St. Nicholas' Church, East Grafton
Welcome to the information page for St. Nicholas' Church, East Grafton.
Details of forthcoming services are given below. Please come along and join us in worship - you would be very welcome.
Service Timetable
| July 27th | 11.00 | Family Service |
| August 10th | 11.00 | Holy Communion |
| August 17th | 11.00 | Family Service |
| August 24th | 11.00 | Family Service |
| September 7th | 08.00 | Team walk Wilton Windmiill |
| September 14th | 11.00 | Family service & Baptism |
| September 21st | 11.00 | Family service & Baptism |
| September 28th | 11.00 | Harvest Festival |
To find out more about the Grafton Parish then please click on Grafton Parish
Some views of our church
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Visit the Parish web site for Armistice celebration details |
More pictures of the roof decorations at the bottom of this page! |
EASTER 2008
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Each lilly is donated in memory of a loved one.
Ther perfume in the Church is wonderful at Easter. |
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CHRISTMAS 2007
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The crib for Christmas 2007 |
The altar decorated for Christmas 2007 |
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Holly and carnations for a festive welcome |
A stunning display for our centrepiece. |
Bedecked pilars |
Displays to compliment the season |
Harvest Festival 2007
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Superb floral arrangements for the harvest celebrations |
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All produce was then auctioned on the following day to raise much needed funds for the church |
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A good team of flower ladies and a keen photographer all contributed to this excellent record of the beautiful display. |
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The flowers lasted for a long time in the cool of the church. |
Harvest Festival 2006
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If only you could imagine how HUGE this beautiful display was! |
Traditional window decorations for Harvest Festival |
Hedgerow cuttings always enhance our harvest celebrations |
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Our beautiful embroidered altar cloth |
Bedecked font for harvest |
Pillars lend themselves to floral beauty at this time of year |
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Our Sunday school celebrates BIRTHDAY NUMBER 1!
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What a stunning greeting to welcome
such a large party! |
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| Here we all are in party mood to celebrate a very successful year and to look forward to our second! |  |
If you would like to join then please email us here at Grafton Parish email centre . In fact you can enquire about anything from this email centre so please ask and we will do our best to attend to your requests! |
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The
Patronal Festival on Sunday, 10th December, when our church celebrated
St Nicholas' Day on the Sunday nearest his feast day (6th. December)
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Saint Nicholas Nicholas was a fourth century bishop of
Myra in Asia Minor (southern Turkey). His reputation as
a worker of wonders was enhanced by a ninth century author
of his hagiography and he is now best known through these
stories. Many of them concern his love and care for children,
how he fed the hungry, healed the sick and cared for the
oppressed. He saved three girls from a life of prostitution
by providing them with dowries and so developed the tradition
of bearing gifts to children on his feast day, a practice
appropriated by the Christmas celebrations. Nicholas is
also one of the patron saints of Russia. |
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| Patronal Festival
In the lead up to Christmas we held a Patronal
Festival in celebration of our namesake St Nicholas. We
learnt that he was the Bishop of Myra in Southern Turkey
during the fourth century. He was well known for his love
and care of children, feeding the hungry, healing the sick
and caring for the oppressed. Stories about his life tell
of how he saved three girls from a life of prostitution
by providing them with dowries and so developed the tradition
of bearing gifts to children on his feast day. The Rev Rodney
Harrison continued this tradition by giving out bundles
of chocolate coins to those in the congregation. |
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CAROL SERVICE 2006
| On 16th December we held a ‘Nine Carols and Lessons’ service. It was lovely to have a large variety of age groups represented at the service. Our youngest was only a few days old! Many thanks to all who read a lesson. | |
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CHRISTMAS MORNING 2006
| We welcomed Alan Debo who took our Christmas day service. He started the service by welcoming regulars and those who were visiting East Grafton. The pictures show him sharing a joke with a member of the congregation. Some of the Sunday school children showed the nativity scene they had made and which had been on a journey around the villages, staying a night in any home that offered to take it in. It finished its journey by being on display at the front of the church during the service. | |
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A few examples of what you would see if you care to come and visit our church. You are always welcome of course.
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St Nicholas window by the alter |
Beautifully adorned organ pipes |
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Windows at night |
The same windows from the inside long after the sun has set. |
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Early morning sunrise reflecting on the stonework |
Dusk by the gate
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GARGOYLES ON OUR CHURCH.
THEIR POSSIBLE PURPOSE AND HISTORY.
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History During the 1200's when gargoyles first appeared (and at many other times), the Roman Catholic Church was actively involved in converting people of other faiths to the Catholic, often very keenly indeed (as the Christian but non-Catholic Cathars could testify). The argument for decorated gargoyles runs as follows. Since literacy was generally not an option for most people, images were very important. Since the religious images (if any) that non-Christians were accustomed to were of animals or mixtures of animals and humans (e.g. the horned god, the Green Man), then putting similar images on churches and cathedrals would encourage non-Catholics to join the religion and go to church, or at least make them feel more comfortable about it, or at least ease the transition. |
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| "Gargoyles (in the strict sense) are carvings on the outside of buildings designed to direct water from the roof away from the base of the walls... ...Some gargoyles are undecorated but many are zoomorphic or anthropomorphic - often very imaginative and/or grotesque. This has led to the term 'gargoyle' being applied more widely to any grotesque carving in medieval buildings." (from Bob Trubshaw, posting in BritArch archives, 23Feb1999) | |
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| In architecture, gargoyles (from the French gargouille, originally the throat or gullet, cf. Latin gurgulio, gula, and similar words derived from root gar, to swallow, the word representing the gurgling sound of water; Ital. doccione; Ger. Ausguss, Wasserspeier) are the carved terminations to spouts which convey water away from the sides of buildings. | |
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| Russell Sturgis, writing in Sturgis' Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture and Building, defines a gargoyle as a: A water spout, ... projecting from a gutter and intended to throw the water away from the walls and foundations. In medieval architecture, the gargoyles, which had to be very numerous because of the many gutters which were carried on the tops of flying buttresses, and higher and lower walls, were often very decorative, consisting, as they did, of stone images of grotesque animals, and the like, or, in smaller buildings of iron or lead. Many cultures throughout history have created sculptures of fantastic creatures. These figures stir our imaginations, as they stirred the imaginations of the carvers who lovingly created them. We struggle to understand and explain them, delving deep into the realms of psychology, culture, symbols, history and religion. One of the more common belief is that gargoyles served as protectors, keeping evil away from the buildings and their occupants. However, there seems to be much at work here and we can suspect that their reason to be, operates on a multitude of levels. | |
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| These examples of the adornments on St Nicholas show how much care and repair has been lavished on this very picturesque and welcoming church in Wiltshire. | |
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| Please visit this church yourself to fully appreciate both the building and the decorations. You will often find beautiful flower arrangements and cards on sale depicting parts of this excellent building. | |
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For information on other parish activities, or if you have any questions about Church life in our parish, please contact our Parish Priest, whose name and phone number are shown on the left hand side of this page.
