Notting Hill Church Blog

16 September 2008

This week Reading: Jeremiah 31 1-9 23_34

download the MP3 Jeremiah 31 1-9 23_34.mp3

The Sunday’s sermon: Jeremiah A Prophecy of Hope

download the MP3 Jeremiah_A_prophecy_of_hope.mp3

To listen to all the previous podcasts click this link.

Groups Sunday is designed to encourage everybody to get involved with a small group during the month of November, so, after the service, there will be stalls around the church advertising the various groups that will be running at St Peters over the next 3 weeks and giving everyone the opportunity to find a group that they’d like to join.

Small groups are ideal places to make lasting friendships, grow in our faith and support each other personally and prayerfully and St Peters is offering a real variety of style and substance in the different groups that are on offer, so come along to the service and shop around afterwards to find a group that you’d like to sign up for.

Monday

Morning. ‘Start the week’ with Helen and Debbie at St Peters

Evening. ‘Prayer and Praise’ with the Rey-Roebers in Shepherds Bush.

Tuesday

Morning. Women’s Group with Laura Hargreaves at the Vicarage

Evening. Men’s Group with Mark, Dave, Paul and David iin Kensington Park Road.

Evening. The purpose driven group with Malcolm, Pam, Shuna and Mike at Kensal Rise

Wednesday

Morning. ‘J & J’ with Jean and Joy in the Upper Vestry

Evening. ‘Allcomers’ with Jen and Jonathan in Notting Hill

Evening. ‘Creative Group’ with Leanne.

Thursday

Evening. ‘Dinner for 8′ with Linda Miller in Notting Hill

If you’re not in church this Sunday you can still sign up for one of the groups by using the link groupsunday@nottinghillchurch.org.uk and we’ll sign you up for the group of your choice and send you the details by return.

Last Sunday Over 25 and under 25 had an amazing game and will be playing again in 2 weeks.

Thank you very much for supporting St Peter’s Church. It was a fantastic evening!
Big thank you to Liz Zcton Davis, Rosemary Conway, Jill de Masi, Jen Denison, Shuna Dickson, Victoria Gillies, Sophie Graham, Linda Miller, Christine Robinson, Jean Ross Russell, Alex Tatoon-Brown, Vivien Thompson.

St Peter’s Development Fund

If you are hoping to join us on that day, the travel details for drivers are copied below.

If you have not yet signed up, but would not like to attend, please do! The bus is now full, but we would be delighted to see you at the venue from 12 noon to 5.30 p.m.

To help with catering please let us know you are coming at e-mail: awayday@nottinghillchurch.org.uk

The website for the venue is : http://www.st-stephens.org.uk , and there is a map on the website.

The address and postcode for Sat Navs is:

The CrossWay
306 Richmond Road
East Twickenham
Middlesex
TW1 2PD

Dear All,

Welcome back after the Summer break and we hope you have enjoyed your time away.

We are pleased to welcome Harry as our Careforce Worker. Harry has come from The Gambia in West Africa and it is great to have him joining us for his year out in the UK.

This Sunday we will be having a ‘Youth Stand’ at St Peter’s Church, so please come and chat to us after the service to find out what we will be doing this year with our young people.

Youth Club will be starting back this Friday 12th with a new time of 7 – 9pm. We will have all the usual fun and games with special activities and evenings thrown in each term. We are in need of some extra helpers – from running a special night (for those of you who have any hidden talents!)…to taking money at tuck shop or chatting to the young people.
DATES: 12th Sept, 19th Sept, 26th Sept
3rd Oct, 10th Oct, 17th Oct
If you can help with any of these dates, please let us know.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
God Bless,

Leanne

We are very pleased to introduce our new online calendar with all the new term dates.
You’ll see that the sermons this term are based on Old Testament journeys. We’ve taken this theme as we are about to go on an adventure as a church, going on our own ‘Gap Year’. The building work in the church is due to start in the New Year and is scheduled to last for the best part of a year. We are hoping to be back worshiping in the church for Christmas 2009.

We’re all familiar with the concept of a ‘Gap Year’. People go out of their way to experience life in a different place and culture. They’re not always comfortable years but they are always formative. It’s in this spirit that we’re looking forward to 2009. There will be many unfamiliar things and it will take time to adjust to new situations, but I firmly believe that many positive things will come out of worshiping in a new place.

In preparation for our ‘Gap Year’ we have an ‘Awayday’ planned for September 20th, in Twickenham. I hope that you will be able to be with us on that day. It’s a day designed for the whole church family to be together as we talk in more detail about the future. There will be a special program for the children. For those who need help with transport, a bus will be going from the church. Please ring or e-mail the church office to reserve your place on the bus or for details of the location.

This autumn there will be some changes to our ‘Kids on Sunday’ program and I am pleased to announce that we are starting a new group for 14+, led by Mary Eadie. Also Catherine McKay and John Pettitt will be running the Cherubs group. They are taking over from Helen who has done a great job looking after that group for a number of years. We will also be experimenting with having the crèche at the back of the church, rather than in the vestry. This works well in a number of other churches, so we have decided to see if it is a good solution for us. The 2-3-4 service has moved from Sunday afternoons to the third Monday morning of the month, allowing stronger links with the Nursery School.

There’s one final thing I’d like to mention. This is our growing connection with the church overseas. In recent months members of our congregation have visited Watoto in Uganda, our link parish in Mozambique and the Sarojini project in India. John Gibbens, our link in Mongolia, is preaching for us in October. All of this is very encouraging and reflects a decision we made at the PCC a few years ago to build up links with a small number of projects overseas. It has taken time to develop those links but it is now happening. It is particularly good that as we have put such a large amount of effort in to our own building we have also developed links with others overseas, and indeed even been involved in a building project for a new children’s home at Watoto. This ranged from physically laying bricks by the team who went out, to numerous ways of fundraising for the costs of that project. There is always a danger in church life of becoming too focused on our own concerns and we need to be enriched by, and involved with, the experience of others. In that regard, I am delighted to say that Harry Stevens has now arrived from The Gambia as our new Careforce volunteer, succeeding our beloved Godwin.

As well as contemplating the move from the church building, there is much else happening during this term. John Ryeland, from the Christian Healing Mission, is leading a course on the important subject of healing prayer on Wednesday evenings in October. If you’d like to learn how to listen to God and pray for healing, then come along. Talk to Susannah Steel for more details. As well as the usual pre-Christmas activities of Nativity services, Carol concerts and Christingle services, there will be another concert by Skolia on 14th December and two pastorate meetings are planned for 15th October and 3rd December. There is an evening of Scottish Dancing on 7th November.

There will be three times of prayer in the church at 7.00 p.m. on Sunday 14th September, 28th September and 12th October as we commit this term to God. We’ll be praying that God will be guiding us through these busy autumn months.

Yours

Mark