The Parish of Elmdon

Next meeting will be on Monday, 6 February at Valley Church Centre, commencing at earlier time of 1 pm, to include bring-and-share lunch, followed by Annual General Meeting. All are welcome.

Val and Tony Shaw are organising another trip to Scotland: 7-11 January 2013 (Monday to Friday). The basic cost is £129 per person. For further details speak to Val and Tony.

Visit www.sendacow.org.uk/lent-challenge to learn about their Lent Challenge. The idea is to do something different every day of Lent and raise £1 a day. By the end of Lent you will have £40 to donate to Send a Cow. There are lots of resources on their website to help you get going on your Lent Challenge.

Don’t forget to book your ticket!

St Stephen’s, Saturday, 4 February @ 7.30 pm. Tickets £10 including fish and chip supper. Have a really enjoyable evening and at the same time help us raise the final amount towards a new kitchen. Please contact Pat Lyons.

The joint Service will be held at St Mary’s on Sunday 22nd January at 6.30 pm., If you can, join with us:  if you are not able to be there please remember all the member churches in your prayers (besides ourselves: St Mary’s, St Giles’, Hobs Moat URC, Lyndon Methodist Church, St Thomas More, Sheldon Community Church).

It’s time, once again, for organisations and groups to submit their annual reports ready for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting on Tuesday 24th April. The deadline for submitting your report this year is Sunday 26th February, to give time for the reports to be collated and printed. It helps tremendously if they can be submitted by email – use our contact form to request the address – but if that’s not possible for you please deliver to Jean Wooding who has kindly agreed to collate the reports this year ready for printing

Please remember: David’s hip surgery: scheduled for 25 January. Pray that this goes well and that he will make a full recovery and have an improvement in his hip movement and be free from pain.

Joint Service will be held at St Mary’s on Sunday, 22 January at 6.30 pm., Please join with us: when all the churches represented in Hatchford Brook Churches Together come together in worship you can really feel the Spirit moving. Choir members are especially asked to be there; we are requested to robe up.

St Stephen’s, Saturday, 4 February @ 7.30 pm. Tickets £10 including fish and chip supper. Your support would be welcomed in raising the final amount towards a new kitchen.

Reminder: please, if you have switched on one of the heaters on the north (left side) wall at St Nicholas, remember to switch it off again before you leave your seat after the service!

Richard writes: “As you’ll appreciate, there are a great many plates to be kept spinning just now to keep our places of worship running smoothly, and with the appointment process. It would be really helpful if any messages about the rotas at church (date swaps etc.) could be given to me in writing rather than verbally! If you either give me a written note or email me, your message will be much less likely to be forgotten.”

Tuesday, 17 January, 7.30 pm at St Stephen’s.

Next meeting of the craft group will be on Thursday, 5 January at Valley Church Centre, 2 pm.

The Christingles will be prepared in the Wilberforce Hall at St Nicholas on Friday, 23 December: 10.00 am start. Volunteers are needed to join the production line. Come along and have some fun; it’s just like working in Santa’s grotto!