#363: how has it got so cold again? I would like a refund, please.
Hello again, dear friends- tis I, Bertie your favourite Churchmouse, back to delight and regale you with news and suggestions and dreams and possibilities. And cheese. Lots of talk of cheese. Hmm, some of it is creamy and some of it is tangy and some of it is strong and some of it is soft and all of it is yummy. Actually, the sooner I get on with this the sooner I can go and see which of the 363 cheeses I have in my secret cellar under the Church is calling my name this afternoon. Type faster, Bertie- the siren voice of a particularly ripe Brie is calling you by name.
Oh, and huge thanks to everyone who donated towards the work of the DEC in Turkey and Syria after the earthquakes last month- we were able to send in a total of £900.
Services and Events
Don’t forget the World Day of Prayer service this Friday at St Paul’s at 10.30am- and please pray for all of those going away for the weekend to St Columba’s in Woking on their Lenten retreat.
This Sunday we have services at 9.30, 10 and 11, as well as a baptism at 1.30pm. John 3.1-17 is the main reading so do look at that before the service if you can, as a way of preparing for the second Sunday of Lent.
Parish Lent Lunch- Sat the 11th of March from 12 to 1.30pm- please sign up in church for a plate of soup and your very own seat at a table. Raising funds for our three Charities-
or email a Social Committee Chair to book
Alan al_harrison@hotmail.co.uk Trish trishgatland@hotmail.co.uk
Sunday 12th March, Churches Together in Wokingham Prayer Walk at 3pm from Coffee #1 for one hour. Please also let your churches and congregations know anyone is welcome- do come along!
Volunteers and Help Needed
In Holy Week we have three people coming from Westcott House in Cambridge to help lead and organise our worship and witness. We are looking for volunteers to offer them food and a bed for the week, from Palm Sunday to Easter Day. Could you let Richard know if you would be willing to help- they don’t drive so it would be ideal if they could stay near to the Church. Thanks.
Also, a friend who is a vicar in the North West has asked if anyone has a cross from a different part of the world with a story behind it which she could borrow.
It’s not too late to bring some things for the Foodbank– in particular, tins of tomatoes and potatoes, shaving cream and cleaning products- but anything you would like to donate would be gratefully received.
If you are on the parish Electoral Roll already then you don’t need to do anything- but if you have recently joined the church or got more involved and would like to join the ER which is about identifying yourself as part of the Church, please either speak to Teri Austen or pick up a sheet from the back of Church. Thanks.
Earlier emails have talked about some of the roles which are coming vacant in the next months- especially PCC Secretary and Churchwarden- and Mary has sent this article in as a way of considering what God might be saying to you: there are also lots of smaller jobs around which we could do with more volunteers for, like helping serve coffee and welcoming people as Sidespeople. This Is No Time to Paint – Ignatian Spirituality
Ideas and Resources
The Lent Course has started well with its focus on failure (slight oxymoron there- the course on failure has been a big failure because it has actually gone very well), and how we deal well when things don’t go as well as we hoped, and how we understand failure as Christians. We talked a lot on Tuesday night about how God does not and will never define or see us as our failures. We also talked about how we can deal well with failure and missed opportunity as a Church family- and we talked about failure in the Bible- we drew on the fact that the disciples couldn’t cast out the demon when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, and how the fishing disciples had caught nothing all night until they put out their nets on the other side of the boat, and Jesus calming the storm, and Peter being restored after the Resurrection, and the Shepherd coming to find the lost sheep, which is to say, coming to find us.
This link is for the weekly newsletter from St Cecilia’s Primary School, our newest Church of England School in the parish: St Cecilia’s Church of England Primary School 24.02.23 (office.com)
