Day: 21 May 2022

15th May 2022

By Kevin Montgomery in Sunday Service on 21 May 2022

Hello everyone,

Another bumper email this week so do settle down to read about what is going on in the life of StColumba’s. 

SUNDAY’S SERVICE

We are looking forward to gathering in church tomorrow for a service of Morning Worship at 10.30am led by David Bavin and with my latest sermon from the book of Ezra. We will have ENERGIZE groups for children and young people as well. For those unable to be in church you can watch an online version above. I’m sorry there is no PDF of the service this week.

HOPE INTO ACTION PRAYER MEETING

We will be meeting on Sunday evening for an hour of prayer from 6pm. This is not limited to HIA so do come along if you have any prayer requests or thanksgivings you would like to share. There won’t be a Prayer Meeting on Sunday 22nd because of a special service in town, see below.

MISSION NEWS

Here is the latest news from HOPE FROM ABOVE in Australia. Don’t forget Tim & Carol Derbyshire, who work with Hope from Above, will be with us at St Columba’s on Sunday 12th June.  We have also received a letter from CMS this week thanking us for the donation we made in support of M&H who are working in North Africa. Their latest Prayer Letter is on display at the back of church – for security reasons we are unable to copy this or attach to an email, so please do look for it at the back of church. We look forward to welcoming M&H and their family to St Columba’s at the end of July. 

LODGE PARK SCHOOL INVITES YOU TO THEIR JUBILEE TEA – Wednesday 25th May

As some of you know I have been visiting Lodge Park School during their lunch break most weeks of this school year as well as making some short films that they have watched during their Tutor Time. They have asked me if I know anyone who would like to join them for an AFTERNOON TEA in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on Wednesday 25th May. Please let me know if you would like to come along and I will book you in.

VOLUNTEERS

Thank you to all those people who signed up last week to help as welcomers or with refreshments or with our Jubilee Celebrations. There is still room for more people to offer their services and the sheets will be available at the back of church again tomorrow.

PUZZLES

Steve’s 76th edition of Puzzles & Other Stuff is attached. He warns that you will need a tissue handy for the story of Bob!

NEXT SUNDAY

There is a Communion service at Rockingham at 9am, and a Morning Worship service at St Columba’s at 10.30am with Energize groups. 

UNITED PRAYER FOR CORBY next Sunday at 6pm

The Corby churches are invited to join together to pray for our town during the visit of the Knife Angel. We will be gathering at the statue at 6pm to ask God to bless and protect the people of Corby. 

AND FINALLY

A couple of weeks ago in our All age Worship we considered which celebrities were likely to be or become Christians. Of course, we quickly learnt that anyone can become a Christian. However mostpeople thought the Kardashians would be on the “not likely” list, so I had to smile when Premier News produced an article titled “The Kardashians: The Christian faith of the world’s most famous family”! You can read the story here – and you could also use it as a conversations starter with anyone you know who is a fan! 

May God bless you all in the coming week

Ian

8th May 2022

By Kevin Montgomery in Sunday Service on 21 May 2022

Dear Friends,

Welcome to another Saturday email and an invitation to a rather special service tomorrow at 10.30am when we will be welcoming some of Agnes Dunn’s family to join us as we dedicate a new banner they have donated to the church in memory of Agnes.

We will also have what looks like a very interesting sermon from David Bavin and a celebration of Holy Communion, as well as ENERGIZE groups for our children and young people.

Following the PCC meeting last week it was decided that with the fall in Covid infections we should no longer ask people to wear face coverings at services, but encourage anyone who would like to wear one to do so. We have also put more chairs back in church so there is less social distancing, apart from the chairs closest to the walls – please leave these for people who would like to maintain some social distance. In Communion services we will continue to share bread and wine together for the time being. 
We also felt that now is the time to re-introduce a team of welcomers before the service and refreshments afterwards, but we can only do these things if we have VOLUNTEERS to do them, so please do sign up when you come into church, otherwise there will be no refreshments. 

For those who can’t be with us in a church tomorrow you can watch a version of the service on youtube
and here is a PDF of the service as well.

SPRING HARVEST NEWS

This week’s Songs of Praise was filmed at Spring Harvest in Minehead when some of us were there so do watch at 1.20pm on Sunday and see if you can spot any familiar faces. We have the first Spring Harvest stories in our service tomorrow as well. Those people who have signed up to Spring HarvestHOME may be interested to know that all the material will continue to be availabel until 22nd May so more time to catch up on things you missed.

The HOPE INTO ACTION Prayer Meeting will happen at 6pm tomorrow evening in church.

JUBILEE CELEBRATION Sunday 5th JuneWe need lots of VOLUNTEERS to help with this day of activities including people to:make cakes in advance, serve tea and cake on the day, welcome people to the service/lunch,supervise family fun games, help with the BIG LUNCH Please sign up on the sheets in church or by replying to this email.

There is a bumper edition of PUZZLES & OTHER STUFF from Steve here, complete with a new Colour by Numbers picture. A prize awaits the first person to complete this and send to me (by email would be fastest but you can hand to me in church if you prefer).

NEXT SUNDAY

We have a service of MORNING WORSHIP at St Columba’s at 10.30am with the latest sermon in the series on Ezra.

May God be with you all in the week ahead,
Ian

01536 400225

07903 644609

1st May 2022

By Kevin Montgomery in Sunday Service on 21 May 2022

Hello again everyone, 

Sorry this email is rather late coming out. Part of the reason is that I enjoyed a very good Men’s Group breakfast this morning, with good food, good company and good music! We have our next meeting at 7.30pm on Thursday 19th May to which all men are warmly invited. 

SUNDAY’S SERVICE

I hope you have all had a good week and are enjoying the sunny start to the Bank Holiday weekend. Tomorrow the weather does not promise to be as good, so what better way to start the day than in church for our ALL AGE WORSHIP at 10.30am. Younger children are invited to bring any ride on cars, bikes, scooters etc ready to parade in at the start of the service – all will be explained! For those who are not able to be in church you can watch a slightly less energetic version of the service. There is also an even less energetic PDF of the service here! 

PCC on WEDNESDAYOn Wednesday next week the PCC will be meeting and among other business will be discussing our ongoing Covid measures, face coverings and social distancing for example. If you have any views about these please do speak with me or any PCC member before Wednesday. We will also be discussing our plans for celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on Sunday 5th June. More details will be available shortly but the outline for the day is as follows:11am Celebration Service, hopefully outside the church,12 noon BIG Community Lunch which we are providing for 200 people (this is a great opportunity to invite people to join us for worship and FREE food!), then in the afternoon we are planning a programme of entertainment, again mostly outside the church (weather permitting). This will be the last meeting of the PCC before our re-arranged Annual Meeting on Sunday 22nd May. 

THIS WEEKWe have our regular HOPE INTO ACTION Prayer Meeting on Sunday at 6pm – we pray about many other concerns as well as about our HIA house so do come along if you would like to spend some time in prayer. 

On Friday at 10.30am in church we have the funeral of Mandy Niemandt’s dad, Alfie, and it would be great if folk from church could come along and support Mandy and Riaan. 

Next Sunday we have a Communion service at 10.30am at St Columba’s, with ENERGIZE groups for children and young people. In the afternoon at 3pm there is a Family Service at Rockingham. 

Steve has said that this week’s puzzles will be delayed so I will send them out separately so as not to delay this message. 

May God bless you all in this coming week. 

Ian 

01536 400225

07903 644609