Stewardship in action around the Diocese
Thank you so much for sharing your news!
Southampton Deanery
Swathling Parish runs a weekly ‘Thursday Together’ food bank and cafe. Here are some lovely pictures of volunteers and visitors on a typical Thursday.
Eastleigh Deanery
Oliver is a member of the Messy Church at St Francis’ Church, Valley Park. He asked his church family and his school, St Francis Primary School, to help him support Ronald McDonald House, a charity which gives families the chance to stay close to their child whilst they are in hospital in Southampton. After his family had spent some time at Ronald McDonald House, Oliver contacted the charity to ask how he could help and they explained that they get through 7,000 toilet rolls a year, and would really appreciate any donations of toilet rolls!
So Oliver started a campaign to collect loo rolls. And here they are – lots and lots of rolls! Well done!
Romsey Deanery
Volunteers are keen to help cleaning and gardening at St John’s Church, Lockerley. Boots off before entering the church of course!
At St Leonard’s Church, Sherfield English, a Wedding Dress Exhibition (organised and coordinated by churchwarden Clare Durham) was a great way to celebrate the place of the Church in the Community. Hundreds of visitors came to look at over 50 wedding dresses with links to the Church. The dresses displayed represented styles over several decades with the oldest dating back to 1894.
Pictured below are mother and daughter with the beautiful wedding dress that they both wore. Mrs Eileen Flood in 1958 and the Reverend Sue Pitkin in 1983.
Pictured below are Alice Cook (left), Caroline Tanner, Patty Gould and Linda Playle (right) with their wedding dresses outside St Leonard’s Church.
The Thorngate and Blackwater Benefice arranged Community Lunches in Lent to raise money for UNICEF. Hospitality (and lots of soup!) are such valuable gifts from people! The Benefice raised over £3,000 for UNICEF this year. Village Halls, Churches and Homes were all used.
The Parish of Sherfield English has wonderful flower arrangers and knitters. St Leonard’s Church is surely the only church where the Harvest Fruit and Veg are all knitted!
Hard at work caring for the churchyard at St Peter’s Church, East Tytherley.
Odiham Deanery
Young folk gardening joyfully for All Saints Church, Odiham!
Whitchurch Deanery
Partnership of Whitchurch Deanery with Mityana Diocese
When we go to Mityana and give them something – a water tank, a classroom, new desks, doors, windows, equipment, gifts; whatever it is large or small, they always say ‘thank you for loving us’.
In the early days I wondered if ‘loving us’ just meant financially contributing to their well -being. I have learnt it means more than that. It reflects the depth of relationship between giver and receiver. It’s about how we have the opportunity to share what we have with those within the Anglican Church who are part of what I would call our extended family (1st cousins, perhaps). Our Deanery was given Mityana to grow to know and love, back in the 1980s. This was and is about corporate (communal) commitment not personal preference. Over those years they have come to know that we love them by caring for them and praying for them, and a demonstration of that love is our giving. Love cannot just be spoken; if it is, it will sound like a clanging gong or crashing cymbal. It has to be an act of generosity, kindness or compassion.
This kind of giving comes out of a place of gratitude. By thinking through and understanding God’s love for us we can then share that love with others. But there is something more than that. This love is reciprocated. Out of their gratitude they want to give to us. It is incredibly humbling because in material comparison with us, they have so little. Culturally we can never say no, it would be deeply offensive to them. I quickly learnt that we give out of what we have left over – they give out of what they have. So, when we are offered something, we take it – and we know within ourselves that it is, most truly, a heart of gratitude that thanks them and returns to the UK.
When we leave, they again remind us of our friendship/partnership and they say: Go home and to those who have given, those we do not know, say thank you, thank you for loving us. Every time I come back from Uganda I come back changed because I have been reminded that no matter what we have – without love we are that ‘sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.’ How extraordinary, how very extraordinary that this is what I experienced in Uganda – real and abiding love and generosity.
People in our Deanery, old and young, have given generously to Mityana. Our young people have personally raised money, our children have held fund raising events in their primary schools. Adults have sent donations and it has brought us together, more than any other single thing (I think) as a Deanery. This is our common bond.
And in giving so generously we have been blessed and blessed abundantly.
Canon Dodie Marsden
