#403: free jobs going at Downing Street this week
Hello again! Bertie here. I am back from my amazing adventure with Mother Jane. Sadly, most of the cheese I had hidden in Jane’s scooter was confiscated at customs but I still managed to bring some of it backed disguised as rocks and I have lots of stunning memories too- of the Suez Canal and Muscat and Dubai…
Good morning (yawn) Bertie here Jane woke me up at 5.45 and I was having such a lovely dream all about Stilton and Gorgonzola we were supposed to begin our transit of the Canal at six o’clock now at 6.10 the captain announced that there is a delay and we will be in this queue of ships probably until 8am. So now I don’t know what to do go back to bed and dream of cheese or go up with Jane to breakfast and eat cheese. Hey ho life’s full of difficult choices.
And in other news… because of a range of things, Judi is now taking the Service at Woosehill on Sunday and Richard will do St Paul’s and St Nick’s. It is Safeguarding Sunday so there will be some focus on the need to build safe and supportive communities in which everyone is allowed to flourish and no-one is taken advantage of or abused by others, where everyone is seen and treated as a precious child of God.
Then, in the evening, Catharine Mabuza from Warfield is coming to preach at Choral Evensong on the Woman at the Well, which will be our final Sermon Series of the year.
Notices and Thanks
Enormous thanks to everyone who helped with the Organ Recital and Bazaar on Saturday. As well as it being a lot of fun, the Bazar raised £2,330 for the Church which was a great result. Thank you all. Thank you too for the knitted poppies which looked good at the bazaar and then equally good at St Paul’s and St Nick’s in the following week.
The PCC will hope to decide on Monday night which quotation to accept for the work to reduce the oak tree in the churchyard. It has been a long and tortuous process to this stage but we are hoping that we are now in a position to make a decision and commission the work.
The final Walter Lecture on Climate Change will be at All Saints on Thurs the 23rd of November at 7pm- our very own Chris Merchant on Our Changing Climate. It will be excellent. Do come along to what is the final lecture in an excellent series which we are proud to have supported and encouraged, and especially proud of Andy Clark, who’s dream and work this has been.
Wanted: Care 4 Calais…
Men’s clothing for asylum seekers in local hotels.
We would be very grateful for donations of the following in good condition:-
- anoraks/winter jackets.
- trousers/ jeans/ joggers waist 30-36.
- sweatshirts, hoodies, Tshirts
- Trainers size 41-45
- New boxer shorts and socks
- Bikes (even if in need of repair)
- Phones (unlocked with working battery)
Please can you leave them in the Walter Chapel in Church and we will gather them and send them on. Thanks.
And here are two leaflets- Christmas Services at St Paul’s (and we will be looking for volunteers to deliver some of them)
and the Term Card, which you might already have received as a yellow print out…
Do feel free to send either file, or indeed anything else from the letter, to your friends and neighbours.
Quick Fire Round
There was another email this week to people at Church from a strange email address, claiming to be from a member of the parish clergy and asking people to send money. Please always remember that no member of the clergy would ever ask you to send an Amazon voucher or for money like that. Check the email address, stop and think before you send any money and always be slightly suspicious about emails like that. If it doesn’t feel right then it probably isn’t.
We have agreed to sell some blank Christmas Cards at the back of St Paul’s for Wokingham Pride. Do please look out for the enigmatic looking robin and the nearby honesty box.
Volunteers still needed to help run the Churches Together Stall on the 26th of November- See Pews News for details.
Two Final Things
Please do continue to pray for General Synod as they make heavy weather of working out the Church’s next steps in terms of blessing of same-sex relationships, especially for those who are paying a heavy personal price for their courage in engaging and speaking from the heart.
Also, the Diocese has produced a new Learning Hub with three different levels of input around key things every disciple should know and think about. Do check out this website and so speak to Richard if you would like to know more- the input will be high quality and you can do most of it whenever it fits in with your timetable and lifestyle.
