News & Features

Welcome to our October entry!

Cycle Ride

Thank you to Dawn Thacker and Nick Cardy who rode for us in the annual Churches Trust Cycle Ride and Walk. They travelled 47.1 miles and visited 24 churches. What a brilliant effort! Dawn said, “We met some lovely people along the way. It was a lovely day, the sun shone although it was a bit breezy at times.” We would like to thank everyone who was involved in the event, from the welcomers across the churches, those who cycled, rode or walked and those who sponsored. So, thank you!

Welcoming Our New Reverend

The Licensing of Reverend Victoria Venmore-Rowland BA will be held at St. Andrew’s Church, Hingham on the 24th of September. I am sure everyone will join us in making our new reverend most welcome to our communities.

Dates For Your Diary

Join us on Sunday the 16th of November for Pudsey Lunch where we aim to raise money for Children in Need.

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!

Rev Leonard James was murdered
In 1608.
By the hands of Lowe
He did meet his fate.

A treacherous wife
Was burned at the stake
And Lowe was killed
For the lives he did take.

KYT Poetry - 2022

We were reminded of this poem, and the events that allowed it to be, as a relative of Rev. Leonard James has recently come forward to our Churchwarden, John Brown, to investigate their family history. Mr Brown has sent Ian Abel’s book to North Carolina for them to peruse. You will note that Rev. Leonard James lives on with us on our village sign with his church.

Rev. Leonard James’, to our knowledge, is buried somewhere in the graveyard but we know not where. If anyone is up for the challenge of finding it please contact the Churchwarden and you will be welcome to search the undergrowth.

The May Magnificat

May is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?
Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle* blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.
Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp† are merry

With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes‡ wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.

G. M. Hopkins
This poem is linked to the Roman Catholic Church and their Marian prayers and worship.

Spring Clean
We had a spectacular spring clean in April and it has set us up on a good foot for the rest of the year. Thank you to everyone involved!

APCM
The Annual Parochial Church Meeting will take place on the 5th of May. All are welcome to join us and see what we have been up to!

New Carpet
The good news is, we have got a lovely new carpet for the centre aisle so that the tired, old one has been replaced. Sadly, we have not received any monetary donations as yet so, if you have a few pennies laying around any donations would be greatly appreciated.
KT