Playing once again to a near full church Switched on Swing entertained with a range of songs from Uptown Funk to some Beatles songs. Interval tea and cakes were enjoyed with the chocolate being demolished. Many helped washing up afterwards including our young reporter. Ours thanks to the band for supporting the Methodist Chapel once again raising £272 in total.

A group of about thirty enjoyed the sunny afternoon ramble around the village footpaths travelling down through Teals Wood and along the reservoir returning via Hayfields and through Bakehouse lane. We returned to find Phil and the ladies had prepared the BBQ and after a hearty supper we celebrated the creation of the new red district with a service lead by Rev Neil Johnson the district superintendent.

A lovely sunny weekend allowed many to enjoy the twelve or more gardens open to view. Refreshments sold well with a wide range of cakes. Did you buy a plant to take home? We thank all those who opened their gardens and helps their visitors.
Can you spot the houses these flowers were seen in?

Brian came and sang for us and the concert was a big success raising a total of £180 to church funds. Thank you to all who attended enjoying a splendid evening and especially to Brian for entertaining us again.

​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.