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The Loddon Valley Link
Church and Parish Magazine
for Sherfield-on-Loddon, Stratfield Saye andHartley Wespall with Stratfield Turgis
February 2012
Issue 443
Putting Stratfield Turgis on the map.
Page 2
Services for February 2012
*Drive up close to the white gates, which will open automatically .Children are welcome at all our services. Services in italics are particularlygeared to children and families. BCP = Book of Common Prayer.
Sunday 5th February 3rd before Lent
10.00am Holy Communion
St Leonard’s Sherfield
10.00am Family Service
St Mary’s Stratfield Saye*
4.00pm Evensong with
St Mary’s Hartley Wespall
Holy Communion
Friday 4.15pm Messy Church Sherfield Park Community Centre
Sunday 12th February 2nd before Lent
10.00am Morning Worship
St Leonard’s Sherfield
With Sunday Club
Sunday 19th February Next before Lent
10.00am Holy Communion
St Leonard’s Sherfield
with Children’s Sunday Club
10.00am Matins (BCP) with Communionby Extension
St Mary’s Stratfield Saye*
4.00pm Evensong
St Mary’s Hartley Wespall
Wednesday 11.00am Lent Holy Communion St Leonard’s
Wednesday 4.00 pm Toddlers
St Leonard’s Church
Sunday 26th February Lent 1
8.00am Holy Communion BCP
St Mary’s Hartley Wespall
10.00am Family Service
St Leonard’s Sherfield
Wednesday 11.00am Lent Communion
St Leonard’s Sherfield
Sunday 4th March Lent 2
10.00am Holy Communion
St Leonard’s Sherfield
10.00am Family Service
St Mary’s Stratfield Saye*
4.00pm Evensong
St Mary’s Hartley Wespall
With Holy Communion
Page 3
If I were a butterfly…
Cosmetic surgery is in the news as I write this,especially faulty breast implants. For women whohave had to endure a mastectomy theseprosthetics are a ‘god
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send’ but an astonishingnumber of healthy women have had implants to‘improve their looks’. For both men and womencosmetic surgery is big business today and cantake many forms: hair implants, liposuction, tucks etc.In 1939 Sir Archibald McIndoe pioneered plastic surgery at VictoriaHospital, East Grinstead, rebuilding the burned and broken facesand self
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esteem of seriously injured RAF aircrew. Today, surgeryhas progressed beyond all imagination and it’s now possible tocustomise your own body, if you have the money.Long ago, in the days of wireless and toilet chains, the days of mychildhood, girls wore pig
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tails, frocks, ankle socks and buckledshoes, and boys wore caps, blazers (if you could afford one) shorttrousers and long socks. In contrast, many children today aredressed like fashion models and pop stars. It seems that imagehas become a powerful idol for both adults and the very young.We all welcome the better standard of living we enjoy today, goodhygiene, clean clothes and good food but have we become theunwary victims of big business and fashion gurus, manipulated tofeel dissatisfied with who we are and what we look like?I remember a girl saying to me: “I’m glad I’m not beautiful becauseat least I stand a chance of finding a boyfriend who will love me for who I am and not for what I look like.” A profound thought.There is a song, once popular in schools and churches, whichgoes like this:
“If I were a butterfly I’d thank you Lord for giving mewings, and if I were a robin in a tree, I’d thank you Lord that I could sing, and if I were a fuzzy
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wuzzy bear I’d thank you Lord for my fuzzy
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wuzzy hair but I just thank you Lord for making me, me.”
Where is real beauty to be found? Isn’t it what a person is on theinside, rather than what they look like on the outside? It’s noaccident that the Bible tells us “God looks upon the heart.”Whatever you think of yourself, He made you, He loves you andaccepts you, warts and all.
Christian greetings,
Revd. Bob Politt
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