What's On

MURDER MYSTERY EVENING FOR HOLY CROSS ‘RAISE THE ROOF’ FUNDS

‘The Great British Bump Off’ will be performed by the Chandeliers Drama Group on Saturday 16th March, 7.30pm start at Bearsted and Thurnham Memorial Hall, Manor Rise. A sumptuous 3 course dinner with wine will be provided by Souffle To You (you may bring extra drinks if you wish) and a vegetarian option is available upon request. Tickets are £45 per head, which is payable on booking. An evening not to be missed! Just 80 tickets available, so book early to avoid disappointment. Further details at the back of church. Tickets available from Sandra on 631538 or 07769585553

SAVE THE DATE

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

CHRISTIAN AID COLLECTION AT TESCO

Tesco have invited Christian Aid to do a bucket collection at the Grove Green store on Friday 25th January. We will be collecting in pairs, so if anyone is able to collect for an hour between 9am and 6pm, that would be much appreciated. To volunteer or for more information, please speak to Helen Judges. 

MESSY CHURCH

The next Messy  Church will be held at Holy Cross Church on Saturday 2nd February from 11-1pm –all welcome

REFRESHEMENTS FOR MESSY CHURCH

We need cakes and biscuits for messy church – if you are able to help with this please speak to Nichola – or email 

MAGAZINE DATES

The Editor of the Magazine appologises for the wrong date put into the January magazine on  the front cover and wrong month for the services at the various churches. It should read January not December!

READERS FOR THE EPIPHANY SERVICE NEXT SUNDAY 6.30PM

We need 6 readers for the Epiphany service to be held next Sunday 13th January at 6.30pm, please sign the list at the back of church. 

IN CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE SERVICE

The next ‘In Celebration of Marriage Service’ will take place at Holy Cross on Sunday 10th February at 9.45am. If you have a significant wedding anniversary and would like your name to be read out on that day please sign the list at the back of church

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

Will start from Sunday 20th January. A service to mark the start of the week will be held at 3pm on Sunday 20th January at the Methodist Church – all welcome. 

EPIPHANY SERVICE

Next Sunday – 13th January at 6.30pm we will be having a special evensong service for Epiphany led by Holy Cross Choir - please do join us

HELP WANTED

Help wanted making teas/coffees for the Toddler group on a Tuesday morning from 9.30-11.30am. On a rota basis from January until March 2019. Please speak to Nicola or email 

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Rev'd Mark Pavey is to become Team Vicar in North Downs Team with responsibility for Leeds, Broomfield, Kingswood, Otham and Langley.  He hopes to join us in early March.

NEW WAY Advent Blog

In the run up to Christmas we have a mini series of blogs on www.newwaybearsted.co.uk published every Sunday throughout Advent. Please have a look and share with friends and family on social media (or on paper!)


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 

NEW WAY WEBSITE

Further to our review of New Way we have launched a new dedicated web-site www.newwaybearsted.co.uk including Facebook and Twitter.

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. 

HOLY LAND TRIP

Rhian and John Huggins are organising a 10-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2019, probably starting at the end of April using professional Christian guides. For all who are interested, contact  Rhian on rhianbanham@gmail.com  or Md. 844010

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