Welcome to Brightwalton News

Services in the West Downland Benefice will be:
​23rd December 2018 – Fourth Sunday of Advent.
8.00am Holy Communion (BCP) at Leckhampstead.
6.00pm UB Combined Carol Service, Leckhampstead.
Christmas Eve
3.00pm Carols at Catmore
3.00pm Crib Service at Wickham
10.00pm Holy Communion at Chaddleworth
10.00pm Holy Communion at Wickham
11.30pm Holy Communion at Great Shefford
Christmas Day
8.00am BCP Holy Communion at Fawley
9.30am Family Holy Communion at Great Shefford
10.00am Family Holy Communion at Brightwalton
11.00am Family Holy Communion at Welford
Sunday 30th December
30th December 2018 – First Sunday of Christmas
10.00am United Benefice Holy Communion at Great Shefford

The Pew Sheet for the 9th December can be downloaded below.

​The services in the West Downland Benefice this Sunday will be:
​8.00am Holy Communion (BCP) at Brightwalton
9.30am Holy Communion at Great Shefford
10.00am Nativity Play Service at Leckhampstead.
 11.00am Holy Communion (BCP) at Wickham.
 4.00pm Village Carols and Readings at Brightwalton.

Sunday 11th November at 7pm 
To mark the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, there will be an Act of Remembrance and Call for Peace. Starting at the Church gates, we will follow a piper to the War Memorial for a short service, and sounding of the Last Post, after which the bells will ring out for peace. 

Reverend Miri Keen has asked us to circulate the following:
​Chaddleworth & Shefford Schools  present:
 
We will remember them
  
“If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us.”                
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

After a century, no one is left who remembers putting on a uniform and going off to Ypres or the Somme.  And yet every November the millions of dead cry out to us to remember – and to learn by what happened to them.
In this centenary of the Great War’s ending, the children of Chaddleworth & Shefford Schools will be, literally, giving voices to the Dead.  Speaking the words of men and women and children who were there, they will conjure up a vivid picture of life in the trenches, hospitals, at home in Britain.
The hope, of course, is not just to offer their audience a moving act of remembrance but to turn history into a memorable experience that will have the children identifying with real-life soldiers, nurses and civilians.
 
The children and staff very much hope you will want to be part of this special
Armistice event. 
Chaddleworth St Andrew’s & Shefford Federated C of E schools
present
‘We will remember them’
on
Tuesday 6th November   10.15a.m.       
by Geraldine McCaughrean
at
St. Stephen’s church
Shefford Woodlands
 
We hope you will stay to have
refreshments after the performance.
 
Please let Mrs Nutley in the School Office know if you are able to come.
tel: 01488 648657

The Pew Sheet for Sunday 4th November can be downloaded here

You are warmly invited to give thanks for the ministry of
 
Revd Mary Harwood
 
and to celebrate with her as she retires.
  
Service of
Advent Carols and Readings
All Saints Church, Brightwalton
Sunday 16th December 2018 at 6pm
followed by Refreshments in the Village Hall
 
RSVP Mrs Evelyn Bracey
wj.bracey.and.sons@farmline.com
 
 If you would like to record your memories of Mary’s ministry, or to thank her for the part she has played in the life of your family and our community, there is a commemorative book being passed around the Benefice.  Please contact your Churchwarden to find out when it will be available in your village, or come prepared to write in it at the Reception on 16th December. 
 
  If you would like to contribute to a retirement gift for Mary you may make a bank transfer to:
please contact Evelyn Bracey, Lindsay Hardy or Sue Ridgeway who will be able to accept donations.  The closing date for contributions is 1st December 2018. 
Thank you.

The Pew Sheet for Sunday 22nd July can be downloaded here
Services in the West Downland Benefice this Sunday will be:
 8.00am             Holy Communion (BCP) at Leckhampstead
 9.30am             Holy Communion at Shefford Woodlands
10.00am             Holy Communion at Brightwalton 
There will not be a 5.00pm service this week - the next will be on Wednesday 1st August at Leckhampstead.

Sunday Services in the West Downland Benefice
June 2018
 
Services in bold print have activities for children
 
3rd June                                8am                       BCP Holy Communion    Chaddleworth
10am                     Together@Ten                 Great Shefford
10am                     Holy Communion             Fawley
11am                     All Age Communion        Wickham
10th June             
8am                       BCP Holy Communion    Brightwalton
9.30am                 Holy Communion             Great Shefford
10am                     Holy Communion             Leckhampstead
11am                     BCP Holy Communion    Wickham            
17th June             
8am                       BCP Holy Communion    Fawley
10am                     Café Church                       Great Shefford
10am                     Holy Communion             Chaddleworth
 11am                     Matins                                  Welford
24th June             
8am                       BCP Holy Communion    Leckhampstead
9.30am    Holy Communion       Shefford  Woodlands
10am                     Holy Communion             Brightwalton
 
Revd Miri Keen writes
I’ve been enjoying the sort of simply glorious summer afternoon that vicars in books always seem to have!  We have been drinking tea in the shade of an apple tree while the sun shines in a cloudless blue sky.  The birds are singing at the tops of their voices and the breeze is scented with lilac.  The garden is lush, green and bursting with new growth.  The beauty of the day and the sense of well-being that I feel remind me of one of God’s promises:  
 
“If you do away with the yolk of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed ...
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. 
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.”
Isaiah 58: 10&11
How wonderful it is to know that we can be confident that our individual life and the life of our community can be as fruitful and inspiring as the most lush and well-tended garden because God has promised that he will care for us and help us to grow if we care for one another and seek justice and goodness. 
Songs of Praise at Shefford Woodlands: Sunday 1st July at 6pm
Followed by refreshments by kind invitation of Mrs Anne Hewson
All Welcome
Do you have a favourite hymn or song that brings back previous memories or has helped you through difficulties and challenges?  Would you be willing to write a few lines to tell others why it is so special, or even share a few words at our Songs of Praise?  Please contact Miri
01488 6499927                                                   miri.westdownland@gmail.com
 
For more information about our services and events please contact our Administrator Lindsay Hardy                      lindsay@thevo.co.uk
or follow our new Facebook page            West Downland Churches

The Downland Benefice Pew Sheet for the 13th May can be downloaded here:

The Pew Sheet for the 15th April can be downloaded here:

Please note a correction to the time of Café Church at Great Shefford given in the Pew Sheet and on the printed sheets on church noticeboards.  This service is at 10.00 and not 9.30 as stated.

Below is the Pew Sheet for Sunday 25th March 
 
Services in the West Downland Benefice this Sunday will be at:
  8.00am   Holy Communion (BCP) at Leckhampstead
  9.30am   Holy Communion at Shefford Woodlands
10.00am   Holy Communion at Brightwalton
 
Don’t forget that the clocks go forward this Sunday!

​Reverend Miri Keen

Services in the West Downland Benefice this Sunday will be:
 
  8.00am   Holy Communion (BCP) at Fawley
10.00am   Café Church at Great Shefford
10.00am   Holy Communion at Chaddleworth
11.00am   Matins at Welford

The pew sheet can be found here

Over the last few weeks I’ve enjoyed ‘window shopping’ for Easter eggs for those I love.  There’s a huge range available in the supermarket and so I’ve been comparing the relative merits of an egg that comes with a mug with an egg in magnificent packaging and full of chocolates, or of small eggs covered in a variety of colours of foil that can be unpeeled one by one and savoured whilst smoothing the foil into shining squares.  I want to choose something that’s ‘just right’ for each person; something that clearly says ‘I love you’.
​
God said ‘I love you’ to each and every one of us throughout that first ‘Easter weekend’.  He didn’t choose to tell us with chocolate eggs, he chose to show us his love despite betrayal and through the anguish and death of his son Jesus.  He showed his love by turning tragedy upside down and raising Jesus from the dead.

The Bible puts it like this
“For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”    John 3: 16

God showed his love by giving a priceless gift, his unique, one-of-a-kind son Jesus.  But he achieved much more than a declaration of his love.  He changed our potential life experience.  He gave us the opportunity to live life in all its richness or ‘fullness’, to experience his kingdom on earth and to live ‘a little bit of heaven’. 

When I give my family their Easter eggs, I’ll be watching carefully to see if my choice of egg was the right one.  I’m hoping that they’ll be delighted and accept the gift joyfully.  It’s the same whenever we say or do something that shows someone else that we love them.  We eagerly await a response and hope that our love is accepted.  At Easter Jesus doesn’t offer us chocolate eggs, he offers us all that he achieved by dying on the cross so that we could know God’s love for us.  He’s eagerly waiting to see how we will each respond to his ‘I love you.’