Wychwood

Benefice

Dowload the latest Church News here: Church News 29 November 2020 final

Download an order of service for the Advent Sunday Holy Communion online service here: Advent 1 HC Pres-1 Shipton 29th November

Advent & Christmas in the Benefice

All pre-recorded services are posted on facebook: facebook.com/WychwoodBenefice and YouTube (Wychwood Benefice) youtube.com 

• Advent Groups: The Wednesday evening group will start on 25 November 7pm on Zoom. The Monday group will start on 30 November. Get in touch with Anne or Geoffrey if you’d like to be involved.
  Anne: t  01993 830160 e. [email protected]
  We will be using Bishop Steven’s book Alive in Christ and have copies if you would like one -either for individual use or as part of our advent sessions which will run online. Copies are available in Milton church. They cost £2.50. Please post the money into the Church Room postbox or get in touch with Clare.
• Sunday 29 November pre-recorded Advent Carols online (includes music from Shipton Choir).
• 11 December Christingle home kits available in Churches and going to all children at school (accompanying video online).
• 13-20 December Blue Christmas Week. Our churches are open for all to remember departed loved ones and find space and peace this week. There will be resources in church including stars to hang on Christmas trees with the names of loved ones and prayers and reflections.
• 20 December Blue Christmas Service 9.30 in Milton church This will be a quiet, simple service for those for whom Christmas is a difficult time of year. It will also be a chance to remember our departed loved ones as well as all those who have been affected by COVID 19, and offer our thanksgiving for all our key workers who have done so much this year.
• 20 December pre-recorded Crib & Christingle Service online
• 20 December pre-recorded Lessons and Carols service online
• Christmas Eve 11pm Midnight Service in Shipton (this service will also be posted online for anyone unable to go to church this Christmas).
• Christmas Day Communion in church:
• • 9.30am Milton
  • 11am Shipton
  • 11am Fifield

Shipton church update 23 November, 2020

Lang the building specialists will be starting to work in the church on Monday 30^th November. To begin with they are just doing the preparation work which should take until the beginning of January. Lang’s have indicated that they hope to complete the work in March 2021.

We hope the church will remain open for this first stage of the work and services will continue as planned.

Help us raise funds!

We have just launched a Monthly Prize draw: Details can be found here: https://wychwoodbenefice.org.uk/sign-up-to-our-monthly-draw-100-prize-each-month-and-help-raise-funds-for-shipton-church/

We have a “silent aution” planned to raise funds for Shipton Church with some excellent items on auction, from Hampers to Holiday Lets to a skip! More information very soon.

St Mary’s Improvements and Restoration Fund

As I am sure you are aware, the important 905-year-old church building in Shipton is in desperate need of repairs to the nave and south aisle roof. The problems stem from damp rot and deathwatch beetle which have caused some of the roof timbers to fail. We are also planning to carry out some improvements to
the church to bring the standard of facilities more up to date.

Last December, the WI very kindly helped the church by organising a Christmas Tree Festival which was a great success. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, it is not possible to repeat that this year. Instead, we are formulating plans for several fundraising initiatives, one of which is a monthly draw.

We are setting up a monthly draw at the very low cost of £36 (12 x £3) per annum membership although it is entirely permissible to hold more than one number thereby increasing your chance of a share in a monthly prize pot! There will be a prize each month of £100.

A further event we are planning is an online Auction of Promises. Further details of that very shortly.
The work is vital to keep our beautiful church building an important feature of our village and anything you can do to help would be hugely appreciated. I hope that you will feel able to adopt a number in the draw. Please  return the attached application form to our Treasurer.

Download the application form for the Monthly Draw here: MONTHLY DRAW APPLICATION NOV 20

Kind regards

Geoffrey

Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash

Watch Sunday’s service from Shipton here:

• Individual prayer
  Our churches can remain open for individual prayer, which is defined as a person or household entering the venue to pray on their own and not as part of a group, led prayer or communal act.
• Congregational prayer and worship
  Collective or congregational prayer and regular scheduled services are not permitted.

For more details on the current guidelines please visit:

https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-churches

Read the latest Church News here: Church News 22 November 2020 final

Here is the order of service to use with Sunday’s pre recorded online service: Kingdom season HC

November 2020

We are currently in another lockdown but even when services are again permitted we appreciate that not everyone is able to come to church at the moment.

We aim to post a service online each Sunday. This is posted to the facebook page on Sunday morning:

https://www.facebook.com/WychwoodBenefice

You can also watch it on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnWCSzeOm2futnYBw6P7Ig

It will also added to the website each Monday.

When services are taking place in our churches again we will continue to record one of the Sunday services each week and post this online.

There are also services available to watch from the Dicoese:

https://www.oxford.anglican.org/coronavirus-covid-19-2/livestream/