St Andrew's Church, Girton
Welcome
Welcome to the pages of Girton Parish Church on the Girton Village Web Site. People have worshipped God in this village, in churches on the site of the present one for over one thousand years. Today the Church remains a living community of people of all ages seeking to explore God's plans for the world and to serve the community near and far.
Rector: Rev. Dr. Mandy Maxwell
(on leave until September 2013)
42 Church Lane, Girton, CB3 0JP
Tel: 276235
Email: girtonstandrews@gmail.com
Priest in Charge: The Revd Roger Bowen
26 Lingholme Close
Tel: 352952 Email: bowenrw@onetel.com
Curate: The Revd. Christine Barrow
2 Cockerton Road, Girton, CB3 0QW
Tel: 277674
Email: mcbarrow@mac.com
Licensed Lay Ministers:
Mr Dugald Wilson tel: 276940
Mrs Christina Deacon tel: 525337
Churchwarden:
Mrs A Few, 23 St Margaret's Road, tel: 276072
Mrs S. Hiley, 1 Fairway, tel. 277296
Service times
Notices
Message from the Rector
Please come and go, and stay as long as you like.
Sunday Services: May
5th 10am Holy Communion
8pm Taize service
12th 8am BCP Holy Communion
10am Family Service
6pm BCP Evensong
19th 8am BCP Holy Communion
10am Holy Communion
6pm BCP Evensong
26th 8am BCP Holy Communion
10am Morning Prayer
6pm BCP Evensong
Weekday Services
9th Ascension Day
7.45pm Holy Communion (CW)
23rd 11am Service of Holy Communion (BCP) at Gretton Court
Diary Dates
St Andrew's Church Sunday Club
Sunday Club is for children aged 3 - 11. We meet in school term time during the 10 am Sunday service, starting off in Church and going either to the North Room or the Cotton Hall.
Coffee Stop
Coffee Stop is a chance to come together to meet old friends and new for a cup of coffee and a chat. It takes place in the North Room at St Andrew's Church between 10.30 am and 12.00 pm each Tuesday. There is always a warm welcome, and no charge. Do feel free to drop in any Tuesday. There is flat access to the North Room - follow the path around the church tower.
Girton Church House Group
The House Group is a mid-week discussion group, meeting fortnightly for Bible study, discussion and fellowship. The group meets on a Wednesday, starting on 9 February. For more details please contact Christina Deacon on 525337.
Searchlights
Activity for children aged 3-11 during the main Sunday Service.
May 2013
It is still Eastertide in the Anglican Church's calendar and there is more of the story to come this month as the church celebrates Jesus' Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. After his resurrection Jesus met with many of his followers besides the eleven apostles. Judas had left them and taken his own life in profound regret. Before his ascension Jesus told the apostles to wait for the spiritual help that God would send. One can imagine them watching apprehensively for a whole month, hiding from the Jewish leaders who had proved so ruthless in condemning their beloved leader.
Suddenly, when they were together for the Jewish festival of Pentecost, the moment came when they experienced such joy and certainty and babbled so excitedly that they were accused of being drunk. The Holy Spirit is described as appearing like tongues of fire that rested on each of them. His coming changed them into confident spokesmen who knew that all they had witnessed of Jesus' life, death and resurrection had changed their relationship with God for ever. They could now begin to explain it to their fellow countrymen. As new disciples came to understand what Jesus had done for mankind they too were baptised not just with water but with the same Spirit, who gives assurance of belonging to a loving God.
The same spirit has been the driving force in the church through its history and made early Christian martyrs die rather than deny what they believed to be true. You may have seen David Suchet's programme at Christmas describing the doggedness of St Paul as he travelled through the empire to explain and teach in different ports and cities in Greece before he was taken prisoner to Rome where his life ended.
The Holy Spirit also gives motivation for less dangerous tasks in the church. Two early English Christians are celebrated this month. The first is the Venerable Bede of Jarrow who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English of his time because he felt it was important to set it down for posterity. He had been able to watch the Christian faith take hold in Britain and be passed on to the invaders from Scandinavia. His last deed was to translate St John's gospel into Anglo-Saxon and this manuscript could be seen in a recent exhibition in the Cambridge University library.
The second person we remember this month is Alcuin who was a teacher at the monastic school in York but no recluse. Education had long been a strength of the British church since the first schools founded by St Patrick in Ireland. Europe had been disturbed by the arrival of many different tribes as described in the recent BBC programme on 'The Dark Ages'. Gaul had become the kingdom of the Franks with Charlemagne as its king, not at all barbaric, having been educated himself in a monastic school where the education was broad not just Christian. He invited Alcuin to his court in Tours as a teacher for his family. In responding Alcuin became not only a trusted influence on Charlemagne himself but went on to establish a pattern of education that spread throughout Charlemagne's empire.
The Holy Spirit may not lead us into such important roles as our forebears but may help us to live our day to day lives as fruitfully as possible in good times and bad. We can pray too for the guidance of the Holy Spirit not just for our new Archbishop and new Pope but for all in positions of leadership in our land.
Penny de Lacey
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