What's On


INVITATION – EXCITING BRING & SHARE HOME GROUP SOCIAL ON SATURDAY 15TH JUNE in the Memorial Hall

A brilliant chance to get to know other Home Group members and have fun activities and food. We have an impressive 8 groups and over 70 members. 2 groups are daytime.
This is for Home Group members past, present and future plus partners. If you’d like to consider joining a Home Group please phone Liz Richardson 738463 if Classic and Diana Sandford 730918 if New Way.
Arrival about 6pm with your food and serving utensils; aim to start eating about 6.15pm. Please also bring your own plate, bowl, cutlery, your chosen drink and glass/cup.
We’d like numbers by 31st May via your Home Group leader so we have sufficient seating and fun ‘activities’. Put the date in your diary!
Diana and Liz

LADIES LUNCH

Churches of Bearsted Ladies Lunch: the next lunch is on Monday 10th June when the Revd. Valerie Pearce will speak on ‘My life so far – the God of surprises’. Contact Shirley on md. 739411 if you would like to attend and are not on our current mailing list.

GARDEN WORKING PARTY – 25TH MAY

Hello everyone. My thanks firstly to those of you who were able to help load the large trailer last Saturday, to clear away the huge heap that had grown over the last few months – an indication of all the hard work you have put in since the Autumn. We meet once again on 25th May to carry out a good spring tidy. Please do try to find the time to join in 9.30-11am. Please bring gloves and small tools, Many thanks, Patricia.

FARMERS MARKET

A sum of £550 was donated from the entrance fees from the Farmers Market last weekend, this will go towards ‘The Raise the Roof ‘ fund. Many thanks to all who helped with the collecting.  

THY KINGDOM COME

Each year the Church gets together to pray between Ascension Day and Pentecost. This year we are holding a daily reflective service from Friday 31st May – Saturday 8th June at Holy Cross 5-6pm. 

There will also be prayer stations available in church and these can be visited at any time when the church is open. Melissa.

PRAYER PASTOR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED 

Now in our 11th year of service, we are in need of more volunteers to join our Prayer Pastor teams. A Street Pastor team should NOT go on patrol WITHOUT a Prayer Team to support them and Maidstone’s Night Time Economy. The commitment is once a month from around 9.45pm on a Saturday night to approx. 3am on a Sunday morning. There is safe and secure parking at the base and if you haven’t got transport, we can arrange lifts for you. If you would like to volunteer or find out more information, please contact Street Pastor Coordinator Nigel Downes at: maidstone@streetpastors.org.uk 

FAREWELL SERVICES FOR MELISSA                                                                                   Melissa is leaving us in August and her final services are on 14th July at 9.45am Holy Cross and 21st July at 10.15am New Way Service at the Memorial Hall.

CHILDREN’S SOCIETY BOXES

Please bring your Children’s Society Boxes to church and give them to Jill Clifford as soon as possible – thank you

ELECTORAL ROLL LISTS

Are now completed – please check the details at the back of church or if you would like to join please fill out one of the forms and return as soon as possible. 

MAIDSTONE BIBLE WEEK

Monday 13th - Thursday 16th May 7.30-9.30pm                                                                         Venue: The Life Church, Maidstone                                                                                     Admission : Free                                                                                                                      Speakers: Dr Chris Sinkinson & Alistair McKitterick talking about ‘Encountering God’                          All welcome

MICHAEL LAWRENCE
Many of you may know Michael Lawrence from Family Funerals – he and his son are doing a ‘Wing Walk in aid of Blackthorn Trust on Saturday 15th June at Headcorn Aerodrome. If you would like to sponsor him please fill out the form at the back of church.

ECUMENICAL ENTERTAINMENT - Saturday July 6th

Bob Piggott, who is a member of the Bearsted Area Churches Together committee, has offered to organise ‘An Evening of Village Turns’ on Saturday July 6th at the Memorial Hall in aid of Raise the Roof. If anyone has a song, dance, recitation, juggling act, talented pet, comic routine, scene from a play or anything that might be a suitable contribution to the evening’s festivities, please contact Bob Piggott on bob_piggott@hotmail.co.uk by March 20th.

HELP WITH OUR WEBSITES

I would firstly like to say a big thank you to those who support us on the IT side of things, especially keeping our websites up to date. This is not something I am knowledgeable of so your skills are very much appreciated. But I also have a request for everyone else. Our IT team would appreciate some assistance, especially now the New Way website is quite active with weekly blogs, facebook/twitter posts etc. If you are IT competent and able to offer some time your support would be gratefully received. If you would like to find out more please contact Melissa who can give you some more details. 

STEWARDSHIP                                                                                                                             Parish finances are being stretched three ways at the moment.

1. Parish reorganisation means that Thurnham no longer contributes to ministry costs. They used to contribute 15% which means that we now have to collect this amount.                                                2. Church Council committed to a new Children and Youth Minister.

3. Major repair work to the roof at Holy Cross which has been estimated at 4/5 thousand pounds.                                                                                                                   

SAVE THE DATE                                                                                                                 Diocesan Day of Prayer and Pilgrimage, 7-8 June 2019

PRAYER GROUP                                                                                                                          It has been suggested that across the benefice, and as an ecumenical group we should try to form a Study-cum-Prayer group which would look at and learn about various troubled areas in the world and then pray about them. It would involve people reading a very little about one or two such places in their own homes and then coming together at a suitably agreed time to pray about these areas. It is not to involve any great effort but there is so much going on in the world that is working against God’s Kingdom so that we need to stand against it all and where two or three are gathered together there is Jesus in the midst of them. So there is great power in prayer. For further information please speak to Margaret Doak or call her on MD. 738508 

HOME GROUP IN THE AFTERNOON

For anyone thinking of joining a Home Group, could we draw your attention to the one we have on Thursday afternoons. We meet most weeks but sometimes fortnightly and there are currently 7 to 8 of us. Home Groups are a great way to get to know a small group of people really well and to learn more about our faith and how it works out in our daily lives. Contact Les Smith or Peter and Meryl Ashford.

ADVANCE NOTICE

The next Parish Weekend will be held at Ashburnham Place, East Sussex, from Friday 15th – Sunday 17th November 2019. Our speaker will be Canon Jean Kerr, retired canon for Mission in the Rochester Diocese. Jean led the two-hour meditation at Holy Cross on Good Friday 2017. More details will be available in the Autumn. 

SAMARA AID APPEAL

Latest update can be found here

TALKS/SERMONS

These can be found on Sermons and Talks page of the web-site including last Sunday's at Holy Cross. Click here or select "Sermons and Talks" from the "What's On" menu bar above.                                  

HOMEGROUPS

Homegroups at Holy Cross continue to meet regularly providing an opportunity to enquire about
and discuss our faith and also to meet socially in an informal setting. 

These are the groups running at the moment:- 

  • Every or every other Thursday afternoon - Les Smith (8 members)
  • Every other Monday evening - Julie Osborn (7 members)
  • Every other Monday evening - Ian Clark (5 members)
  • Every 1st & 3rd Tuesday evening - Peter Richardson (12 members)
  • Every Tuesday evening - Jim Gibson (10 members)
  • Every other Wednesday evening - Emma Clark (7 members)
  • Every Wednesday morning (ladies group) - Diana Sandford  (10 members) 
  • Every other Thursday evening  - Juliet Mee (9 members)

All these groups welcome new members. If you are interested in joining a group please contact 

Liz Richardson - 738463