This weekend’s Bible readings:
John 15:1-8 (p 1083)
Pop up shop:
The pop up shop with Fairtrade goods and Christian gifts on sale, will be open at the 10.30 service at St Mary’s this Sunday. Please come and support this if you can - all profits go to our local food bank.
And benefice bookstall:
Our monthly bookstall will also be up and running at the service this weekend. If you’ve ordered a copy of J John’s Ten and have not yet picked it up, Lizzy will have it there, ready for you, along with a selection of Christian books. If there’s something you’d like her to order, please let her know.
Choral Evensong this Sunday at 6pm:
The choir will lead us in worship singing Stanford's beautiful Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis as well as John Rutter's anthem 'This is the day' composed for the wedding in 2011 of the then Prince William and Catherine Middleton. There will be hymns for all to sing including Love divine and Lord for the years. Do join us as we worship together and receive God's blessing in music and word using a liturgy which has largely remained unchanged in 500 years.
Annual meeting reports:
Thank you to those of you who have sent reports to our secretaries. Please remember that if your group is benefice wide, you need to send it to all three secretaries, Peter, Lizzy and Rebecca, not just to the one for the church which hosts it. Rebecca is collating the Mundens ones in Jeremy’s absence, but he’ll be back for the meeting next weekend.
And APCM papers:
If you are willing to receive the papers for the appropriate annual meeting by email to save printing costs (and trees), please let your secretary know so that s/he can send them to you when they’re collated. Hard copies will be available in our churches a week before the relevant meeting.
The meetings will be held after the services on:
The Mundens: 5th May
Sacombe: 7th May
Standon: 12th May
Help needed for cleaning St Mary’s:
We need, please, more volunteers to help clean St Mary’s. Several members of various of the current cleaning teams are waiting for tests and treatment and will need to stand down temporarily or permanently in the near future. At the moment we have 6 teams, so each person only needs to commit to helping every 6 weeks. If you can help, please speak to Rita.
All Saints@6:
Sadly, we have decided to call a pause on All Saints@6 while we prayerfully consider how to move forward. This means the proposed 10 Commandments course will not now be running. Please pray as we seek how to move forward in the future.
Choral evensong in Bury:
On Saturday 4th May our benefice choir will be singing Evensong at St Edmundsbury Cathedral at 3.30pm. Whilst we are not having a coach this time, it would be lovely if any folk wanted to spend some time in Bury St Edmunds that afternoon and join the service. Do speak to Michael or Marion if you want to know more.
Mayday, Monday 6th May:
If you can bake or help on the day, please sign up at the back of St Mary’s or let Stephanie, Diana or Caroline know.
Standon Sing, our local community choir will be singing in St Mary's on May Day from about 2.30pm until 3. Do come along and listen.
Ascension Day:
This year, we will not be holding an Ascension Day service on 9th May. Instead, we will celebrate at the Tuesday service in Sacombe on 7th.
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), St Catherine's
Wednesdays, 9.30am Morning worship & Bible study, St Mary's
Sunday services:
28th April 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's
6.00pm Choral evensong, St Mary's
5th May 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's
10.30am Morning worship, All Saints
12th May 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's
19th May 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's
10.30am Holy communion, All Saints
26th May 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's
6.00pm Choral evensong, St Mary's