This weekend’s Bible readings:
Hebrews 5:5-10 (p1204) and John 12:20-33 (p1080)
The Promises of Jesus:
Our Lent course this year, at All Saints@6, is on the subject of the “Promises of Jesus”. This week the topic is Jesus’ promise ‘I will be with you always’ from Matthew 28:20. Everyone is very welcome, whether you usually come to All Saints @6 or not!
Rebecca away:
Rebecca will be away for three weeks from the middle of the coming week. If you have any administrative queries, please direct them to someone else during that time!
Lent Appeal:
Before Lent, we focussed on our giving, to God and to our churches, through service and through financial support. Once again our Lent appeal is for our ministry and mission in this community. In this case, giving won’t be aggregated and shared between our three benefice churches, but will be allocated to the church in which it’s given. However, many of our costs are shared, so if you’d like to support the work of the benefice across the board, please let one of our treasurers know and we’ll make sure that happens.
Pop up shop & bookstall:
The pop up shop is back on Sunday 24th March at the 10.30 family service. There are still a few Easter cards available and some general cards. We have stocked up on Fairtrade chocolate and tea and coffee and there is a sale on some of the Christian gifts.
The bookstall will be there too, with a range of Christian books and resources. Please speak to Lizzy if there’s something specific you would like her to get for you.
Palm Sunday:
On Sunday 24th March at 6pm in St Mary's there will be a service of music and readings to mark the start of Holy Week. There will be music sung by our benefice choir from Bach's St John Passion and readers will take us through the passion narrative as recorded by John in his gospel. Please do come along as we begin our observance of the holiest of weeks.
FOSM Afternoon tea & talk 23rd March:
This will take place the Standon Lordship and Jim Nicolson will speak about ‘My uncle, the Battle of Britain VC’. Tickets, at £25, are available from Diana on 07718 734897.
Issues with the contactless donation point in St Mary’s:
The new, more permanent contactless station for St Mary’s was delivered this week, but it was damaged. We’re currently waiting for a replacement. Meanwhile, the QR code available in church works for contactless giving. The QR code in this sheet can be used for giving to costs shared across the benefice.
The Future of World Day of Prayer in our area:
Margaret, who has been organising World Day of Prayer for the past 12 years, is retiring from the committee. We are looking for people to take World Day of Prayer forward in our area beyond 2025. For many, many years our local churches have been involved in (Women’s) World Day of Prayer. Will you help to continue this tradition? It’s not hard work and is very worthwhile. If you feel called to help please speak to Margaret.
This year’s service was attended by 46 people from 6 different Churches (Anglican, Roman Catholic and Congregational) and raised £247.45. All who attended were moved by the service.
Sunday lunch at the Star:
Our next Sunday lunch at the Star will be on Sunday 24th March at 12.15pm. If you would like to join us please contact Heather before Monday 18th March. We would love to see some new faces so if you haven’t joined us before and you are on your own, we have a very happy time together and you would receive a very warm welcome. Phone Heather on 07909 065560 for more information.
Website:
Our benefice website is on the www.achurchnearyou.com platform. The benefice page can be reached via this link: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice/32-240BF/. The forward from https://ubsms.org.uk should point to that page.
Services for the next few weeks
Midweek services each week:
Tuesdays, 9.30am Holy Communion (BCP) & Bible study, St Catherine's
Wednesdays, 9.30am Morning worship & Bible study, St Mary's
Sunday services:
17th March 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's
10.30am Holy communion, All Saints
6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints
24th March 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's
6.00pm Service of music and readings for the start of Holy Week, St Mary's
31st March 10.30am Easter communion, St Mary's
7th April 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's
10.30am Morning worship, All Saints
6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints
14th April 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's
6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints
21st April 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's
10.30am Holy communion, All Saints
6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints
Holy Week services
There has been a mix-up in the service list published in PS magazine in Standon & Puckeridge. Our Sunday service list is as above. In addition, we will have services in Holy Week as follows:
Thursday 28th March, 7.30pm Maundy Thursday communion, St Catherine's
Friday 29th March, 10.30am Service by the cross, All Saints
Friday 29th March, 2.00pm Reflective hour, St Mary's
All are welcome to any of our services, and particularly at this most significant time of the Church’s calendar.