The Pew Sheet for Sunday 22nd July can be downloaded here.

Services in the West Downland Benefice this Sunday will be:
  8.00am             Holy Communion (BCP) at Leckhampstead
 9.30am             Holy Communion at Shefford Woodlands
10.00am             Holy Communion at Brightwalton 
There will not be a 5.00pm service this week - the next will be on Wednesday 1st August at Leckhampstead.

The Pew Sheet for the 15th May can be downloaded here.

Please note a correction to the time of Café Church at Great Shefford given in the Pew Sheet and on the printed sheets on church noticeboards.  This service is at 10.00 and not 9.30 as stated.

Below is the Pew Sheet for Sunday 25th March
 
Services in the West Downland Benefice this Sunday will be at:
  8.00am   Holy Communion (BCP) at Leckhampstead
  9.30am   Holy Communion at Shefford Woodlands
10.00am   Holy Communion at Brightwalton
 
Don’t forget that the clocks go forward this Sunday!
​Reverend Miri Keen

Services in the West Downland Benefice this Sunday will be:
 
  8.00am   Holy Communion (BCP) at Fawley
10.00am   Café Church at Great Shefford
10.00am   Holy Communion at Chaddleworth
11.00am   Matins at Welford
 
Pew Sheet for the 18th March can be downloaded here:

Revd Miri Keen writes …
Over the last few weeks I’ve enjoyed ‘window shopping’ for Easter eggs for those I love.  There’s a huge range available in the supermarket and so I’ve been comparing the relative merits of an egg that comes with a mug with an egg in magnificent packaging and full of chocolates, or of small eggs covered in a variety of colours of foil that can be unpeeled one by one and savoured whilst smoothing the foil into shining squares.  I want to choose something that’s ‘just right’ for each person; something that clearly says ‘I love you’.
​
God said ‘I love you’ to each and every one of us throughout that first ‘Easter weekend’.  He didn’t choose to tell us with chocolate eggs, he chose to show us his love despite betrayal and through the anguish and death of his son Jesus.  He showed his love by turning tragedy upside down and raising Jesus from the dead.

The Bible puts it like this
“For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”    John 3: 16
God showed his love by giving a priceless gift, his unique, one-of-a-kind son Jesus.  But he achieved much more than a declaration of his love.  He changed our potential life experience.  He gave us the opportunity to live life in all its richness or ‘fullness’, to experience his kingdom on earth and to live ‘a little bit of heaven’. 

When I give my family their Easter eggs, I’ll be watching carefully to see if my choice of egg was the right one.  I’m hoping that they’ll be delighted and accept the gift joyfully.  It’s the same whenever we say or do something that shows someone else that we love them.  We eagerly await a response and hope that our love is accepted.  At Easter Jesus doesn’t offer us chocolate eggs, he offers us all that he achieved by dying on the cross so that we could know God’s love for us.  He’s eagerly waiting to see how we will each respond to his ‘I love you.’   

Revd Miri Keen writes …
 
Thank you to all of you who have welcomed me and my husband Dave as we settle into our new home in the West Downland Benefice.  I’m very much looking forward to getting to know the communities in each of the six parishes and to exploring the beautiful countryside.  But over the last week the weather hasn’t been on my side!  I’m hoping we’ve seen the last of the snow and I’m looking forward to some warmer and sunnier weather.   Of course any bright sunshine will show up the damage that’s been done by the snow and ice along with all the usual springtime garden maintenance that’s needed. We need to get to know our ‘new to us’ garden and that will take the full cycle of the seasons, but for now there are shrubs to trim and bulbs to discover.  Before we know it we’ll be listening to the hum of the first lawnmower of the season!  
​
I think that we can understand Lent in a similar way.  It’s our opportunity to allow Jesus, the light of the world, to shine on us so that we can take a careful look at our life and see what habits need to be cut back or pruned so that our spirits can flourish.  Just as the little plants underneath dense shrubs spring to life with extra sunlight, our souls will grow as we experience the warmth of God’s love for us.   

I am writing this on the first day of Lent, which begins this year on the 1st March, Ash Wednesday, which is also St David’s Day of course, the Patron Saint of Wales.
 
Unlike St George and St Andrew, St David was actually British. He was the son of a Welsh chieftain called Sant and his mother was another Welsh saint, St Non. He was consecrated as a bishop during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a very dangerous and long journey in the 6th century, and on his return to Wales founded no less than twelve monasteries. He died at the age of 100 (!)surrounded by the monks of the monastery at Menevia, now the delightful little city of St David’s in Pembrokeshire. His last words were ‘Keep the faith, be joyful, do the little things’.
 
From 1st March we have forty days and forty nights (excluding Sundays when we are spared the rigours of Lent!) to prepare for the death of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Day. Why so long? Because Easter is the most important of all the Church’s festivals when we celebrate the extraordinary events that led to the beginning of the Church 2000 years ago; Jesus rising from the dead.
 
Traditionally people have given something up for Lent having gorged on Shrove Tuesday’s pancakes! Chocolate or smoking or perhaps alcohol are the modern choices. But you could try taking something up! It might be coming to Church more often. It might be calling on a neighbour who could do with some help. It might be something that you could carry on doing long after Lent 2017 is over, a little thing!
 
The really important thing about Lent is that it is a time when we share with Jesus in his journey towards the cross on Good Friday and then the joy of Easter Day when he rose from the dead. Whether you give something up or take something up, please don’t let Lent pass you by this year. You will understand Easter better and the eggs will taste even more delicious!
 
Above all take to heart those last words of our truly British Saint St David, ‘Keep the faith, be joyful, do the little things’ and you might just make this Lent truly memorable.
 
May God bless you all,                                               John Townend