Appointment of House for Duty Priest – Badbury Benefice

We are pleased to announce the appointment of the Rev. Maureen Turner as our new House for Duty Priest in the Badbury Benefice.

Maureen was one of the first women priests to be ordained in 1994 and undertook ten years of full-time parish ministry before moving into healthcare chaplaincy for twenty-one years. She is currently the lead chaplain to the States of Jersey’s 300-bed General Hospital, psychiatric, psycho-geriatric and substance abuse services over ten sites spread throughout the island. Maureen is responsible for a team of lay and ordained chaplains from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities. While in this role, she has also been able to offer regular support to local churches, preaching and presiding at Sunday and weekday services and taking baptisms, weddings and funerals. 

Maureen presented at interview as an extremely personable, honest and spiritual priest whose clear strength lies in pastoral ministry. She is happy to lead services using either Common Worship or BCP, as well as the more creative family services where appropriate. 

Maureen and her husband Derek, a retired priest, enjoy choral singing, walking, social fundraising events, theatre and concerts. 

We will be welcoming Maureen to the Benefice at the end of October. 

I'm now pleased to be able to tell you that the Revd Maureen Turner has accepted our invitation to be our new vicar.  The Revd Maureen is currently under a contract to the NHS as a chaplain to the hospital in Jersey and will not be able to join us until late October, early November.

Her husband, Derek, is also a retired vicar, so I'm sure he will be a great support to Maureen.  They are both very sociable.  They were pleased to see that the Vicarage garden was large enough to use for social gatherings.

I will let you know more about their coming in due course.  Obviously at the present time Maureen is going to be in great demand in Jersey and we should hold both of them in our prayers.  I will put an announcement in the newsletter tomorrow.

We have also been instructed that we should now keep the church locked, so I am sorry it won't be available for the foreseeable future.

Pat

We thought it might be useful for people to know that Lloyds pharmacy and possibly others have a service where by you can order your prescriptions online and it  will be posted to you for free within 2 days.

We hope this is helpful, a mailing list has been created - this allows everyone on the list to email each other (different to the Village Newsletter which allows everyone to be emailed but you can't email each other).

Obviously it is completely voluntary and you can join or leave as you wish, but it provides another channel for communication.

You can join the list by sending an email to

[email protected]

with 'subscribe' in the Subject field

OR by visiting the list page at http://www.freelists.org/list/greatcoxwell

the email address for the list is: [email protected]

Once you join you will received any email sent to this address and if you send an email to this address all the people on the list will receive it.

If you have any problems subscribing you can contact Jake at [email protected].
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The newsletter will now be sent every day at 4 PM when there are new posts to the website, this means if there is new news or information about Great Coxwell and Coronavirus you will receive it straight away.

Also I wont be publishing any "Dates for your Diary" as most of the events have been postponed indefinitely.

As usual feedback on this approach is welcome, just email me.

Stay safe,
​Gavin

Self-isolation or self-distancing isn’t that easy, especially if you’re alone or feeling vulnerable.

Villagers in Great Coxwell are getting together to support and be supported during the COVID-19 emergency.

If you would like someone to help you with shopping, a collection of prescriptions, a light bulb changed that you can’t reach, or just a chat…

You may already have someone who helps, which would be good for Mandy to know … just in case at some point they need extra help.  We assure you that all information will be kept confidential.

You may not feel you need help at this stage but if in the future you decide you do again let Mandy know.

Please contact MANDY BURNS.  She and her team will allocate you a neighbour to help out.  You can ring her on 240142 and leave a message, or mail her on: [email protected].

Volunteers to Help - There has been quite a take up of people willing and able to assist.  If you have not already been in contact and are available, again please contact Mandy as above.
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If you know someone who doesn’t receive the Newsletter please pass on this information, or if they would like the newsletter they can subscribe here - or you could do it for them if ask you too.

I have just read an article which I find distasteful and highlights just how bad our society is! The article crosses, CEF/ASC/Public Health and my own portfolio of Community Safety/Trading Standards, however I'm copying Cabinet for information. The title of the article picks up on the elderly and the vulnerable and parents with children still at school.

The article is in today's "Telegraph" and in brief, states that "Criminals are targeting the elderly, exploiting their fear of coronavirus to defraud them as they self-isolate - police chiefs are saying that fraudsters are knocking on doors offering to buy food, claiming to be licensed by the Government before taking off with their cash - this is happening in Wakefield.  In the West Midlands the police have warned of a scam where fraudsters email victims claiming to provide a list of infected people in their area. But the links to the information lead to malicious websites or payment demands.  Cyber scammers are using various methods to lure people into donating money to fake coronavirus causes.  The Red Cross has warned that the people posing as volunteers offering virus tests are fake as the Red Cross are not conducting tests anywhere in the UK.  Finally, Durham Police have advised that parents receiving emails offering meals to pupils are exploiting the situation.

Judy

Judith Heathcoat
Deputy Leader to the Council,
Cabinet Member for Community Safety
Oxfordshire County Council
Cllr. Faringdon Division (Buckland with Gainfield, Littleworth,
Faringdon, Eaton Hastings, Buscot, Coleshill, Gt Coxwell, Lt Coxwell)
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​As some of you will know, yesterday the Church of England has decided to suspend all public worship for the time being.  Bishop Steven has confirmed that this includes Christ Church Cathedral.

We shall therefore not be holding any services at Great Coxwell until further notice, unreal as this may seem.  In the short term at any rate we will keep the church open for private prayer.  I have spoken to Biddy this morning and John will continue at present to open and close the church.  If at any time he feels not able to do this I will make other arrangements.

The team in Oxford are working on ways of sharing worship virtually. There are useful resources for prayer and reflection in these exceptional times on the Church of England website. In case the link above doesn't work the URL is:

https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-liturgy-and-prayer-resources

Please contact me for any other enquiries regarding the church.

Keep safe and let me know if there is anything I should or can do.

Please pass this information to anyone you know who does not have access to the newsletter.

Pat

Pat Cook
Churchwarden
[email protected]
01423 241632
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