Weekly News - 3rd September 2023

This weekend’s Bible readings:

Romans 12:9-21(p 1139) and Matthew 16:21-28 (p 984)

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 plan to take a group from our benefice, and we’d love to add to it. Please speak to John for more information.

The Centre at 6:

This Sunday we begin the new programme of our Café Church in Little Munden at 6pm. It would be great if people would like to try it out who haven’t been before. There is now a consistent live music element with Jenny and Joe Boot leading the singing. The teaching and activity programme will also be more varied over the next few weeks including times of Question and Answer on major topics, study together and prayer. This week we will begin with teaching from the Psalms with the opportunity to ask questions and grow together. Oh, and there will be food! Do come and try it out.

Songs of Praise 9th September:

We will be holding 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!

Next Sunday:

John will be away next weekend, so the 10.30 service will be morning worship rather than communion.

Holiday Bible Club 29th August to 1st September:

We have had a fun-filled and full-on week of activities taking place in St Mary’s this week, with around 40 children taking part over the course of the 4 days in learning about Jonah and Jesus (yes, there really are parallels!) crafts and games. A huge thank you to the team who helped, as well as the Red Balloon team who led the club. We hope to see at least some of the children and their families in 4th Sunday services as well as at the Wednesday café; please make them welcome.

Midweek Music:

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

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.

News of Charlie, who was our curate:

Charlie will be licensed to her new parish of St. Stephen’s with St Julien’s in St Albans at 5.30pm on Monday 2nd October. All are welcome.

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:

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 Morning worship, 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 Harvest family worship, St Mary's

6.00pm Choral evensong, St Mary's

1st October 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's

10.30am Harvest morning worship, All Saints

6.00pm The Centre, All Saints