What's On
IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT OUR SERVICES IN JULY AND BEYOND AND FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING 9.30am AND 11am SERVICES.
Service patterns are evolving, please bear with us. We will place here further details as soon as details are known. See pew sheet for further details
For August:
1st/3rd Sunday of the month:
8am Eucharist BCP
9.30am Eucharist Common Worship
11am Eucharist Common Worship
6.30 Evening Prayer
2nd/4th Sunday of the month:
8am Eucharist BCP
9.30am Eucharist Common Worship
11am New Way Service
5th Sunday of the month:
As advised
Those who attend the 11am service can join the Parish Promenade after the service.
Those coming at 9.30am and 11am will continue to need to sign-up. This is to avoid turning people away at the door if we have reached covid capacity.
Capacity of the church: There is not a simple answer to this as it depends on the configuration of the congregation; how many individuals, couples and families come – any of these occupy a whole pew. Because we cannot and do not want to infringe the 2m/6ft rule, which would in any case be illegal, and certainly do not want to turn away people at the door, there will need to be a booking system for some services.
If you wish to come to the 9.30am or 11am Services please email the office here. Please make one application per household/bubble. Please indicate which service you wish to attend, the numbers coming and the date of the last time you attended a Eucharist in church – this latter information will allow us to give priority to people who have not recently been at a Eucharist. If at all possible, email the office by 1pm on a Thursday so Kathleen can fill in her aircraft type seating plan and email you back to say if you able to come. The Vicar will take over from Kathleen on Friday/Saturday. Please email by Noon on Saturday to receive a reply by early evening Saturday. Please apply a week at a time.
At the moment we can take just a step at a time, but each step is a step forward.
NEW GUIDANCE ON COVID-19 & CHURCH SERVICES.
The Church is open for private prayer while socially distancing, please follow the instructions displayed.
As well as the services above lease see our COVID-19 Page which includes details how you can join us virtually to worship.
We will regularly update our Pew Sheet, Vicar's Blog and Captain Graham Bibby's Log on this page so please revisit each week for an update.
Captain Bibby's Log of 2nd August.
Vicar's reflection 2nd August.
In case you missed last week:
Captain Bibby's Log of 26th July
APCM & Reports
Due to Covid our APCM has had to be deferred. Reports to the APCM for the year can be viewed here. Reports to APCM 2020. Thurnham School report to PCC can be found here.
VE DAY 75
The commemoration of the end of the second world war in Europe was massively affected by Covid. The event was however marked by families around the village throughout the day. During the week there was a poster in the porch and on the day the flag flew from the tower. At the memorial the vicar placed a wreath. There were two other items, a display done by Nancy, a girl at Roseacre School and a large representation of a kneeling soldier with doves of peace. The bell was rung for the start of the silence at 11am and a few people gathered spontaneously to pay their respects. The vicar concluded the silence with the usual words of remembrance. At 7pm the single bell that can be used was rung for five minute
Sunday Morning
In addition to the service above, On-line services continue to be held. If you are unable to join us in person you are invited to pause at the times of our services to spiritually join with us as well as joining Mark Pavey for the benefice live stream service at 10am.
https://www.facebook.com/northdownschurches
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4KnCwLrj4ACApkv_UEyXvg
These services remain available after being live streamed.
CAN’T COME TO CHURCH?
The situation with the virus is rapidly changing. If you are unable to come to Sunday services you might consider:
1. Personal visit to church, church is open from 10am to late afternoon.
2. Daily morning prayer, 9.15am Monday to Saturday. This does not have a large number present.
3. Radio. BBC Radio 4, Sunday Worship at 8.10am, Radio 3, Choral Evensong, Sunday 3pm,, Weds 3.30pm. The BBC can be accessed at anytime for recordings of these services.
4. TV. BBC 1 Songs of Praise Sunday 1.15pm.
5. Internet, search All Souls, Langham Place,London and St James,Muswell Hill, London for recordings of services and talks. Take care esp of content, you can always check something out with vicar. Please email office if you come across good internet resources.
6. Do more of personal devotions – pray and read the bible. Also read other Christian books.
FUND RAISING COMMITTEE
The Fund Raising Committee for the Holy Cross Church Bearsted, under the logo ‘Raise the Roof’, would like to bring you up to date with news of our fund raising activities.Since October 2017 we have held numerous events, including: quiz evenings, a murder mystery evening, a weekend flower festival, an ecumenical music hall evening with churches from Bearsted and the wider community, and 3 Christmas Fayres. We have received generous gift donations from various local concerts, and from the Bearsted and Thurnham Summer Fayre Committee.
Our fund raising efforts are as a direct result of the recent Quinquennial Report which highlighted the need to have our roof repaired. The repairs are extensive and costs will reflect this. Therefore in addition to our efforts, we are approaching Charitable Trusts to seek financial support. At the time of going to press, we have been successful in being voted a Grant donation from The Cobtree
Trust. Their Grant of £10,000 plus an offer of £10,000 as an interest free loan is a tremendous start.
We have so far raised £21,396.00 and this is due to the wonderful support given to all the above events by the People of Bearsted and the surrounding communities. This is also due to the commitment and sheer hard work of all those involved in organising and volunteering their time and energies to making the above events happen. Thank you.
CHURCH OFFICE – WEDNESDAY EVENINGS
Please note that for an experimental time the Parish Office will be discontinued on a Wednesday
Evening. The office is open as usual Monday mornings and Thursday all day.
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, some are temporarily suspended at the moment:-
- Every Thursday afternoon - Les Smith (8 members)
- Every Monday evening - Julie Osborn (7 members)
- Every other Monday evening - Ian Clark (7 members)
- Every Tuesday evening - Andy Haines (10 members)
- Every Tuesday evening - Richard Sutch (6 members)
- Every other Thursday evening - Sandra Brabyn (9 members)
- Every Wednesday morning (ladies group) - Diana Sandford (11 members)
- Every other Thursday evening - Juliet Mee (9 members)
All these groups welcome new members. If you are interested in joining a group post Covid-19 please contact
Liz Richardson - 738463