Spring 2023 Edition Ashdon Village Magazine
All Saints Church
Spring is here! With it’s profusion of flowers, which started early with some amazing displays of snowdrops around the village and hopefully warmer weather! We are also in the most important season of the Church calendar – Lent, which started on Ash Wednesday, with a lovely service in All Saints, and finishes on Good Friday.
Lent gives us the time to step back and pause. It gives us time to reflect on the past year. A time when we are thinking and praying about Jesus’s time in the wilderness and some of us will be giving things up, whilst others may be taking something up, such as a course of study or reflection. The passage below from the bible, was read at our Ash Wednesday service.
Matthew 6:16-18
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Looking back to Christmas, it was a busy time in church, with lots of special services. I must make special mention the flower arrangers and all the people who decorated the Church for Christmas. Some of us spent a Saturday morning getting the Church ready for the Carol Service, putting flowers and candles in every available space! It certainly looked lovely.
We held the Carol Service in candlelight which always makes me think of the time when the only light in the church would have come from candles and how beautiful it must have look, but I should imagine even colder! After the service we had refreshments in the comfort of the Church Rooms, with mince pies and mulled wine!
On Christmas Eve morning a few of us gathered in the Church rooms to make Christingles from oranges and sweet treats. At the service everyone was given a Christingle; with the children standing in a circle, we turned off the lights and were in candlelight for the Christingle song and the Lord’s Prayer.
Again, the church glowed in candle light. More recently we Celebrated Helen Eyles’ 80th Birthday with flowers and cake. She certainly deserved being treated, after all the hard work she constantly puts into the life of All Saints Church. Thank you Helen!
We had several teams who helped represent Ashdon and All Saints at the pre-Lent quiz in Saffron Walden. Helen was on the Mothers Union team and Mat was on another. However, it was the Ashdon Black Sheep, headed by our verger, Robin Plumridge who were triumphant! The trophy was present by the Revd Canon Chris Bishop, noted local clergyman and talented musician and entertainer.
Bells have been ringing out again on a Monday evening in Ashdon, which is really lovely to hear. Kevin with help from Bryany are teaching bell ringing. None of the people who are ringing had rung before, and I’m told by one of the new ringers that it is great fun and good exercise. Plans are to ring for the Kings Coronation and at services. Newcomers are always welcome too.
We are pleased to be supporting research by an archaeological geophysical surveying team who are coming to look for remains of earlier church buildings in Ashdon. This is part of the ongoing investigation being conducted by The Battlefield Trust into the Battle of Assandun in 1016. Speak to Mat if you’d like to know more about this.
I was recently shown a copy of March’s issue of Essex Life there was lovely picture of All Saints alongside the Windmill and a walk. Our lovely village in the limelight again!
Ashdon is now on the official Pilgrim walk from London to Walsingham. Pilgrims, including the author of the new official route, Andy Bull, will be coming through Ashdon on the morning of Saturday 15th April. You can read more about the route in his book ‘London to Walsingham Camino-The Pilgrim’s Guide’ published by Trailblazer-guides.com.
It’s always lovely to see the names of people who have visited the Church in the Visitors book. There are often lovely comments left too. One I see more and more often is “Thank you for having the Church Open, it’s very peaceful”. We are open every day and hopefully everyone can find peace inside and in the churchyard too.
Upcoming Dates for your diary include Open Gardens on 11th June. Let’s pray for the right kind of weather for those that are opening their gardens. If I remember it was very hot and very dry before last year’s event.
Before that we are having a Church clean on Saturday 25th March, ready for Easter; helpers are welcome – 10.00-12.00. Our next Churchyard tidy is on May 13th with Bacon Butties – 10.00-13.00
To finish we have had some very good news that we can now start the process of appointing a new House of Duty vicar for Ashdon and Hadstock. We are writing the job profile with help of our Rector Jeremy Trew and we hope to have the advert out soon after Easter.
Our next Parochial Church Council meeting is to be held on 12th March and our Annual Parochial Church Meeting will be held after our Service on Sunday 23rd April at 10.30. All are welcome to join us for our APCM meeting.
Services for the Easter period
Maundy Thursday 6th April – 7.30pm at All Saints Ashdon
Easter Sunday 9th April – 9.00am at All Saints Ashdon
See the Baptist Church notice regarding Good Friday.
All the Communion services and Maundy Thursday will be led by a member of the clergy from the Saffron Walden Team Ministry.
Our usual service Pattern is the 2nd Sunday of the month @ 9.00 am, for a service of Holy Communion and the 4th Sunday, again at 9.00, for a service of worship led by members of the church Home Team. Breakfast is available before the Home Team Service in the Church Rooms at 8.00 and refreshments follow both services. Please check the monthly posters around the village and Lucy’s weekly updates, or the Website allsaintsashdon.org.uk for details.
Hadstock would be very happy to see us at their services on 1st Sunday Holy Communion and 3rd Sunday Home Team Lead with Coffee and tea following both services.
If you would like to be a part of the weekly update email, please let Lucy King know. king785@btinternet.com.
Weddings can be booked via the team wedding coordinator, Caroline Goulder using this email. stmaysweddining@outlook.com or you can contact the Churchwardens first.
Request for other services, funerals, baptisms, communion at home, or for other use, should be via the Churchwardens, please see below for details.
If you need to speak to a member of the clergy our Team Rector is Reverend Jeremy Trew on 01799 500947 rector@stmaryssaffronwalden.org
With all best wishes from All Saints Church
Barbara Marshall and Mat Lester, Churchwardens
Barbara – bmm1923@hotmail.com
01223 894162 / 07919 256617
Mat – mat.s.lester@gmail.com
01799 584564 / 07932 027076
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The Ashdon Village Magazine – December 2022
All Saints Parish Church
We are truly blessed! Allow me the chance to use some more biblical language – our village is amazing and awesome!
We have a great community in Ashdon; lovely people, a school, a children’s nursery, a pub, garages and other great businesses; diverse and wildlife rich landscapes, trees, woods and beautiful streams; interesting and historic buildings with an awe-inspiring Medieval church!
All Saints is always open daily. Everyone is always welcome to come in for prayer, reflection or quiet time. It’s really important to make time for this in our busy lives; the busier we are, the more stressed, the more we need to take time out.
Christmastime is notable for inducing anxiety, for many reasons. Finance, family, loneliness. So do make use of your local Parish Church – that’s actually what it’s for.
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34 verse 4.
At All Saints we are currently waiting on news of a new Vicar to serve the Parishes of Ashdon and Hadstock; we hope and pray for someone to come and live at the Vicarage in Radwinter Road Ashdon, to help with the Pastoral needs of the village. However, in the meantime, we are blessed to have support from our local team of clergy in the Saffron Walden and Villages Team Ministry, of which we are a part, in The Church of England. Jeremy our Rector has sent us some words for Christmas below.
Jeremy writes
On the wall of a house near the Market Square in Saffron Walden is a
small plaque. It reads: “On this spot in 1834 nothing happened.”
It’s not true. I know.
Round about 2022 years ago in a quiet backwater of the Roman Empire
nothing happened either. And that’s also not true. Well, kind off.
Certainly nothing happened that made the front pages of all the papers
(if they’d had newspapers in those days). And if a few people were
interested in the events that began to unfold at that time, for the
most part they kept fairly quiet about it. No-one slipped a brief
note to Rome, warning them of what was to come. Even when a strange
group of foreigners turned up at Herod’s Court, we’re told the initial
response was, “Oh yea, there’s something written about that somewhere
in Micah.”
The significance of that first Christmas was only understood much
later on. At the time it was, for most, just another day. Even for
those who were involved, the birth of a baby was nice, but not exactly
rare. If the child survived infancy they might just begin to become
interesting, but that was still a way off. An ordinary couple had a
child, and they probably were not the only ones. Some shepherds
caused a bit of a kerfuffle, but no-one paid that sort any attention.
The wise men may not have arrived for a couple of years.
Heaven, it would seem, was found in the ordinary. That’s often where
it is found today. This Christmas heaven will be found in a person
giving you a smile and a bit of space in a busy Christmas shop.
Heaven will be found in a children’s nativity play, performed with a
great deal of commitment, but perhaps a little less skill. Heaven
will be found in the recognition that the giver is more important than
the gift. All of that is important, and all of that is wonderful.
Yes, heaven will also be found in beautifully crafted carol services,
and exquisitely thought-through gifts, but at the heart of the
Christmas message is this simple idea: That God breaks through into
this world, not so much into the great and majestic things, but into
the ordinary lives lived by ordinary people. You and I are of
interest to God, and in a way that might astound us.
When, after the life of Jesus, the message of this Nazarene Carpenter
began to spread, part of its power was the audacious idea that God was
on the side of the ordinary. In a world where great power was held by
a few, who seemed less and less accountable every passing year, this
was good news indeed.
In God’s new economy there are no ordinary people, and there are no
ordinary days. You would be very welcome to celebrate that at your
local church this Christmas, in ways ordinary and extraordinary.
Happy Christmas
Jeremy
—
Jeremy Trew
Team Rector for Saffron Walden and Villages Team
Area Dean for Saffron Walden, part of the Diocese of Chelmsford
The Rectory, 17 Borough Lane, Saffron Walden, Essex, CB11 4AG
01799 500947