Latest News
Covid-19 Updatefor Stow, Condicote and The Swells
November 2021 Services in November Christmas Tree Festival Farewell message from Martin and Trish Dear Friends, Services in November PLEASE NOTE THAT UNFORTUNATELY THE REMEMBRANCE DAY SERVICE IN ST EDWARD'S CHURCH ON SUNDAY 14TH NOVEMBER HAS BEEN CANCELLED. THE OUTDOOR ARMISTICE DAY SERVICE IN STOW SQUARE WILL STILL TAKE PLACE ON THURSDAY 11TH NOVEMBER AT 10.15 AM. Services in November will continue with visiting clergy and we are particularly indebted to Rev Tony Whitaker for playing a key role in our worship across the Benefice. In addition, he has kindly provided the Zoom services for this month, which will be lay-led. From November, Parish Prayers will be taking place on Zoom every Thursday at 9.00 am, prior to Listening to God at 9.30 am. Please feel free to join in either or both of these services. The link to join is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81825525452 Stow on the Wold Condicote and The Swells | ON-LINE LINKS to Services and Meetings (scats.org.uk) Unfortunately, owing to the increased rate of infections in our area with effect from 1st November we are asking everyone to wear masks when visiting St Edward’s Church. The Benefice diary and the posters at St Edward’s Church have details of all the services across the Benefice but these may be subject to change, if the regulations regarding Covid-19 require this. The website https://www.scats.org.uk will always have the most up to date news. Farewell message from Martin and Trish October saw the final services from Martin across the Benefice, culminating in the Farewell Service on Sunday 31st October. The service was streamed and many people were there to raise a toast to Martin and Trish before they left for Yorkshire, and to watch them being given presents from their many friends in Stow, Condicote, The Swells and Maugersbury. Martin and Trish have asked for the following note to be included in this Update: Please accept our deepest thanks for all that you have done to make our last days and final services in the Benefice as easy as possible and filled with such happy memories. Thank you too for the many kind words and generous gifts. We are grateful too for cheques from the parishes totalling nearly £2700. When the dust settles (literally) in our new home, we shall look for something to purchase that will bring us much joy in our new setting and we will let you know what that is. For now this comes with our warmest good wishes and prayers for the time ahead. We shall miss you all. Martin and Trish There is a link to Martin’s farewell sermon on the website farewell-sermon.pdf (d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net) Christmas Tree Festival The Christmas Tree Festival starts on Thursday 9th December and runs until Sunday 12th December, ending with the Festival celebration service at 6.00 pm. The organisers are working hard to ensure that there will be 38 beautiful trees on display, and entry to the church will be in smaller groups to allow for social distancing. The Festival will be open each day from 10.00 am until 5.00pm. ‘Festive Treats’ and the school Christmas concert will be held in St Edward’s Hall on Friday 10th December. Please do support and enjoy this Christmas spectacle each day. Look out for our Christmas story of the festival, celebrating the Festival over 10 years in a book entitled ‘Christmas Tree Town’, illustrated by pupils from local schools. Please note that unfortunately this year there will not be a Festival lunch on the Friday. This Update will be published as needed.
Get connected to St Edward’s
We have been experimenting with live-streaming some of the Stow services to Youtube. The Stow, Condicote and The Swells benefice now has a public Youtube channel at
It only has two videos at the moment, but more will appear.
Please help us today by clicking on the link above and subscribing to the channel. Please also invite your family and friends to to so too. We need a fan base to develop the service!
As well as this public access, we now have experimental live-streaming of Stow services. This is only available to those who have the link, which for the time being will change from week to week.
If you can’t be there in person, please ‘tune in’ via the link – and click on ‘Subscribe’ while you are there!
If we can get 100 subscribers, we will have more control of the channel and this should include having one permanent link for all of our streamed services.
Other News:
With so much still happening on-line we have made our website easier to navigate:
There are three places that you will find most helpful.
1 The latest news will be at ‘Latest Update’ https://www.scats.org.uk/latest-update/
2 All links to services and meetings are now listed in one place under ‘ON -LINE LINKS to Services and Meetings’. There will be a link for each Sunday which will take you to the Zoom service or to the live-stream from Church. https://www.scats.org.uk/zoom-links-to-services-and-meetings/
3 Everything you might wish to download can now be found under ‘Things to Download’. This is where you will find the relevant Sunday Service material and the Thursday ‘Listening to God’ sheet. https://www.scats.org.uk/things-to-download/
You can also find the latest national information and other resources under the Covid-19 tab on the website. Please check this at any time. Click here for the latest national information
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