Weekly News - 27th August 2023

This weekend’s Bible readings:

Romans 12:1-8 (p 1139)

Welcome to Freddie:

This morning we welcome Freddie and his family, Godparents and friends. Freddie will be baptised during the service.

Alpha Course:

We will be joining in with the Alpha Course in Thorley on Wednesdays from 13th September. Please pray about this and especially if you can invite anyone along. We hope that we will be able to take a group from our benefice. Please speak to John for more information.

Farewell to David and Rebecca, and changes at the Centre:

We will be saying “farewell and thank you“ to Rebecca and Dave this Sunday 27th at the Centre 4pm. All are very welcome to join us, perhaps bringing a small plate of savoury or sweet to share if you would like to.

Centre meetings will move from next week to 5.45 for 6 pm, except on 4th Sundays, when we are inviting the Centre to join our evensong congregation.

Come and Sing evensong 27th August:

Please join us for our ‘Come and sing’ Choral Evensong this weekend. Friends from surrounding churches will be singing with those of our benefice choir who aren’t away. All are welcome to come and worship with us in this reflective service.

Please note that from September, our 4th Sunday evensong will move to a new time of 6.00 pm.

Holiday Bible Club 29th August to 1st September, 10.00 until 3.00:

This year’s theme is Jonah, linking each part of Jonah’s story with gospel stories. If you’d like to know more or to volunteer, please speak to Caroline, and please invite any children who might come.

Wednesday worship in St Mary’s:

This coming Wednesday, the Holiday Bible Club will be using the main part of church. The Wednesday morning worship will still take place; please come as usual and we’ll decide exactly where! (Obvious contenders are the tower or the vestry.)

Mothers’ Union:

The next meeting of Braughing with Standon Mothers' Union is on Wednesday 30th August at 2.30pm in the Old Boys School Braughing. This is a change from the date advertised in our 2023 programme for this month. Diane will be talking about The Enchanted Isles (Galapagos). Everyone is invited to this meeting. Brenda Cottle will bring the MU Christmas cards, gifts, 2024 calendars & diaries with her. Please ring Diane on 01920 821130 or text on 07949 665365 for more information or if you need a lift.

Midweek Music:

Midweek Music at St Mary’s will return on Wednesday 27th September, when Michael will be giving an organ recital.

Songs of Praise 9th September:

We are planning a Songs of Praise service on Saturday 9th Sept at 3pm in All Saints, to commemorate the late Peter Jackson (Heather's husband) who arranged music for the Music Group. It will be a service of about an hour, incorporating hymns and songs, interspersed with readings, and Heather's family will provide a short testimony to Peter. We will end with refreshments!

Wednesday café:

Our All Saints church cafe team is desperate for helpers on a Wednesday afternoon, (term time only) to serve the children and parents with cake and drinks between 2.30 and 4.30pm. Deborah normally helps with the children’s work and chats with the parents building up important relationships but now she will be needed to help serve. Please consider helping even if it is a one off. We can guarantee you will enjoy your time there! Please speak to Deborah, Carole or Lizzie (B).

Help needed for Little Munden churchyard:

We desperately need more volunteers to help maintain the churchyard at All Saints. If you can offer some time, please speak to John.

Website - changes:

Our benefice website is on the www.achurchnearyou.com platform. The ACNY platform has been/is rolling out a number of changes to improve their site so that benefice information doesn’t need to be duplicated for each church. Please bear with us as we work to populate the new pages.

Some people have been having difficulty reaching the benefice page. It can be reached via this link: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice/32-240BF/. The forward from https://ubsms.org.uk has been updated to point to that new page.

Services for the next few weeks

Midweek services each week:

Tuesdays, 9.30am Holy Communion (BCP), St Catherine's

Wednesdays, 9.30am Morning worship & Bible study, St Mary's

Sunday services:

27th August 10.30am Family worship, St Mary's

4.00pm The Centre, All Saints

6.30pm Come and Sing evensong, St Mary's

3rd September 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's

10.30am Morning worship, All Saints

6.00pm The Centre, All Saints

10th September 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's

6.00pm The Centre, All Saints

17th September 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's

10.30am Holy communion, All Saints

6.00pm The Centre, All Saints

24th September 10.30am Family worship, St Mary's

6.00pm Choral evensong, St Mary's