The Junior Singing Club made a good start at the beginning of the new School term. We lost some members who had moved on to secondary schools, but have gained a good number of new, enthusiastic younger members. So far, the group has sung at the September St Mark’s Celebration! service and at the St Mark’s School Harvest service, where they successfully sang a 2-part song on their own and sang a descant to the popular Harvest Samba. The group sings a variety of music, and the children are excited to start learning a Taylor Swift song, (their request). We look forward to some Christmas performances and continuing to sing at the monthly Celebration! services. We are delighted to have local piano teacher Panisara Thomas playing piano for us.

St Mark’s Harvest service was followed by the usual wonderful Bring-and-Share lunch; the good weather allowed us to eat outside in the lovely Church garden, (making a total of 3 open-air events this year). The Harvest decorations were amazing, and were left in place for the School Harvest Service. We collected a large number of gifts from School and Church for the Swanage Foodbank.

During the last 18 months St Mark’s Committee has been working up a plan for a modest re-ordering of the back of the Church, together with some tidying up work to improve our side chapel. We hope to submit a Faculty application soon. The aim is to improve the flexibility of our building, which will give us more space for work with children and young families. If anyone would like a guided tour of the proposed work, please contact me. Please pray for this whole project – it has taken much thought, consultation and planning.

November is a time for remembering. St Mark’s will be helping to provide refreshments at the Team All Souls service at St Mary’s, 3:30pm, on November 1st. We are also preparing for Remembrance Sunday, with our Act of Remembrance at 11am, as part of our 10am service.

Our final service in November will be our Advent Sunday Celebration! service. this is always a special occasion. It’s the start of a new Christian year, the beginning of our count-down to Christmas, and an opportunity to prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Lord.

David Richards, Resident Priest