Newsletter - 29/05
Rector’s Weekly Newsletter 29th May 2026. Rev’d Lisa Cornell writes:
What glorious weather we have enjoyed over the half-term break. I do hope you have been able to enjoy the best of it and have not been affected by local water outages. We pray for those in the local area whose supply has been disrupted.
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for me as I recover from oral surgery earlier this week. I thank God for modern painkillers and for a loving partner who has encouraged me to rest when needed. I am still a little sore but thankfully look rather less like a chipmunk than I did earlier in the week.
On Friday we laid the ashes of Joyce Evans and Ken Simmons to rest in family graves at Poundsbridge. Please continue to hold their families and friends in your prayers at this difficult time.
Congratulations to Dom and Tilly, who are being married in Penshurst on Saturday afternoon. We pray that they may know God’s blessing and joy as they begin married life together. We pray the weather holds for them too!
This Saturday, from 10am–12 noon at All Souls, Poundsbridge, there will be the monthly working party, continuing the work of taming the churchyard and preparing the chapel ready for our summer evening prayer services. Thank you in advance for your hard work, especially in the hot weather. There will be a service of evening prayer to celebrate Midsummer and Father’s Day at 6pm on Sunday June 21st.
After church on Sunday at Penshurst Churchyard, you are warmly invited to a working garden party to help tidy the vegetation and pathways. Drinks, and possibly cake, will be available!
Please bring your own tools to both working parties.
In our churches this Sunday, we celebrate Trinity Sunday, giving thanks for the mystery and wonder of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity reminds us that God is love shared in relationship, and that we are invited into that love and fellowship through Christ. There are 10am services of Holy Communion at St Mary’s Chiddingstone and St John the Baptist, Penshurst.
Let us pray:
Holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
draw us deeper into your love,
strengthen us in faith,
and help us to reflect your grace in our lives each day.
Amen.
Upcoming Services:
Sunday 31 May
10:00 - Holy Communion at St John’s, Penshurst
10:00 - Matins at St Mary’s, Chiddingstone
Sunday 7 June
10:00 - Holy Communion at St John the Baptist, Penshurst
10:00 - Family Service at St Mary’s, Chiddingstone
Sunday 14 June
08:00 - Holy Communion at St John the Baptist, Penshurst
10:00 - Holy Communion at St Peter’s, Fordcombe
10:00 - Holy Communion at St Mary’s, Chiddingstone
Life Events:
We remember those whose anniversary falls at this time of year, they shall be prayed for in church on Sunday.
Events and fundraising:
Saturday 30 May - 10am at Poundsbridge Chapel - Working Party
Sunday 31 May - 11am (after service) at St John the Baptist - Working Party
Thursday 4 June, 7:30pm at St John the Baptist, Penshurst - Elise Hills and Ronojit Bhuyan - Virtuoso Piano Composers
Friday 3 July at St John the Baptist, Penshurst - D'Arcy Trinkwon - Organ concert
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)
