My Gran would say “the nights are drawing in now” although she would often start saying that in July or August which is a little depressing! However, as we enter November, this becomes very easy to see as even with the changes of clocks at the end of October, it is usually dark when I wake up and is certainly dark when I go to bed. The daylight seems to be there for so little of our waking time. Our seasons change and as we go into November in some ways the world seems to slow down a little, in others, we move into slightly mad panic planning and buying for Christmas. November often has a slightly sombre feel in the church as we move into a time of Remembrance. At the beginning of November, we celebrate all the saints – all those people who have gone before us, or maybe those saints that we know in our lives today. We also remember All Souls, thinking of those loved ones who have died, and we see no longer.This year on Sunday 3rd November at 3pm we will be holding an All Soul’s Service or Service of Remembering those who have died and who we miss. Letters have been sent out to relatives of those people in our village where our retired clergy have taken a local funeral this year, but everyone is welcome to this service. If you would like the name of your loved one read out in the service, then please do let me know. The following week (10th) we will commemorate Remembrance as we remember those who lived and died in service of our country. Do please join us at any of our services that day (9am, 11am and 3pm).With every blessing in this season,Rev Sarah (Vicar)01733 248690, <span style="font-size: 1rem;">07498 230858, vicar@saintpeters.co.uk</span>
I am writing this just a few days after I was licensed as Priest-in-Charge (Vicar) of St Peter’s Church, Yaxley by The Bishop of Ely. It was an incredibly special service and friends and family came from all over the country. There was also an unexpected surprise, as people from The Wenlock Team of Parishes which were my previous parishes in Shropshire came to support me for this service. The community of St. Peter’s Church worked incredibly hard to ensure everything ran smoothly and I would like to thank them. Along with friends and family and so many people from St. Peter’s Church community, were also many different representatives from Yaxley. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for being there and part of such a special evening. It is going to take me a good while to get to know people, names and places, but do say hello if you see me out and about and I will eventually get there! Thank you for coming to support me.Simon and I are really excited to be in Yaxley and part of the St. Peter’s community. People have been so helpful as we try to find our way around the village and this side of the country. I was ordained 6 years ago and have been in Shropshire for these 6 years and before this, I was a nurse working mainly in cancer care for 13 years.Thank you for your welcome to the village and I am looking forward to getting to know people here.With every blessingRev Sarah (Vicar)01733 24869007498 230858vicar@saintpeters.co.uk
You may have seen in our social media recently the statistics around children in care in the UK. This year 40,000 children will be taken into care, that’s twice the amount that can be seated into the 02 arena! In Cambridgeshire there are currently over 700 children awaiting loving homes.Due to the circumstances around the need for adoption and fostering, many adoptive & foster parents face major challenges with children who have multiple difficulties, such as special educational needs, attachment disorders and insecurities. Therefore, parents can become physically and mentally exhausted; which is why a group of people from St. Peter’s Church are getting together to discuss ways in which we, as a community, can support these families who are doing something amazing. We will be guided by the charity, Home for Good, who’s core aim is to find a home for every child who needs one, but we also need help from the community.We are holding an initial meeting in September at SPC, to discuss ideas of what the support will look like and our hope and prayer is that this will also be guided by others in our community who want to be involved. If you are an adoptive or foster parent, please do come along and talk with us about how we can help support you. If, like many of us involved in this initiative, you’re not an adoptive or foster parent but it is on your heart – come along and chat, share ideas or just listen. Everyone has gifts to offer and we would like to use these gifts to provide the best support that we can for families in our community who are working hard to provide for children who otherwise would not have a loving family.We look forward to meeting you in September! Look out for the meeting date on our social media and on the Yaxley Gazette Facebook page and if you express an interest with us, we will ensure to inform you of the meeting details, once confirmed. If in the meantime you’d like to hear from the charity who will be assisting us, you can listen to their talk from their visit in June, on our website: https://www.saintpeters.co.uk/talks/home-for-good/God Bless,Laura Laura Ashley, St. Peter’s Parish Communications Officer07939 449255, lauraashley@saintpeters.co.uk
Firstly, we would like to thank all those local people who so generously support the food bank. Without your regular donations, we wouldn’t be able to continue to help vulnerable families in our community.This year, we have been busier than ever, having already given out over 2 metric tonnes of food from our base at St. Peters Church. This has meant that with the busy summer holiday period fast approaching our stocks of food items are significantly lower than usual for the time of year. During the school summer holidays, when school meals are not available, we provide weekly food parcels to a number of families struggling to make ends meet. This means we give out a large amount of food during this period.We would like to make an appeal to the folk of Yaxley and the surrounding villages. Would you consider placing a few items in one of the collecting baskets around the locality?We are particularly short of the following items:Tinned meat and fishTinned vegetablesTinned potatoesTinned fruitLong life milkLong life custardTinned rice puddingOur baskets are in the following locations:Yaxley Co-opYaxley Lakeside SurgeryWilliam de Yaxley SchoolFourfields SchoolYaxley Infants SchoolFarcet Primary SchoolAustin HallSt Peters ChurchSt Mary Magdalene Church StiltonThanking you all again for your continuing support.St. Peter’s ChurchFor all enquiries, please contact Laura on 07939 449255 or lauraashley@saintpeters.co.uk
