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In Brief

Next Service:

27th September at 10:30 am.

Harvest Service
(Today we give thanks for this year's harvest.)

The next village event will be Gift Day on 26th September 2020 at 2:00 PM in St Paul's Church

Diocesan Magazine

Click here to visit the Exeter Diocese website

A link to the magazine is available on the Home page.

Safeguarding

View our Safeguarding policy

Diocese of Exeter Safeguarding contacts

Recent Images Highslide JS
After 19 Sundays without congregations gathering, St Paul's held its first service in church on Sunday 2nd August 2020. It was in the format of Morning Prayer and the 11 worshippers all wore face coverings - but it was good to be back in church! Image courtesy of Charles Waldron 2nd August 2020.
Highslide JS
Coronavirus restrictions eased from 13th June 2020, allowing the church to reopen for private prayer for the first time since March. Here, on Wednesday 24th June 2020, Hazel Price (left) and Emma Waldron wait in the porch to welcome anyone wishing to come into the church and to ensure that social distancing and hygiene rules are observed. Image courtesy of Charles Waldron 24th June 2020.
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In Brief

Next Service:

27th September at 10:30 am.

Harvest Service
(Today we give thanks for this year's harvest.)

The next village event will be Gift Day on 26th September 2020 at 2:00 PM in St Paul's Church

Diocesan Magazine

Click here to visit the Exeter Diocese website

A link to the magazine is available on the Home page.

Safeguarding

View our Safeguarding policy

Diocese of Exeter Safeguarding contacts

Recent Images Highslide JS
After 19 Sundays without congregations gathering, St Paul's held its first service in church on Sunday 2nd August 2020. It was in the format of Morning Prayer and the 11 worshippers all wore face coverings - but it was good to be back in church! Image courtesy of Charles Waldron 2nd August 2020.
Highslide JS
Coronavirus restrictions eased from 13th June 2020, allowing the church to reopen for private prayer for the first time since March. Here, on Wednesday 24th June 2020, Hazel Price (left) and Emma Waldron wait in the porch to welcome anyone wishing to come into the church and to ensure that social distancing and hygiene rules are observed. Image courtesy of Charles Waldron 24th June 2020.
More Images
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Welcome to the website for St Paul's Church, the Church of England church for the parish of Landkey.

The tranquil village of Landkey is situated just three miles from the busy market town of Barnstaple in North Devon. With a growing population in excess of 2000, a strong sense of community exists within the village and, of this, the church is an important part. As well as offering regular Christian worship, the church provides valuable links to other areas of the community such as the local Primary School and the Mothers' Union.

St Paul's is a friendly church in which the Christian message is heard regularly by a congregation of around 25 worshippers. All are welcome to attend our services.

To Autumn

With summer beginning to fade, it might provide a brief escape from coronavirus to read John Keats' seasonal ode: To Autumn

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To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fumes of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look;
Thou watchest the last oozngs, hour by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
While barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

John Keats

Coronavirus and beyond

Trying to look to the future

It may sound overly optimistic to consider a post-Covid-19 era at a time when large areas of the UK are now under local lockdowns, infections are rising rapidly are there is talk of wider restrictions being needed to control the disease.

However, we have to believe that there will come a time when our lives will not be as affected by this pandemic. The impact upon St Paul's has been severe, as it has been with other churches but we are trying to look ahead.

In the short term, we are planning to hold a Harvest Service on Sunday 27th September at 10:30am. We will also be opening the church on Saturday 26th September from 2pm-4pm as well as on the Sunday 27th at the same time for Gift Days when we hope that anyone who would like to support St Paul's financially will feel able to do so.

We will also be holding our Annual Parochial Church Meeting on October 12th at 7pm by Zoom and anyone will be free to join in. The link to the meeting will be published here in the week beforehand. The routine business will be to appoint churchwardens, PCC and Deanery Synod members and officers. However, this will also be an opportunity to discuss other matters including steps that need to be taken in respect of the future of the church as we eventually emerge from this pandemic.

Church coronavirus procedures and documents relating to the Annual Meeting are available below.

Updated 19th September 2020

News

17th Sep 2020

Letter from Revd Shaun - 17th August

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome to the latest letter to our churches in which we update you on news from our Mission Community and the Diocese.

As you all know, we are now holding services in our churches again. At the moment, we are doing Morning Prayer and not full Communion: our PCCs and many of our congregation members still feel a little uneasy regarding the Communion service and the difficulty of social distancing and handling of the elements to avoid cross-contamination.

We are listening to you and taking that into account, so until we feel with you that it is now safe to offer Communion, we will stay with Morning Prayer. I am still broadcasting a Communion service on Wednesday morning so you can join me at that service on our Facebook page Mission Prayer Programme.

The link to Mission Prayer is https://www.facebook.com/mission.prayerprogramme

We have been streaming live from our services on a Sunday and they are being watched by so many: at our Landkey service we had over 300 people join us. This is a wonderful advancement for us in our outreach and mission: after all, our main job before anything else is to proclaim the good news to as many as we can.

We are examining the possibility of adding internet connections and live stream cameras to our churches so that we can do a better, more professional, job and hopefully attract larger groups of people. This would also help develop better services for people who have weddings and funerals in our churches. Those unable to attend could view the service online, bringing much joy to many. I hope that you will support us in this effort.

I need once again to thank our wardens who are working in very restricted conditions to maintain the churches and keep them Covid safe for all of us.

Our PCCs are trying all manner of ingenious ways to keep our buildings open for the future. We are experiencing many challenges and are desperate to keep the long term opening of our church buildings viable. Our finances are depleted and we are trying to focus on the future, doing things to keep us open not only as a church but for the communities that we serve.

The whole church throughout the country is in the same position as us, however: we are not alone. With faith, determination and looking forward to growing, we will survive. Like every other organisation, change is upon us: if we don’t change to meet the new way of doing things all our church buildings are under threat.

Have you ever seen that old poster “we need you!”? Well that needs to be put on our church doors! We need you, we need our communities to work with us, we need to adapt to meet the world as it is today in all its technological wonder - or nightmare which ever view you take of it! Change and growth are our only way of securing a bright future. If we do it with prayer, if we do it for God’s purposes, not our own, we will succeed.

So, we have been challenged. We have been challenged to grow. We have been challenged to do new things. We have been challenged to adapt. So far, we are meeting the challenges, but we must move ever forward: not stand still, not go backwards. We walk with God and in him nothing is impossible.

May God’s blessing be with each of you this day and every day.

Fr Shaun

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