THE PARISH CHURCH OF STOKE                
DAMEREL (ST. ANDREW & ST. LUKE)

For the 10.00am Parish Eucharist  for today click here

Email:   info@stokedamerel.church                                          
www.Stokedamerel.church
www.facebook.com/StokeDamerelChurch

Sunday 23 March        3rd Sunday of Lent

THIS WEEK'S READINGS Merciful God,
we entrust to your tender care
those who are ill or in pain,
knowing that whenever danger threatens
your everlasting arms
are there to hold them safe.
Comfort and heal them,
and restore them to health and strength;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

PLEASE PRAY FOR:-
The sick:-
Maureen, John and Shirley, Margaret, Graham.
The long term sick and infirm:-
George, Peter, Diana, Liz, Keith, Rob, Clive.
The Ministry Team:-
Wendy, Ruth, Fiona, Marilyn and Rhona.

BLESSED SACRAMENT CANDLE

If you would like to have the candle lit for a week
for a particular prayer / thanksgiving /
commemoration, etc., please send a £5 donation to
Debbie Smith, clearly marking your donation as
being for the candle. Details of your intention can
be emailed to:- sarah.lundstrom@virginmedia.com
so that a mention of the commemoration, etc., can
appear in the Sunday Sheet.

SERVICES THIS WEEK
Stoke Damerel Parish Church is a hybrid church
open for public worship and private prayer and all
services will be live streamed.
By attending a live streamed service, you give
implied permission to have your image captured
on CCTV and to be broadcast as participant in the
liturgy.

In order to watch the livestreamed services please
‘click’ on this link to
make your way to YouTube site:
https://www.youtube.com/c/StokeDamerelChurch

Sunday 23 March               3rd Sunday of Lent
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Trevor Filtness
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Trevor Filtness

Wednesday 26 March
1000 Morning Prayer

Sunday 30 March               Mothering Sunday
0800 Morning Prayer
Led by Ruth Sayers
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Sue Nicholas

WELCOME BACK
To the Rev'd Trevor Filtness and his wife, Rosemary.

PCC MEETING
The next PCC meeting will take place immediately
following this Sunday’s 10am Eucharist.

ELECTORAL ROLL FORMS
A big thank you to those who have returned their
form. Please could those who haven’t done so
give them to Wendy, Marilyn and Ruth as soon as
possible so we can compile the roll. Thank you.
Wendy

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:
EASTER SERVICES
Maundy Thursday Liturgy 17 April    7.00pm
Good Friday Liturgy 18 April                10.00am
Holy Saturday 19 April                            8.00pm
Easter Day Eucharist 20 April              10.00am

SQUARES FOR UKRAINE
From Ruth Jordan:
Most encouraging!
Now seven people have claimed a pair of knitting
needles. On Sunday 16th I was handed eight
squares - several people are waiting until they have
knitted a few more. My personal blanket for the
military has reached Row Nine. I shall knit 26
squares with ease by early April.
I feel confident enough now to reserve the squares
knit by our church group to retain all squares so
that it will be yours exclusively. We need 80
squares by April 6th please. I shall need a few
hours to sew them together. On Monday 7 April I
shall need four hours to apply a crochet border. On
Tuesday 8 Apr I shall deliver your blanket to the
PUMA warehouse in Estover. A photo will appear
in the church pewsheet.
A word on number of rows to knit. If you feel you
knit fairly’ tight or close’ then feel free to knit 44
rows.
However we are needing quantity here NOT
quality. These blankets knit with love are going to
an orphanage where they can easily get covered in
blood. Please will you bring any completed granny
squares along on Sunday.
Thank you. Please keep knitting!

FIONA’S FOOTNOTES
Today’s gospel reading always makes me feel
sorry for the fig tree. It hasn’t done anything
wrong and yet is being blamed for not producing
fruit and is threatened with being chopped down.
I had a conversation recently about this very
passage where the person I was speaking to was
confused about the fig tree and why Jesus would
want it to be chopped down.
When I told him that the story really isn’t about
the fig tree he asked me for an explanation. And
so I told him that the parable is really about us,
humanity. God gives us gifts, to use to make things
better, for ourselves and for others. Not using our
gifts, or wasting them is not God’s plan. But if we
use our gifts, if we feed our faith and grow closer
to Jesus, we are like the fig tree and being given an
extra season in order to bear fruits.
So even when we don’t use the gifts we’ve been
given God still gives us the opportunity to turn
around and use our gifts in the wants. We don’t get
‘chopped down’. God loves us so much that He
waits patiently for us to change our ways. And the
best way to change our ways is to turn to God and
ask Him for help. Just like when a child finally
speaks to their parent about the things they need
hep with, giving their parent the opportunity to
help them, God is waiting, ready to help us and
guide us, all we need to do is ask.
Thank you to everyone who completed a feedback
sheet following my leading and preaching last
week. That’s the final one I’ll be asking you to
complete and, as ever, you have supported me
marvellously.
Just one quick reminder that there is a vacancy at
SWMTC for a Strategic Development Officer.
The job description, plus application form, can be
found on the website. If you know anyone who’d
like to apply please encourage them and direct
them to:
www.swmtc.org.uk/people/current-vacancies/
With love and prayers,
Fiona

MARILYN'S MEMOS
SPRING CLEAN FOR EASTER:
Saturday 5th April
Has anyone noticed the floor is full of fluff and
dust? It is almost 3 months since we completed our
December clean up. Easter Sunday is 20th April,
Palm Sunday is 13th April so what are the chances
of forming a church cleaning party on Saturday 5
April? Is this a good date? This undertaking would
be following the guidance of Fr Keith, who
instigated a group cleaning effort before Easter and
Christmas.

EASTER BANNER
The banner has now been updated and collected
from the printers. Please can it go up this coming
Sunday as the first date is Mothering Sunday: just
a week away.

EASTER SERVICES -
PARTICIPANTS NEEDED
Wendy and I are working on the cast list of readers
and acting participants (from script) for our
various Triduum services. Please help our
congregation make these acts of worship the very
best we can.

THE RUN UP TO EASTER
As a congregation, we have not undertaken a Lent
course this year, so I would like to pass on.........
albeit rather late......... a daily reflection from
The Church of England, which Rev’d Sue kindly
shared with me.
I fear you do require a smart phone and the title is
#Living Hope Lent Reflections
https://click.email.churchofengland.org/open.aspx?
ffcb 10-fec9
Each day you receive an uplifting theme with a
bible reading, a reflection on the reading followed
by a challenge.

DISPLAYING OUR ARTISTIC GIFTS
Can we remember to bring picture hanging
necessities to hang Gerry’s splendid paintings
please?

BRAVO FIONA
Last Sunday our ordinand Fiona conducted our
worship, with Rev’d Sue presiding over the parts
which have to be led by an ordained priest. Well
done, Fiona, it worked well and I am sure we all
hope you receive very favourable, encouraging and
constructive feedback. I am sure that revisiting via
YouTube is very helpful. Not long to go before you
leave us for the next step of your training.

FUND RAISING
Any new ideas please?
Emma organised a very enjoyable Saturday
afternoon a few week’s ago when a group got
together to make a terrarium each, under her
guidance. Watch out for the next idea: it could be
cooking tips.




Sunday 16th March
This concert was a real success. Duncan
Honeybourne is an unassuming piano genius and
gave us a wonderful tour de force, which was
much appreciated by our regular Plymouth Concert
aficionados. Many more came in on the door than
expected. There was just one tense moment in the
second half where he was using an ipad with a foot
operated page turner. He found his pedal had
turned two pages at once which to be honest I
probably wouldn’t have noticed!! He stopped
immediately to explain and started the particular
movement over again. He drove from Weymouth
and teaches in many prestigious schools and
educational establishments all over the country.

FORTHCOMING CONCERT IN MARCH
March 30: Nocturne Music: 3pm
Chopin, Field, Rachmaninov with
Clare Garton-Sprenger on the cello and
Irina Kosogova on the piano
Tickets available on the door or ring 07860 410277

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN MARCH
Janet Vickers, Geoff Bersey, Jenny Whalley,
Ellie Brown, Katie Armstrong, Jean Farrar.

THE VARIED FONT LOCATIONS IN
STOKE DAMEREL PARISH CHURCH
Following on from my recent discussions
regarding the origins of the church building, I
thought it would be interesting to look at the
history of the font locations within the church, as
this gives us some knowledge of how the building
was used over the years. According to the Church
of England website, Canon F1 requires that a place
of baptism be provided, and it should have “A
decent font, with a cover for keeping it clean”
The font should “...stand as near as convenient to
the principal entrance” and “...shall only be used
for water for baptism and no other purpose”
The website of the National Churches Trust gives a
concise history of fonts: - “Every medieval church
contained a font. It was close to the main
entrance of the church in an area known as the
baptistry. The font contains the holy water used
in Baptism. They were originally large enough to
allow the infant to be fully immersed, but in the
Middle Ages it became the practice to baptise by
partial immersion or pouring water over the
head. In 1236 it was ordered that all fonts should
have a lockable lid. The water was generally only
changed once per year, on Easter Sunday!”
It would, no doubt, be interesting to know, in those
days, whether there would have been a sudden
rush for baptisms just after Easter, before the water
had been used too many times.
We are all familiar with the font at Stoke Damerel
church, just inside the south entrance. However,
this is the third location within the church. Access
into the church via the south porch seems also to
be the third variation, possibly created sometime
after the second eighteenth century extension to
the building had been completed.

We know where this font was previously located
because there is a photograph in the church
archives. The sepia image reproduced below
shows a rather drab looking building in need of
some restoration. Knowing that major works were
undertaken in 1904, I think that the photograph
was probably taken in the nineteenth century, or
just into the twentieth century. The view is from
the south of the church, looking toward the north.
On the left is a door opening now leading into the
choir vestry, and the font is positioned just in front
of that door. Before the new floor was laid, I can
remember that, when the carpet covering this
location was lifted, there was a large octagonal
concrete patch, which must have been formed
when the font was moved to the present location.
Records show that permission was granted for
access through the western wall in 1806, and this
was where worshippers then entered the building.
The photograph indicates that this must be true.

Going back to the watercolour below showing the
north wall of the church interior, we see that, when
the original entrance was via the north porch,
accessed from across the fields before any roads
existed, there was a very small basin positioned
centrally below the arch fronting the recess in the
north wall. No doubt, this was the baptistry and
was the reason for construction of the recess.
Unfortunately, this does not add anything to our
knowledge of the original north wall location.

Whilst looking for images of the present font, I
found photographs I had taken of the inscription
carved around the eight sides. It reads “Not by
marks of righteousness which we have done but
according to his mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the
Holy Ghost TITUS III Chapter 5 Verse November
VIth. A D MDCCCXLVIII” This is a quote from
the book of Titus (as in the original King James
version), together with a date. This has created
another dilemma for me. Does anyone know the
significance of 6th. November 1848?
Tony Barnard