Recent photos of the interior of St Michael’s Church in Great Gidding.
Photos: Paul Crank, Catalyst Video Services
Recent photos of interior details in St Michael’s Church, Great Gidding
Stone carvings
Stained glass
September at St Michael’s Church
September sees us welcoming our new Associate Priest, the Revd Canon Fiona Brampton
The North Leightonstone Benefice (the group of parishes which includes the Giddings) has been enlarged. Revd Mandy Flaherty has been appointed Benefice Rector (i.e. senior priest), and has been joined by the Revd Canon Fiona Brampton as Associate Priest. Fiona has also been appointed Chaplain to Little Gidding. Fiona will have the care of the parishes of Hamerton, the Giddings and Winwick.
Sunday 15th September at 11am
We celebrate our Harvest Festival, and this will be the first service taken by Fiona. The service will be at 11am, and will be a service of readings and all the favourite hymns. After the service, there will be a buffet lunch at Churchside House, which will give everyone the chance of meeting Fiona and vice versa !
Everyone is very welcome to come to that lunch. However to help with the numbers for catering, it would be helpful if you could let Jane Edwards know if you are coming [tel: 293555]. There will be no charge for the lunch.
Sunday, 22nd September at 4pm
There will be a service of Evensong at St Michael’s. At this service, there will be the formal licensing of Fiona as Associate Priest and Chaplain to Little Gidding by the Archdeacon of Huntingdon & Wisbech. The service takes place at 4pm, and will be followed by tea at Ferrar House, Little Gidding.
Saturday 28th September at 4pm
There will be a Choral Evensong on the eve of St Michael’s Day; the day when we celebrate the dedication of our church.
The service starts at 4pm. As last year, the music will be led by the St Peter’s Singers, directed by Jeremy Jepson. We are delighted to be welcoming back the Revd Mary Jepp as our preacher for this service. After the service here will be refreshments.
Come along to the Harvest Festival Service at 11am at St Michael’s Church, Great Gidding on Sunday 15th September
followed by
Lunch at Churchside House
Come and welcome our new Vicar, Revd Canon Fiona Brampton
Everyone very welcome !
There will be two services on Sunday 22nd September 2019 to welcome The Revd Canon Fiona Brampton as Associate Priest & Chaplain to Little Gidding.
The first is at St. Bartholomew, Church Road, Great Stukeley PE28 4AL lead by the Bishop of Huntingdon The Rt. Revd. Dagmar Winter and will include Holy Communion.
The Licensing will take place during 4.00pm Evensong at St Michaels, Main Street, Great Gidding PE28 5NX by The Archdeacon of Huntingdon and Wisbech, the Venerable Hugh Kyle McCurdy.
All are welcome to both services.
Church Restoration
The work at St Michael’s Church is now complete and the church has re-opened, the first service being the Primary School’s Christingle Service last Friday 14th December.
The north aisle window and plaster has been repaired and restored. The opportunity was taken, at the same time, to repair the north aspect of the chancel arch which had moved significantly, leading to a need to carry out stonework repair, employing a stonemason.
In view of all the plaster dust etc, it was decided to arrange for a thorough ‘spring clean’ (can you have one in December?), and this has included attention to high places in the church, not reachable by our normal cleaning.
Family Carol Service
Our Carol Service (aka ‘Carols and Blankets’) takes place next Saturday (December 22nd) at 6pm. This year, as the result of a suggestion, there is one addition. Mince pies and mulled wine will be available BEFORE the service, as well as after. Furthermore, John DeVal will be adding hot chocolate to the drinks. So come along from 5.30pm onwards to warm up your vocal chords.
The service will follow the usual format of favourite carols, interspersed with readings (biblical and secular). The biblical readings will remind us of the events of the birth of Jesus, whilst the secular readings include authors such as Dylan Thomas & Charles Dickens. Appropriately for this year when we mark the centenary of the end of World War 1, there is a reading sent from the trenches. Glen Page (who has been singing at St Michael’s for over thirty years) will sing a couple of solos, and we welcome back Stephen Barber as organist.
The collection will be given to the charity ‘Crisis at Christmas’.
Don’t forget to wrap up warm – there will be some blankets at church if you need one. However hearty singing always seems to banish the cold!
Midnight Communion
Our ‘Midnight Communion’ at St Michael’s takes place on Christmas Eve, starting at 11.30pm. The service will be led by the Vicar, the Revd Mandy Flaherty.
From Michael Keck
St Michael’s Church will be closed for the foreseeable future. At the moment the church is full of scaffolding and therefore inaccessible.
Restoration in the north aisle being carried out
This is to enable the appropriate work of restoration in the north aisle to be carried out, arising from damage to the plaster as a result of the lead theft. This involves the removal and re-plastering of the wall. This work will take up to six weeks.
At the same time, the opportunity has been taken to remove the cracked plaster from the north side of the chancel arch, so as to expose the stonework behind and determine what work needs to be carried out to rectify the situation with the movement here.
Health and safety
This work obviously creates a dusty atmosphere. Additionally, when the plastering begins, this introduces plaster dust etc into the atmosphere, which not good for anyone to inhale. Therefore health and safety decrees we shut the church until such time as everything has been resolved and building is safe to use..
Therefore, if for any reason, you require access to the church, please contact John DeVal first on 01832 293417.
This closure means:
Evensong on Sunday 21st October is cancelled
The 11am service of Holy Communion on Sunday 4th November is moved from St Michael’s to St John’s Church, Little Gidding.
Removal of the cracked plaster from the north side of the chancel arch
The church is dedicated to St Michael and the church commemorates this saint on September 29th each year – to give it its proper title, it’s the Feast of St Michael and All Angels.
Why our church was not given the adjunct of “and All Angels” is lost in the mysteries of time!!
Choral Evensong
This year, to celebrate this,(or to give it its official title, the church’s Patronal Festival), we will be holding a service of Choral Evensong on Saturday 29th September starting at 4pm. We are delighted that the St Peter’s Singers will be making their first visit to St Michael’s to lead our worship. They will sing music is by Walton, Moore, Bairstow and Thalben-Ball. We also welcome back to Great Gidding, the Reverend Laura Jørgensen (aka Laura Burgess before her marriage) as our preacher.
Organ recital
After the service, starting at 5.30 pm, there will be a 45 minute organ recital given by Eleanor Carter, Senior Organ Scholar, Clare College, Cambridge. She will be playing music by J.S. Bach. This is the first time the organ has been put through its paces, since the additional work carried out last year, in memory of Lois Jordan.
Following the recital, there will be refreshments (in true Gidding style that includes a glass of wine) to celebrate what can be called Great Gidding Church’s birthday.
Please do come along and share in the celebrations.
A Special General Meeting of the Friends of St Michael’s Church was held on Tuesday 5th June in St Michael’s Church to vote on two Resolutions proposed by Paul Burgess and seconded by Sue Shepherd, concerning the future of the society.
Before the voting took place the chairman, Sue Shephard, said she was sure everyone would wish to join with her in thanking the previous chairmen of the society (Paul Burgess & Patrick Jarvis) for all their hard work. During their tenure, the Society had given grants to Great Gidding PCC to enable the restoration of 90% of the clear glass windows in the church. Furthermore grants had enabled the maintenance of the churchyard. Grants had paid for a new mower, regular equipment maintenance and the cost of petrol for grass cutting. Also grants had been given for tree surgery as and when required. Finally society members had given freely of their time to mow and keep the churchyard in a good condition.
The support of the Patrons (Sir Phillip Naylor-Leyland and David Woodley) was noted with thanks.
Robin Hayden expressed his sadness that there was insufficient practical support for the Society. Comment was noted that people’s lives had much greater demands on them these days, and people found difficulty in offering their time. However it was hoped that perhaps in the future someone may be enthused to start the Society again.
On the first resolution to dissolve the society with immediate effect, the motion was carried by twelve votes to three. The second motion to pass the money in the society’s account to the church was also carried by the same margin. This motion included a caveat that the money should be spent solely on either fabric or the churchyard, in accordance with the society’s aims and objectives.
Since this meeting the Parochial Church Council has agreed to use money passed across by the society for the restoration of the remaining clear glass window in the chancel.
From Mike Keck
On Maundy Thursday 29th March, there will be a service of Compline in St Michael’s Church at 8pm.
The following day (Good Friday) the now traditional walk takes place, and details can be found here
On Easter Day (April 1st) there will be a service of Holy Communion in church at 11am, plus some surprises – do I hear the word “eggs” ?!!