Saint Eustachius - Tavistock Parish Church

The benefice of Tavistock, Gulworthy and Brent Tor The Anglican Diocese of Exeter

‘Last Night of the Proms’

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Devonport Naval Base Volunteer Band

Join us on Saturday 28 September for our ‘Last Night of the Proms’

 The HMS Drake Royal Naval Volunteer Band effectively formed in the late 1970s when a small group of Engineers started playing for weekly prayers at the Royal Naval Engineering College (RNEC) at Manadon on the outskirts of Plymouth.  The band thrived and not long after, a Royal Marine Bandsman was appointed to the band as their full time conductor and instructor with the band becoming one of a number of recognised “Volunteer Bands” within the Royal Navy, mainly in shore establishments but extending to include the groups on the Carriers (Ark Royal, Invincible and Illustrious) and more recently on the new HMS Queen Elizabeth. When RNEC Manadon closed in 1995, the band became the Devonport Naval Base Volunteer Band and moved into HMS Drake, where it continues to be based today.

In the early days, the band was primarily made up of Service Personnel but as the Navy reduced in numbers the membership widened as did the number and type of gigs undertaken.   Nowadays, as the name implies, the band is made up of unpaid volunteers consisting of serving and retired members of the armed forces, their families, members of the emergency services and a wide range of civilians all bound by a love of music and desire to perform in a military wind band.

Last year, unfortunately the decision was taken to withdraw the instructors from the volunteer bands although the Royal Navy and RM Band Service continue to support us in a number of ways.  The Royal Naval Volunteer Band Association (RNVBA) has been formed to cover the activities of the 9 remaining volunteer bands (spread from Faslane to Culdrose) and support them as they struggle to maintain their musical standards, military ethos and in some cases, their existence. All of the bands have been forced to change the way they operate and have followed slightly different models depending on their location and availability of funding.  A number have been able to fund part time conductors via sponsorship or through grants, however, in the case of the Devonport band, we have had to become fully self-funding, needing to earn enough through our performances and any local sponsorship we can find to support our activities.   HMS Drake has continued to provide us with a venue and support us administratively, the Band Service provide us with instruments and we now manage ourselves through a committee.  A year after these changes came in, we are pleased to report that we are still actively performing and are planning a number of high profile gigs in the coming year on top of our normal “bread and butter” engagements.

Within the band, we are lucky to have a strong and very capable Corps of Drums who perform with us for big events but also stand-alone providing drummers and buglers for a range of events around the Plymouth area.   You may have seen them recently performing a sunset routine on the Hoe or dressed in period costume leading dancers and pirates through the Barbican.  Their bugling was rightly picked out for special mention by the RM Band Service Director of Music at the Volunteer Band inspection in Portsmouth, as being as good as some of his professionals!

We continue to support the Royal Navy, providing background music for both Naval and Civilian functions in the Wardroom and Senior Rates messes, as well as performing “Beat the Retreat” and “sunset” ceremonies not only within HMS Drake but also in Stonehouse barracks and HMS Raleigh.  We have also managed to support the local community with highlights of the last year including support to the naming ceremony of their new RNLI lifeboat (televised), the Plymouth Mayor Making Ceremony, Torpoint carnival (and their Armistice Day parade) and “Proms in the Park” in the bandstand in Devonport Park.

The next few months sees the band reprise their “Proms in the Park” (Devonport park on Sunday 1st September) and then build up to a big event with their version of the “Last Night of the Proms” in St Eustachius’ Church in Tavistock on Saturday 28th September.  

The coming year also has some exciting events currently in the early planning phase, with potential performances by the band in the Tower of London and at Jersey in the Channel Islands being obvious highlights.  There are also plans for massed band performances bringing together elements from all the volunteer bands with the RNVBA providing a band for the RNA (Royal Naval Association) parade in London and an aspiration to bring a massed band event to Plymouth as part of the Mayflower 400 celebrations; all in all, 2020 is building to be an exciting year for members of the HMS DRAKE Royal Naval Volunteer Band.

Grant towards Choral Services

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St Eustachius’ Church has been awarded a grant of £2,000 by the Ouseley Church Music Trust to promote and maintain the high standard of choral services at the church.  The grant will contribute to the salary of the Director of Music at St Eustachius’, Scott Angell.  We are extremely grateful to the Trust for this award.

Appointed at the beginning of this year, Scott has been enthusiastically bringing new developments to the church with his high quality organ playing and breadth of his repertoire, together with new anthems and activities with the choir.  Already the choir has several new members and there is room for more.

Scott said: “I know I am biased, but Tavistock church has one of the best choirs in the area and they show how music can be really uplifting in the service of God”.

Tavistock’s Patronal Festival

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We are told that life begins at 40. That’s very good news, although, of course, in these terms I’m still considered to be in my infancy. So hopefully there’s much more of this life still to come.

But when does life begin? I think this is a very complicated question for Christians. It’s complicated because Christians have always believed that there is a human life before point of birth, though quite when is a matter of disagreement. So we wrestle with all sorts of the questions about how ‘unborn’ life should be treated. But it’s complicated, too, because Christians have also always believed that there is another birth after birth. There is a clear message in the New Testament that every human life requires a new beginning, a moment when life truly begins.

On Sunday 15th September 2019, we celebrate the feast of our patron St Eustachius, the patron of our Church. Tavistock Parish Church is over seven hundred years old. It is a place of prayer and worship – a place where life can be transformed. St. Eustachius, and the early church, present us with another way of understanding how life begins in Christian terms.

The vast majority of churches in the Church of England are dedicated to one or more people. Most are dedicated to a single ‘patron saint’, such as Saint Peter or the Virgin Mary, or one of the persons of God, such as Holy Trinity, Christ Church, or The Good Shepherd. Others commemorate Christian events, for example, the Ascension of Jesus. All churches are dedicated to God, but by the fourth century it was common practice to dedicate a Christian place of worship to one or more “patron” saints. No single set of rules governed the choice of patron saint for a church, but existing and historical dedications show a pattern, which suggest how patrons were often chosen. In terms of numbers of dedications, the most popular saints chosen show the influence of Rome on the history of English Christianity, and also that major characters from Scripture were also selected, with the most popular being St Mary, St Peter, St Michael, St Andrew, and St Paul.

Our patron saint is St. Eustachius. It was a vision that converted him to Christianity. We know the story well. He was a Roman general called Placidus, who converted to Christianity after having seen a vision of a stag with a crucifix lodged between its antlers. At his baptism, he took the name Eustace, which literally means  “steadfast”, only for the members of his family, and his wealth, to be taken from him in a series of disasters. Despite many trials, and much suffering, he remained faithful and gained the reputation of being a “Job” of the Christian tradition. He and his remaining family are thought to have been martyred, on the instruction of the Emperor Hadrian, in the early second century.

When St Eustachius clearly saw the cross of Christ, it was a moment of insight, a moment of conversion, a moment when new life began. It was, without parallel, an absolute turning point in his life, signified by a radical change in his attitude towards Jesus Christ and his followers.

For some people the Christian life begins at a decisive moment, a moment that changes everything. But for most of us, I think, there are moments, when we are given, by grace, some insight into God’s great plan for us, – perhaps a word spoken to us by someone else, perhaps that inner sense that we are being prompted or called to do a particular thing, perhaps a growing awareness and understanding of God’s great love for the world, of God’s kingdom of justice, peace and joy, that is being revealed around us.

The Patronal Festival Service begins at 9.45 am on the 15th September in the church of St Eustachius, Tavistock. The president and preacher will be the Bishop of Exeter, the Rt. Revd Robert Atwell, and everyone is very welcome to the service. Afterwards, there will be a “bring and share” lunch in the Parish Centre to celebrate the Patronal Festival.  Again, everyone is welcome.  Nearer the time, there will be a sign-up sheet at the back of Church to offer help with the catering arrangements’ if you are able to do so. In the evening, at 6pm, Festival Choral Evensong will be a sung in Church.

On the 15th September, we give thanks for St Eustachius who, despite many difficulties in his life, remained faithful and steadfast, and who shows us all how life begins, again and again, in the company of the one whom, when we follow him and place our trust in him, is life itself, Jesus Christ.

With my love and prayers,

Chris Hardwick

The Reverend Tony Vigars writes …

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When I get in from a good walk on Dartmoor I am usually hot and sweaty whether it is winter or summer – whether the weather has been hot or cold. I am quite certain that I will be in need of a shower!

What do others smell when you are around? No – I am not being impertinent and enquiring about your breath or body-odour! Even if we have never used perfume or after-shave in our lives, we Christians are called to imitate Jesus – to be a fragrant offering.

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Ephesians 5:1,2

The older I get as a Christian the more I realise that knowing what the Bible says is of no avail unless I live it in my life as well. Faith in the Risen Christ is inadequate unless accompanied by a Risen Life.

Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. James 2:17

Each morning in my prayers, along with the person leading Morning Prayer in St Eustachius’ Church at 8am, I say these words: As we rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence, O God, set our hearts on fire with love for you. When I repeat those words I often add a few more words: set our hearts on fire like the burning bush with love for you. I think of the story of Moses when he saw a bush burning, but not being consumed. It was such an arresting sight that he had to step aside to examine it and there he met with God (see Exodus 3:1-6). We are not just called to be a fragrant offering but also an attractive sight!

I write this in August when the church calendar remembers the Transfiguration – when Jesus’s appearance was transformed for a while in front of three of his disciples: the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white (see Luke 9:28-36). The entry in the Diocesan prayer diary said this: On the feast of the Transfiguration we pray that we would be transfigured to be your presence in the world. Help us to live in ways which show by our deeds the words of Jesus … And just a few days before I had seen one Church member doing just that. Having taken someone to the doctors’ surgery, she was now taking them around town where they struggle to get to from their rural abode.

It should be important to us what “smell” accompanies us; what “whiff” others get when they encounter us; what sight they see when they look upon us, whether they be family, friends, neighbours, colleagues or strangers. Let us pray that by God’s grace it may be fragrant and attractive!

Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. 2 Corinthians 2:14

 Yours sincerely,

Tony

Parish Magazine – September 2019

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We are pleased to announce the release of the parish magazine for the month of September 2019. Some featured articles include:

  • Page 6: From the Vicarage – Tavistock’s Patronal Festival
  • Pages 24 – 27: Devonport Naval Base Volunteer Band presents ‘Last Night of the Proms’

The Ministry Team

The Very Revd Dr Christopher Hardwick
The Reverend Mike Loader
The Reverend Dr Steven Martin
The Reverend Sue Tucker
The Reverend Judith Blowey
Mr Christopher Pancheri
Mrs Sally Pancheri
Mrs Wendy Roderick

General Enquiries

Mrs Mandy Betts
Parish Administrator
01822 616673
9.30 am - 12.30 pm

Our Church Schools and Parish Churches

St Rumon's Infants School
01822 612085
www.tavistockcsf.org.uk/website
St Peter's Junior School
01822 614640
www.tavistockcsf.org.uk/website
St Paul's, Gulworthy
Christ Church, Brentor
www.brentorvillage.org
St Michael's, Brent Tor
www.brentorvillage.org

Useful Contacts

Churchwardens
Mrs Hilary Sanders - 07810 301376
Mrs Mary Whalley - 01822 481179
Director of Music
Mr Scott Angell - 01752 783490
Pastoral Care Co-ordinator
Mrs Elizabeth Maslen - 01822 613512
Magazine Advertising
Mrs Mandy Betts - 01822 616673
Parish Giving Officer
Mr Peter Rowan - 01822 617999

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