#463: Waiting, waiting, waiting
My friends, I have had a lovely week. No, actually, that is not quite true. I attended the interviews we had for our new rector on Wednesday and was dismayed to find very little cheese available at the lunch. No cheese at all, in fact! Not a morsel, where there should have been mountains of edam, gouda, cheddar, cheshire, blue… such a wasted opportunity to refill my cheeks and stomach of it’s creamy goodness. Such is the life of a hard working reporter mouse. I should also report that there is no news or update on how the interviews went that I can bring you at this time, but rest assured, as soon as there is something to tell, I will do so!
This Sunday
We have services at 8am and 9.30am at St Paul’s, 10am at Woosehill and 11am at St Nick’s. It is the last Sunday before lent begins, and at St Paul’s the organ music will be:
Before (ca 7’)
Ireland – Sursum Corda
Anthem
Stanford- Beati quorum via
After
Ireland – Alla Marcia
Lent 2025
As we start to think about lent, which has come around remarkably quickly given that it’s almost the latest it can be, we have a number of things going on in the parish, details below. You might also be thinking about what you would like to give up, or indeed, take up, this lent, which will help you keep the Holy Season and draw closer to God. Here are a couple of suggestions you might find helpful.
- Join in for Morning Prayer in the parish, which is in St Paul’s on Tuesdays and Fridays at 9am, or on zoom Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8.30am, Meeting ID 967 8096 6787 Passcode 967885
- Join the Bible Study on Tuesday evenings (details below)
- Read a book for study and reflection. Our local Christian bookshop, Quench, at Holme Grange, has a selction. I have chosen this one: Resilient Disciple A Lenten Journey from Adversity to Maturity by Justine Allain-Chapman – Paperback / softback – 9780281078530 and there are more to browse here: Lent Books
- Listen to a piece of music deliberately with God each day, using the music as a time of prayer.
- Think about what skills you have that you could use in service to others, and pick something to do each week.
- Sign up to a daily or weekly lenten email. Matu’s suggestion is this from the Church Mission Society: Lent 2025 signup – Church Mission Society (CMS)
Lent Bible Study
This year’s Lent course will be introduced on Tuesday March 5th, and will run on Tuesdays from March 12th to April 9th. Please do join us for any or all of these sessions.
As usual we are meeting on Zoom, from 19.15 to 20.30. Here is the meeting link.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83876931293?pwd=V2dURU9WNExGb280QmhzSWE4elFIQT09
Meeting ID: 838 7693 1293 Passcode: 254711
The title is “Calling a Wounded Earth Home” and the weekly topics and readings are:
March 4th – Introduction to Lent – transition from Romans to the Lent course.
March 11th – Love, Psalm 148
March 18th – Truth, Jeremiah 6: 8-20
March 25th – Wisdom, Proverbs 8:22-31 and James 3:13-18
April 1st – Justice, Luke 19: 1-10
April 8th – Hope, Revelation 21:1-7, and Romans 5:1-11
The course materials are on line, and are designed for the group leaders. Should you wish to have a look, here is the link. However, all you need is yourself and your Bible.
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is this coming Wednesday, 5th March. A holy day when we remember our humaness and mortality, and remind ourselves of that beautiful truth with the imposition of ashes. There are two services, 10.30am at House Mass (17 Martins Drive) and 8pm at St Paul’s. If you can, please attend one, or watch online.
Quiet Day and Lent Lunch, Saturday 8th March
What do we believe?
What do we mean when we say the creed week by week?
On Saturday 8th March, from 10am to about 1pm, a group will meet at St James Church Centre, Finchampstead RG40 4LU to contemplate and discuss the promises made at our baptisms through focus on the words of the Nicene Creed.
If you wish to bring lunch to St James and enjoy the quiet a little longer, we have the venue until 2pm. If you are planning to attend the St Paul’s Lent lunch, you could leave Finch a little early and not miss out on either! For further information and to book your place, contact mary.cassidy@spauls.org.uk
And…
The Social Committee & Mothers’ Union invite you to lunch in the Parish Rooms from 12.30-2.30pm on Saturday 8th March. We will be serving soup, bread and cheese. There is no charge for the food, but we are asking for donations to our 3 Charities. Please sign up at the back of the church or contact:
Trish trishgatland@hotmail.co.uk or Alan al_harrison@hotmail.co.uk
Lenten Foodbank Collection
Our Lent Foodbank collection will be happening on Sunday 16th March.
The current items they need include: Long Life Milk, Tinned Tomatoes, Cold Meat, Fish, Custard, Sweetcorn/Fruit, Cooking Sauces, Hotdogs, Rice Pudding, Coffee,Antibacterial Cleaning Spray, Washing up liquid, Conditioner, Female Deodorant, Tampons (NOT sanitary towels), Children’s Toothpaste, Baby Wipes, Size 5 nappies.
World Day of Prayer
World Day or Prayer 2025
‘I made YOU wonderful’
On the first Friday in March every year the Day of Prayer begins on the international dateline, in Samoa. Early in the morning Christian women begin praying for our world. As the earth rotates a great wave of prayer begins to build. It sweeps across the Pacific, touching Fiji and New Zealand, rolling on through Asia: Japan, the Philippines, Korea, and Bangladesh. The countries of Africa and the Middle East are next. The wave reaches the shores of Europe as day dawns there. Across the Atlantic, it moves onwards, the Caribbean, the Americas, and on to the Pacific again until the sun finally sets over American Samoa where the final service takes place. A worldwide circle of prayer is complete.
This year Wokingham’s World Day of Prayer Service with the theme ‘l made you wonderful’ (based on the words of Psalm 139), is prepared by Christian women from the Cook Islands, which lie between the Tonga and Samoa Islands to the west and the Society Islands to the east, in the centre of the Polynesian Triangle. It will be held at Corpus Christi Church in Sturges Road on Friday, 7th March at 10.30am.
You are all welcome to this ecumenical service, which will be followed by refreshments in the Keenan Rooms.
More information: www.wwdp.org.uk
St Paul’s Cathedral – Friday 11th April 2025
The choir will be singing Evensong in St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday 11th April at 5pm. We are hoping to organise a coach, providing enough people want to go by coach. It will leave the Parish Rooms car park at 10am and leave St Paul’s Cathedral at 7pm at the end of the day. The maximum price will be £25 (£7.50 for under 18’s). Please can you let Rhoda Hart know asap (prt.treasurer@spauls.org.uk) or sign up on the list at the back of church if you would like to join us on the coach.
The Cathedral are offering a 50% discount on sightseeing tickets to the Cathedral for supporters of our choir. If you would like to take up this offer, please email me (lesley_ruddock@hotmail.co.uk) by 16th March as I have to supply them with a list of names.
Everyone who wishes to come to Evensong is asked to queue up under the dome inside the nave shortly after 4.30pm. If you wish to sit in the Quire, please tell the Stewards that you are with the choir. Once the Quire is full additional seating is under the dome.
The Cathedral shuts immediately after Evensong so please arrange to meet up with family and friends outside afterwards.
Thank you
Lesley
