News & Features

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!

The Easter services in the Benefice gave us, as always, a variety of experiences. We enjoyed making our own palm crosses at St Peter’s a week before Easter Day (some more successfully than others, it has to be said!). On Maundy Thursday we had a moving Agape service, again at St Peter’s where we shared a meal of bread, wine and cheese together remembering the Last Supper before we went into quietness after all the chat and laughter, stripped the church of all the decoration and left the building in silence. On Good Friday we met again at All Saints and welcomed the brave souls who had carried the heavy cross from Gt Ellingham on a Walk of Witness. The service was sad and somewhat emotional due to the storyline as we followed the Stations of the Cross as they were read by members of the congregation. Then came the contrast with the joy and jubilation of Easter Day at St James, GE when we celebrated the Resurrection with the choir and organ in full volume! Simnel cake at the end was an added bonus!

As I write, we have still received no applications for the position of church warden even three years after John retired, having served many years more than the regulations officially allow! With a small congregation that is not getting any younger, we are struggling to keep up with the maintenance of the churchyard, so we are so pleased that two female villagers have offered to do stints to help with grass cutting and strimming the rapidly growing nettles! It would be such a shame if our loved ones in the churchyard are left untended……we have increased the area of the wildflower areas where there are no recent graves but there is still a lot of grass to cut each week. We have appealed to the people who come and tend graves regularly to perhaps bring some shears or a strimmer to clear a small area round their loved ones’ graves and have everything crossed that we will have a positive response! Every little helps as the advert says!

Unfortunately, it is not possible to hold the usual Barbara’s Day this year but there will be a Plant and Book sale near the school on the mornings of 22nd, 23rd and 24th May for you to stock up your bookshelves and gardens for the summer! It will be cash only……but you can pop up to the shop to get some out of the PO and maybe have a coffee up there at the same time! We look forward to seeing you there!
CJ