Our Journal 2019
Scampton Church Journal Archive
DECEMBER
Operation Christmas Child
Over 10.5 million shoeboxes were sent last year to children in places around the world that suffer from poverty, famine, drought and displacement. 400, 000 of these were from the UK, 28,107 were shipped from Grimsby, 68 of them started their journey at Scampton.
Those collected from Scampton School brightened up the lives of children in Romania, Moldova and Liberia where children will be treasuring your kind gifts.
Thank you to everyone from Scampton Church who dropped off shoe boxes at school.
Charlie Hebborn (Headteacher)
Scampton Church of England Primary School
Packed church again for all our Christmas events and services...heres a few photos taken by Crumera at Christingle and The Follow the Star Carol Service.
NOVEMBER
Remembrance Concert
Our Remembrance Concert was held on the 8th November. A full church enjoyed a memorable evening featuring The Bassingham Community Choir with soloist Ellie Hull, singing a programme of songs with readings and poems.
OCTOBER
Toilet Twinning
Scampton Church congregation has been spending loads of pennies! Some months ago we gave people collection boxes asking them to “Spend a penny and flush away poverty.”
It seems that whenever we go to the toilet we now spend more than a penny because the boxes have been coming back brimming with silver coins!
Now our toilet at Scampton Church is twinned with this one at Mabilabo, Mzimba District, Malawi.
Why did we do it? Here are some very good reasons:
- 2.3 billion people don’t have somewhere safe and hygienic to go to the toilet.
- The lack of a loo makes women and girls a target for sexual attack as they go to the toilet in the open, late at night.
- Almost 1,000 children die every day from preventable diseases linked to dirty water and unsafe toilets.
- 663 million people live without safe water.
- Children worldwide miss 443 million school days each year because of dirty water and poor sanitation.
- Every year, women and girls spend 97 billion hours finding a place to go.
By twinning our toilet we have enabled a family to build a toilet, have access to clean water, and to learn about handwashing and other hygiene principles. Dignity is restored when the whole family can use a private, hygienic toilet at their home and no longer have to squat in the bush.
I don’t know about the toilet we are twinned with but often the waste can be used for compost by adding vegetation or ash after each use providing more sustainability. We have some more boxes promised so we can hopefully twin another toilet.
Personally, I would love to twin both the boys’ and girls’ toilets at Scampton Church School. Keep spending those pennies!
John Beverley
Visit of RAF Heritage and RAF Museum Staff
From left to right: Maggie Appleton (Ch Exec RAF Museum) Wing Commander Erica Ferguson (RAF heritage lead) Rev Sue Deacon Ian Thirsk (RAF Museum Head of Collections) Seb Cox (RAF's Senior Historian) Karen Whitting (Director engagement RAF Museum)
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A party of executives from the RAF at High Wycombe and the RAF Museum at Hendon visited the RAF Museum and Heritage Centre at RAF Scampton. Whilst in the area they particularly wanted to visit, The Dambusters Inn and Scampton Church to look around the church building, and understand the setting for the RAF Scampton Commemorative Window. They spent time visiting the Commonwealth War Graves and were interested in hearing of the future plans for the church.
Follow up e mails were received saying: 'Thank you for a wonderful visit – it was great to meet up in person and find out more about the project and your wonderful plans for the Church and your community.
Wonderous Woman Award
Requests from Alive Church in Lincoln for nominations for a 'Wondrous Woman Award' were requested on social media during the early part of this year, and a number of people nominated this lady who won it. Well done Rev. Sue Deacon local minister at Scampton Church - truly deserved as a disciple for Christ.
SEPTEMBER
The Family Service each month
A big thank you to everyone who work so hard to make this monthly service so meaningful and enjoyable - come and join in our Family Service. It's for all and everyone! Here's a few photos from this months Family Service....
Thank's to Crumera for sending in the photo's
AUGUST
The New Flagpole
The new flagpole has now been erected in the churchyard, and currently flying the RAF ensign whist the RAF Scampton Commemorative Window Project and The extended 'Allies in the Air' Exhibition is running,
Thanks to Chris Kenny and Bruce Foulston for preparing the foundations and erecting it, and Greg Algar for donating the Church of England flag.
Allies in the Air
The exhibition was staged by Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire.
The exhibition told the story of the many Allied airmen in the county during the First World War. Personnel from the United States Army Air Service, the United States Navy, the Australian Flying Corps and Imperial Russian Air Service were based in Lincolnshire. In addition, many individuals from around the world – both the Dominions and elsewhere - volunteered to serve with the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service at Scampton. Sadly, some of them - falling victim to the dangers of flying - never returned home and lie forever at rest in our county. 'Allies in the Air' will tell their story.
STOP PRESS: The exhibition has been extended every day 10am x 4pm during September and October with thanks to Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire
JULY
Film crew at Scampton School
In support of a crowd funding effort for a new RAF stained glass window at Scampton Church commemorating the one hundred year relationship between the village, the church and the RAF, children at Scampton Primary School were involved in the production of a video to be used in the campaign. Also contributing to the video are: the children at Pollyplatt School, Wing Commander Keith from the Red Arrows, Wing Commander Parker from RAF Scampton, Johnny Johnson (the last surviving member of the original 617 squadron), Bill Ramsey who has flown the Vulcan, Lancaster and was a Red Arrows pilot, and of course the Revd. Sue Deacon and Greg Algar from The Dambusters Inn in Scampton.
JUNE
Caretakers of Gods Creation Service
As we are currently running our Toilet Twinning Campaign the June family service was all about being caretakers of Gods creation and looked at World Environment Day on the 5th June. The children scoured the churchyard searching for parts of Gods creation which were used as centre pieces for prayer. (Thanks to Crumera for sending in the photo's)
MAY
West Lindsey Churches Festival and Sconathon!
This year we put on an exhibition of contributions made by members of the Royal Flying Corps and the RAF whilst stationed at Scampton and South Carlton during WW1. The exhibition included video and music. There was a prayerful reflective walk laid out around the churchyard telling some of the stories of those buried in the Commonwealth War Graves.
A great big thank you to all those hard working people who helped out, especially baking the scones to take part in the 'sconathon'. We raised just over £200 but more importantly we shared our vision of creating a 'Community Church and RAF Heritage Centre' here at Scampton. The reaction was really encouraging with comments like 'What a change from last year - the chairs make it so light and welcoming' and 'Wow this church looks alive!'
Thanks again everyone - Sue
APRIL
Easter Celebrations
Great fun at our Easter Celebration Communion Service this year. A full church hunted Easter eggs, watched a video about the Easter story, took part in an all inclusive thanksgiving communion, and did the Easter conga!
Even Chester the greyhound came along and enjoyed it.
An Inclusive Family Thanksgiving
At Scampton Church we believe that following and worshipping Jesus should be fun, exciting and not too 'stuffy'. We are passionate about developing 'Fresh Expressions' of Church to encourage one another to grow in our faith and to enable our worship, prayer, and teaching to be modern and relevant. In an effort to make our church as easily accessible as possible to anyone we want to live out our faith through our upfront statement of welcome and intent. Inclusiveness and accessibility for all became our priority because without that, encouraging our community to get to know about Jesus would become insincere, as Jesus Himself preached God’s inclusive kingdom. So to help this to happen our six word invitation to services and activities was conceived. We decided that if at all possible, we would make everything we did:
INCLUSIVE, INFORMAL, INTERACTIVE, FRIENDLY, FUN AND FREE!
For a few years now we have been developing our monthly family service, which has steadily grown in popularity. The more we thought about it the more we realized that the central part of the service ie. our thanksgiving communion, was not INCLUSIVE of children. The Ely report, and the regulations made at the 2006 Church of England Synod state that dioceses in the Church of England now welcome children to Holy Communion before confirmation; a fact that is not widely known. So, with the help of David Court, the Bishop of Grimsby, Jonny Bell and Charlotte Bloom from the 'Lincoln Diocesan Children and Youth Mission’ we started to develop an action plan… And so our new and exciting expansion to our already popular Family Service was conceived.
We wanted children to be welcomed and valued equally, not excluded from this key element of worship. We followed the Diocesan advice, which stated that children must be seven years or over and be Christened/Baptised.
My grandchild at 7 years of age is a part of the new ‘i’ generation (born after the millennium and so called because of mobile technologies: iphone, ipad, ipod, Wii, iTunes, iOS) and at school, is already learning about prisms, cubes, rhomboids and spheres, swiping, pinching, Googling, Gooey (that's really spelt ‘GUI’ meaning graphical user interface for those who might not know), and raspberry pies (not the ones you cook!). She is a part of a new generation brought up on technology and encouraged to be openly questioning at school.
Children are naturally included in family life and if parents or carers are participating in a thanksgiving or communion service, then today’s ‘i’ generation of questioning children are likely to say ‘why can’t I have some’! We felt that Jesus wants to feed all who want to understand, so we wanted to make the answer – ‘yes, you can have some’.
The gift of bread and wine is not for certain people only. Jesus shared bread and wine with the male disciples, as was culturally normal at the time, but this is not to say that the model of sharing bread and wine in Jesus time and culture is only appropriate to male followers now.
In the early stages of the venture there were concerns about unconfirmed children of seven years of age taking communion. We tried to answer some of the concerns raised as follows.
Q: Is my child too young to understand?
A: Experience over the years in the Church of England has shown that children of 7 years and over have sufficient maturity and understanding to participate in Communion.
Q: What if my child is not baptised/Christened?
A: This is not a problem. In most cases, children can be baptised/Christened before the next communion service.
Q: Don't I have to wait until my child is confirmed before they can take communion?
A: No - The Church of England now allows for children to take communion with the local Bishop's permission, and preparation beforehand.
Q: As an adult I'd like to know more myself. How do I do that?
A: Why not come along to our next Alpha Course.
Also we thought that:
If the whole family of our Church worship and receive together, then children learn to behave appropriately.
Children should be welcomed and valued equally.
Having children share in family communion is the true historical tradition of the Church.
Children gain specific teaching at a receptive age and understand what they are doing to their level of understanding.
Confirmation is not rushed into and children would become more aware of the promises they are making.
MARCH
One Way Jesus
Our March family service followed the theme of Humility:
While teaching one day, Jesus started talking about the religious leaders and describing how they acted. The behaviour he describes is the the opposite of humility - they do everything for show, they take the best seats and wear the finest long robes, biggest tassels and demand respect when they walk around.
Jesus lived in the opposite way! He was born in a lowly barn, he put others before himself, and he never bragged. Jesus tells his followers that “Whoever is the greatest should be the servant of the others. If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honoured.”
Based on Matthew 23.1-12
The children (and we noticed most other people joining in!) enjoyed learning the actions to the song 'One Way Jesus'....turned up really loud!
FEBRUARY
Revd. Dr David Young
It is with sadness that I report the death of the Revd. Dr David Young who passed away on the 9th February. David was a particular close friend of mine and a disciple in Christ, and I am truly indebted to him for his warmth, advice, and gentle encouragement to me. He was a part of the Springline team and regularly presided at services at Scampton.
I read a passage from Matthew's Gospel recently, when Jesus was asked by a lawyer, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus’ response was: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ I think this passage epitomizes David's values.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Barbara, at such a sad time. She and David shared some wonderful time together and their love for each other was a joy to see.
Barbara is raising money to help Marie Curie Cancer Care. You can find out more HERE.
Revd. Sue Deacon (Local Minister)
February Flowers
With the very mild weather during the third week of February the snowdrops, aconites and crocus are doing their thing and the churchyard is filling with colour to herald the forthcoming Spring.
Wine Tasting Evening
Thank you to everyone who supported last weekend’s wine tasting evening. The evening was run by Brian Elliott, the founder of midweek wines website. Brian is a wine writer and international wine competitions judge. A newspaper columnist and magazine feature writer for many years. Presenter of master classes at Tesco wine fayres and foodies promotions, he has also been a key presenter at Oz Clarkes 'three wine men' events, and recently launched 'festivals of wine'. Thanks to your support, £742 was raised to benefit the school and its pupils. Thanks to your support, £742 was raised to benefit Scampton School and its pupils.
JANUARY
Hello Everyone…
It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m already thinking of all the exciting changes that are planned at Scampton Church for 2019.
It’s the end of another year and a time when many of us reflect back at what we have done during the past twelve months and look forward to our plans for the new year. Following my involvement in the Springline churchs very busy run up to Christmas, and then a busy time for me personally on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, I thought I would sit down and reflect back on the achievements of our Church community here at Scampton during 2018. I went to our journal pages on our website and was amazed at just what we have achieved during the last twelve months. Why not have a look yourself, or better still watch the video!
So….what plans for the New Year you might ask?
Prayer, worship, support and encouragement is the core of our church life together at Scampton, and I have a dream that we can make our church services, and our service to our local community, more vital and meaningful. My hope is that our services continue to be unstuffy and filled with joy, heartfelt prayers, inspirational music, meaningful messages and that the Bible is opened-up in a simple way so that we can help people draw closer to God, and in doing so grow in our numbers. Also that our church building continues to be at the centre of community activities in Scampton.
I would be interested in hearing your dreams for our church and community too. Please contact me to share your dreams and visions for our church during 2019. Time and money are needed, so I invite you to dream, to give, to share, to witness and to work, so that God’s love may be felt by everyone who wants to keep our church growing at Scampton.
So here’s to 2019… bring it on!...and we hope you enjoy reading this years journal. Remember also you can follow us on Facebook, and now on Twitter '@scamptonchurch'
Rev’d Sue Deacon (Local Minister)