thedecorating and the church would fundany amount over the Diocesanprovision. Revd. Michèle expected totake possesion on the 28th.In his report, Norman advised that the100 club was currently in surplus - thecollection for Barry Johnson hadamounted to £150 - we had bought agazebo and he had been told that ourParish share rebate would end after theAugust payment. After some discussionit was agreed that we would support theChristmas “shoebox” appeal once again.The arrangements for Revd. Michèle’slicensing were noted. The invitationswere out with limited replies to date. Therefreshments were planned and thosemembers of the congregation whowould be involved had been advised.Kathy, as our Electoral Roll officer, gavethe meeting an update and Geraldineadvised that she and Kathy would beattending a “C2” safeguarding course.As David is still unwell he had beenunable to do any pastoral visits.During the discussion on our social andother events it was agreed that our teaafternoons would finish at 4.30pm ratherthan 5pm - concert tickets were stillgoing very slowly and once again we willsupport the Thurrock foodbank with ourHarvest collections. It was agreed toconsider the arrangements for the St.Cedd weekend and the Bazaar at a latermeeting. It was agreed that we wouldagain distribute breakfast bars at thestation before Christmas.The next meeting is on 8th October.

PARISH DIARY FOR SEPTEMBEROur Sunday services are at St. Catherine’s

1 Sep 11th Sunday after TrinityFamily Service 10.00am

2 Sep Rehearsal for Revd. Michèle Marshall’s licensing service 7.30pm 4 Sep Holy Communion at St Francis (Revd. Johnson’s last one) 10.00am Drop In at St Francis 10.30am - noon 5 Sep Thurrock Leaders’ Prayer time at St. Catherine’s 8.30am

Foodbank at St. Francis 11.00am - 1.00pmLicensing of Revd. Michèle Marshall 7.30pm

7 Sep Concert with the “Essex Music man” 7.00pm for 7.30pm

8 Sep 12th Sunday after TrinityParish Communion (Revd. Michèle’s first with us) 10.00amBaptism of Harper J Patricia Martin 12noon

10 Sep Bible study at St. Francis 7.30pm 11 Sep Holy Communion (St Francis) 10.00am Drop In at St. Francis 10.30am - noon 12 Sep Foodbank at St. Francis 11.00am - 1.00pm

15 Sep 13th Sunday after TrinityParish Communion 10.00amBaptism of Thomas William Tokley 12noon

18 Sep Drop In at St Francis 10.30am - noon 19 Sep Foodbank at St. Francis 11.00am - 1.00pm

22 Sep 14th Sunday after TrinityParish Communion 10.00amBaptism of Thiago Marco Kelsey 12noon

24 Sep Visit to the National Gallery 2.30pm 25 Sep Holy Communion (St Francis) 10.00am

Drop In at St Francis 10.30am - noon 26 Sep Foodbank at St. Francis 11.00am - 1.00pm 28 Sep Church cleaning at St. Catherine’s - volunteers please 10.00am

29 Sep 15th Sunday after TrinityParish Communion 10.00amSt. Catherine’s open for visitors with tea and cakes 2.00pm - 5.00pm

FROM ST. CATHERINE’S PARISH REGISTERSBaptisms 11 Aug Harrison David Rowe 18 Aug Kai Pascari 25 Aug Archie FitzpatrickWeddings 3 Aug Wedding of David Richard Sams & Laura Louise Brooks

10 Aug David Dusan Cermak & Amy Dawn ShannonFuneral 6 Aug Keith William Harvey

Internment of Ashes None

Where shall we hold the wedding?

A review of wedding laws is underway, which could mean that couples are given amuch wider choice of where they are allowed to enter into marriage or a civilpartnership.

Currently, the law requires ceremonies to be held in: places of worship, register offices,or buildings licensed by local authorities. But it may be that changes in the law wouldallow wedding to be held in anything from marquees, private homes, military sites forservice personnel, at sea, or even in the open air, as is already possible in Scotland.

The sites would still have to meet the existing test of solemnity and dignity, but theywould mean that couples have a wider range of cheaper alternatives to hiring expensivewedding venues. The Law Commission is expected to produce a set ofrecommendations by 2021 for new legislation.

Canon Sandra Millar, head of projects and development at Church House, said: “Ourresearch has shown that being married in a place that has meaning is still important.We continue to believe that a church is the best place for a wedding. You don’t have tobe christened or a churchgoer - just ask, and you might be surprised at the answer!”

Chris Ford44, Northumberland RoadLinfordStanford le HopeSS17 0PUTel: 01375 675863e-mail: pewtalk@talktalk.net

The Priest in chargeREVD. MICHÈLE MARSHALLThe Rectory24, Somerset Road, LinfordStanford-le-HopeEssex, SS17 0QA.Telephone: 01375 671754 email: mjmarshall@fastmail.co.uk

PEWTALK Editor

The ServicesSunday 10.00 a.m. Holy Communion service at St. Catherine’s Except 1st Sunday of the month when we have “The Family Service”Wednesday 10.00 a.m. Holy Communion at St. FrancisFor Baptisms, Weddings or Funerals please contact the Priest in Charge.

St. Francis CentreThe centre is available for hire forregular events when not used bythe Church. To check availabilityplease contact:

PATRICIA STRONGpatricia.a.strong@outlook.com

The ChurchwardensCOLIN STRONG T: 07591 708955E:- warden.colin.stcatherines@gmail.comSUE SPIERS T: 01375 845394E:- warden.sue.stcatherines@gmail.comPastoral AssistantDavid Gunn T: 01375 768202