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 1000 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: Mandy Maxwell
Curate: Revd. Christine Barrow
Reader:
Mrs C Deacon, Mr D Wilson
Churchwardens:
Mrs A Few, Mr A Lorimer
Service times
Notices
Message from the Rector
Please come and go, and stay as long as you like.
January 29th
8 am BCP Holy Communion
10 am Holy Communion
6 pm BCP Evensong
February 5th
10 am Holy Communion
6pm BCP Evensong
8pm Taize
February 12th
8am BCP Holy Communion
10 am Family Service
6 pm BCP Evensong
February 19th
8 am BCP Holy Communion
10 am Holy Communion
6 pm BCP Evensong
February 26th
8 am BCP Holy Communion
10 am Morning Prayer
6 pm Evensong
Services at 8 am, 6 pm and on Wednesdays follow the Book of Common Prayer
Services at 10 am follow Common Worship.
Wednesdays at 10.00 am: Holy Communion in the North Room
Diary Dates
WEDNESDAY 22nd FEBRUARY - there will be an Ash Wednesday Service at 7.30pm in church.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.
January 2012
February is a month replete with the celebration of saints and other major influences on the Christian church; hardly a day goes by without our attention being drawn to one of our predecessors in the faith, whose life was both an example and an encouragement to us. Ask most people to name one of these celebrated characters without looking at the church calendar, and they will probably all plump for St Valentine, whose day falls right in the middle of the month. Strangely enough, for one who is apparently so well-remembered now, there is little that we know for certain about him, apart from the fact that he was a bishop or a priest who was martyred for his faith in Rome by Emperor Claudius in about 269 AD. Quite why he is connected to this date and the tradition of cards and gifts given to those we love is lost in the mists of time, but there is a suspicion that it replaces the ancient Roman pagan festival of Lupercalia, which had become licentious and degraded in its celebration of human fertility. And so the Christian Church used the date as a way of reflecting on our all-loving God, whose will is that we should love one another, completely and with commitment, in the way that Jesus had encouraged us to do.
A sign of the age-less desire and search for this love which grows between us, is that there has been a resurgence of the number of people coming to church to get married. It is interesting that in preparing couples for married life, they almost always have a recognition that, although they hope that the wedding day will be perfect, the rest of their lives thereafter may well hit difficulties and bumpy areas. They already have a sense that love is not just a wonderful warm sentiment, but that it also contains a strong element of commitment, which means that, despite disagreements and troubles, they are determined to work at their relationship and to protect it from anything which would drive a wedge between them.
Almost at the end of the month, on February 27th, we remember George Herbert who died on 1 March 1633, and some of whose poems are familiar to us in that they began to be used as hymns. He has a local connection because, when he was ordained deacon, he served at Leighton Bromswold near Little Gidding. His connection to the theme of love lies in the fact that in his early life he was ambitious to rise at court, but with the death of James 1 and other changes there, he changed the direction and focus of his life, becoming a conscientious and hard-working priest, poet and divine. His devotion to his Lord and God was carried through him to his work among his parishioners, and his struggles with his faith and the growth in his relationship with God are reflected in his poems. Acknowledging God's love for him, and feeling that his own love in return was pale and insignificant, his writings have given us a deeply moving contemplation on the love of God, and the resultant impact on our way of life and thought.
In his poem, now often sung as a hymn, "King of glory, King of peace", the final verse expresses the total devotion of his heart:
Sev'n whole days, not one in sev'n,
I will praise thee;
in my heart, though not in heav'n,
I can raise thee.
Small it is in this poor sort
to enrol thee;
e'en eternity's too short
to extol thee.
That level of being engrossed in the other has moved us on some considerable distance from the sort of love which is often associated with St Valentine's Day. And the church's year also moves on swiftly this year, because, before you receive another Girton Parish News, we will have entered the season of Lent.
During this time at St Andrew's Church, we will be offering a Lent Course on Wednesday evenings at 7:45pm in the North Room at the Church, which will be open to anyone who would like to come. In it, using a line from one of Herbert's poems as the title, "Something Understood," we will be exploring the Christian faith, and how the early Church began to articulate their belief in response to the challenges of the time, and what that means to us, to our understanding of the faith, and our commitment today.
Meanwhile, may we enjoy the month of February, the hope which the signs of spring brings to us, and all the evidence of love in our lives for which we can give thanks.
Christine Barrow.
back to: