ST. MARK’S NOTES FOR OCTOBER 2025 We celebrated a very special occasion on 24th August, when Luna and Arwen were Baptised. This was the first baptism at St Mark’s for 4 years. Luna and Arwen were formally welcomed to St Mark’s at the Celebration! Service on 31st August. This service is less formal, and particularly suitable for families. On Saturday 13th September a group of us took part in the Annual Ride and Stride walking from St Mark’s to Corfe, via Langton, Worth and Kingston – a distance of 8 miles. We stopped at all the Churches, and one or two also stopped at the Square and Compass. Money raised will be shared between Dorset Historic Churches Trust and the local Team. Thanks to Carol Richards and Anne Roper for organising the walk. Re-tyred, not retired. As I write this in mid-September, I’m looking forward to a special event on Tuesday 30th September when Bishop Karen will License me as Associate Priest, and will welcome Carol Richards and Jane Hawksworth, from St Nicholas Studland, as Licensed Lay Ministers. Why licences after working at St Mark’s for 3 years? The simple answer is that Dave’s Licence reflects the work he does within St Mark’s and the Team. Carol’s ministry was limited, because she did not transfer her LLM licence from Chelmsford Diocese to Salisbury Diocese when we moved, partly because our future plans were uncertain. Now, it seems, Swanage is our permanent home, so rather than retire gracefully, we are re-tyred for the journey ahead. Following up our spring Teddy Bear’s Picnic, Bella, the St Mark’s Teddy Bear, invites children aged 2-6 (and their teddy bears) to Farmer Teddy’s Harvest Picnic on October 12th. There will be games, songs, craft activities and a picnic with a Harvest theme. Children also need to bring at least 1 grown-up. Please spread the word. St Mark’s Harvest Celebration will be on Sunday 19th October. We will start the service at 11am and follow with a Bring-and-Share Lunch. This late date allows us to co-ordinate with St Mark’s School Harvest, so the children can enjoy the amazing Harvest decorations in the church. All gifts from the church and school will be donated to Swanage Food Bank. There are some changes at St Mark’s School. We welcome Mrs. Astle as the new Head, Miss Howe as the new Deputy (both shared with St George’s Langton), and congratulate Ms. Le Roux on her promotion to Assistant Head. We also welcome Cheryl Sutton, from St Mary’s, and Bridget Leary, from St Mark’s, as new foundation Governors. Please pray for staff, pupils and governors at the school, that the new arrangements will work well. As we move towards autumn, we give thanks for a great summer, and look forward to God’s continued blessing. Rev. David Richards
St. Mark’s Notes for September 2025 Well, what a wonderful fun packed summer we all had here at St Marks with so many social events and local events happening in church and in the town. We have had a wonderful concert, our annual Pimm's and Hymns afternoon tea in the garden and, this year, we had a lovely BBQ lunch in the garden with plenty of wonderful refreshments. A lovely event likely to become another St Marks tradition! We are really blessed in St Marks with so many amazing people who have such an array of talents which makes St Marks such a special place to worship and be a part of. My thanks to everyone who has planned, organised, and supported all our events. Just like the human body, each and every part has a special role to play in keeping us alive and well, so at St Marks, we all have an important part to play, whatever our talent or role may be. We come together in our worship, prayer, and social gatherings to make St Marks so special and welcoming. Our doors are open to everyone. The weather has been exceptional this summer, although a little rain overnight would be very welcome for the gardens and fields. My allotment has been good this year producing lots of lovely vegetables and fruit. I have walked many miles, back and forth to the nearby water trough, with watering cans trying to keep everything alive. Plus all the extra courgettes I had left in church, by the font, found new homes! Carnival Week saw hundreds of people arrive in Swanage, starting with the wonderful air display by the Red Arrows on the Saturday. On Sunday morning we joined the Churches Together Worship Service in the Carnival Tent, which was a joyful occasion and was well attended and enjoyed. In the afternoon was the fantastic Carnival Parade, with several local organisations and groups, including ‘Churches Together in Swanage,’ joining in with the Circus theme, and enjoying seeing the crowds along the route. This year we were thrilled to be awarded the 2nd Prize for a walking entry. No pressure for next year!!!! Several of us, from St Marks, volunteered in the Churches Together Carnival Tent, with information about all our churches and several free fun activities for the children. We also had water and treats for visiting dogs and their owners!! The tent was extremely popular, and we received lots of positive smiles and comments from visitors and local people. As I write, (mid-August) we are in the middle of Swanage Lifeboat Week, with many events happening in town and on the Prince Albert Gardens. On Sunday 17th August the crew and lifeboat will be blessed, by Bishop Stephen, at a special ceremony marking 150 years of Swanage Lifeboat. On Sunday 24th August we will be welcoming Rev. Natalie Davies, when she will be celebrating her first Communion Service with us. We will be sure to give Natalie a very warm welcome on this special Sunday morning. Looking ahead….. Ride + Stride: Saturday 13th September. Meet at St Mark’s Church at 10:30am. Option of walk to Worth, back to Acton (4 miles) and bus to Swanage, or walk on from Worth to Kingston (total six miles) and bus back, or walk on to Corfe (total eight miles) and bus back. Donations for Dorset Historic Churches Trust. A chance to come together, as a Parish, as we share a lovely walk in the beautiful Isle of Purbeck countryside. We look forward to the future and building on our reputation as ‘the Party Church’ ……. May God Bless and Keep You Anne Roper Church Warden
ST MARK’S NOTES FOR AUGUST 2025As I write (mid-July) we look back on a very successful concert on 29th June. The amazing talents within St Mark’s brought us some Rodgers and Hammerstein and an Abba song from the Junior Singing Club, virtuoso sax playing from Amanda, Rock’n’Roll from the Bell Street Blues, a lively rendition of “Me and My Gal” from Pearl and Tony (who knew our percussionist could sing?), a popular singalong “Sweet Caroline” from St Mark’s Band, Glenn Miller’s “Don’t Sit under the Appletree” from Dave and Pearl, and some John Rutter from the Choir. Most of this was accompanied by the amazing Colin Burgess, who also played an organ piece, a piano duet with Joanna, and played tuba with the Band. Light refreshments rounded off the afternoon and £500 was raised for the Dementia Friendly Purbeck Admiral Nurse Appeal. Many thanks to Colin, who, again, organised us all. We are now looking forward to our popular Pimm’s and Hymns on July 20th. More events are planned for the Autumn. St Mark’s School Puffins (Reception) class recently visited the Church as part of their topic on Special Places. They rang the bell, spoke from the pulpit, heard a demo of the organ and sang a song, joined in a Bible story, lit a candle and said a prayer, and even practised baptising Dave. The Penguins class also visited and explored the themes of “Peace” and “Forgiveness”. They focused on the Church as a place for quiet and for reflective prayer. Each child wrote a prayer and a selection of children read their prayers, so all could join in.Rebecca Martin, the Headteacher of St Mark’s School moved on at the end of term. It has been a joy to work with her. We look forward to welcoming Katy Astle as Head, Amy Howe as Deputy, (both shared with St George’s Langton), and Abby Le Roux as Head of School in September. Please pray for the school and for all the changes.The service will begin at 11am on Sunday 3rd August. This will allow us to have a BBQ lunch together after the service. We look forward to welcoming Rev. Natalie to celebrate Holy Communion and preach at our Service on 24th August. There will be the usual St Mark’s celebration of her new ministry as a Priest after the serviceWe are also looking forward to the amazing Swanage Carnival, with lots of Churches Together involvement. It is so good to join in with this great community event.As part of our commitment to the wider community, St Mark’s aims to pray for Herston. During August our Prayer and Share Group will be going walkabout, with a series of Prayer Walks to cover the whole of Herston. Please see the weekly pewsheet, or the St Mark’s Facebook posts, for exact details of times and meeting places. Our improvements to the church building continue with new doors for the Meeting Room, making access from the porch easier and safer. With use of this room increasing, we are working hard to make it a more welcoming and comfortable space.Have a blessed August. Rev. Dave Richards
ST. MARK’S NOTES FOR JULY 2025At our St Mark’s Committee meeting on 5 June we were pleased to report that the numbers in church on a Sunday morning are on the increase. On every Sunday since 23 March there had been more than 30 in the congregation (which had only been recorded on some Sundays, rather than every Sunday, before that) and that is in spite of some of our “regulars” being away on holiday. We have been pleased to welcome family members, visitors to the area and others, some of whom have been on several occasions and have become new regular members of the congregation. This is in line with national statistics which speak of a slow but genuine increase in church attenders over recent months and is very welcome. It is good to have the feeling that, perhaps, people have become aware of what membership of a church, and faith in God through Jesus, can offer. As well as that, we’ve had several of our regular congregation and visitors who have brought their dogs (always impeccably behaved!) and we’ve been pleased to make them welcome. At the committee meeting we covered a lot of topics and discussed them profitably. As always, we reviewed past social events and looked ahead to those to come. We particularly said that we want to arrange more activities for the younger children, following the very successful Teddy Bears’ Picnic held at the end of April, so watch this space! We welcomed the two new members of the committee – Anne Johnson and Mike Keats. For at least one of them, it was not their first time on the committee! We received a report from Dave Richards, our Resident Priest, outlining the things that had happened in St Mark’s since the last Committee meeting and it emphasised to us how much Dave and Carol do for the life of St Mark’s. We were pleased to hear that Carol has been recognised as LLM (Licensed Lay Minister) to work within our parish, as she was in her former life in St John’s, Stratford. In her role of Governor at St Mark’s School, Carol outlined the significant changes in organisation that will happen in the school in September. We continue to pray for the school as these changes take place and we wish the Year 6 pupils well as they move to their secondary school, each in possession of a Bible given by St Mark’s. Sunday 8th June was Pentecost and we celebrated the birth of the Christian Church, both in our service and afterwards. On Tuesday 10th June, Anne and I went on an expedition to Hamworthy church, along with many others, to be officially confirmed as churchwardens. As Anne said last month, we are very grateful to the congregation of St Mark’s for electing us again to this position and we hope that we will continue to justify your trust in us. In the life of a churchwarden there are many happy moments, but also some sad ones, as we think back to the funeral of Barbara Rose at the end of May. One of the joys is to recognise what our members give to the community and it will be a delight on for Dave, Carol and me (and of course John) to attend an awards ceremony at Lyme Regis on 26th June where Jenny Lazenbury will receive a Diocesan award recognising her many years’ devoted service to the work of Communicare in Swanage. Well done, Jenny – you deserve it and we appreciate all you do for our community, both in the church and outside. Our musicians never fail to delight us and we thank them all they did for the concert on 29 June. We can only imagine how much planning and rehearsal goes into preparation for such a polished performance! As we move into July, we look forward to the Pimms and Hymns event on 20th and participating in the Carnival Service on 27th as well as the joy of meeting together Sunday by Sunday to worship God. I wonder if in the next few weeks we will reach a congregation of 40 on one or more Sunday. We got close several times in May!Wishing you all God’s blessings,John WayChurchwarden
