Horsley Church

VICAR	The Rev Stephen Earley	832 181
CHURCHWARDENS	Mr H A J Shuttleworth	832 060
	Mr S Burrage	832 952
PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL
Treasurer & Electoral Roll	Col The Hon Peter N Trustram-Eve	833 665
Secretary	Mr S Burrage	832 952
Verger	Mrs E Window	836 790
Magazine Editor	Mr J Neely
Captain of Bells	Mr S Burrage	832 952
	Mr M Carden	833 425
	Mrs T Bond	860 209
	Mr R Lee
	Mrs P Dalrymple Hamilton
	Mrs L Honeychurch

1st Sunday of the month	8.00am	Holy Communion	BCP
2nd Sunday of the month	11.00am	All Age Family Service
3rd Sunday of the month	11.00am	Parish Communion	CW
4th Sunday of the month	11.00am	Village Service (no communion)
5th Sunday of the month		No service
Other Services		For other services in the joint Benefice of Nailsworth, Horsley and Kingscote, please see the Horsley Parish Magazine

The Friends of Horsley Church is an informal group comprising all those who would like to support our village Church and see it preserved. The group is secular in nature, although it respects the religious beliefs and traditions of the congregation of the Church. The Friends will work together to ensure that Horsley's Church continues to be an important part of village life.

Members of the 'Friends of Horsley Church' receive a free copy of the monthly Parish Magazine, and they are invited to join in various activities centred around the church.

Annual membership is £5 for individuals or £10 for a whole family. If you would like to join, please send cash or cheque to Mark Carden, Acting Chairman, The Friends of Horsley Church, Barnane House, Tickmorend, Horsley, Gloucestershire GL6 0PE, or telephone 833 425, or send an e-mail to mailto://m.carden@hotmail.com

Parish Day – November 11 2000

On a rainy Saturday in November (St Martin’s Day, to be precise, since there have been so many rainy Saturdays this month), 48 people of all different ages came to the Village Hall to participate in some thinking on the subject of the future of the Church in Horsley. Some couldn’t stay all day, but came and gave their ideas and expressed their commitment; some said they couldn’t stay all day – and ended up staying right to the end! That probably means that the day was useful and it certainly seemed that way to those attending and those who organised it. The day was spent in thinking, talking, drawing ( some excellent visions of the role of the Church in our village were drawn!) and drinking tea and coffee and eating lunch.

The day’s success can be measured by its outcomes; out of the many and various suggestions for what we as a community could do next, three ideas were selected to take forward:

holding a special service with a theme in the Church about once every 4 months or so (for example a service about healing and healers might be arranged, with a series of events preceding it and after it connecting with the theme)
investigating improvements to the facilities in the Church to make the building more usable for services of various kinds and for appropriate other activities.(For example, the Church has no lavatory nor is there easy access to water; there is insufficient space for the children in the school to put on their Christmas, Harvest and Easter performances and services)
and finally, arranging some wider communication about what happened during our Parish Day to explain to those who could not attend what happened and what is now being done.

There is much more to say about the day, about the ideas and the drawings, about the range of opinions and about the displays of the huge Horsley map and of other churches, both closed and regenerated. Most of us left the Village Hall feeling greatly encouraged about the future of the Church and keen to join in the various initiatives now being developed. We also left full of gratitude to those who had helped to organise it, and to prepare teas, coffees and lunches, as well as those who were looking after our children in the Church while we were thinking and talking. We were all most grateful for all that help.

Perhaps those of you who couldn’t attend will be able to attend one of the further meetings which are being arranged, or can talk to someone who was there. If you can, you will be able to add your views to the ideas we are taking forward as a village. All support welcome! Even if you can’t, you might able to see the collection of drawings and poems which the children from the school produced about what the Church means to them; some of them are in the current edition of the Parish magazine and others will be on display in the Church. They are worth seeing!