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Family Service 18th December

Christingle Service

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Shine and the Big Draw

St Peter’s Church has been hosting a hands-on multi-sensory show which has highlighted the history and heritage of the building, its setting and the faith on which it is founded.

The Shine project has involved several of Northamptonshire’s key churches. Also on display has been the results of The Big Draw. This project is part of a special nationwide arts scheme run by NADFAS which has involved eight local schools including Oundle School, Prince William School and Oundle CE Primary School plus pupils from schools in surrounding villages. Their combined talents have created a series of stunning stained glass windows hung in the church building as a centrepiece for The Shine project.

Tryptich (triple windows), round and individual windows have been on show – with each one using a variety of artistic media. The public has been visiting the church to see the artwork. The Big Draw has been organised by the former head of Laxton Junior School Sue Thomas. “The work has exceeded all our expectations”, she said. “The results are truly stunning and need to be seen in person. The workmanship by all the pupils has been wonderful”, she added.

The project drew a big audience as The Shine’s free audio-visual event in the church presented the church building in a range of specially lit designs. The audience enjoyed getting involved with various interactive exhibits, viewing the special illuminations while listening to music and singing from local choirs.

Steve Cunningham

SHINE and BIG DRAW

During the past week, wonderful art work appeared in the Church adding colour and vibrancy to our beautiful building. Fifteen pieces produced by 8 local schools with a theme of stained glass were suspended across the windows where there was clear glass. Some were on the walls and two large pieces were suspended above the nave altar and others were free standing. The BIG Draw was a triumph of organization by Sue Thomas as part of the Young Arts initiative of ODFAS [the Oundle branch of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies]. David Wills spent many hours up a ladder helping Sue to hang the art.

During the morning, there was a constant stream of people coming to admire the Church: excited young children anxious to show their parents what they had done. Many people had come to see what was going to happen as a mass of electrical equipment had sprouted in the churchyard and all round the inside the church. Even BBC Northampton found their way to us as part of the Treasure Hunt Programme. St Peter’s Church and Shine were the treasure.

Hundreds of people gathered around the Church in the evening enjoying free mulled wine and refreshments (thanks to the hard work of Yvonne Harris and Ali Coutts) as they waited for the stunning performance of illumination of the Church by coloured lights and an audio production telling the history of the building and recalling memories of those who worship in it. After the display, everyone was invited inside to view pictures, old and new, interactive displays, and digital presentation of all the art work which Robin Newman had filmed. At the east end of the Church was a stunning wedding dress made of wedding photos and topped with a veil and wedding photography displayed where a bride’s face would be. The whole area was given an air of mystery with the aid of theatrical smoke and everyone was overawed by what had been achieved in the Church in such a short time

Our childrens’ choir and the Church choir sang a lovely selection of music. Richard Ormston brought the evening to a close with a message of the love of Jesus. 

One unexpectedly poignant stained glass window was a picture of liquorice all sorts-how apt—Jesus accepts all sorts.

Julia Newman

Men's Curry Evening

More than sixty men filled the nave of St Peter’s for the latest in a series of curry nights in church. A menu of bhajis and samosas followed by chicken korma and rice finishing with a selection of cup cakes was all washed down with a few beers from the bar in-house.

The speaker was our own Rod Cousins whose career has taken him on a fascinating journey.  For a man who claims to have done no public speaking, he was clearly in his element as he described his passion for the game of football and his role within it. Rod, who’s been a member of the church family in Oundle with his wife Barbara for around a year now, told his audience about his work as a football scout.

His career has taken him from the north-west of England to Suffolk, where he scouted on behalf of Ipswich Town, and now back to the place of his origins where he scouts for Premiership giants Manchester City.

As we listened to Rod’s stories, his commitment and love for the game washed over his audience. He said his faith in God was like the backbone to everything he does – and is similar to the backbone of a great football team – having a good goalie, powerful centre back and strong striker.

His story took us into the intriguing world of football league club corridors, board rooms, car parks and dressing rooms. We went with him from Barnsley to Rotherham to Halifax to Bolton – and back again! You felt he could have regaled us with stories all night. The tale of his time at Manchester City has still to be told. This clearly calls for another men’s curry night for Rod to reveal more about our national sport.

Great Eastern Run

On Sunday 9th October, Steve Cunningham and Rob Dillarstone took part in the Great Eastern Run.  If you would like to sponsor them in retrospect they would be very happy to see you!

Family Service

Before the Family Service on Sunday 9th October we said a final farewell to Dave and Lin Harding who are moving to Brussels where Dave is to take up his new job.  This time they really are going as they have already moved into their new house.  They are renting out their house so they may be back in a few years time.  They hope to keep in touch via e-mail and the website and look forward to visitors from Oundle.

During the service, the younger children drew pictures of boats in a storm and, by making a slot in the paper and a tab under the boat, cleverly made the boat move on the waves.  After the first hymn there was a quiz.  The children had to move to one end or the other according to what they thought the answer to the questions were.  There was quite a lot of following the crowd!.

After the reading from Mark ch4 where Jesus calms the storm, Richard told of driving from Stamford to Northampton in a storm and getting turned back at Geddington because the road was flooded.  It could be quite frightening in a storm.  We were very relieved when he said he was not going to invite someone out to the front to embarrass them.  Instead, as we sat in our seats, we were asked to imagine being in a boat during a storm, breathing in and out to simulate the wind.  The boat started creaking and moving from side to side (so did we). With the waves we went "splish splash" and as the boat went further out and Jesus fell asleep, we snoredand the disciples said, "Sh, sh!"  Sometimes in our lives Jesus is with us, all is well and it is good to thank God.  The waves began to move from side to side and up and down (yes, you've guessed it -so did we!)  The disciples began to panic and Peter woke Jesus and Jesus hushed the wind and waves.  Jesus was still in the boat when it wasn't calm.  During times when everything is going wrong, Jesus is still with us in the boat.

Richard's action song had us tied in knots as we sang it through once with all the words and actions and then each time we repeated it we had to leave out more and more of the words while continuing to do the actions faster and faster.  After the Baker family had led the prayers, the children showed us their boats bobbing about on the waves.

Curry and Bollywood

On Friday 7th October there dawned the first of two curry evenings to be held at St. Peter's during October.  This first evening was for the ladies.  We turned up in anticipation of good food, stories and dancing - and we were not disappointed!  But we were also a little perplexed.  What were the scarf and two wooden spoons for?  we would soon find out!  The church looked very festive, with decorated tables and saris draped around.  Veronica told us about the spices she had used in the cooking of our food.  As we settled down to samosas and bahjis followed by curry, we had chance to get to know people who were new to us and deepen friendships with those we knew already.  It was so good to talk about our faith and about things in general in such a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere with no pressure or expectation put upon us.  Once we had finished eating, Veronica,who had provided the delicious food, led us in dancing.  Now we knew what the spoons were for!

Visit from Khadijah Mosque

In May, some twenty or so of the St Peter’s church family visited the Khadija Mosque in Peterborough.  We had members from a cross section of the church, including 8am and 10.30am.  The visit was timed so that we would be able to observe their lunchtime prayers.  The Khadija Mosque did not look as we might have expected.  There were no minarets, as this mosque was converted from a pair of houses. 

We were made to feel very welcome by Fiaz, one of the senior members of the mosque and a number of his brothers.  After refreshments, we were shown into their main meeting room where seats had been set up to one side, so that we could observe their time of prayer.  It is their custom for men and women to worship separately, so it was gracious of them to allow all of us to be able to watch the service together.  After the prayers, the brothers served us with lunch.   Again, we appreciated both the generosity and warmth of their hospitality.

Whilst we ate lunch (including delicious samosas), the brothers gave us a brief overview of the Muslim faith and answered our questions.  It was interesting that they did not try to diminish some of the harder tenets of their faith.  The brothers then showed us the rest of the mosque, including the women’s prayer room and the room for ritual ablutions. 

It was a privilege to be welcomed into the Khadija Mosque and we were delighted to then be able to reciprocate when 11 of the brothers and sisters came to observe our 10.30 service.  Stephen taught from the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant and explained that our motivation for forgiving others is because of the costly, complete forgiveness which God offers us through the death of Jesus on the cross. 

After the service, Stephen showed our friends around St Peter’s.  We then joined together to share lunch and cheerful conversation.  The visit closed with a question and answer session.

We value the growing friendship with Khadija Mosque.  It was immensely kind of them to welcome us with evident warmth and thoughtfulness.  We trust that our words and actions were able to convey something of the grace of the gospel.

Whilst we have much in common with – and lots we can learn from – our Muslim friends, there are, of course, a number of very key differences between our beliefs and theirs which it was important to acknowledge.  In fact, an essential part of showing respect for each other – and in building warmth and friendship – was in recognising the differences.  Exploring them was at the heart of much of our discussing and questioning.