Dear Friends
Now Holy Week and Easter Sunday are behind us we look forward to the next few exciting weeks. Plans for the flower and music festival are well advanced, we need people to help in church and to spread the word. Please do all you can to support us. There are lists to sign at the back of church, for stewards and helpers.
Every year we hold our Annual Church Parochial Meeting, this is basically our church AGM. At this meeting we will elect our new church wardens and PCC members, hear news of our financial position and of all our church activities – it is a joy to realise just what we do. Our APCM will be held on Sunday 29 April at 12 noon after mass.
As you know St Nicholas supports the parish of St Simon and Jude, Namacunde, Angola. Recent news from Fr Elias is good and it looks like the church building project which we are supporting will be complete later this year. To celebrate the completion of the new church building a group from St Nicholas will be travelling to Angola via Namibia 29 January – 8 February 2019. If you are interested in joining us on this exciting adventure I have provided a link to our digital itinerary, which you can download. If you would like to join us, please send me an email and complete the application form at the end of the itinerary.
The link to your digital itinerary is:
http://wetu.com/Itinerary/Landing/8CEB99CD-6F2C-4859-B053-2AD952DAC365
With my prayers
Simon
Dear Friends
The appalling results of conflict and warfare have been much on my mind this week.
On Tuesday morning I was pleased to be invited to view the work of our church archivists on their World War 1 project. To date more than 700 soldiers from our parish have been researched, so many of whom gave their lives in the service of our country. Ann Rix gave us a fascinating talk, including explaining a map the archivists have produced, showing the locations where many of them lived. Our Member of Parliament, Ruth Cadbury, attended and spent considerable time listening to the stories of individual soldiers and how their lives had been researched.
Throughout this week further details have been emerging of the horrific gas attack in Syria, and each news bulletin tells us of the increasing threats and tensions between the nations of our world. I have been praying some of the prayers used on Remembrance Sunday which seem very appropriate at this time:
We pray for all who suffer as a result of conflict,
and ask that God may give them peace:
for the service men and women
who have died in the violence of war,
each one remembered by and known to God;
For civilian women, children and men
whose lives have been disfigured by war or terror
and all who have risked their own lives caring for them,
calling to mind in penitence
the anger and hatreds of humanity;
For peacemakers and peacekeepers,
who seek to keep this world secure and free;
For all who bear the burden and privilege of leadership,
political, military and religious;
asking for gifts of wisdom and resolve
in the search for reconciliation and peace.
May God give peace. Amen
With every blessing
Mother Eileen