Eastry Benefice News
St Andrew's Tilmanstone Messy Church
Messy Church has proved a great success since St Andrew's introduced this new fun concept of all ages sharing worship, craft, music and food together. At St Andrew's for the past ten years it has been hard to attract the village children to the regular services at Church - they seem to only come at Christmas! We have a beautiful 12th century Church with limited lighting (wonderful stained glass windows!) and only hard pews as seats. The interior is not really the best environment for young people to move around.
St Andrew's owns a former Chapel, which is at the opposite end of the Village to the Church. Now a Hall for the community, it has recently been upgraded to a very high standard and is a perfect location for young people to learn about Church (it has all the physical features of a place of worship) and to have a good time. Our first Messy Church attracted over thirty children and adults, two thirds who do not attend Church.
A happy and busy time was had by all on Palm Sunday. Pipi the donkey, who lives in Tilmanstone, came to visit Messy Church. The donkey was given a blessing by Rev Philip Clements, before Pipi and his owner, Justine, led everyone on a celebratory Palm Sunday walk in the fields adjacent to the Village Hall.
Please click on an image below:
As part of St Andrew's mission to engage more broadly within the local community, a variety of traditional crafts, including wool plaiting and the making of crosses from African palm, combined with the creation of a giant frieze depicting the Palm Sunday story, kept everyone fully occupied.
The morning ended with music and singing, followed by a wonderful lunch prepared by our own local celebrity chefs! It was a great start to a new initiative.
A further Messy Church attracted even more youngsters and their parents from across the Eastry Benefice and further afield from Whitfield and surrounding villages. In September the children prepared decorations and drawings to celebrate the harvest home the following Sunday in the Church. Their handiwork was put on display at Harvest Festival in the Village Hall for our visiting Archdeacon, the Venerable Philip Down, who gave prizes for the best creative entries.
The next Messy Church will take place on Sunday 6 November 1100 - 1.00pm
Visit by the Archdeacon of Ashford to St Andrew's - 25th September 2011
The sun shone for Harvest Festival at St Andrew's on Sunday 25 September. The Church was gloriously decorated in celebration of the occasion and the theme of Harvest Home was reflected in the barley bales, the plaited loaf and the baskets of fruit and vegetables brought to the altar in celebration of God's goodness. A substantial congregation greeted the Archdeacon of Ashford, the Venerable Philip Down, who gave a powerful message to us through reflection on our reading from St Matthew 13 and the Parable of the Sower, his words resonating in our ancient Church that has greeted worshippers since the 12th Century.
After the service the Archdeacon, Churchwardens and the congregation processed to the Churchyard for the dedication of our newly created Garden of Remembrance. In a short service the Archdeacon reminded us of our responsibility to remember those who have preceded us and who are now safe in God's hands. We reflected in silence, listening to the gentle rustling of the trees and the birdsong. It was a memorable occasion in our Church's life.
Everyone then repaired to the Village Hall where fantastic Harvest fare awaited. The Hall was decorated by the children's artwork from Messy Church that had taken place the previous Sunday in the Village Hall. Over thirty youngsters and their parents, from across and outside the Benefice, had worked hard to create their vision of Harvest. Prizes were given by the Archdeacon for the three winning entries.
It was good to all be together for our Harvest lunch and we were delighted to be joined by Canon Mark Roberts, our Priest in Charge as well as fellow Churchwardens and PCC members from across the proposed new Benefice. As we move forward in our recruitment of a new Priest this kind of occasion does bring us all together in fellowship and friendship - plus wonderful food!
I would like to give a huge thank you to all those who made the Church so special for the season, also to those who both provided and served the refreshments.The PCC would like to thank everyone in the Village who were so immensely supportive in helping us to raise funds for the establishment of the Garden of Remembrance.
We achieved our target amount in July at the Garden Party, the PCC worked hard to ensure that the Faculty was granted as quickly as possible by the Church of England authorities and the groundwork was carried out very promptly.
Thanks as well to Nick Horobin and the Churchyard Clear Up team who rallied to a short deadline. Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to the Archdeacon and his extremely efficient and helpful office for agreeing to put the date that we requested in his very busy diary to be with us. We hope he will come again!
St Mary's Eastry Harvest Festival and Harvest Supper
St Mary’s Church looked wonderful for this year’s Harvest Festival. The church, dressed in autumn colours by our flower arrangers, welcomed the many gifts from the congregation and pupils of Eastry Church of England School. Fresh fruit and vegetables, dried and tinned goods along with seeds and plants were displayed in front of the alter and after Sundays service of thanks giving all of the gifts were donated to Martha Trust, a residential home that looks after profoundly physically disabled people on the outskirts of Deal.
Head Teacher, Tim Halling said, the children celebrated harvest with a service lead by year 6. The children looked at why harvest is such a special time of year. They also recited a poem (from memory) about a seed that did not want to grow up.
On Saturday evening, everyone got together to enjoy a superb two-course harvest supper prepared by Liz Kinns and her team and a chance to listen to the Deal Hoodeners. A cheque for the proceeds from the supper was also give to the Martha Trust.
Dee Murphy from Martha Trust sent letters to both the school children and congregation explaining that everything given would be put to good use and thanked everyone for taking the time to donate to the home.
Friday Friendship Lunch Club 8th Birthday
This month we celebrated our 8th birthday, on 14th October. We enjoyed a roast dinner, jelly and ice cream followed by birthday cake tea or coffee all for £3. We do not aim to make a large profit from the lunches, in fact the June lunch ran at a slight lose, which was made up in the July account. All the money raised apart from donations is put back into making the lunches a success. I think you would agree that £3 is giving good value for a two course meal.
This year we have been pleased to give donations to:
Crisis at Christmas £65.50
“Ade” fund for Bin Man £60.00
Sunday School £54.00
Mothering Sunday Plants £35.00
Disaster Emergency Committee £50.00
If you would like to join us on the 2nd Friday of the month at 12 noon in the Church Hall, then please contact Liz 611400 or Jinny 614466 and we will be very pleased to see you.
We are able to offer lifts, if getting to the Church Hall is a problem. Car drivers, and offers of help are always welcome to keep the Lunches running smoothly.
Thank you to everyone who supports us.
The Bells of St. Mary the Virgin
The Bells in the church tower have rung out for over 800 years.
On Sunday 7th May 2006, at 10am in Eastry Church, an Appeal was launched to raise funds for a major restoration of the Bells and the money subsequently raised to do this.
The project cost around £39,000. The Kent Bell Ringers Association assisted assisting with the work and provided a grant of £4,000, which, added to the £5,000 already in the fund, got things off to a good start. A new bell cost £6,000 and the framework for each bell, £2,000. Other ways in which people helped was by sponsoring the transport of the bells to the foundry in London, a machine to load the bells, or contributed to the cost of the building work required.
The number of bells was increased from 5 to 8 bells,. They were refurbished and re-hung, giving a beautifully true and complete octave and enabled the repertoire of tunes to be increased significantly.
If you think you can be of help, please contact us here.
Our Website
Welcome to the "revised" Eastry Benefice Website!
Our website was re-launched on 21 July 2006. We have experienced a huge number of visitors to the 'site from all over the globe since its "revamp" and have been fortunate enough to have several contributors to help make it both interesting and, we hope, informative.
There are further developments we hope to make as time goes on with the assistance of contributors from within the Parish and elsewhere, and look forward to your continued support.
All those who wish to contribute photos or general information should, in the first instance, contact: webmaster@eastrybenefice.co.uk .
Our webmaster, and ex-Chairman of Eastry Parish Council and now Ramsgate Councillor, David Carr, continues to maintain the website. His efforts ensure it remains as up-to-date as possible with information received.
The website aims to be easily navigable, quick to load and "easy on the eye". It has been designed specifically to give Eastry Benefice, and its companion site Eastry Parish Council, a common theme. We hope you enjoy the improvements, find it easy to use and will return again soon for the latest news and information from the Benefice.
Coffee Break
Every Friday from 9:30am in the Village Hall. All are most welcome. For more details see the Eastry Parish Council website here.