Churches Together

United Reformed Church

Worship We have been able to worship in church on Sunday mornings at 11am since 2nd May without further interruption. The easing of restrictions means that we can sing hymns again from 25th July, albeit with masks, and it is such a joy to sing and praise our Lord in voice. Induction The induction of our minister, Rev’d. Sue Fender, into the Linked Pastorate took place in our church on Saturday 26th June at 3pm. This date was chosen as the Covid restrictions were beginning to be relaxed: we were able to have around 70 people safely attend the service within the social distancing rules and stay for refreshments afterwards in the hall. The service was available on Zoom for those unable to attend.

Rev’d Nigel Uden led the service and the sermon was delivered by the Rev’d Dr John Bradbury. After the Act of Induction, a representative from each of the five churches welcomed Sue and gave her the “Right Hand of Fellowship”. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to actually shake Sue’s hand as we would in normal circumstances, but we were able to give her a warm welcome verbally. We were pleased that some of Sue’s family were able to travel down for the service and give Sue their support.

We all enjoyed the delicious afternoon tea provided by outside caterers. Sue was able to circulate round the tables and chat to everyone. There were carboys in the hall for donations and we were able to send £165 to Jimmy’s Night Shelter. Harvest We are celebrating our Harvest Festival on Sunday 12th September. Morning worship is at 11am followed by a soup lunch. There will then be an opportunity to buy the produce before taking the rest to Jimmy’s Night Shelter.

All Saints Church Melbourn & Holy Trinity Meldreth

The past 16 months has been different for all of us as we cope with and adapt to the ongoing situation with Covid, and at the time of writing this article we are awaiting confirmation as to the relaxation of restrictions. Whatever happens, we will have to learn to live with this in our midst and as a society we have to realise that what we do can have a knockon effect on others. The wonderful volunteers who have stepped up to help in lots of different situations have shown how we can all look to help others with positive actions.

This also relates to our stewardship of the natural resources of this world from which we receive many blessings. As we consider our individual and collective responses to the ever-changing situation, perhaps we can all pray for wisdom for those leaders who will be meeting at The UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow from 31 October – 12 November.

Our Prayer Group and Bible Study Group hope to start meeting in person in September. At the time of writing we are not sure if our Harvest Supper will take place, but our Harvest Festival will be celebrated in Melbourn on Sunday 26th September and in Meldreth on the 19th September.

On October 3rd, we welcome our Archdeacon, The Ven. Dr Alex Hughes, to Holy Trinity, Meldreth

and on the 10th October he will be with us at All Saints’ in Melbourn. On Sunday 31st October we will be celebrating our patronal festival at All Saints’ and The Right Revd. Dr Dagmar Winter, Bishop of Huntingdon, will be with us at our 9.45am service. In the evening we hope to have our All Souls Service, where we remember those who have died, and we will be contacting those families for whom we have carried out a funeral service of their loved ones in the preceding year.

We hope to have our All Saints’ Autumn Fayre on 6th November and look forward to the generous support from all those who help and attend. This is particularly important as we try to ensure the Church building remains open and safe for everyone. We have had extensive works carried out on the rewiring of the church and new boilers have been installed. There remains outstanding work on our sound system and rainwater goods which we are unable to finance at the moment. Our thanks go to our Church Wardens who have initiated and overseen these major works, to SOAS for their contributions which have helped finance some of the works. To our members who have continued to clean the church building throughout all of this to ensure it is as safe and clean as possible. We are grateful for all who help in any way and do contact us if you would like to make a financial donation.

Remembrance Sunday will be on the 14th November this year and details will be finalised nearer the time.

During the restrictions, we have been running a monthly Zoom service, which is a blend of our Sunday School and our informal Sundays@11 service; see the pictures on page 48 of some of the craft activities we have made at this service.

Whilst Lizzie is on maternity leave please contact Revd. Mary Price on 01763 261569 (maryprice9486@ gmail.com) or Pat Smith (Licensed Lay Minister) on 01763 262575. If you would like to receive our weekly e-news letter please contact Ian Henderson (ian.melbournas@gmail.com). Check our Facebook page for details of services https://www.facebook. com/asmhtm.

If you would like to receive a copy of our Parish Magazine please contact Diane Blundell on 01763 221415

The Word of God

Thou, Lord, alone hast made heaven with all the stars, the earth and all therein. Thou gavest right judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. (Nehemiah Ch 9 Vs 6/13)