Dear AllCan you believe that this Sunday is Palm Sunday? How quickly has Lent gone this year – or is this just me?The last few weeks have zipped by – it has been great exploring the Holy Habits through different media, with lots of great discussion and obviously food to share, we have one last session, in Holy Week on Wednesday and then we will be using this resource to guide our thoughts on Good Friday during the Last Hour 2.00 – 3.00 pm at St Botolph’s church, Eastwick.We also had our Alpha Afternoon Tea last Sunday, which was a really enjoyable afternoon, with a lovely group of people. We have enjoyed ourselves together so much we are continuing on from our last session looking at another few weeks of Bible exploration and discovery. If you have done the first 6 weeks of Alpha you will enjoy our further adventure – we plan to meet on Monday evenings as before and all the dates are on our Welcome sheet. If you would like to come please let me know. Our next session will be ‘How does God guide Us? On 19th May at 7.30 pm at the Rectory.So, the arrangements for Sunday 13th are as follows:-9.30 am service at St James. Meet in church as usual. The service itself will start with the Procession from the gate into the Church with the Palm Gospel and then the service will continue involving a Dramatized reading of the Gospel for which I will need 7 volunteers. There is no sermon on Palm Sunday, the dramatized reading forming a large part of this service.At 11.15 am we will be at St Mary’s, Gilston, and will follow the same pattern for worship as at St James.I hope you can join us for one of these services.At 2.30 pm we will have our Community Dog Walk again – this time from Terlings Park – meeting at the notice board. We always provide refreshments after the walk so hope you can join us – with, or without, a dog. It is just a great time to catch up with each other and also make new friends. Children are very welcome – can they come with an adult though please.Looking forward to starting Holy Week with you at some point on Sunday.Every blessing Alison
Dear AllWe are sticking with our Holy Habits theme this week and our readings will reflect that this week.It seems to have been a very busy week but the sunshine definitely made a difference today.It’s already the first official day of Spring.This Sunday we have our usual Holy Communion service at 9.30 am at St JamesAnd we also have the Family service at St Botolph’s, Eastwick at 11.15 am.I look forward to seeing you at one of these services.I have also attached the flyer with all the Easter services for you to share with your friends and neighbours, along with the Good Friday Messy Church and the next Community Dog walk. Please invite and share. All welcome.Every blessingAlison
Dear AllOn Saturday we celebrated Shrove Tuesday with a Pancake Party at Gilston and Eastwick Village Hall – we had lots of pancakes to eat, some races and the pancake flipping challenge – Paul and Peter did a great job with flipchart, stopwatch etc, and are already planning what they can do to make things even better for next year. I think I over catered on the pancakes and so all that were left were donated to the Pop-Up shop in Sawbridgeworth, so hopefully a few families could celebrate Shrove Tuesday this week because of us.This week has seen the start of Lent 2025 with Ash Wednesday on the 5th March.I was also privileged to go into the school and offer any children who wanted to be marked with the sign of the cross in ash to come to me in their lunch hour.Many children came and I was there for a very long time. I’m not sure my thumb will ever be the same againDon’t forget the Lent Challenge for 2025. – see flyer attached.This weekend we have two services:-9.30 am communion at St James, High Wych and11.15 Communion at St Mary’s, GilstonAnd this Sunday we are also having a Community Dog Walk in Allens Green (see flyer to invite your friends – dogs not necessary) hopefully the weather will be like today and we will be able to sit out in the beer garden of the Queens Head afterwards with our dogs for some relaxation and chat.I look forward to seeing you soon.Every blessing Alison
