Parish News
This is a transcript of a handout which is available in both our churches.
PARISH NEWS – JANUARY 2012
‘A NEW YEAR, A NEW JOURNEY’
Over the last two weeks I have been speaking about what God has been doing amongst us and where I sense he might be leading us. I thought it would be good to put some of this into writing so that we are all in the picture.
Spiritual life/Community life
The PCC agreed in June that our priorities for the moment should be to strengthen both our spiritual life and our community life. And we have been excited to see God at work in both areas.
Our Sunday worship is strong, with numbers growing over a greater range of ages and it has been wonderful to welcome our Xplorers and Crossover groups into church at the end of each 10am service - this has really increased our sense of ‘church family’.
We have had some wonderful times of fellowship – Barn Dance, Harvest Supper, barbecues, tea parties, cricket match, Holiday at Home and Holiday Club etc. We’ve got plans to develop similar social activities over the coming months.
Worship
Over Christmas we moved the choir stalls on both sides to give us space for the Crib service and the Carol Service, when Sounding Brass led our singing. We were also able to use this space for other things – a communion service on Christmas Day, gathering of children at the Christingle service, more space for musicians on Christmas morning.
We have decided not to put the stalls back for the time being on the vestry side. This is for a trial period to allow us to use this space in different ways and we shall be reviewing our decision in May/June.
Do let me know what you feel about this, so that our final decision will reflect the views of everyone.
Curate
With the support of the PCC, I shall be applying to the diocese for a stipendiary Curate to begin in July 2013. We may not be successful in our application as there are more incumbents who apply than curates available, but this would be an exciting development if we should be successful. We need to show that we would be able to provide housing and so John Metcalfe will be heading up a small team to look carefully at this.
Reaching out to the community
Lawnsmead offers a unique location for us in our desire to reach out to the village. We have been fortunate to receive some small grants this year and have been able to do some redecorating in the Turner Room and Crossover Room. This will hopefully inspire us to consider how we could use this building creatively to reach out beyond our own church family. We have a well-equipped kitchen as well as rooms with different atmospheres and I believe that God will show us how we can make more of this resource.
LENT
This year there will be two opportunities to come along to Lent talks:
Tue 13th March – Andy Wheeler (Mission Pastor at St Saviour’s) will talk about ‘Living in a multi-faith society’ and will help us think about the challenges and opportunities this brings.
Tue 20th March – Lesley Mason (Chaplain at Send Prison) will talk about justice from God’s perspective and how this may be seen in our prisons.
Each talk will take place at 8pm in the church, with tea and coffee served from 7.30pm. Do put the dates in your diary and come along.
With love
Debbie Sellin
