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

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

Please note: Stoke Damerel Church does not divulge
personal information to third parties.

Sunday 5 October                Harvest Thanksgiving

  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, John, Kathy.
The long term sick and infirm:-
George, Peter, Diana, Liz, Keith, Rob.
The recently departed:-
We give thanks for the lives of James Bridgwater
and Clive and we pray for their families and
friends at this sad time.
The Ministry Team:-
Wendy, Ruth, 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.

Watch our livestreamed services
Please follow the link to make your way to our YouTube page: 

 STOKE DAMEREL YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

Sunday 5 October                    Harvest Thanksgiving
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Sue Nicholas
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Sue Nicholas

Wednesday 8 October
1000 Morning Prayer

Sunday 12 October                17th Sunday after Trinity
0800 Holy Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Dr Sacha Pearce
1000 Sung Parish Eucharist
Celebrant: Rev’d Dr Sacha Pearce

WELCOME 
To Rev’d Sue and members of St. Aubyn’s who
celebrate our Harvest Thanksgiving with us today.


Fiona, Jack and Scott last Sunday.

MARILYN'S MEMOS

PLYMOUTH CONCERT SERIES
We have a concert on Sunday 12th October, with
Emma Johnson on the clarinet, along with her
accompanist on the newly tuned piano.

OVERNIGHT SLEEPERS
Full details of this possibility will be announced
as soon as clarified. We have been canvassed by
Transforming Plymouth Together to consider
opening our building(s) to homeless people who
would otherwise be sleeping in a variety of very
cold places during the winter. Bedding etc would
be provided. Potentially between 10 and 15 people
could be in situ between 9pm and 8 am
accompanied by trained volunteer workers. Hot
drinks and snacks would be provided by the
organisation and the space would be left clean and
tidy on departure. The details have been discussed
by the PCC and we are looking into the
implications with our insurance company.

JAMES BRIDGWATER RIP
It was with great sadness last Sunday that we
announced the sudden death of James, who died
on the previous Friday. James attended many
churches in the area, in particular Stoke Damerel,
where he was Church Warden for a period with
Geoff Bersey, St Michael’s and St. Aubyn’s.
There were periods where we did not see James
and then he would arrive with different friends to
share our worship.
He had a very sad early life as at about the age of
5 he had been with his mother on a car journey and
had witnessed her being fatally injured in an
accident. His father was obliged to give up his
naval career in order to look after James, and had
subsequently worked at City College as a lecturer
in mathematics. I believe James attended Plymouth
College and after that I regret I am not sure how
his life evolved. A considerable number of years
ago, I recall that we made a collection for him and
organised a farewell party as he had obtained
employment in Hungary as an English teacher.
Unfortunately, this did not work out so well and he
returned home relatively quickly.
James had many and varied interests, in particular
drama and literature. He had a book published
about his life to date, and somewhere amongst my
books is a copy. He was quite a prolific writer and
discovered that it was possible to have work
published online. James was involved in several
drama groups, Funky Lama and Script in Hand. He
loved poetry and performance and shared his
talents with a very wide group of appreciative
friends. James enjoyed travelling and once joined
the Plymouth Brest twinning exchange for a long
weekend. He also loved cats! He often attended
Bible study classes and I am sure he would have
had long discussions with his father, who had
become a well-known lay reader in the city.
Like us, Rev’d Tim Buckley knew and supported
James over a period of two decades, as our
incumbents had done, and latterly had got to know
Rev’d Sue in her role at St. Aubyn’s. Details of his
funeral will be announced as soon as available.
Should anyone wish to send a condolence card to
his family, I am sure they would be touched.

MARGUERITE PIKE LEGACY
We have recently received a gift of £1000 from the
estate of Marguerite Pike, whose funeral was held
at Stoke Damerel earlier this year. We have written
to confirm receipt of this generous gift to her
executor and requested that grateful thanks are
offered to her family. The gift is intended for the
fabric of the church and will, therefore, be added
to our roof fund we believe.

BROWNIES
Do you know any girls from 7 to 10, who would
like a new and exciting hobby?
Brownies welcomes all girls from 7 to 10 years old
for nonstop fun, learning and adventure. Brownies
is full of firsts: your child can explore their
creative side, get out into the great outdoors, learn
how to look after themselves, others and the world
we live in. They might grow their first plant, cook
their first cake, put up (and take down) their first
tent or go on their first fun-packed weekend away
with guiding friends. There's something for every
girl!
Brownies follow our programme. They do fun
activities, play games and earn skill builder
badges, all while being supported by our trained
volunteers who give up their time for free. Your
child could get skills builder badges in themes
such as camping, communication and first aid.
They can even earn badges at home like the
aviation badge, performing badge and inventing
badge. Many units split girls into small groups
called sixes for some activities and, as your child
gets older, they'll have a chance to become the
sixer or seconder which are the leaders of a six.
We encourage members to wear a uniform to show
they’re part of the Girlguiding family. Brownies
wear a top and a pair of bottoms. Badges can be
attached to your child’s uniform – the promise
badge, which they'll get after making their
Brownie Promise should be on the left-hand side
and all other badges can be attached wherever they
choose.
You can register you daughter/granddaughter for
Brownies by contacting the leaders who are
building up a Unit of new members at Stoke
Damerel Parish Centre, 6 to 7.30 pm every
Thursday evening of term time.
Kira Halloway kiragirlguiding97@gmail.com and
Sofia Sbarsi sofiasbarsi2000@gmail.com

VISIT TO PIETY
The Islamic worship centre in Greenbank
We plan to visit on Saturday 1st November in the
morning. If you are interested please let Wendy or
Emma know.

FROM REV’D BRIAN WOOD:
Rev Brian is working on a series of 40 pictures and
words to condense the essence of what he gets
from the 66 books of the Bible into illustrations
that might inspire others to take up that most
owned and least read of books, to discover for
themselves how they may see or find how the
Bible speaks to them.
Today the 1st October Brian celebrated the 17th
anniversary of becoming a priest, it having been
the feast of St Michael and All Angels. He
presided at a service of Holy Communion with the
lectionary suggested readings from Nehemiah and
Luke.
This is Brian’s Illustration© 14 covering the
Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. These books give
the account of Ezra’s spiritual and Nehemiah’s
physical contributions and organisation of the
rebuilding of Jerusalem after generations of
captivity in Babylon.




Segments of the walls around the Temple in
Jerusalem are ascribed to those reported to have
reconstructed them. The City gates are noted and
we are reminded they protected the City of David.
The temple had been in ruins for many many years
when as Neh. 2:5 says he was inspired to rush back
to the city of his ancestors and rebuild the fallen
walls, fulfilling God’s wishes for his Holy Place.
Brian says he’s never sure of the value of walls
especially to keep people out but walls do give
people a feeling of security, so a place of safety
from which we can go out and share the good news
with others.
Moving on to read from Luke 9 the cost of
following Jesus is stated in the rather stark terms
often used by Israelites ending with his discourse
on verse 6 “... No one who puts a hand to the
plough and looks back is fit for service in the
kingdom of God.”
You have to keep moving on to do your work of
taking the Gospel to the people and not to look
back except to learn from what has been, to
strengthen you for that work.
Please do contact revbrianwood@gmail.com with
your own response, in whatever form it might take,
to checking this illustration with the books quoted.
Thank you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN OCTOBER
John Mitchelmore, Wendy Pezzey, Craig Miles,
William Brown, Kelly Collins, Robin Tugwell.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Oct 12 Concert: Emma Johnson    3.00pm
Oct 19 St. Luke’s Service            10am
Nov 9 Remembrance Sunday 10.30 Eucharist
Nov 21 Christmas Fair                11am - 3pm
Nov 22 Christmas Fair                11am - 3pm
Nov 28 St Andrew’s Night Supper 6.30pm
Nov 30 World Aids Day Celebration 12.00pm

MORE ABOUT THE NORTH-EAST
WINDOW AT STOKE CHURCH
Last week I wrote about the stained-glass window
dedicated to the memory of James St. Aubyn, who
died in 1862. Whilst undertaking my research, I
was sure that I had more information buried in my
files but could not locate it at the time. Typically,
whilst looking for something else this week, it
surfaced.
James St. Aubyn was the eldest son of Sir John
St. Aubyn and his mistress, Miss Martha Nicholls,
daughter of a landscape gardener. Sir John built
up his famous collection of fossils and minerals,
containing hundreds of rocks and 10,000 ice age
fossils. This collection is now kept at The Box in
Plymouth. When Sir John died his will stipulated
that James must set aside £130,000 for marriage
settlements for James’ 13 brothers and sisters, the
majority of which were also illegitimate.
Presumably, he inherited enough money from his
father to finance this requirement. On the death of
his father, he became Lord of the manor of Stoke
Damerel, but the baronetcy finished with his
father’s passing.
James was educated at Westminster School and
Oriel College, Oxford. He married Sarah White,
daughter of the Rector of Fyfield in Hampshire.
They had three daughters. Apart from being Lord
of the Manor, he seems to have had some success
as a poet, actor and amateur artist. He died in
Essex on 23rd. June 1862 and was buried at Stoke
Damerel on 2nd. July. The Manor of Stoke Damerel
passed to his seventh son, Sir Edward St. Aubyn,
whose mother was Miss Juliana Vinicombe.
However, they did marry 23 years after Edward’s
birth. James, like his father, had more children out
of wedlock than legitimately from his first
marriage. Edward was elected as the first Mayor of
Devonport and, in 1866, Queen Victoria reinstated
the baronetcy for Sir Edward. One of his brothers,
Reverend William John St. Aubyn was Rector of
Stoke Damerel between 1828 and 1877, and his
nephew was the nationally well-known and prolific
architect, J. P. St. Aubyn, who designed, amongst
other buildings, Devonport Market and many large
local villas. A comprehensive 2022 thesis by
Patrick John Newberry listed buildings designed or
worked on by J P St. Aubyn. The list seems almost
endless, and I may try to summarise his life and
work at a later date.
In the Stoke Damerel archive records relating to
this window I have now rediscovered the name of
the company responsible for its execution. A
newspaper article from 1862 records that this was
“Messrs. Lavers and Barrand of London”.
However, what I had not registered before was that
the work was undertaken “under the supervision
of J. P. St. Aubyn, Esq., Architect, John Street,
Bedford-row, London.” So, although I had not
thought so before, Stoke Damerel church does
have some work related to J.P. St. Aubyn.
Lavers and Barrand (elsewhere referred to as
Lavers and Barraud) were established in 1858,
only four years before Stoke’s window was
created. In 1868 one of their designers, Nathaniel
Westlake also became a partner, and he later
became the sole proprietor. At that time the
stained-glass industry was undergoing a boom
period. Westlake was known for his pre-Raphaelite
style, and he might well have been responsible for
the design of Stoke Damerel’s window.
The Victoria and Albert Museum holds one of his
best-known works – “The Vision of Beatrice.”
created in 1863.

THE VISION OF BEATRICE
[reproduced with the permission of
The Victoria and Albert Museum]
Looking at the use of colour, design of parts of the
image, and similar dates, there is a real possibility
that Westlake may have been responsible for our
window. More research may prove this.
Tony Barnard