September has not been the ‘Indian Summer’ we had all hoped for and the cold ‘wind of change’ has certainly brought about an Autumn chill this week, so we now look to October and the autumn season of Harvest and its splendid colours. A time to reflect on God’s creation and its riches.

At St Marks we have certainly had a busy summer and there’s no sign of us slowing down as we’ve just held our third fund raising event this year, our Coffee Morning & Bric-a-Brac Stall on 21st September. We raised £224 for St Marks Church, while enjoying great fellowship, fun and of course plenty of cake!. So far, this year, thanks to the generosity of friends and neighbours attending events we have raised well over £1000 for charities, both local and national. Well Done St Marks.

Both our Bible Study and Prayer & Share groups continue. Prayer is an important part of our Christian life and our worship at St Marks and, following the Prayer walks during August, we continue to use our Herston Prayer Cycle to pray for our local community, within the Herston area, each week. A time to reflect.

We are looking forward to our Harvest Festival Service when we will be donating foods to Swanage Food Bank, as we have in previous years. Please note, this service will begin at 11am. We will then share a ‘Bring and Share Lunch,’ which I’m sure will be very enjoyable with plenty to eat include more cake!!

We are also looking forward to welcoming the pupils from St Marks School for their Harvest Festival services later that same week, when they too, will bring their offerings for the Swanage Food Bank.

We will, as before, be supporting the Parish funds, through the sale of Christmas Cards, which will be on sale in the meeting room after the Sunday services at the end of October.

St Marks’ reputation as a Party Church continues, therefore we will be planning some future social events including our Christmas Meal at the Village Inn, possibly a ‘Pizza Night’ and another ‘Gathering at The Globe,’ supporting our local hostelry!

Don’t forget on Sunday 27th October, British Summer Time Ends, and so the clocks go back – giving us an extra hour in bed. How lovely!!

Anne Roper

Church Warden