Here! Here! to that last entry; just my point exactly.

It will be sad if the Benefice is split after the effort put into drawing the villages together. It is not only in church-going that more sharing has occured,but the Beacon has been an excellent magazine and has helped greatly in the sharing of news, views and events. As John Smart observed, it does take time for communities to share with each other, and now that this has happened with our 4 villages, let us strive to maintain our links both sacred and secular!

Any chance of anon, GB and Robin expressing a view either way on the question in hand ? for the division or against? Easy really ! There's a lot of 'church-bashing' going on with all the usual complaints, but how about answering the question.

In response to GB... That is rather unfortunate about the tree. Perhaps there could be a ceremonial replacement in a less troublesome location. I am not on any of the PCCs and the concerns I have heard on the benefice division are simply that both PCCs should transfer either to Okehampton or Chagford, but not one to each. I do not know what discussions there may have been about the MOiMM in the past but I am sure you are right that we could not even hear the echo of thundering hooves now. I get the impression that you are quite relaxed about the division and probably support it. It would not be difficult to imagine that "Anon", below, would also support the divison! Maybe it is all a storm in tea cup, or even just a squall.

The present reaction to the doings of the Church of England is curiously at variance with village indifference to the destruction, three years ago, of the Coronation Tree, a dwarf species of oak, planted in 1953, by Sticklepath Women's Institute in the churchyard of St Mary's. The reason, as reported by the Archdeacon, was that it "threatened overhead wires". But shown the stub of the tree, the Archdeacon conceded that it was too far distant from the wires ever to threaten them, and in any case naturally unlikely ever to attain such a height. So, execution of an innocent! Too bad! The Diocesan initiative now belatedly of local concern and found in full tedious detail on the Net under: Exeter MOiMM, is long since done and dusted. MOiMM = Moving on in Mission and Ministry, which for us, means on to the economy of losing a Rector, thereafter to receive ministry from Okehampton, while S. Tawton and S. Zeal receive it from elsewhere. In short, a New Order, of which there is at least some pale hope of something to come, as cannot be of the stump of our Coronation Tree or village fuming at the door of a long-locked, long-fled stable.

this is carrying on from the previous message. We then had another Vicar who fortunately realised what people liked in the way of being able to follow a service, unfortunately there were other issues which rather scuppered that era. Now we have nothing but communion services. Who wants communion every Sunday? I certainly don't. A few times a year is quite sufficient. Once a month in each of the four churches should be quite adequite. We no longer have the nice Morning prayer from the Book of Common Prayer. And the communion I did go to was the most irreverend way of taking it i have ever come across. It was like being on a factory conveyer line.No kneeling down just walking through. I was tempted to write to the Bishop I was so disgusted. No wonder the churches are poorly attended which is one reason for less Vicars to be paid.I've got thoroughly disillusioned with it and no longer attend. I don't feel good about it though, because we like our weddings christenings a funerals done there.

I have lived around South Tawton for a good many years. Over that time there have been many changes, not always for the best, but I suppose people get accustomed to them and go along with them in the long run. As far as I can tell, Belstone was always at odds with South Tawton and visa-versa. Belstone were not in favour of not having their own Vicar when the four churches were put into a Benefice group quite a few years ago, and South Tawton then always seemed to come off worse in the allocation of church service times.So I feel we are a devided community anyway as far as church matters are concerned.It has always been that Belstone looked down on South Tawton, both geographically and socially. (Was there ever a battle, revolution or something that caused some friction between the two villages at some time in the dim and distant past?) I am sorry to see that the services are so poorly attended.I do have an opinion as to why this is so. To me there have been too many changes in the style of service. When the Rev Apps was at South Tawton, there was always Book of Common Prayer Evensong, Communion, and Morning Prayer. There was also the Series Two Communion, which was also very followable both the service and the music. Then we had a change of Vicar, Canon Ellis. He, along with a few newcomers, instigated the change to the very modern services A and B. The music was different, the wording took you back to primary school and made you feel patronised, and the Vicar seemed to go off on some direction all his own which you couldn't follow and completely spoil the feeling of the service.The quite substantial choir couldn't cope and deminished in numbers as did the congregation.These changes were to encourage younger people to be able to understand the services better. What young people? The ones in the choir didn't stay and once you lose people from the congregation they don't really return to regular attendan

I don’t know that I am bothered really. The church has been in retreat for years and bunkers down in its isolated churches and has little relevance to the life most people lead now. It’s a shame really because it does look as though an awful lot of people want something unworldly in their lives and the Church should be there for them. Why isn’t the Church amongst us all? Why are we expected to trudge along to a draughty old building on its terms? Why doesn’t it come to us? Having said that I am not in favour of the long term failure of the church being allowed to make our villages the poorer, so if they really feel that that they cannot offer what we need as things are then they should at least ensure the village churches all go the same way.

Ulitmately it's the Church's decision but they really aught to consider the effects on the wider community. These four villages, as the writer eludes, have an almost symbiotic relationship and the wider repercussions of this enforced 'schism' will almost certainly prove detrimental to the plethora of peripheral activities and organisations which, the Church may or may not realise, depend on the unity and stability it created with the 1981 amalagmation. To this end, whether people attend any of the churchs regularly or not, everyone effected should have the right to have their opinion heard and considered; the Church in turn must further consider the wider repercussions, given it's pastoral obligation. In summary I beleive it is definitely not in the best interests of the Village's communities for the Benefice to be divided.

As I don't attend Church, I'm not sure how this would affect me. Any form of division between the Beacon Villages is probably a bad thing though.