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St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Aylesford
Parish Notes for
Third Sunday of Lent
8th March 2015
We are a fair-trade
church
AYLESFORD CHURCH WELCOMES YOU WARMLY,
WHATEVER AGE YOU MAY BE!
If you have come with a child who is under 4 years old, your child is very welcome to
stay in the pew during the service or go to the Children’s Corner at the back of the
church. If your child is four years or more, and Sunday Club is running today, they are
welcome to attend Sunday Club. Parents/guardians may accompany their children to
Sunday Club if they are hesitant about going to the club, which runs from 10 – 11am.
COLLECT FOR THE WEEK
Merciful Lord, challenge us in our thinking, we pray, that we may know your will for us
and give up what harms us, so that with pure hearts and minds we can follow you, the
only God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
TODAY
8am & 10am Holy Communion. Theme: Jesus always challenges us!
Readings for today: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 The Christian message sounds stupid! (NT
p 206) & John 2:13-22 Jesus creates a stir in the temple (NTp119).
The Week Ahead
th
Monday 9 : 2.30pm Communion Gavin Astor House.
Tuesday 10th: 2pm Friendship Group. 8pm-9.15pm Bell ringing practice.
Wednesday 11th: 10.00am Holy Communion. 1.15pm Kidzpraise. 3pm Songs of
Praise Duchess of Kent Court. 4pm Communion Dennis Cadman House.
Thursday 12th: 7.15-8.15pm Juniors & 8pm Adults Choir Practice.
Saturday 14th: 9.30am Prayers for peace.
Sunday 15th: 8am Holy Communion. 10am Morning Prayer. Theme: Mothering
Sunday.
Parish Notes are now available to download on the Church website. They can be
found on the "main home page" and the "events page". www.aylesford-church.org.uk
LARGE PRINT AVAILABLE AT BACK OF CHURCH
CCLI Licence No. 417757
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St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Aylesford
WHO TO CONTACT
Vicar:
Chris van Straaten
01622 717434 (Friday is his day off)
cjvanstraaten@gmail.com
Church office:
Anita Keays
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9am to 2pm.
01622 719366
aylesfordchurch@btconnect.com
Churchwardens:
Brenda Sladen
01622 882395 thesladens@uwclub.net
Alan Longmuir
01732 220209
alanwlongmuir@btinternet.com
Pastoral Assistant:
Parish Evangelist:
Parish Website:
Janet Holdstock
01622 710083
Cherith Bourne
01622 717267
Jenny Relf
01622 710963
www.aylesford-church.org.uk
Aylesford Church Prayer Line If you have a special
request for a
prayer to be said at the 10 o’clock service on Sunday,
please
telephone Richard or Cherith on 01622 717267 at anytime
during the
week and they will pass your message on.
Quiet Area for Prayer and Prayer Book - You are welcome to use the chapel on
Sundays or during the week for prayer, and a Prayer book is available, in which you
can write any prayer requests. These will be prayed through at the Wednesday
morning service.
The Key to the Church - This is kept at the Village Shop. You are welcome to borrow
it if you want to go into the church outside service times.
Prayers for our Church – Please pray for our Friendship afternoon and for our other
attempts to make contact with lonely people.
‘Friends’ Quiz Evening Saturday 21st March at 7 for 7.30pm at The Brassey Centre.
Brian Reynolds returns again setting the questions at this popular quiz. Tickets £4
bring your own drinks & nibbles. Pre-book tables of 6 or individual tickets with Brenda
on 01622 882395
‘Friends’ Italian Music Evening Saturday 25th April 7.30pm. An evening (in church)
of opera and light music with an Italian flavour, sung by ‘Bel Canto’ Brian White,
Richard Kemp & Kathryn Norman. Tickets from Brenda on 01622882395. ‘Friends’ £9
& Non-members £10 to include a glass of wine/juice & some Italian nibbles.
‘What God’s been doing in our church recently?’ Some years ago many people
contributed to a booklet recounting persona stories of where they’d thought they’d
seen God at work in the past year. We are going to do another booklet in the next few
months, covering 2014 & early 2015 IF there are enough contributions. Please do
consider writing something and giving it to Chris, preferably electronically.
www.aylesford-church.org.uk
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St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Aylesford
Notes From Janet:
Lent Group ‘Challenging Poverty’ continues at Janet’s home every Wednesday at 145pm and again at 7-45pm.
Dorcas Centre.
This is the Larkfield Community Church. They have started a food bank with Trussell
Trust each week from the centre. There is also a Thursday lunch club for seniors.
Lifts arranged.
Prayer visiting. The team re start visiting homes on the second Monday in each
month. We go out for an hour from 5-30pm. If anyone else would like to join us we
could cover a wider area. Speak to Jenny.
Allergen Advice
Just a reminder that the Food Standard Agency listed 14 allergens to be aware of.
These include the obvious such as eggs and nuts but also flavouring in soup cubes
such as celery. When you cook for church functions let Janet know ingredients so we
can display these. Notices at the back of church in the kitchen need to be put out at
coffee time please.
APCM (our church AGM) This is on 29th April at 7.45pm in the Brassey Centre.
‘Games Evening’ Saturday 28th March 6-8pm in church. A fun evening of good old
family games, some active ones. You won’t have to take part in all of them as teams
will choose representatives for each game Teams can have up to10 & must have
adults & children (at least 2 children 4-11). You can come as a team or join one.This
is a fun evening for children, parents and grandparents. Cost: £2 to take part & £1 as
spectators. Please see flyers at the back of church. Book your team with Chris.
Could you help: making Flower Posies for Mothering Sunday
Please let Chris know if you could come to the church for approximately an hour On
Saturday 14 March at 10.15am.
Easter Flowers Firstly I would like to thank all of you who generously gave donations
for the Christmas Flowers. It is greatly appreciated. Once again it is now time for
Easter Flowers. Would you kindly give a list of names of the people you would like to
be remembered with your donations by the last Sunday in March. Please give them to
the Vicar, Anita at the Office or myself. Thanking you. Ann Game.
Celebrations Services March 22nd.The theme of both services on March 22nd will be
celebration and thanksgiving for all the good things about our church, so we do hope
you will be able to join us on this joyful occasion. You should be receiving a personal
invitation this week, which will also contain some details about this year’s
Stewardship campaign.
www.aylesford-church.org.uk
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St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Aylesford
Environmental Display This week’s is self-explanatory - a display of items from
some primary school pupils. The “green” group
Fair Trade
This is the last week for the stall - there are a few new items so do have a look. You
can order at any time, so if you have not yet done so, lease take a catalogue.
If you would like to support Traidcraft with a donation, your contribution will be
doubled if you let me have it before the end of March - pick up a leaflet about the Fair
Necessities Appeal from the back of the church. Claire Sullivan
Amnesty International Write for Rights
If you took part in the card-signing we did just before Christmas, you were one of
85,000 in the UK who supported the People at Risk campaign this year - and one of
the 3 million world-wide! There have been some small improvements already for a
few of the cases - the only one of “our” cases we have heard about is Liu Ping her daughter is immensely grateful to everyone who sent cards, as she is now able to
go to visit her mother in prison.
If you are interested in following up these cases or finding out about others that
Amnesty are supporting, do have a look at their website. Iris Neel
Organ update A great deal has been happening since the last status report
(including Christmas!)... So an update is well overdue.
Work is progressing well at the organ builders, and they will be returning to site at
some point over the next month to commence modernising the wiring inside the
organ itself, and then to start re-assembly. In practical terms, this means that the
planned completion by Easter will unfortunately be delayed a few weeks. The visit to
the organ builders in January had to be postponed, although this is now likely to
occur late in March, in parallel with the re-wiring of the organ itself. We are also
awaiting approval from the Diocese to move the console into the main body of the
church when it returns from the organ builders: This was first proposed nearly 40
years ago, so it will be good to finally realise the benefits of the new position.
The updated history of the organ is now well advanced, so this is really the last
chance to let Michael know (if you haven’t done so already) if you would prefer your
financial support of the project to be listed anonymously, rather than by name. More
details of the book will be publicised in April / May. Whilst the main focus of
fundraising is now for essential church maintenance, the organ appeal continues to
receive some welcome donations, to defray any unexpected costs and to make
provision for future maintenance: Thank you once again for the magnificent support
you have given to this project!
Michael Keays
www.aylesford-church.org.uk
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