Summertime often brings a feeling of brightness, happiness and enjoyment with the longer daylight hours and more sunshine. Lots of us manage a holiday away but even if we are staying at home there is often the same feelings of relaxation with not as many commitments we might have during the rest of the year.

Though we are thankful to God every day for all his blessings and encouragement, in the Summer when we are more relaxed maybe we have more opportunity to thank Him for everything we have – family, friends, glorious weather, wonderful views and the love of Jesus. If we are one of those who benefits from these feelings of lightness and thankfulness it should not make us oblivious to those who, because of circumstances, still feel weighed down by life. Can you offer a little help by listening, by contributing in kind or financially? Our prayers of thankfulness need to have hands, feet and purses if our faith means anything.

We pray for those who live healthy and prosperous lives, asking that they may be thankful for the security that their health and wealth give them, and that they may show their gratitude for these gifts by using them to enrich the lives of those who find life a struggle. AMEN 

Services in July and August

Worship at 10.30am for July

7th – Revd T Nowell Holy Communion
14th – Revd T Nowell; 21st – Dr R Jackson
28th – Revd T Nowell Cafe Church

Worship at 10.30am for August
4th – Revd T Nowell Holy Communion
11th – Revd T Nowell
18th – Revd A Burrows
25th – Revd T Nowell Cafe Church

Dates for your Diary

Mon. 08 July – Women’s Circle – 7pm
Mon. 12 Aug. – Women’s Circle Planning meeting 7pm
Sat. 31 Aug – Men’s Coffee morning 10-11am
Mon. 09 Sept – Women’s Circle – 7pm

Environmental Concerns

Did you see Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall trying to address the problem of plastic? He encouraged the neighbours in one street to bring out all their plastic from their bathrooms and the amount was incredible. I’m sure we are the same with handwash, shampoo, body creams & lotions, cleaning products – nearly everything we use is in plastic that more often than not is not recyclable.

Have you written to any of the manufacturers to suggest or ask if there is any way they can use disposable containers? One thing that is hard to recycle are the plungers used on many products. Why not email or write and ask if an item can be made with an ordinary cap so we can re-use the plunger? As a nation we are becoming more aware of the alarming danger we are causing and we need to respond in as many ways as we can. Maybe you can think of other items we could suggest can be altered to save God’s wonderful world. 

Fundraising Updates

Anniversary Weekend

Thank you to everyone who supported and gave so generously to our Gift Day. We welcomed friends to our coffee morning on the Saturday and enjoyed our Service and lunch on the Sunday. The amount raised during our anniversary weekend of £2029.59 helps us keep our church open so we can show something of God’s love and care in and around our community, as well as supporting many other needs across our wider world and Christian family. As everyone knows, home essentials like light, heating, water, keep increasing and so do our church costs so thank you for your support.

Garden Party

Thank you to Lynne and Mick for hosting the annual garden party. The weather was fine, the garden was beautiful as always and the company was good. £124.00 was raised for church funds. 

Beevor Band Concert

Thank you to those who supported this lovely evening. £170 was collected for FiSH. The churches need to raise £3,000 for this charity to ensure these families can feed their children through the school holidays. The band was pleased to come and help and also to show us how they are encouraging folk to play an instrument and enjoy music, so though we didn’t have many in the audience we are most grateful for the band’s support. 

Other News

Women’s Circle

The group enjoyed lunch at Mill Lodge in June and heard our speaker from Baby’s Basket, tell us how appreciated the charity is in offering baby and hospital essentials to any parent having difficulty providing for the practical needs of their new baby. The cause much appreciated the gifts we supplied. All women are welcome to our friendly group.

Messy Church

Despite many of our helpers being unable to come and wondering whether we would have many folk to share with we ended up with 28 people, and despite the heavy rain! The notice that went round at school obviously had a good effect. So we thank God that He is on our side even if we feel we may be below par in our enthu- siasm. Thank you to everyone who helped to make our visitors welcome – they all seemed to enjoyed their sausage sandwiches and fruit. Our next Messy Church will be around harvest time on 28th September.

Closing Thoughts

Prayer is God’s initiative, a gift which enables us to be attentive to the presence of God in our lives and in the world. It is also a means of expressing what we believe about God and can prompt us to act to change the world as we respond to God’s love. (Taken from the Methodist Church website, encouraging us to ‘Pray without ceasing’ despite our own situation whether up or down.) 

Download a PDF copy of the newsletter

If you would like to download a PDF copy of the newsletter, you can do so here.