News
Broadclyst Flower Festival
As many of you will know Broadclyst Church was financially in dire straits and looking at having to close by the end of this year. Reverend Marc Kerslake along with a small but fantastic team had the idea of a Flower Festival, tied in to Harvest Festival to make some money for the church. The idea being people from around the country could send in flowers to decorate the church, as well as local community groups and schools getting involved. And WOW! What an event!!
After the call went out on Facebook, locally and through various other avenues, over 1500 handmade flowers were received from Plymouth to York. 893 of these were suspended in the ceiling decoration alone. Flowers were made from crochet, origami and even lego to name but a few! One of the displays was even a Japanese form of flower decorating – Ikebana.
Over 10 community groups were involved in decorating the church with a WI display, drawings from local school children, locally grown veg for sale, displays by Brownies and the local quilting group as well as local artists and many more. There were also over 30 mice hidden in and around the church for children to find as part of the children’s quiz. The fruit, veg, foliage and flowers in the porch all came from one family’s allotment! The community aspect of the festival does not end there. All leftover fruit and veg was donated to Broadclyst Food Bank, all flowers and foliage that were in good order were used to decorate the pedestals etc in the church for the following week, all tired flowers and foliage were put in the church compost heap, and many petals have been dried ready to make pot pourri to sell at the Christmas Fair. Nothing wasted.
Money was raised from donations, the draw and refreshments, with a grand total over £2,800!! It’s estimated over the 4 days there were over 1000 visitors! Such an incredible achievement, and would not have been possible without the help and support of the local community and the tireless efforts of Rev. Marc and Sarah Pepper.
Ride & Stride
A big “THANK YOU” to all those who cycled or sponsored in support of the Devon Historic Churches Trust ‘Ride & Stride day’ on September 10th.
Four intrepid cyclists set off from Whimple and travelled via Talaton, Clyst St Lawrence, Clyst Hydon, Payhembury, Broadhembury, Buckerel and Gittisham before returning home to Whimple. What a route! Well done to all of them.
It is with delight I am able to say £428 was raised through their participation and your generosity. Several of our local churches have been given grants by the DHCT recently to help with structural repairs proving it to be a very worthy cause.
JEC
Easter in the East Clyst Mission Community
We had a very busy Easter period across the Mission Community with a number of services across all 8 of our churches. Clyst Hydon and Cranbrook were lucky enough to get hold of a donkey which they shared. The donkey, Issachar, kindly accompanied by his owner Mike, started the Palm Sunday procession at Clyst Hydon, walking from the village and up the church path where people lined the way suitably dressed for the occasion. After his star turn at Clyst Hydon he travelled to Cranbrook where he was once again star of the show leading the procession around the park before the significance of Palm Sunday was discussed.
Following Palm Sunday, Clyst Hydon held a Maundy Thursday Holy Communion service and Talaton held a particularly moving service of ‘The Last Hour’ on Good Friday.
On Easter Day itself there were a total of 10 services across the 8 churches, keeping both vicars and all the service leaders busy. Of particular note was the Sunrise Service, held at Cranbrook at 6.15am on what was a rather chilly but beautiful morning. There was a fantastic turnout from across the Mission Community considering the time and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. And who can forget Rev. Marc Kerslake launching eggs across a number of our churches with a tennis racket.
There really is something for everyone across our Mission Community from Messy Church at Cranbrook for babies, toddlers and the whole family, the family service on a Sunday afternoon at Broadclyst, Holy Communions and Book of Common prayer services for more traditional church, Cafe church for something a little more relaxed and contemporary to Into the Week and Space services for contemplation.
