Saint Eustachius - Tavistock Parish Church

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

The Very Reverend Dr Christopher Hardwick writes …

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Farewell

The 6th October (Harvest Festival in Tavistock) brings to a close Steve Martin’s curacy with us in the Benefice. Steve will be presiding and preaching at the 9.45 am Eucharist in Tavistock Church. This is a Benefice service (there will be no services at Brentor or Gulworthy that day so that all who wish to come are able to do so). Following the service, a lunch will be held for Steve, Caroline, Henry and John in the Parish Centre, during which we will be able to express our thanks to them all, and to Steve and for his ministry as Curate among us. We will miss them all very much indeed. Steve will take up his new post as Rector of the Holyford Mission Community and Priest-in-Charge of Northleigh on the 20th November at a service to be conducted by Bishop Jackie in Colyton Church at 7.30 pm. Everyone is welcome and a coach will be leaving Tavistock at 5.15 pm on the 20th November (details in our churches, cost £7 return) for those who would like to go. We are delighted for Steve and Caroline, Henry and John, as they enter this next stage of their lives. We wish them well and surround them with our love and prayers. May God continue to bless them.

All Saints’ Day

An advance notice for your diaries: On Sunday 3rd November, the first Sunday of November, special services will be held in the Benefice. The first will be a commemoration of “All Saints” at 9.45 am in Tavistock and Christ Church, Brentor, and at 11.15 am in Gulworthy. The period around All Saints’ Day focuses our thoughts towards “the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting. The prayer for All Saints’ Day affirms that God has knit together his elect “into one communion and fellowship”.

Commemoration of the Faithful Departed

The second will be a commemoration of the faithful departed. “All Souls Day” is the completion of All Saints; it acknowledges human sadness and grief at the loss of our loved ones. Together these two days proclaim the message: “Death is not the end. The saints in heaven were the saints on earth, and death was the door from our earth to their heaven. So it shall be for us.” This is the Christian hope and it is founded in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. On Friday 1st November a service of reflections and readings will be held at Christ Church Brentor for All Souls, and on the evening of the 3rd November I am planning a Benefice Service also as a Special Act of Remembrance for all those who have been recently bereaved or who would like to remember a loved one from years past. This service to commemorate the faithful departed will be held at Tavistock Church at 6 pm. During this service we will remember those who have died by name and candles will be lit as a symbol of hope. The service will be simple and include a performance of the Fauré Requiem. I hope that many individuals and families will want to be present for one or both of these acts of Remembrance and Thanksgiving.

With my love and prayers.

Chris Hardwick

Reverend Mike Loader, Assistant Priest, Tavistock, Gulworthy and Brentor writes …

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“Lord, teach us to Pray”.

What a summer we have had, one of the hottest months on record and yet times of torrential rain; yes, but this is Tavistock! So as we move on and into Autumn, perhaps we could reflect upon that most significant of questions that the disciples posed to our Lord Jesus, “Lord, teach us to Pray” (Luke 11v1).

Jesus had been praying ‘in a certain place’ and his disciples must have observed that, and realised just how significant prayer was to their Rabbi, how it was an integral part of his life, and they were probably being convinced that they had better follow suit. The disciples would have been familiar with the regular Temple routine of prayer at the morning and evening sacrifice, but clearly could see that for Jesus prayer was a much more personal and intimate relationship shared with God, his Father.

I do not know about you, but giving prayer the proper place and time in my Christian pilgrimage has perhaps been the thing that I have struggled with most of all. So what may we learn from the prayer life of Jesus that may help and encourage us to pray? Why should we anyway?

The American attorney, Methodist minister and civil war chaplain E M Bounds considered “conversation with God as fundamentally vital to the Christian life as physical breath”. The Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard said, “Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays”. I certainly recognise that there is still much that God needs to change in me as He fulfils his promise through the Holy Spirit that we are to be transformed into the likeness of our Lord Jesus (2Cor 3v18), and perhaps those early disciples could see that need as well.

We can see in the prayer life of our Lord Jesus a number of pointers from which we can take note. The American pastor Charles Stanley (www.intouch.org) draws our attention to at least seven of these.

Early on in his busy ministry schedule Mark tells us (1v35) that Jesus ‘got up early to pray’. Not easy for some of us who are not ‘early birds’, but to start the day with God through prayer, as Joy constantly reminds me, is to set all of its activities in their proper context. Maybe this is another call to our 8am service of Morning Prayer?

Mark then goes on to tell us that Jesus ‘went out to a lonely place to pray’. Distractions so easily take us away from our intimate time with God so maybe we need to find a place where we can pray and not be easily distracted.

Later Mark tells us (14v35) that during the final days of his earthly life in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus ‘fell on the ground to pray’. Perhaps we can take that to mean Jesus prayed on his knees or lay prostrate. We each need to find a posture best fitting to our prayers. But it maybe that when ‘we are on our knees’, and so humbling ourselves before our great and Holy God, we become open to God and can pray like our Lord “not my will but yours be done” (Mk14v36), surely one of the hardest prayers to make. But it is at such a time that we are more open to hearing God speak to us, and our intimate relationship as a ‘child of God’ can grow and be perfected.

Luke adds to our understanding of Jesus’s prayer life (6v12) by telling us that before choosing his twelve disciples Jesus spent ‘the whole night in prayer’. I wonder how many of us can make that claim? But prayer is a wise move before making life’s significant decisions.

John goes on to inform us that at the ‘last supper’ (17v15) Jesus prayed for his followers to be ‘delivered from the evil one’. Informed prayer for one another should be an essential part of each of our lives as members of ‘the body of Christ’.

We also learn from Matthew (14v23) that Jesus ‘went up into the hills by himself to pray’. I wonder how many of us take ourselves off into the beautiful Dartmoor countryside that surrounds us to do just that. Although it is good to have a ‘prayer partner’- someone else to pray and share with, there are times when we need to bring our innermost feelings before our heavenly Father God alone, and to leave them with him as we await his response to the promise that he will indeed hear and answer us (1John5v14-15).

I pray that these thoughts may spur us on and into a deeper prayer life as we journey along the path set out before us.

Every blessing,

Mike.

Parish Magazine – October 2019

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

  • Page 6: Farewell to Steven Martin, All Saints’ Day and Commemoration of the Faithful Departed
  • Page 18: Volunteer Fund Raiser appeal

‘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”.

The Ministry Team

The Very Revd Dr Christopher Hardwick
The Reverend Mike Loader
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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