Dear AllWhat a busy week this has been. SIAMS inspection (Church of England Ofsted) and interviewing for a new Head at the school, all within two days of each other.Thank you all for your prayers, the report of the Inspection will be published in the next 15 days and the announcement about the New Head for the school will be made sometime next week. Thank you for your patience if you have been waiting for me to get back to you about anything.This week is a busy Sunday for us all. We have the Harvest Family Communion on Sunday at St James at 9.30 am and this will be followed by the feedback from the Scarecrow Festival and then a Harvest brunch to share, please invite your neighbours to join us.We also have the baptism of Tanya Sinclair (adult) and her daughter Lillie on Sunday afternoon at 2.30 pm at St James, and then Sunday evening we will have the Harvest Service at St Mary’s at 6.00 pm followed by a Harvest Supper, again please invite your neighbours.This year we are supporting the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal again which is….Thrive: Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture in Sri LankaThis year the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal is being run in partnership with The Leprosy Mission to support a project in Sri Lanka, which provides those affected by leprosy with the means to grow their own food and raise their standard of living.Please give generously to this Appeal – we are also able to use the contactless giving machine if you have no cash available.Thank you to those who came to the first session of The Prayer Course on Wednesday evening, I know some of you could not make the first session, but please let me know and I will send you the resources from the first session by e-mail.I look forward to seeing you at one of our services or Harvest gatherings over the day on Sunday.Every blessingAlison
Dear AllI thought this week might calm down a little after the excitement and busyness of the Scarecrow Festival but I was wrong.Hopefully, you have all received this latest month’s Link or G and E parish magazine,(or will do very soon) and you will see that with Harvest services, Scarecrow Festival feedback, Bible study and all the other events like concerts, dog walks, McMillan coffee morning etc we are in for a joyful Autumn.Top of my mind at the moment though is the shortlisting, interviewing and selection of a New Headteacher for our Church of England school in High Wych.This is such an important appointment for our children and our Church and I would ask that you will all pray for this process. The shortlisting is this evening and then the interview day is Thursday 26th September, all day with a decision, hopefully, being made that evening. I am heavily involved with this process and I need your prayer support to cover this. Please pray that the right person is selected to lead our school both educationally, emotionally and spiritually.Following on from this the following week sees the SIAMS inspection for the school (which is the equivalent of the Church of England’s OFSTED and I will also be heavily involved in this process too), this will also need your prayers.I do ask for patience from you all as these duties are all extra to my normal weekly pattern and are making my next couple of weeks very squished. If I do not respond as quickly as you would like or are not as available I hope I will have your understanding. This Sunday sees us with our 9.30 am service of communion at St James, High Wych followed by our new Family Service at St Botolph’s, Eastwick at 11.15 am. I hope to see you at one of these services.Every blessingAlison
Dear AllI hope the dust has settled for you after The Scarecrow Festival and that you have managed to have a bit of relax and refresh time.As you will already know (after an e-mail earlier this week) there is an impromptu drinks party at the Rectory this Friday 13th September from 7.00 pm for all of you who have engaged and worked hard for this year’s Scarecrow Festival, as my way of saying, ‘thank you’. I hope I have included everyone but if you know a neighbour or a friend that was involved that I may not know about, please do invite them. It might be a good idea if you can let me know if you are coming so that I have enough glasses, etc but don’t worry if you can’t for any reason – you are very welcome whether you tell me first or not.This week saw the first session of Jim’s Café at the Coffee Lounge and was a great success. The children that came seemed to really enjoy it and said they would be bringing their friends next week. Please pray for this venture as it is very important for our church to engage with the youth of our villages to be able to be part of their lives as they begin their journey into secondary school. They have moved from a year group of 30 to a year group of 240. The children we saw on Monday were all now from different classes and so Jim’s café maybe one of the few places they get to see their primary school friends. Gemma Martin and Cath Sharples are currently helping me with this venture but if you would like to be involved please have a chat with me.As to Jimmy’s baby and toddler group – we will be 1 year old this Thursday and so are having a first birthday party. We had a great time on the field for the Scarecrow Festival offering a safe place for babies and toddlers and tired Mum’s and Dad’s to be and this proved very popular. A big shout out for the work that went in to delivering this and for the people that helped make it happen. This week we only have the one service of communion at St James from 9.30 am and it is no longer being followed by the Door Dedication as this has been postponed for the near future. We hope to put a date in the diary on Joy’s return to health. For those of you who were in church last Sunday, this is the prayer I closed my sermon with that I promised I would give to you. I find it very helpful and it reminds me that all that I do, I do for God, this may help you too:-Father, help me to live this day to the full,Being true to you, in every way.Jesus, help me to give myself away to others,Being kind to everyone I meet.Spirit, help me to love the lost,Proclaiming Christ in all I do and say. AmenI look forward to seeing you all on Sunday, if not Friday.Every blessingAlison
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