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Get to know each other Sundays
Throughout November
when you come to church on a Sunday morning you will be greeted
with a sticky label and a pen! Please write your name on the
label and stick it somewhere on your attire where it can be read.
Alternatively, (and this would be helpful) you may already have
a name badge or label that you could arrive at church wearing.
The Vicar has been joking about this for a while but now the
threat has become a reality! Lisa is fighting a losing battle
trying to learn all the new names but has discovered that church
members don't know everyone's name either and so this will be
a useful exercise for us all!
Rev Lisa Cornwell
Bishop Stephen confirmed 15 candidates on October
8th. We welcome them all into our congregation and pray for them
as full members of our Church.
A 'thank you' (amongst others) to the parish for the presentation
bibles and books of prayers, to the Mothers Union for their book
marks, to Bishop Stephen for taking the service and to Gwen Stevens
for the beautiful Confirmation Cake, which was decorated with
all the names of the candidates in red icing!
Defend O Lord these thy servants
with thy heavenly grace, that they may continue thine forever:
and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit more and more, until they
come unto thy everlasting kingdom. Amen'
This month Tony Brooks will
speak on the work of the Children's Society at the meeting on
Tuesday 7th, 8pm. He will be bringing Christmas cards for sale
On the next day, Wednesday 8th November 2.15pm, we welcome Mrs.
Kay Donald who will be telling us about Women in the War. Kay
is an entertaining speaker who will have many interesting tales
to tell.
The Prayer meeting is on Monday 20th November, 9.30am, Lady Chapel.
MU Corporate Communion is Wednesday 23rd, 10 am, Lady Chapel.
A reminder that the shoe boxes for the Samaritans purse must
be brought to the church by Monday 13th November at the very
latest.
ST JOHN'S CHRISTMAS FAIR
Saturday 2nd December 10
am to 12 noon
Please make a note of this
in your diaries. There will be lots of stalls such as toys, books,
face painting, jewellery, lucky dip, cakes, refreshments, raffle,
biscuit decorating, guess the weight of the cake, a colouring
competition (with the winners to be judged by Father Christmas
himself) and more besides!
Helpers are urgently needed
to man some of the stalls - these will be organised in advance
and volunteers only need to turn up on the day. Please email
amanda.saunders@usa.net or call 778152 if you can help in any
way, even for just a short time.
Any contributions for the raffle
would also be very welcome indeed - bottles of wine, chocolates,
toiletries etc - as well as unwanted toys and books. Please let
me know if you have anything suitable.
A flyer for the fair comes on the back of this SJN, could you
display it?
Thank you.
SERVERS
We should like to thank all those who are on our Servers Rota
for the job they do throughout the year. We are now looking for
2 more adults to lead our 10am serving teams. This is for one
service each month and training is available. We are also looking
for more young people to be involved and hope some of our recently
confirmed will join us as acolytes. This role is now open to
anyone in the congregation, male or female, who has been confirmed,
so we look forward to seeing some 'mixed' teams in future! For
further information please contact Chris Williams or Gillian
Gyenes.
There will be a meeting for existing servers at 6:45pm Friday
3rd November.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
There is an urgent need for someone to teach alternative weeks
during term time with children in Year 5 (age 9-10) as there
is a wonderfully large SS. (Tracy will concentrate on the organisational
side, thanks for all she does in SS). Whilst there are some mums
who help with the younger groups, if numbers are particularly
high, the need for an extra teacher is pressing.
The new projector has been very successful leading to attention-grabbing
presentations which children have loved. Remember Operation Christmas
Child shoeboxes should be in for 12th November.
CHOIR AWARDS
We were very pleased to award the next level of the RSCM music
training scheme to some of our choristers. The children have
to work very hard to progress in this scheme, which involves
music theory as well as general choir work and solo singing.
SOCIAL
COMMITTEE
A very successful Harvest Supper was held on 30th Sept with entertainment
from ministers and others!
There will be a Beetle Drive on 17th November and a Quiz Night
on 25th November. For full details see the weekly newssheet.
The Family Fun Afternoon is on Saturday 20th January 2007.
Harvest
Gifts
Did you wonder what happened to the Harvest Gifts? Together with
the contributions from the Church of England School, we collected
two full car loads of food. This included many tins and packets
of all kinds - biscuits, rice, pasta, and extra items, such as
some really useful toiletries. It was a great sight. Tracy and
I took all the produce in two trips to the Chuches in Reading
Drop-in Centre in Reading. As we arrived teams of people were
preparing lunch and it was a hive of activity. There were plenty
of customers and a warm friendly atmosphere. The customers were
keen to help us unload all the good things and were most grateful.
The centre offers not only meals, but other types of help to
the homeless, such as clothes, a chance for a bath, medical care
and other advice. It was good to experience real Christian care
in action.
HEDGE CUTTING
Once again we are looking
for volunteers for Churchyard hedge cutting. Can you help smarten
up the Church, particularly for Remembrance Sunday. Please come
down for 9am on Sat 28th October and, if necessary, Sat 4th November.
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HEDGE CUTTING
A big thank you to
all who volunteered for the workparty to help with getting the
churchyard and its hedges looking so presentable prior to the
Remembrance Service. Our thanks also to those who regularly tend
the churchyard for the rest of the year.
Christ the King
Sunday
As usual on Christ
the King Sunday, 26th November, we shall have a display about
the work of the missions which we support on a regular basis:
Corrymeela, Church Army, USPG, Mission to Seafarers, CMS, Bible
Society, Leprosy Mission
Each display will include "nibbles" of food appropriate
to the mission. As last year we shall have a bucket for donations
- gift aid donations please - and this year the money raised
will be given to Gill Withers for Chidamoyo. Gill will be our
visiting preacher at 10am that morning and will give an audio-visual
presentation about Chidamoyo.
Before you buy your Christmas
cards and presents... This
year as well as the Christmas cards Catherine Pandya sells to
support the Children's Society we want to encourage people to
use a catalogue for "alternative" Christmas presents,
Christian Aid, Oxfam, World Vision and the Mityana Charity (Uganda).
We shall also have a giant card for people to sign with a Christmas
greeting to the congregation rather than people sending individual
cards. We are asking that the money saved is given to the Mityana
Charity.
Fair Trade
Christmas shopping:
the stall opens after 8am/10am on
November 5th, 19th, 26th and December 10th, 17th. |
PATHFINDERS
Next month we are hoping that you will all join us in our attempt
to set a world record for the largest Secret Santa ever. Because
it is a charity Secret Santa, with all presents coming from local
charity shops, it is also a great chance to give to the community.
What do you have to do? Simply
fill in the entry form and post it in our Secret Santa box in
the entrance hall on Sundays December 3rd/10th. (forms will be
available at both 8am/10am services) Once you have posted your
own entry, you draw out another name and this will be the person
for whom you should anonymously buy a present.
What should I buy? Anything
you like as long as it comes from a local charity shops. Our
guideline price is £5, but this is very much up to you.
If 200 of us join in the Secret Santa and each buy a £5
present, that would mean £1,000 to charity - a great Christmas
present. The gifts can be serious or humorous (eg should a life-size
cardboard cut-out of Homer Simpson appear in COATS, it could
be perfect for Lisa!) The important thing is that it's fun.
When do I give the present?
Sunday December 17th. Bring your present along to church, clearly
marked with the person's full name (you could attach the form).
Hand your gift to a Pathfinder and we will arrange the distribution
of presents in the hall after the 10am service. And you don't
have to wait till Christmas Day to open your present - the joy
of Secret Santa is seeing what everyone else received. We hope
you will join in.
Child Protection Training
Stephen Barber will run a Child
Protection training evening on: Wednesday, 22nd November - 8pm-9.30pm
at St. Mary's Twyford. This Sonning Deanery course would be suitable
for anyone in the parish who works with children. The programme
for the evening is as follows:
Part One: Safe Practice
· Introductory presentation
· Short exercise on what abuse is
· Presentation- requirements for safe practice
· Questions and short break
Part Two: Responding to Concerns
· Defining abuse
· Possible signs and symptoms
· Offenders
· Group exercise on case examples
· Presentation on responding to concerns
· Final questions and close
To book please contact St Mary's church office: Tel: 0118 934
4792 or email:office@rustwychurch.org
Mityana Charity
I never imagined when I was leading my ordinary life in Crowthorne
that one day I would be helping in Uganda for part of each year,
with my own Ugandan name ("Nabukenya"), and a little
school named after me.
Mityana can be very beautiful,
with red earth, blue skies and exotic foliage, but it is also
a place of poverty and suffering, and perhaps one of the most
poignant symbols of this is seeing piles of coffins for sale
at the side of the road.
Many of the children are malnourished, and infant mortality is
very high. There are also large numbers of AIDS orphans, and
51% of the population has no access to any medical care. Life
expectancy is 42 years.
I work for the Bishop of Mityana and also with the Mityana Charity,
which is a small local charity working to alleviate poverty,
improve education and health facilities, and to further the Christian
faith in Mityana.
One of my projects is called "New Life" and is based
on a previously uncultivated 500 acre farm belonging to Mityana
Diocese. Here we have provided oxen for ploughing, and the first
crops are now growing well. We are training the local subsistence
farmers in better methods of agriculture, and have sent out animals
for a "pass on" scheme. (Nabukenya Primary School is
also at this site.) This project is about renewal and new life
through farming, training, education, and also about new life
in Christ.
Will you please help the people of Mityana this Christmas? Details
of our Gift Scheme and Order Forms will be available in Church,
beside the Christmas cards. Nothing will be deducted from your
donation for overheads, and every penny will be used for the
purpose of the project you select. Your gift will help to bring
NEW LIFE. Ann Potts
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