Newsletter - 20-02
Rector’s Weekly Newsletter 20th February
Dear friends,
Lent began on Wednesday, and with it we have stepped into that searching, spacious season when we are invited to return to the Lord with all our hearts. The rhythm changes. The light is different. The questions go deeper.
This week has carried both sorrow and grace within our parish family.
As many of you are aware, Simon Saunders died a few weeks back. Simon was a long-term Chiddingstone resident and the partner to Christine, our St Mary’s Verger. He had that rare gift of making everything in church work, whatever the challenge. He worked as a volunteer quietly, competently, and usually with a line of dry wit delivered at just the right moment. A celebration of his life is scheduled next week at The Castle Inn. We continue to pray for Christine and her family at this very sad time.
We also mourn Kathleen Pocock, affectionately known at Chiddingstone School as “Granny Pocock.” She died just a few months short of her hundredth birthday; what a remarkable life, faithfully lived. Her funeral will take place at St Mary’s on 24th March.
This week we have also learned of the death of Roy Horsford from Fordcombe. Funeral details will follow when they are known.
Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord,
and let light perpetual shine upon them.
May they rest in peace and rise in glory.
Please also hold in your prayers the loved ones of Emma Welch, whose ashes will be laid to rest at Poundsbridge this Saturday afternoon, two years after her death. Remember especially her husband, Jim, and their young sons.
In the midst of these farewells, Lent reminds us of both our mortality and our hope. “Remember that you are dust…” is not a sentence of despair, but an invitation to honesty and to trust in the God who breathes life into dust.
On a more personal note, I have been grateful for a more restful week than usual. I even managed some gardening at The Rectory and at Poundsbridge Chapel. Turning soil, clearing beds, and noticing the first signs of spring. There is something deeply Lenten about gardening: the pruning back, the patient waiting, the trust that what looks bare will, in time, bloom.
As half term ends, the diary begins to fill again. Rest never seems to last long. Yet perhaps Lent teaches us that true rest is not simply the absence of busyness, but the turning of our hearts back to God. When we pause, we notice not only the weariness of our bodies, but the restlessness of our souls and the quiet ways God calls us home.
Please continue to hold one another in prayer in these days.
A prayer for Early Lent
Almighty God,
as we begin this holy season of Lent,
turn our hearts again towards you.
Teach us to seek treasure that does not fade,
to hunger for righteousness,
and to trust in your mercy.
In our sorrow, be our comfort.
In our repentance, be our hope.
In our labour and in our resting,
be our peace.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
With every blessing
Lisa
Services:
Sunday 22 February
10:00 – Holy Communion at St John the Baptist, Penshurst
10:00 – Holy Communion at St Luke’s, Chiddingstone Causeway
Sunday 1 March: 2nd Sunday of Lent
1000 – Holy Communion at St John’s, Penshurst
1000 – Holy Communion at St Luke’s, Chiddingstone Causeway
Sunday 8 March: 3rd Sunday of Lent
0800 – Holy Communion at St John the Baptist, Penshurst
1000 – Holy Communion at St Peter’s, Fordcombe
1000 – Holy Communion at St Luke’s, Chiddingstone
Sunday 15 March: Mothering Sunday
1000 – Holy Communion at St John the Baptist, Penshurst
1000 – All age service, St Luke’s, Chiddingstone Causeway
Sunday 22 March: Passion Sunday
1000 – Holy Communion, St John the Baptist, Penshurst
1000 – Holy Communion, St Luke’s, Chiddingstone
Sunday 29 March: Palm Sunday
1000 – Holy Communion, St John the Baptist, Penshurst
1000 – Holy Communion, St Luke’s, Chiddingstone
1600 – Forest Church, Penshurst Rectory Garden
Life Events:
We remember those whose anniversary falls at this time of year, they shall be prayed for in church on Sunday.
Learning and growing:
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)
