Welcome
The Shirwell Mission Community comprises eight Churches in seven rural parishes in North Devon:
Bratton Fleming; Challacombe; East Down & Arlington; Kentisbury; Loxhore; Shirwell and Stoke Rivers.
The Mission Community
The Mission Community lies within the Shirwell Deanery and covers an area of just under 50 square miles with a population of approximately 2600.
The parishes extend north east of Barnstaple to the Exmoor National Park and the Somerset border.
The Rector is Revd Preb. Rosie Austin, who lookes after the six parishes. She is assisted by a curate Revd Martyn Tyrrell, and retired clergymen, Rev Preb. Chris Tull from Challacombe.
Rosie lives in Bratton Fleming, the largest of the parishes and placed centrally within the Mission Community.
Martyn lives in Shirwell, the second largest parish.
All enquiries for weddings, funerals and baptisms should be made to Rev Preb Rosie Austin:
Telephone 01598 711962
Email: rosieaustin@live.co.uk
The Curate's Ramblings
Stand up!
“Stand up and lift up your heads for your redemption is drawing near!”
What a summer it has been! Waves of tragedy have washed over our world – it is as if bad news stories were overtaking each other. The good news stories of the vaccine-enabled return of some of our old routines, have been tripped up by tragedy, calamity, disaster and sadness. We have all been in different places in this shifting landscape of news. We each have been on different paths through this time - as different as the experience of spending a day in the sunshine or in the rain.
So where do we look for hope? So many of the places people look for hope are causes for grief at the moment: The non-existent lists of rental accommodation for families? The glacial waiting lists for some NHS treatments in our full hospitals? The bulging lists of minimum wage jobs heralded as good news by those who don’t have to apply for them?! That shopping list in your hand for which it is getting harder to tick off every item than ever before? Where do we look for hope?
In describing these times Jesus said “nations will be in anguish” and “people will be perplexed by forces they cannot control”. People will be “apprehensive of what is happening to the world” and “will feel weak and faint in fear” of it all. Those things that were “assumed to be unshakeable will be shaken”. Then Jesus said when all this pattern appeared, we are to “stand up and lift up our heads”.
What “redemption is drawing near” that might prompt such a counter-intuitive response? It is a power greater than these awful circumstances. Jesus said “when you see these things happening it shows that the kingdom of God is near.” In describing all these times, Jesus warned us not to be weighed down with anxieties but to pray… and to prepare… for the redemption that is drawing near will reach its ultimate moment in the actual return of Jesus in the light of beauty and power.
We are invited to look to the light of God’s kingdom that is coming. And while we wait for this we are invited to bear with one another, carry one another, share strength and encouragement amongst one another. It is the Spirit of God amongst us that will comfort us and enable us to stand. To stand in love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... and… even joy!
Jesus says “Stand up and lift up your heads for your redemption is drawing near!”
Rev. Martyn
Safeguarding
If you have a concern about the safety of someone or the actions of someone working with children or vulnerable adults, please speak to someone:
The link to the Diocesan Safeguarding Team’s contact details - https://exeter.anglican.org/resources/safeguarding/safeguarding-team/