#399: it’s starting to feel a lot like Autumn

Hello again, dear friends. Not a lot of room in my life for jokes and my usual bonhomie this week, given how things are deteriorating even further in Palestine and Israel, and given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. I have been talking to the other mouses locally- there are quite a few of us but the others are not as eloquent or edicated as moi- and we have all agreed that we need to keep informed about what is going on in the world but not spend so much time refreshing the News pages that we don’t think about anything else. It is a vital balance but it is too easy to become obsessed with the horrors of the world that we stop seeing the good we can do locally and the difference we can make with the energy, resources and life we have.

Anyway, here is the news…

This Coming Weekend

Services are at 8, 9.30, 10 and 11- it will be super to welcome Jane to do the 8am Mass as well as the service at St Nick’s. Before you leave Church please add the names of your loved ones who have died to the sheets in Church. And do say hello to someone you don’t know over coffee or as you leave Church- community matters.

These lovely cards will be on sale in the Parish Rooms after the service on Sunday 22nd October.  Penny Wallace will be raising money for The Children’s Society, and will take orders if more cards are needed.  Please bring some cash with you!

Coming Soon

Don’t forget that the clocks go back on the night of Saturday the 28th of October so we can all have an extra hour’s sleep before Church on the 29th.

Please pray for the Parish Quiet Day this coming Saturday at Winnersh Church- for a time of mutual support and encouragement, quality input and new ideas about prayer. And thank you to everyone who has organised and imagined it.

We are keeping the feats of All Souls’ on Thurs the 2nd of November at 8pm. Please do come along to what is always a moving and comforting service- do tell your friends and neighbours about it, especially if they have been bereaved- and do let Louise in the Office know if you would be able to come along early to light some of the candles in the Churchyard. Most of our regular candle-lighters are not around this year so we need some new volunteers to help with that. (We will, confusingly, keep All Sts on the 5th of November because you can’t move it forward onto a Sunday but only back).

The Bazaar, Sat Nov the 11th

We will have an Organ Recital from Chris at 11am, followed by the Bazaar at 12. We are looking for more volunteers (talk to Liz G or Teri) and also these things for stalls…

Gift Stall: I am running a gift stall at the Bazaar. If you have anything suitable or can make anything for the stall I would be very grateful to receive them. Wendy Darlison

Richard and the Clergy Team are still collecting wine bottles with screw lids, and empty wine bottles with screw lids, and small packs of soft drinks we can raffle off.

Lucky Numbers for October

The Lucky Numbers draw for October took place over coffee after the 9.30 Mass at St Paul’s on Sunday 15^th October 2023

Congratulations to the lucky winners:

£50     # 58           Yvonne PETT-RIDGE

£25     # 20         Vince and Lorraine PEARSON

£15     #  6            Jim and Katherine BELL

£10     # 41          David and Lesley RUDDOCK      

The Lucky Numbers Draw raises funds for repairs and renewals to the church building. Funds remaining after the distribution of the prizes go to the Restoration Fund for this purpose.

One share (number) costs £24 per calendar year;  you can have as many shares as you wish, paying annually or monthly by Standing Order.  For more information, please contact Tony Roberts (979 5351), Liz Gallagher (989 1176) or Mary Cassidy (979 5096) – or talk to Mary at St Paul’s, or Tony or Liz at St Nicholas’.

New subscribers will be actively sought for the calendar year 2024!

A Sermon from Cara

People have been hugely inspired and challenged by Cara’s sermon and I have been repeatedly asked, as the resident mouse, if I can creep up to the pulpit and get them and print them out and hand them to everyone. It took me so long to clamber up the steps- it’s a long way for a little mouse- that I am going to email them instead…

And finally…

New Bible study resources   Journeying with Ezekiel a new Bible study with Bishop Steven This week our link parishes, link committees, diocesan staff and young people from our dioceses will be coming together to share in prayer, study, discussion and planning for action. Bishop Steven has chosen three passages from the Book of Ezekiel as the Bible studies for the summit. #1 The Valley of Dry Bones – Ezekiel 37 (available from 12 Oct) #2 A Heart of Flesh – Ezekiel 11.14-20 and Matthew 7.6-12 (available from 13 Oct) #3 The River of Life – Ezekiel 47 (available from 14 Oct)   The three Bible studies consider rebuilding after the pandemic; gender justice and what it means to be a person; and environment and creation. The films can be found on our YouTube channel, complete with the proposed questions for a small group to discuss.