Weekly News - 16th June 2024

This weekend’s Bible readings:

2 Corinthians 5:6 – 17 (p 1160) and Mark 4:26 - 30 (p 1005)

We welcome Edward Dodge, who will be playing the organ for us in All Saints this weekend.

Songs of Praise next weekend:

Next Sunday at 6.00 pm we will hold another songs of praise service in St Mary’s. The hymns have been chosen by members of our congregation, who will explain why those hymns are special to them. Please come along – this will be a perfect end to a busy Dane End Open Gardens day.

The future of our children’s and youth work:

Red Balloon, our youth work partners, are re-structuring their organisation, moving towards more training and, for a while at least, less hands-on work. This means that we will need to find more local help for our benefice groups from September. Ideally, we would love to have enough volunteers to mean that each person has to help only once every few weeks, but that requires a lot of people to step up. In particular, we need people who are willing to help lead the groups.

We are looking for volunteers to help with the following groups. Without enough support, some or all of these groups, important to our outreach and already bearing fruit, will have to cease.

Tuesday, 3.15-4.15 at Roger de Clare Construction Club, Derek G

Wednesday, 3.00-4.30 at All Saints: Children's work at the cafe, Deborah

Wednesday, 5.30-6.30 at All Saints: Bible study for older children, Lizzy

Thursday (tbc), 12.15-1.00 at Roger de Clare: Collective worship club, Derek G

Friday, 9.15-11.00 at St Mary’s: Little Angels toddlers & carers, Basma

4th Sunday, 10.30-11.30 at St Mary’s: Monthly family service activities, Angie

If you would like to know more, please speak to the named person or to John.

Visit of Mission Partners from Bangkok 20th June:

On Thursday John & Gillian will be visiting St Mary’s to share about their work at the Place of Grace in Bangkok. Some information can be found on their website www.placeofgracefoundation.com. There will be a buffet lunch in the church at 1pm followed by a presentation from John & Gillian at 2pm. This gathering is open to everyone in the benefice so please come and join us. Please contact Diane on 01920 821130 by Tuesday if you would like to come to the lunch, so that we can ensure there is enough food.

Dane End Open Gardens 23rd June, 12noon -5pm:

This is organised by Little Munden Parish Council on behalf of All Saints church “Roof Appeal”. We now need your support to attend the event. You can buy your Guide with Map for the Gardens (£5 each) on the day from Little Munden Memorial Hall. There will be light refreshments in the hall and at All Saints church. Lots of gardens will be open and there will be plants for sale. You can park at the memorial hall or drive around to see the beautiful gardens that are open. For further information please speak to Deborah.

Little Munden School Fete 22nd June, 1 – 4 pm:

LMS summer fete is the day before the Dane End Open Gardens. We have agreed to organise and man the teas and cake stall at the fete, but many of the café helpers are tied up with the Open Gardens the following day. If you can bake a cake or spare an hour on 22nd June, please speak to Caroline.

Strawberry tea:

On Thursday 27th June 2024 there will be Strawberry Tea at 2.30pm in the Church Hall, Braughing. This is a social gathering open to everyone and there is no charge. Please contact Diane on 01920 821130 by Sunday 23rd June if you would like to come, to ensure we have enough strawberries & scones.

All Nations Multicultural Night Wednesday 19th June:

ANCC is hosting its annual multicultural night this coming Wednesday, from 7.30 to 9.30, to celebrate the students and thank their supporting churches. There will be live music, exhibitions of students’ work, drinks and snacks and much more. All are invited.

No Pop-up shop next week:

Please note there is no pop up shop next week on 23rd June. It will be back on 28th July.

Standon Open Gardens:

Thank you to all who helped make last weekend’s open gardens such a success. We raised just over £9,200.

Holiday Bible Club 27th – 30th August:

Caroline is collecting names of those who would like to help at HBC this summer. It will run for the 4 days after bank holiday Monday, and the theme will be kings and queens in the Bible (all linked with the King of kings). Please speak to Caroline if you can help on any or all of the days. (And, if you’ve already told her, and if she didn’t write it down, please remind her!)

Cybercrime and fraud prevention talk by Hertfordshire Police 11th July:

Fraudsters and cyber criminals aren’t fussy. They’ll pick on anyone. Nobody is immune. The criminals behind it target people online and in their homes, often emotionally manipulating their victims before they steal money or personal data.

There is something we can do. By staying vigilant and always taking a moment to stop, think and check whenever we’re approached by text, email, phone, or online, we can help to protect ourselves and each other from fraud and our accounts from being hacked. St Mary’s will be hosting a talk by Herts Police Cybercrime & Fraud personnel on Thursday 11th July between 11am-12.30pm. All are welcome and the event is free. Tea, coffee and cake will be available from 10.30am. For more information. please phone Caroline J (not our Caroline!) on 01920 821442.

Best wishes from Judith Pelley:

Sally and Peter met Judith by chance recently. She sends her best wishes to all in our church family.

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:

16th June 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's

10.30am Holy communion, All Saints

23rd June 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's

6.00pm Songs of praise, St Mary's

30th June 10.30am Morning worship, St Catherine's

7th July 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's

10.30am Morning worship, All Saints

14th July 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's

21st July 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's

10.30am Morning worship, All Saints

28th July 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's

6.00pm Choral evensong, St Mary's