December 2005/January 2006

News From Brightwell School

Looking ahead to Christmas there is a number of festive events to inform you about. We are continuing our traditional celebration with our younger pupils performing a musical Nativity. If you are a Senior Citizen in the village, there is an open invitation to attend the dress rehearsal at school at 2 p.m. on Tuesday 13 December. Seasonal refreshments will be served to you by our older pupils. Our Christmas Fête is, rather uniquely, on the evening of Friday 2 December from 6.00-9.00 p.m. Also, we are holding a Carol Service at St Agatha’s at 9.30am on Friday the 16 December.

Since I wrote last, volunteer parents and their children gave up a Saturday morning to tidy up and tend the grounds around the school. Work is also going on within the school to make it more accessible to disabled people. We pride ourselves in being an inclusive school and recognise the value in widening educational opportunities for all.

A wide range of lunchtime and after school clubs is underway again. These include dance, football, netball, art, gardening, Scrabble, French, recorders, guitar and piano. Our netball team took part in a tournament at Wallingford School and only lost one match. This is a great result for a new team on their first outing. Reading Football Club came into school and provided a fun-packed morning for our older children. Unfortunately, due to heavy weather, it took place indoors.

We celebrated Harvest Festival at St Agatha’s Church with the help of Mrs Chatfield, our new vicar. It was a bright and happy occasion and a great start to strengthening relationship with the church. Mrs Chatfield is a natural with young children which is making for some very lively and engaging school assemblies. Donations collected from the event were split between The Oxford Children’s Hospital (our adopted charity) and the disaster appeal for the earthquake in northern India and Pakistan.

On the staffing side, we welcomed Mrs Moyra Welton as our new Class 2 Teacher (six and seven year olds). She has settled in very well and we wish her every success in her new role.

Miss Shinner, our Class 1 Teacher, held a successful Open Day when she invited prospective parents in to look around the classroom and observe her lessons. Again this year, we are supporting the charity Samaritan’s Purse with ‘Operation Christmas Child’. Shoeboxes, filled with gifts for under privileged children, will be sent to poverty, famine or war stricken parts of the world.

Finally we would like to extend our congratulations to Allsorts Preschool on their successful bid for £50,000 of funding through Central Television. The school breaks up at 2.30pm on Friday 16 December, so I will take this opportunity, on behalf of the staff and pupils and governors, to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Roger Grant

Parish Church

This year has been a tough year, a year of natural disasters which have devastated the lives of people in many different parts of the world. A year in which hopes for peaceful solutions for nations in crisis have dimmed. There must have been many people throughout the world who have cried out ‘God, why?’ or ‘God, where are you?’ When we celebrate the coming of Christmas it is too easy to indulge in a touch of nostalgia and picture a cosy scene in the stable in a Bethlehem that is still in a deep and dreamless sleep under the silent stars. We too easily forget the harsh realities of life under a foreign power that surrounded the coming of Jesus to earth.

Life then was as perplexing and difficult as it is today. One of the names given to Jesus is ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God is with us’. God, the creator and ruler of the universe, does not distance himself from the harsh realities faced by men and women. He chose to take flesh, to be incarnate amongst us and to share with us the joy and pain of life on earth. God’s particular concern for people on the ‘margins’ of society, for the poor and for the oppressed, is signalled by the circumstances of Jesus’ birth and early life.

After a difficult and arduous journey Jesus was born in an outhouse designed to shelter animals. The first people to hear of his birth were the shepherds, ordinary working people despised by strict Jews. Mary and Joseph had to flee into exile with Jesus because of persecution by Herod.

Jesus came into the world to challenge the injustice that was as present then as it is now. He came to offer his life for the sin that is the root cause of the inhumanity that is characteristic of this and every age. He came to show us God’s way of living in community, a way that reflects God’s love for all people. If we wish to discover God’s presence amidst the festivities of this Christmas time, we must look for it not just in the joy of celebration with those we know and love but also in seeking to meet the needs of those who are on the margins of our own communities and by reaching out to those who suffer. Then Jesus will be truly present with all.

Jill Chatfield

The Staniland Organ in St.Agatha's Church

The Staniland organ in St.Agatha's Church has recently been awarded a 'Historic Organ Certificate' by The British Institute of Organ Studies. The certificate reads as follows -
''The organ in St.Agatha's Church, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Wallingford, Oxon has been awarded a certificate Grade 2 in recognition of it being a rare musical survival by G Staniland c1870. It is, therefore, listed in the Institute's Register of Historic Pipe Organs as being an instrument of importance to the national heritage and one deserving careful preservation for the benefit of future generations; 24th September 2005''

One advantage of this award should be that, as and when a major overhaul is needed, it will be easier to obtain grants towards the costs involved. Further details of the instrument may be found on the village web-site or by visiting the church, where the names of the stops may be read through the glass sliding doors at the organ console.

Derek Nightingale

Parish Council

Conservation Area Plan
Many thanks to everyone who became involved in the consultation process and attended the public meeting on 18 October.

SODC’s Green scheme
The scheme to compost garden waste will be extended to Christmas. The ‘eco-sacks’ cost 30p each and existing green sacks can be exchanged for the new sacks. The SODC will be issuing the clear plastic recycle sacks again this year for Christmas wrappings etc.

Wellsprings Management Plan
The management plan has been received from Rod D’Ayala and a grant of £500 has been given by SODC towards the necessary work.

Affordable Housing
On 22 November, in the Stewart room, the first affordable housing scheme resulting from the Parish Plan was presented to the village. The proposal is to build four two-bedroom flats on the Garage site in Greenmere. Anyone living in the village or who has a local connection and wishes to be considered for this scheme, who is not on the SODC housing list, should register as soon as possible.

Oxfordshire in the South East Plan
In answer to the Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) housing distribution questionnaire the Parish Council decided not to support either of the two options, both favoured additional development in Didcot, and we considered that there was insufficient infrastructure to meet further development. The alternative option the Parish Council has put forward for consideration is the Upper Heyford site.

Highways
OCC Highways carried out an inspection of the roads, verges and vegetation around the village on 26 October. Road repairs are to be carried out particularly in Mackney, with further monitoring taking place over the next year to establish the possible need for more major works.

Notice Boards
A new surface is being fitted to the Sotwell notice board for easier insertion of drawing pins. The Parish Council notice board on the Village Hall is to be replaced with a new one.

Celia Collett

Environment Group

With the prices of petrol, gas and electricity rising rapidly, ways of conserving energy are becoming more important. But our knowledge of exactly how much energy we use is rather limited, other than for purchases of petrol. However, most of us have the aim of saving energy as well as putting out our waste for recycling in the green boxes, and in addition some of us grow our own fruit and vegetables to reduce the amount of food bought. Measures of these and other forms of consumption taken together can indicate the ecological footprint of the village. The Group has been approached by the County Council to see if we would be willing to undertake a footprint study next year, a study which could involve families. Of course, one straightforward way of using less fuel is to walk or cycle more on journeys in and around the village. Another way is by improving house insulation: the average home produces 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year according to BP. So reducing your heating bill also means emitting a smaller amount of CO2.

Wellsprings Pond
The Parish Council, with the Environment Group, applied for a grant from SODC to carry out the work at the Wellsprings described in the August/September edition of The Villager. After an inspection by the Council’s Countryside Officer we were informed that a grant of £500 had been awarded to the project. In connection with this work, some members of the Group recently attended a Pond Day organised by the Pond Conservation Trust at Brookes University. Ponds have been disappearing from the English landscape at a rapid rate. By constructing new ponds and restoring old ones the Trust is aiming at a target of 16,000 ponds in Oxfordshire by 2050. Part of the activities of the Trust, which were described, is to make an inventory of the existing ponds in the County. Any open water surface less than 2 hectares in area counts as a pond. Counting the moats we have at least four in the Parish and maybe more.

St James’ Churchyard
In October the Group organised a clear-up day in St James’ Churchyard in line with the management plan, which is being followed. One modification to the plan has stemmed from the collapse of the old yew tree which stood to the front of the church. The yew shaded a large area and the habitat is now being transformed by the extra sunlight. As a result this area is now being mowed.

John Rodda

Brightwell Free Church

I was officially welcomed as the honorary Pastor of Brightwell Free Church back in May. Many friends and all three of my grown up children came and made it a special occasion. My wife Jennie came too. I was particularly pleased she came because she was not very well and it was a great effort for her. A few days later she was diagnosed as having cancer of the liver and she died in July. This was not the start to my ministry in the village that I had expected or wanted. However, the calling has not evaporated and I intend to give the work there my best shot.

There is much I could say about the history of the Free Church and much that I could tell of my own story but I am not going to do that here. What I do want to say to you all is that the message of the church is the same as it always was. Some, perhaps many people, say the church should move with the times. Perhaps in some ways they are right, but there are some things which we are not free to change just because we might feel like it. The reality is that today many people don’t have any knowledge of what the church actually believes or why it continues to exist. If it is pure nostalgia for a bygone period of our history, then it has little justification and is an unnecessary burden on the few people who continue to support it. If, on the other hand, it has a dynamic message about the lives and eternal lives of every single person in the village, then, of course, it does matter that it should continue.

We often hear the question posed “What do you think about God?” If God is real then the more important question is “What does God think about me?” The reality of his existence or otherwise is not affected one little bit by whether or not we choose to believe in him. Whether or not he will in the end judge you is not changed one little bit by whether or not you think he will. If God is not real, then I am wasting my time. If he is real are you wasting yours? By now you should have a pretty clear idea of where I stand on this.

The handful of devoted folk who have kept things going for the last few years are keen to be relevant in the village. We don’t need the place to be filled, we don’t need your money, we would like you to come and share in the joy of knowing and worshipping our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Why, because we have a heart for people. Forget the media image, we do not spend all our time fretting over gay and/or female bishops, or having jumble sales to raise a few pounds; why not find out what it is really like, and what the church is really about.

We will keep you posted about our activities. Stop by the notice board sometime soon and see what is going on, but please don’t pull the door off its hinges as someone recently did!

May God bless you and yours.

Neville Burt