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We welcome you to our website and hope you will find it both interesting and informative. You can find out about the activities available as well as details of our regular services and special events in the coming months. The history page has some beautiful photographs and some fascinating facts. The parish is part of a Benefice, which means that the Rector is shared - in our case, with Cossington and Bawdrip. The parishes remain independent but have a long history of helping each other and of working together and sharing resources when appropriate. Rev Simon Brown took up the post of Priest in Charge of the Benefice in November 2000. He is 38 and married to Helen with a two year old daughter, Elinor May. After leaving university Simon taught physics in a secondary school for a couple of years before going to theological college. He completed his curacy in a parish in Coventry, which consisted of a large housing estate, then moved in 1997 to a Team Ministry post in Leamington Spa and in November 2000 came to Woolavington. His interests include reading, computing, international travel and photography. You can contact Simon at   Simon@vicar.plus.com   Our Curate is Janet Anderson-MacKenzie. Janet is 33 years old and has been married to Ian for 10 years.  They have 2 little girls, Iona (3½) and Elspeth (1).  Janet grew up in Hertfordshire and went to university in Edinburgh in 1989 to study Biochemistry.  In 1996, she began work as a post-doctoral researcher for the University of Bristol, first at Langford and then at Southmead Hospital.  After living for a while in Winford near Bristol Airport, the family moved to Cirencester in 2002 to be close to Ian’s office.  He continues to work for the same company, but part time and mainly based at home.  During the day Monday to Thursday, Ian is in charge of the girls and on Friday, it’s a girly day while Ian works.  Janet enjoys travelling, hill walking and crafts.  Theologically, she is especially interested in how meaning is conveyed in worship and how the way we worship is related to our culture. Janet says, “My time as curate here is when I am supposed to learn what being an ordained Christian minister is all about; my prayer would be that I can serve you all well and properly as I learn from my new incumbent and parishes what this means.” Simon Writes……….. Sometimes the news is not that encouraging, whichever newspaper we read or whichever news bulletin we listen too it can seem all too much like doom and gloom. Of course bad news is nearly always more dramatic than good news and bad news sells newspapers but it can get us down.  One of my memories as a child was an occasion when I went out with my parents to an antiques fair. We met a man there who my father knew. In conversation he remarked that he was glad not to be young now the world was a much better place in his youth in the late 30’s. His comments still make me stop and think. The 30’s was the end of the great depression and the move towards the Second World War. For many of us our youth and childhood are years of optimism, when we have a whole lives ahead of us and we tend to look on the bright side of life. We often don’t realise how precarious life is.  When we do realise how risky the whole of life is we can deal with it in two main ways: face up to it or avoid it. Much of the culture of our society, at heart, seems to be about avoidance, and then when bad news breaks through our defences we get depressed or place the blame on someone “who’s fault it is”. The crucifixion shows very clearly and powerfully that avoidance is not God’s way. Jesus did not avoid facing the reality and the dark side of human life, but faced it.  Unfortunately much of our religion seems to be tied up with this culture of avoidance. This can then get ingrained in the way that we believe and worship. Yes it is much easier to celebrate than to mourn, to enjoy success than to face pain, but it is in facing the full reality of life that God can set us free to be truly the people he created us to be.  For too long many churches in this country have been happy to go along with this, seeking to create nice safe places where people could go to feel comfortable and encouraged. The result of this has often been nice churches irrelevant to the real life around them.  Nationally and locally the challenge to churches has become one of reforming themselves to rediscover a realistic and relevant spirituality and shape. Throughout history there have been a number of reformations and we have now arrived at the start of another.  At the heart of this process is a theological and spiritual re-evaluation and rediscovery of the Christian faith which is based in realistic and relevant prayer and reflection. At a local level all of our church councils will be getting to grips with the challenges which arise.  We will also be search for ways for integrating our Sunday worship and daily prayer along with the everyday realities of life. As part of this process we have introduced a prayer topic for the week which will be posted on the church notice boards and published in the pump. These topics will be designed to reflect a wide variety of life experiences and concerns and will also change to engage with current issues. Simon    Morning Prayer Woolavington Church Monday to Thursday & Saturday 9am The prayers will last about 20-25 minutes