Newsletter - 10-04
Greetings all,
I am writing this in the feast day of St Francis of Assisi; and with his love of animals and respect for the created order this is an opportunity to invite you afresh to our various creation themed services in the next week.
Please donate harvest gifts at the morning services on Sunday in Penshurst and St Luke’s, Chiddingstone Causeway. These will be added to the items gathered by schools for local foodbanks. The Chid school community gathered for a splendid harvest service at St Mary’s on Tuesday. Some of their donated items are shown in the photograph. Items collected in the Chiddingstone services will be passed to the Foodbank in Edenbridge. Items collected this week in Penshurst and next week in Fordcombe will be donated to Nourish in Tunbridge Wells. There are two school harvest services this week in Penshurst on Thursday, and Fordcombe in Friday. Both begin at 0915.
This Sunday we will be holding our annual pet blessing service at Poundsbridge at 6pm. All well behaved owners and their pets are welcome. Please keep dogs on leads.
We wish Amelia and Liam every blessing for their wedding day this Saturday and Ella and Jack marrying next weekend. This year’s wedding season stretches right through until the end of the year. Watch this space!
I close with a prayer of blessing for the harvest season:
May God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who is the source of all goodness and growth,
pour his blessings upon all things created,
and upon you his children,
that you may use his gifts to his glory
and the welfare of all peoples.
Amen
With every blessing for the week ahead,
Lisa
In this edition
Ø Services
Services:
Sunday 6 October
1000 Holy Communion (Harvest) at St John the Baptist, Penshurst
1000 Holy Communion (Harvest) at St Luke's, Chiddingstone
1800 Pet service at All Souls, Poundsbridge
Sunday 13 October
0800 Holy Communion at St John the Baptist, Penshurst
1000 Holy Communion (Harvest) at St Peter's, Fordcombe
Sunday 20 October
1000 Holy Communion at St John the Baptist, Penshurst
1000 Matins at St Luke's, Chiddingstone
1630 Evensong service and farewell to Archdeacon Sharon Copestake
To download a full copy of the October service plan, hymns and lections click here.
Life Events:
In our prayers we hold those coming through our doors this month to mark their life events:
Weddings: We hold Amelia and Liam, and Ella and Jack in our prayers ahead of their weddings in October.
Christenings: We pray for Pippa and her family ahead of her upcoming baptism and wish them well on this pilgrimage of faith.
And we remember those whose anniversary falls at this time of year, they shall be prayed for in church on Sunday.
Learning and growing:
Updates:
Ø Don’t forget the new National Safeguarding Standards. There is a link to the new leaflet on our website, and you’ll see posters going up in our churches soon. And following the appointment of our new benefice Safeguarding Officer, Wendy Ellis, we now have a contact email established – please direct any safeguarding queries or issues to safeguarding@highwealdchurches.org.uk
Mailing
If you know anyone who would like to be added to our weekly mailing, do let us know (and similarly let us know if you’d like to come off, though we’d be sad to see you go). If you’d like to contribute to the work of the benefice, you can go to our parish giving page via the www.parishgiving.org.uk website (we’d be very grateful). Alternatively, you can always find it on our benefice website: https://www.highwealdchurches.org.uk/news
