News & Features

As I write this, the temperature outside has dropped several degrees, and it is starting to feel like winter now! Adverts for festive goods have been flooding the TV screens for weeks and shops (and even some homes) are putting up their decorations, so it must be time to talk about Christmas!

As we mark the start of a new year in the church when we begin to think about the coming of Christ and prepare for his arrival, Advent Sunday falls on 1st December this year and we are holding our traditional Advent Sunday Carol service on that day at 10.30. However, this year the venue has had to be changed to St Peter’s Church, Rocklands, as we are expecting a larger than usual congregation from all over the new benefice, and there is more room for both seating and parking there (as well as good heating!!). Archdeacon Steven Betts is preaching at the service and all are welcome afterwards at Rocklands Village Hall, where light refreshments will be laid on for all to enjoy. We would love to see you there. For those who don’t know, St Peter’s is on the left off the B1077, just after the crossroads in Rocklands in the Watton direction; it is clearly marked from the main road. (What3words is transmit.gathering.committee for those who use that app!) Alternative access is via The Street, where the lane to the church is on the right by a bungalow. The village hall is a bit further down the Street on the right at a bend in the road opposite Mill Lane.

On December 15th, we are holding another Christingle service at All Saints. Children come at 2.30 to make their Christingles in the old schoolroom near the gates, then there is a short informal service in the church at 3pm. As the light fades, the candles are lit and the children sing ‘Away in a Manger’ in the candlelight……and Christmas has begun for me! The Christmas crib is set up by the little ones, where it will remain until Candlemas on February 2nd. We are hoping that Rocklands School choir will be there again this year which will be amazing. BUT, as you may know, our church is very small so we have to think carefully about numbers and it is essential that we know in advance how many children are coming. Please book a place by emailing cath@jones871.plus.com as soon as possible. Thank you!

Finally, our popular candlelit ‘Midnight Mass’ is to be held as usual at 10pm on Christmas Eve. This is a traditional service and very atmospheric……I suggest that if you come you bring a torch as we have no electricity and when the candles are blown out, it is very dark!

All that remains is to thank you all for your support over the past year, to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and healthy 2025 from all the PCC at All Saints church! See you next year!

Advent Carol Service
This service is held on the first Sunday of Advent; this year it will be Sunday 1st December. Normally it is a benefice service held in Rockland All Saints. However this year it will also be the day of the Archdeacon’s Visitation and combined with our partner benefice, the Hingham group of churches. So it has been decided that for logistical reasons the service will be held in the church of Rockland St Peter with refreshments provided after the service in Rocklands Village Hall.

Further details may be given later but it is expected that the service will be as normal.

It doesn’t seem a month since I last wrote the news from All Saints……..but then, it seems impossible that we are again now cranking up for Christmas!! I must be getting old! I am sure there were more months in the year when I was younger!

We held our annual Harvest Supper at the Village Hall on 5th October and it was again a very successful event that everybody seemed to enjoy. We were grateful to the Roskettes who not only entertained us with a medley of popular songs after the meal, but also helped to speed along by serving food! Very many thanks to all who attended, bought raffle tickets or helped by providing food, washing up, clearing the hall afterwards etc…..as always Barbara masterminded the food, which was scrumptious and plentiful- just as a Harvest Supper should be! We were glad to welcome our new priest-in-charge, Revd. Tori, who came along and joined in the fun.

November services are as usual, with a service at RAS on the third Sunday at 10.30. There is, however, a change to the time and venue of the service on Remembrance Sunday (November 10th) which will this year be held not at St Peter’s church but outside at the Remembrance Garden in Wayland Rd (near the crossroads by the telephone box library) at 10.45. There will be the traditional silence at 11am as we remember all those who have died in conflict, including those who fell in the two World Wars during last century. It will be a similar format to the 80th anniversary of D Day in June, so it is hoped as many will attend as possible.

Early warning about December services at All Saints:

December 1st is the traditional Advent Carol service with not only the Benefice choir, but also the Archdeacon Revd. Steven Betts and members of the new benefice that includes Hingham and High Oak as well as the Rocklands and Ellinghams. Please join us at 10.30 as we begin a new year in the church calendar with Advent and the coming of Christ.

On December 15th, we will be holding our usual Christingle Service in aid of the Children’s Society at 3pm (children come from 2.30 to make their Christingles in the old Victorian schoolroom) which is always an informal but magical service! Rocklands School choir are planning to make another appearance- something to look forward to!

On December 24th, we have an informal Carol Singing session outside Rocklands Community shop at 11am with mince pies and mulled punch…..all are welcome to come and go as they please and a joyous time is had by all! What the singing perhaps lacks in quality is far outweighed by the enthusiasm and enjoyment of the singers! A collection for charity is made to add to whatever Santa collects on his rounds through the villages earlier in December…..another event not to be missed!

Later on Christmas Eve, we will be holding a more formal service at the candlelit ‘Midnight’ Mass, held at 10pm at All Saints. Again, this is a very moving service as we celebrate Christ’s birth in the church up the hill just as villagers have been doing for centuries. Please book the date in your diaries now.

Another month has sped by, and Autumn draws on apace! As I write, we have sunshine although ‘the North wind doth blow’!! On September 15th we celebrated our Pets and the Harvest in a lovely service at All Saints. After a dodgy start, the weather was kind to us and, once again, we were able to sit outside without feeling cold or wet! This year, we had two cats (including Stripes, a small tabby kitten, who had travelled from Caston for his f irst outing since his jabs at vet) and several dogs and I am pleased to report that all behaved impeccably! There was a collection amounting to £100 which has been given, as always, to the Leprosy Mission and the congregation also brought food donations that were received by Kathryn to be taken to the local Food Bank. Many thanks to the Benefice Music Group who led the singing (assisted by Julie Dekker) and to all who attended. A couple of dog walkers who happened to be passing came and joined us for coffee and ‘animalshaped biscuits’ together with their 5 dogs so we hope Tracey and Lexi will join us again next year!

Our next fundraising/social event is on October 5th at Rocklands Village Hall, starting at 7pm, when we hold our annual Harvest Supper. This includes a substantial (and delicious) home-cooked two course meal + tea and coffee. (Please bring your own drinks and glasses if you want to have anything other than water during the meal!) Tickets are £10 each (£5 for children) and are available from Barbara Scase (483420), Cath Jones (483542) or Julie Dekker (advance booking essential!) The meal is followed by entertainment from the Roskettes as always and the evening is always a joyous occasion. Do come and join us!

By the time this is read, our new vicar, Revd. Tori will have been inducted at a service at Hingham and will have started her ministry in twelve churches in the area. We do not yet have a date when she will be visiting Rocklands officially, but we are sure she will have a good welcome when she does, and we look forward to getting to know her and her family. We are also very grateful to Revd. Sue for all she has done in the past few years for Rocklands, much of which has been over and above the call of duty! Thanks Sue!

Exciting times as we issue a very warm welcome to our new incumbent, Tori. 

I am writing this just before her Licensing service.  You will be aware of the huge task in front of her – not only taking up the reigns of ordained ministry amongst us after a long interregnum but drawing our two Benefices together.   

The High Oak and Hingham Benefice has traditionally worked in a very different way to the Shellrock Benefice.  We, the ministers, have been meeting and sharing some services, therefore coming to know different congregations across the boundaries.  This has necessarily been limited and there is a long way to go.  At least we have shown that we can work in harmony.  This will be important in the future. 

The virtue we will need most is patience – everything takes time.  Managing our expectations will also be necessary.  It will take a while for Tori to learn who we all are, also how we work.  And, we have to learn what she would like from us in order to help her form a plan for our future.  I know she likes to work with others so we will all have our part to play. 

Above all, we must remember that God has sent her to us.  He will have a plan for the new, enlarged Benefice, mainly that we find ways to proclaim his Word of Love among ourselves and to the wider communities.  Our churches are all working hard in their outreach and, while Tori might have ideas of how we can develop our activities, we cannot leave it all to her.  We must continue as we are and grow with her leadership. 

Tori, our new Rector, is here among us.  I know we will all welcome her.  Alleluia! 

Welcome to the mini edition of the Benefice News as many of the contributors are away.

However we wanted to share our good news!  Following recent interviews we are very happy to say that The Revd Tori Venmore-Rowland has been appointed as Priest in Charge of the High Oak, Hingham and Scoulton and Woodrising, and Shellrock benefices, subject to a DBS check and safeguarding training.

Tori is currently Assistant Curate in the Mattishall and Tudd Valley benefice in our diocese.
 
Details of Tori’s institution by the Bishop of Thetford will follow in due course, but in the meantime please do keep Tori, her husband Luke and their family in your prayers.

An introduction from Revd Tori
I grew up in Norfolk, and even though I’ve left a few times, I’ve always managed to find my way back again. Following a time at Norwich School of Art and Design, I joined the Royal Air Force as a Weapons Technician, and then spent ten years in light blue. Eventually, God made it clear that there was a rather different purpose for me, and so I left the military to train for ordination. I was ordained Deacon in 2021 and Priest in 2022. My curacy started in Swaffham and Sporle, had a brief period in Dereham and then finished in Mattishall and Tudd Valley, where I have served for the past year and a half. Along with me and supporting me are my fantastic husband Luke, and our children: Cora, Lexi and John. We’re hoping to move to Hingham in the summer where I can start getting to know everyone and seeing what God has in store for the next chapter of my life!

Another month has passed, and we are still waiting for summer to arrive! Hopefully, by the time I write something for the August edition, the weather will have improved and we will be able to sit in the evening without having a blanket to keep warm!!

We are now gearing up at All Saints for the annual Flower Festival, which is taking place on the weekend of 13th and 14th July from 10.00 - ~5.00. We do not have a theme for our displays and all are anonymous…..we just fill the church with beautiful flowers which can range from elaborate professionallooking displays to simple bunches of wild flowers in a jam jar!! Every year, I am amazed at the talent of those who bring flowers to the church and I always think it cannot be improved – but am always proved wrong!! The smell as I walk in the church hits me every time….if only it could be bottled!

As well as the flowers, we offer refreshments in the old schoolroom……tea, coffee, cold drinks, homemade cakes, scones and sausage rolls, made-to- order sandwiches and even a barbecue at lunchtimes! We have a wonderful cake stall where you can buy delicious cakes and pies all at very reasonable prices. All money raised goes towards the upkeep of our beautiful quintessentially English little country church. We have recently had some work done on the Victorian schoolroom that was looking a bit worse for wear, all done with authentic materials by a couple of local builders and we are hoping to get a coat of paint on the walls before the festival weekend. Do please come and join us to support All Saints church. The flowers will still be on display on the Monday morning but unfortunately we do not have the (wo)man power to offer the same range of refreshments after the weekend! We look forward to seeing you there!

The weather has improved somewhat since the last time I wrote….but the downside is that the grass grows really quickly and it’s a job keeping up with it! At All Saints we have decided again to allow some areas to ‘re-wild’, in order to help the environment, but we keep the front of the church and newer areas of the churchyard looking as tidy as we can; we hope this compromise keeps everyone happy!

On 30th June 9 (a fifth Sunday in the month) we are holding a different service from the usual pattern, as it will be an evensong followed by a shared picnic outside (weather permitting). There is an almost magical peace about the space at All Saints church, especially in the evening; a previous incumbent described it to me as a ‘thin’ place, which is apparently an old Celtic term for the place between earth and Heaven, where man and God are very close….apparently in other places, they are at least 3 feet apart! Whatever you think about that, we would love you to join us at 6pm.

Although Barbara’s Day had to be cancelled this year, the annual Flower Festival is going ahead on the weekend of July 13-15. On the Saturday and Sunday, there will be a beautiful display of flower arrangements in the church while in the schoolroom, refreshments and light lunches will be served. There will also be a cake stall and bric-a-brac for sale as well as books and some plants.(NB on Monday 15th only the church will be open – no food that day!) Do please book the date in your diary nowmore details next month! We look forward to seeing you!