New Rector Appointed
On October 23rd 2008, Reverend Doctor Stephen McKenzie, was licensed by the Bishop of Lichfield as the new rector for the joint benefice of All Saints, Standon, St Mary's Swynnerton, St Barnabas, Yarnfield, St James, Coates Heath, and St Luke's Tittensor. Stephen came from his former parish in Kettering, he has a wife Gill and two children.
Whitehorse Christian Rock Band
For this years St Luke's BBQ on the 20th of July we have been lucky enough to book “Whitehorse” to perform their boisterous mix of Christian rock songs. Starts with free BBQ at 6 pm with Whitehorse taking the stage at 7 pm. Everyone welcome young and old.
http://www.whitehorseband.org.uk/
Parish Walk 11th May 2008
We were blessed with wonderful weather for our walk round the boundary of St. Luke’s Parish, Tittensor , on Sunday 11th May, as a combination of the old custom of ‘beating the bounds’ and to celebrate Rogation Sunday.
By
circumnavigating our parochial boundaries we were able to look at our
Parish from a variety of new angles and get a real feel for the place
we live and worship in, giving thanks to God for its variety and
beauty. The variety of wildlife we saw was amazing. We were able to
see evidence of badgers, geese and ducks, buzzards and sparrowhawks.
We saw beautiful drifts of Pink Purslane and the scent of the
bluebells was wonderful.
Beating the bounds was originally an annual procession of villagers around their boundaries to check for any infringements by their neighbours. A common practice by the unscrupulous was to move boundary markers or erect false ones to include pieces of land, to their advantage, or to exclude the hovels of the poor to become the responsibility of others.
As most of the population then were illiterate and few records kept, the knowledge of the oldest inhabitants had to be relied upon. Eventually they had to pass the details to the children who too had to store the information in their minds. Just to make sure they didn’t forget, at each boundary marker they were beaten with willow wands.
During the 8th century, following a series of disasters and crop failures, the clergy began processions around the fields blessing them and the creatures with prayers and psalms and this was known as Rogationtide. This was later combined with the custom of beating the bounds.
As education improved, better records were kept and rough maps drawn and the practice of beating the children died out and the custom turned to the beating of the actual boundary markers.
We
began at Strongford Bridge at approximately 11.30 and followed the
River Trent into Tittensor. We stopped at various points on the way
round for a short service and to pray for people, places and
businesses in the Parish and for the farming community. We would like
to thank the Rall family at Long Compton Farm and Pam Prestwood at
Knowl Wall Farm for the wonderful hospitality. The Ralls could
remember the last time the ‘beating the bounds’ was held
at their farm – thirty years ago! But then the participants
travelled round the parish by bus. The walk finished in the grounds
of Trentham Gardens with an open air service overlooking the lake.
At 9 miles, it was also good exercise and gave us the chance to get to know one another better through the shared experience. Six of us managed to go the whole distance this year, with others joining us for shorter sections. The support party backed us up in cars, although they were held up by a traffic jam at one point!
Sunday Evening Services
Starting with the service on the 11th of November, the service start time shall be brought forward to 4:30 pm. Also on the 3rd Sunday of each month there will be a quiet prayer service starting at again at 4:30
A New Era for St Luke's and St Marys
The benefice priest, Reverend Barry Brewer retired on Ill health grounds on Easter Sunday 8th April 2007. Barry and his wife Judi served the benefice for some 20 years. We now face a period of interregnum, which may last 12 months or longer. We have a team of five lay ministers to lead services and are very pleased to welcome back Reverend Noreen Russel, recently retired, to help and support.