Grapevine
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Lent Prayer
Please take home a copy of our Church’s Prayer for Lent. It is offered, that you may find it useful in your preparations for Easter. this year
Our e-newsletter
Our very own e-newsletter was launched recently. It will be issued quarterly and its aim is to keep Church members, friends and interested others informed about all that is happening here at St Peter and St Mary’s. If you have received a copy, please forward it to friends who would be interested in signing up to receive the next issue. If you have e-mail but didn’t receive the newsletter and would like to, please let the Church Office know.
An Evening with Geraldine Latty
June 1st
7:30pm
Hosted by us here at St Peter’s and St Mary’s Church on behalf of Churches Together in Stowmarket
This promises to be a wonderful evening filled with music, chat and praise with one of the country’s foremost worship leaders.
Tickets, £5 each, will be on sale at the Church Office from Monday 5th March.
Addington Fund
Following the service on Plough Sunday we were able to send a donation of £433 to the Addington Fund. Ian Bell has sent a personal letter of thanks.
Colin
Snooker Tables
We have a variety of different sized snooker tables for sale. If you are interested please speak to the Church Wardens.
Glass jars
Colin Stapleton has a collection of 20 large, straight-sided glass jars with metal caps, ideal for pickling onions and so on. Can anyone make use of them?
Indoor Boot Sale
The last one of the season will be on 3rd March. Please leave any items to sell on the pew in front of the font. Money raised goes to The 3Rs Project.
Celia’s Supper
Tuesday 13th March
Stowmarket Golf Club
7:30pm
Entertainment is by ‘The Kettle Girls’, an a cappella singing trio with Ilona Stretch
Admission £8.50
All proceeds to support The 3Rs Project
Tickets are available from 3Rs Committee members and the Church Office.
Air Ambulance fundraising
The Church is now collecting ink cartridges of any size and make (including those from photocopiers) stamps, old mobile phones and old and foreign coins to help this worthwhile cause.
Possibilities
Rob Pattison says: I have a stall at the Needham Market Raft Race at Needham Lakes on Sunday 10th June 2012. We will be selling paper beads necklaces and Ugandan homemade cards and drinking straw bags again like last year.
Additionally I have booked to enter a raft in this year’s competition. The theme is
Jubi-lympics.
If you would like to be included in any position or are willing to lead any aspect please get in touch and make yourself available. We need:
1. Raft Designer team
2. Raft Builders and testers
3. Raft Sailors/paddlers
4. Stall support staff
For more details, look on the Possibilities website: www.possibilities.org.uk
Pancake Race
Volunteers are wanted for the Church Team for a relay Pancake Race on Shrove Tuesday 21st February at 4pm. This will be in the church area and organised by The Town Centre Partnership. Speak to Michael.
Bottle tops
Yvonne is very grateful for all the bottle tops that have been collected. She has enough now, so won’t need any more for the moment, thank you.
Facebook
The Church now has a Facebook page. Please add us as a friend and write your good news stories and answered prayers etc.
Planning for Kagera with pancakes
Shrove Tuesday 21st February from 7pm
Combs Church Hall
7pm to 8pm
Pancakes
(No charge but donations welcome)
8pm to 9pm
Planning the future for our Deanery Kagera link.
Please see Richard Stretch if you would like a free ticket for this event.
Chaplaincy in Education
Scripture Union is holding a day conference to explore new opportunities in school and college chaplaincy on Thursday 1st March 2012 at King’s Gate Community Church in Peterborough. Tickets for the day are £25. For more information:
e-mail KimR@scriptureunion.org.uk
Empty inkjet cartridges
Pre-School tell us that they can no longer raise funds with used cartridges. We are proposing to continue to collect them, however, for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. Empty cartridges can be left in the Church Office as before, as also can trimmed, used stamps, which we also donate to the same good cause.
Christmas trees and lights
We would be grateful for unwanted Christmas trees, lights and decorations. If you or any friends or neighbours have any in good condition that they no long require please consider donating them to Church for the next Christmas Tree Festival. Some of the ones we have are past their best and need replacing. It is also good to have a variety of lights and decorations for us to use when decorating the trees.
Church Calendar
Please can you remember to let the Church Office know of any forthcoming meetings and events, so that they can be added to the Church Calendar.
This helps to avoid clashes and keeps everyone else informed about what is going on in our Church family.
Wanted…
Please could you save any empty bottles or containers of perfume, eau de toilette, aftershave, body lotion, body cream and so on. 1st Stowmarket Brownies are wanting some as part of their decorations for the Christmas Tree Festival. They can be given to Judy Eden.
Tools With A Mission: TWAM
Tools with a Mission are in touch with poor rural schools in Africa and currently supply books on a regular basis to Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia and South Africa. Redundant texts books from UK schools and colleges can be very useful to these establishments.
If you are able to find time to round up books that you no longer need, the School Book Project will be happy to arrange collection, sorting, packaging and delivery. Please let others know too, who might be able to help. If anyone within a 25 mile radius of Ipswich is interested they can be referred on to TWAM. You can contact TWAM on 01473 210220.
ATTENTION
We are hoping to have a plant sale as a fundraiser in the spring/summer of next year. If you think that you could grow some plants between now and then, maybe now is time to start thinking about what you have in your garden that could be thinned out and put in pots. Or perhaps you could take some cuttings so that by the time we have the sale next year you will have some really sturdy plants to pass on and sell.
Prayer Chain
Linda Ottewell has now taken over the role of co-ordinator for the Prayer Chain. If you would like the Church members on the Prayer Chain to pray for you or someone you know, please speak to Linda. Don’t forget to make sure that those you would like prayer for are happy for this to take place.
Thorntree Lunch Club
The Thorntree Lunch Club is looking for new members, so, if you’re over 60, keen to get out and meet other people and would enjoy an excellent two course lunch for only £4.00 they would be delighted to hear from you. For more information telephone 613565 or speak to Jenny Lawler/Pat Smith.
Diary dates
13th March
Celia’s Supper at Stowmarket Golf Club
5th, 6th and 7th May
Alive Festival at St John’s, Woodbridge
12th May
Massive Plant Sale on the Greensward
Friday 1st June
An evening with Geraldine Latty
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February 19th 2012
Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12
When my eldest brother John was at secondary school and I was just a young lad, I can remember that my mum and dad bought him a small microscope. I was fascinated by this sensitive optical instrument which could magnify tiny objects hundreds of times.
When I think back I spent hours collecting all sorts of things and being amazed at the detail on a human hair or a blade of grass or bits of dead flies.
For my twelfth birthday my parents bought me a telescope and the same sense of awe and wonder came flooding back when I first saw the detail of craters on the Moon and rings around Saturn or the glowing gases in Orion’s belt.
You don’t need a precision optical instrument to view the fine detail of an infinite God or to help you to see that He is always close at hand.
As a Church we have so much to do in introducing people to Jesus while there are still so many who can’t see what’s right before their eyes.
Michael
A Communion Service now takes place at 12 noon every Thursday in addition to Sunday services. The week ahead
Sunday 19th February
9am Holy Communion Preacher:The Revd Richard Stretch
10:45am Morning Worship with Baptism Preacher:The Revd Richard Stretch
3:15pm Wade House Service led by Maureen Kemp
Monday 20th February
7:30pm PCC meeting in St Mary’s Hall
Tuesday 21st February Shrove Tuesday
11am Site Meeting in Church
2pm House Group at 11 Eliot Way led by Alan Lancaster
4pm Pancake Race in the market Place
Wednesday 22nd February Ash Wednesday
10am Little Fishes in St Peter’s Hall
10am to 12:30pm Coffee & Company in Café 52
2:15pm Chilton Court Communion Service
2:30pm Mothers’ Union Communion Service in St Peter’s Hall
6pm Girlguiding World Thinking Day Service
7:30pm Mission and Outreach Meeting in Café 52
7:45pm House Group at at Bobbies
8pm House Group at Marion's
Thursday 23rd February
10:00am Assembly at Abbot’s Hall School
12 noon Communion in the Memorial Chapel
6:45pm for 7pm Alpha Course in St Peter’s Hall
7:30pm Christmas Tree Festival Meeting in Café 52
Friday 24th February
7pm Prayers in Church, usually followed by Prayer Walk after 8pm; end at 9pm
Saturday 25th February
10:00am to 12 noon Refreshments served in Church
Sunday 26th February
9am Holy Communion
10:45am Family Communion
Readings:1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
Last Sunday’s Church Attendance: 121
Last Sunday’s Offering: £1,364.30
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