​Our chapel was full as we met together to be part of the World Day of Prayer service 2019 which was this year prepared by the women of Slovenia. We were joined by our Romanian friends and their families who use our chapel for their worship every Friday, and it was lovely that they could be involved in this celebratory service with us. Indeed our Romanian friends introduced our service by laying a table of food and drink items typical of Slovenia.

Will Southall led us in our reflections, encouraging us to remember that God provides everything for us - ‘Come, everything is ready’ - and the readings from the women of Slovenia, and from Luke’s Gospel, continued the theme that God’s invitation is for all, whatever their religion, race, gender, sexuality, age or handicap. God turns no-one away.
Will and her team had decorated the church beautifully with food, flowers and pictures of Slovenian wildlife; the Whitacre choir made a joyful noise and led our singing with gusto. Red carnations, signifying celebration in Slovenia, were given out as the offering was taken.
After the service, hot drinks and home made Slovenian honey biscuits, were on offer to all.

The World Day of Prayer takes place in over 120 countries. Starting in Samoa, it travels the world through Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas....thank you to all those who were involved in our celebration and helped us here in Whitacre to play our part.

Many thanks to Brian for entertaining us so amusingly. People who came enjoyed the evening greatly and £155 was raised for the Chapel funds. Brian is a well known local singer from Tamworth and played a variety of classic musical hits on his guitar. Brian has been friends with Vincent Coggins for years and came to support the chapel. Thanks also to the Coggins family for the refreshments provided in the interval.

Our minister Farai was ordained at the Chapel in Repton School. The five ordinands were accepted by the Methodist conference earlier in the day and at this service their calling was confirmed with prayers and the laying on of hands.
Farai promised to:
Preach the Gospel by word and deed.
To declare God's forgiveness to the penitent
To baptize and confirm
To celebrate Communion
To lead worship  and prayer
To minister Christ's love and compassion
To serve others
Farai has worked hard to fulfil this calling and was rather nervous. We were proud to be representing Nether Whitacre and supporting her at this special event.

The choir entertained over sixty people for an enjoyable afternoon. The ladies of the choir looked very good in their black and white with red scarves, and the gentlemen very smart in red bow ties. 
They started off the first section with "Love is all around" followed by more love songs including "Love me tender” by Michael 'Elvis' Pointer, which was the first of 3 solo performances. Our two youngest members, Gary and Emily, were the other two soloists  singing "Edelweiss" and "Where is love" from Oliver respectively. The love songs were followed by songs from the shows including The Sound of Music, all conducted very expertly by Jill, and accompanied on the piano by David. The final song was "This Little Light of Mine" which everyone joined in with, not being allowed to leave till Jill thought it sounded good enough! 
After the concert everyone moved outside taking a chair with them, and sat in the glorious sunshine. It was nice to see Derek, a previous Minister who shared a table with us. In all a very enjoyable afternoon. Delicious cakes and plain, fruit and cherry scones, with tea or coffee were served in the schoolroom by Ann Pointer and her team of helpers from the choir.
The total raised from this event was £490. Thank you to all who came and all who helped make the afternoon a success.

The Parish Rogation walk 2018 was a scorcher, beautiful morning sunshine greeted the early starters at they prepared for the days walk.  Meeting at the Methodist Chapel from 9 am the 'catering team' had put together a very welcoming start to the day, tables laid out in a lovely country cafe style with dishes of butter, jams & marmalade's, plenty of tea and toast served to the tables.
The Methodists had a very busy morning serving the walkers who started arriving around 8.40 and we had a steady flow until around 10 a.m. several dogs too, whose owners opted to sit outside. We collected around £70 in donations,

The day started off in high spirits as walking attire, nobbly knees, Mike's thighs, sun hats, refreshment stops were considered in preparation for the walk. Every year the walk gets more popular, and by the 10am stop at St John's in Lea Marston for the bacon and sausage butties there was quite a crowd had gathered.

This year, the Tame Valley wetlands had also joined in the action to offer walkers the opportunity to do short circuit of the bluebell woods adjacent to the St John's which was very lovely, and promote some of their forthcoming events.
The day was fantastic, every one in good spirits.  The refreshments en-route were plentiful and lovely quality produce including the ploughmans lunch at St Cuthberts, Shustoke, followed by strawberry's/melon and cream & wine at Over Whitacre church (St Leonards), and finally on to St Giles Church, Nether Whitacre for afternoon tea/ cakes and a short church service to commend that day.
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What is especially nice is those who were unable to do the walk for whatever reason (either in part or in full) could still take part in a wonderful parish event by simply attending each of the churches.  It was lovely to see so many from the parish young & old joining in, enjoying the sunshine, or the cool of churches or enjoying a picnic on the grass.   

Thanks to our roving reporters Becky, Julie, Christine, Lynda and David.  

A very enjoyable quiz with fish and chips resulted in a profit of £140 for church funds. Eight teams of six battled out out under quiz master Vincent Coggins orders and only a point divided the first four teams. Many thanks to Sue and Malcolm Wagg, Valerie and Colin Bowerman and Vincent and Christine Coggins for all their hard work.

August weather was with us today as quite a number of hardy people set off around the village footpaths. Five dogs dragged their owners round too. Steve led us around the village past the lamas who came out to see who was passing. The walkers also found a rather overgrown path which needed nettles pushing back to get the intrepid rambles through. We made it safely back to the BBQ successfully manned by Phil and backed up by Pauline who between them cooked and prepared the food thank you. The evening service was led by Rev Ian Howarth.

A total of 12 gardens were open 1pm to 6pm both Saturday and Sunday. There were even some bonus gardens who opened at late notice to swell the numbers making the ticket price even better value. Despite the poorer start to Saturday the weather picked up and a glorious Sunday brought out the crowds to enjoy the beauty of the gardens. It would be remiss not to mention in particular, Jane, whose husband died a week before the event. She bravely remained in the programme and opened her garden in memory of Micky. It was a great favourite with visitors too. Refreshments were available both at the Chrystendale garden and the Methodist Chapel, where there was also a raffle and plant sale. Grateful thanks are due to the gardeners, volunteers, organisers and all who donated to the raffle, without you there would not have been an event. Altogether £2413.20 was raised which means that Birmingham Children’s Hospital gets £1206.60 and the Methodist Church gets the same amount to redecorate the church.

Here is a list of those who won raffle prizes at the Open Gardens
1st    Railway voucher                         Margaret Robinson          Over Whitacre
2nd    Gate  voucher                             Danny McKay                    Kingsbury
3rd    Rajrani voucher                           Liz Lockhart                       Shustoke
4th   Indian Lounge voucher               Sid Smith                            Whitacre
5th   Planters voucher                         Linda Potts                          Austrey
6th  Melbicks voucher                         Jean Whitehouse               Whitacre
7th    Wine                                             Tina Bates                           Tamworth
8th    Wine                                              Mr. Millar                           Coventry
9th   Wine                                               Terry Waters                        Whitacre
10th Wine                                              Pat Cumberbridge              Coleshill
11th Wine                                              Dave Williams                     Whitacre
12th Wine                                              Tracey                                   Whitacre
13th  Bird chimes                                 Mavis Coggins                      Whitacre
14th  Squirrel planters                         Jacky Adams                        Whitacre        
15th Pruners and gloves                     Linda Comfort                       Whitacre
16th Pruners and gloves                      Susan Slater                           Coventry
17th Gloves and planters                      Joy                                          Coventry
18th Scarf and purse                            Kit Bramley                             Coleshill
19th Scarf                                               Vivian Croft                            Coventry
20th   Long necklace                            Dave Hampton                        Kingsbury
21st   Short necklace                           Maureen Gascoigne               Coleshill
22nd   Cosmetics                                  Maxine                                     Whitacre

With the day starting cool and wet we were blessed with nice walking weather which seemed to only get better. Soon with the sun shining upon us, over 100 walkers took up the challenge to walk the Rogation route. Toast at the Methodist Chapel set us off and bacon rolls at St Johns Lea Marston got the morning done. The walk to St Cuthberts Shustoke for ploughmans lunch seems to have been diverted to a few of the local pubs as well, but the wine and strawberries at St Leonards Over Whitacre got people ready for the return back to St Giles Nether Whitacre. Here the tea and cake helped people recover before the final service. The bells welcomed people back and the short service - thanksgiving for the finish and the day! was led by Gill. The odd few spots of rain did not seem to spoil the day and all most made it to the end.

One of our roving reporters who was a satisfied audience member reports that   .........

Starting promptly at the advertised time of 7.30pm, the audience in the Methodist Church on Saturday 29 April was entertained for over two hours to the sound of The Switched on Swing Band.  This 8-piece band comprised of saxophones, guitar, percussion, keyboard and even (once) a tuba!
 
This popular band, who practises weekly in the church hall, played a variety of mainly big band music that had been suitably arranged for playing by a small ensemble.  Well over thirty favourites and well known tunes were enjoyed by all.  These tunes included two that had been sung by the Carpenters, one of which was We’ve Only Just Begun.  Other tunes included Moondance, Summertime, Fly Me to the Moon, Blueberry Hill, Moonriver, the Muppets’ theme tune, and A Few of My Favourite Things from the Sound of Music.  Interspersing the tunes was band leader Barry, one of the saxophonists, who, with great humour, told those present a little about the music they were playing.  He even cracked a number of jokes, some of which were about animals!

​Refreshments were served in the church hall during the interval.
 
The sound coming from these talented musicians was terrific!  As the evening progressed, many in the audience could be seen “swinging” in their seats in time to the rhythm of the music.  A great evening was had by all those who were present and £250 was raised for Church funds.

Thanks again to the Switched on Swing band for the concert.