#331 what goes round and round and ISN’T the wheels on the bus?
I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.
I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like.
I want to ride it to a church, past trees and hills and bends,
I want to stop off for some cheese, I want to ride with all my friends.
Yes OK, thank you Bertie, I know you’re practicing for this year’s ride and stride, but do you have to sing whilst you blow up your tyres and test your bell? Oh, apparently so, jolly good. Luckily for the curate, Bertie is now cycling back to the Rector’s, he has to make sure he’s good to go for 10th September, and would love some friends to cycle with this year. And if those friends happen to have a bike with a basket then he’ll be able to go to even more churches whilst his paws have a little rest. Please do let Bertie know if you love cycling and would like to join in with him, or better yet, let Bertie know AND Andrew Harte (rideandstride@spauls.org.uk) because then you’re sure to get all the information you actually need, rather than a mouse begging for a cheese break.
For some actual information about Ride and Stride please read on…
This year’s Ride and Stride event will take place on Saturday 10th September to raise funds for the Berkshire Historic Churches Trust and our parish. As usual, we need volunteers to take part in the event and visit other participating churches on the day and volunteers to be in St Paul’s to greet visitors from other churches.
Here is some more information about what is involved:
Visiting Other Churches
Between 10am and 6pm you can visit as many churches as you can, on foot, by bike or on horseback(!!) or any combination, where you sign in and, have your own from signed. You find people to sponsor you for this with either one-off donations or on a per-church basis to raise money. Some people might just walk around Wokingham and visit the local churches, if that is not enough you could hop onto a train into Reading and visit some churches there as well. If you have a bike then you can visit some of the churches outside the town centre as well; it can be a good excuse for an enjoyable day cycling around the Berkshire countryside!
Greeting Visitors at St Paul’s
We need a number of people to cover a one hour slot in the church to sign visitor’s R&S sheets and offer them refreshments – some may never have been to the church before. You can also be sponsored for this or on a per visitor basis during your ‘shift’
Please consider whether you are able to take part and contact me by email at rideandstride@spauls.org.uk to let me know if you can take part in either capacity. We could particularly welcome some more people to take part in the visiting, especially by bike – if you consider yourself young enough and fit enough for that!
If you cannot take part, please sponsor those people who are taking part and get your friends and family to sponsor people riding for the church as half of the money we raise comes back to the parish!
Anyone who decides to take part, and is interested in setting up a JustGiving page to collect sponsorship for their participation, should contact me as I can tell you how to do this and will then piublish all of the JustGiving details of those taking part from our parish.
Andrew
This Sunday, 7th August, at St Paul’s we have 9.30am Mass and at St Nick’s the 11am Community Mass, both with Fr Richard. There are activity sheets for children whilst J Club has a summer break. Morning Prayer is still said daily: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8.30am on zoom, Tuesday and Friday at 9am in St Paul’s. And please note Wednesday house mass will be back in September.
Mouse Hunt
After the wonderful success of the mouse hunt in 2021 for the children around the church and churchyard, it seems that Bertie’s friends have become wise to all the places that children and adults look for them and have hidden themselves SO well that the next mouse hunt will be in 2023. Specifically, Saturday 13th May 2023. Which may seem like a long way away because, well, it is, but put it in your diaries now because otherwise Bertie will sulk and might hide away himself, which would be a shame…maybe…probably…I mean, definitely. Come back Bertie, come back, I didn’t mean it I promise!
Parish Quiet Day
Save the date! We will be having a parish quiet day on Saturday 24th September at St Mary’s Winnersh. The theme is, “Walk with God and trust in him: Journey with 3 women from the Old Testament.” This is your chance to take a day out, reflect, listen, pray, walk, learn, read, draw, write… whatever you need to do and however you need and want to spend the day with God and others. Please contact Mary Cassidy, deputy church warden, mary.cassidy@spauls.co.uk, for more information.
Mary Cassidy has sent in this moving article about communion and the eagerness of our faith: Eager to Reach Out and Touch Faith – Ignatian Spirituality
It asks a question that is something you might like to ponder over the week and hold in your minds for when you next receive communion, “How do we approach Christ in the Eucharist, in one another, and in creation? Do we, too, embody a holy eagerness, a desire so overflowing that it’s all we can do to hold ourselves in line and wait our proverbial turn?”
Blessing the school bags for children as you start the new academic year is a lovely St Paul’s tradition, and one that feels very special for the whole community as we bless your school bags and commit ourselves afresh to pray for the children and for our local schools and teachers. This will be Sunday September 4th which is also when J Club will return for September.
Jane Bingham went to Germany, Oberammergau, to see the Passion Play last week and said he play, music, choir and actors were all amazing. No photos of the play were allowed, so instead she’s shared this photo of the Crown of Thorns.
Finally, Cara found this poem this week and thought it would be good to share with everyone:
“Enjoy Me” ~ poem by St. Teresa of Avila
Just these two words He spoke
changed my life.
‘Enjoy Me.’
What a burden I thought I was to carry –
a crucifix, as did He.
Love once said to me, “I know a song,
Would you like to hear it?”
And laughter came from every brick in the street.
And from every pore
in the sky.
After a night of prayer, He
changed my life when He sang,
“Enjoy Me.”
