9th February 2025

By Justin Dyche in Sunday Service on 15 February 2025

Dear St Columba’s Family,

I hope you have all heard the news that Steve Scholes died on Tuesday. This was not the answer we were expecting or hoping for to our prayer last week, although Steve is now fully healed and enjoying a resurrection body. Please continue to pray for Sue. There is no date as yet for Steve’s funeral, which will be in church, I expect to be able to give details next week. In the meantime if you have any memories of Steve please do send them to me, as some people have already done.

I have also heard this week of the death of our former church member, Jane Inwood (“Tall Jane” as some people knew her NOT Jane Simpkin who will be reading in church tomorrow). Jane Inwood moved to Northampton several years ago and suffered from kidney failure, which was treated with dialysis, but she stopped going for dialysis and died as a result. Her funeral will be a simple Graveside ceremony at Shire Lodge on Tuesday 18th February at 11am, but this will be followed by an informal Celebration of her life in St Columba’s at 11.30, followed by refreshments. I would encourage all those who knew Jane to join us for this, when we will also welcome many of her former carers and friends from the local community.

SUNDAY SERVICES
On Sunday there will be two services and a Prayer Meeting as follows:
10.30am HOLY COMMUNION at St Columba’s with ENERGIZE groups for children and young people. I will do my best to make sure the livestream happens again for this service, there was not even a recording of last week’s service I’m afraid. The link for tomorrow is:
https://youtube.com/live/N5duMkmzSV8?feature=share
3pm FAMILY SERVICE in Rockingham Village Hall.
6pm PRAYER MEETING at St Columba’s. This will be in the Office so please use the Side Door to enter the church.

ELECTORAL ROLL
Every six years we have to prepare a completely new Church Electoral Roll (our membership list) rather than simply revising the existing roll. This means that everyone who would like to be included on the Electoral Roll needs to complete a new application form. This will mean you have a vote at our Annual Meeting on 16th March (in the Hall after the 10.30 service and followed by a hot lunch). To make this as easy as possible we will be handing out forms at services and giving people time to complete them during the service, so they can be collected in before you leave. We will also contact anyone who is unable to be in church at the present time to make sure that they are included on the new Roll. Any questions about this please email ianpullinger@btinternet.com.

EVENTS GROUP
The Events Group are carrying out a survey asking the church family what events they would like the Events Group to organise. Please take some time to complete this survey and do support the events that are organised during the coming year.

AFTERNOON TEA
The Ladies Afternoon Tea will be happening on Friday 14th February at 3pm in the Church Hall. All ladies welcome for tea, sandwiches, scones, cakes and conversation.

NEXT SUNDAY
On Sunday 16th February there will be a service of HOLY COMMUNION at 10.30am in St Columba’s with ENERGIZE groups for children and young people. In the evening we will have the PRAYER MEETING at 6pm.

CHARITY OF THE WEEK – Mercy Ships
The latest charity that St Columba’s support and that we are praying for this week is MERCY SHIPS, a faith-based international development organisation that deploys hospital ships to some of the poorest countries in the world, delivering vital, free healthcare to people in desperate need. Conditions requiring surgical treatment kill more people in low-income countries than HIV/Aids, TB and malaria combined. Globally, five billion people have no access to safe, affordable surgery when they need it. To achieve this, Mercy Ships delivers a customised five-year partnership model with every country it is invited to support. Relationships are built with the national government and ministry of health, so that the needs of each country are met. In this way, Mercy Ships doesn’t just address the immediate need on the ground, but also works to strengthen the country’s healthcare systems and drive policy change. The aim is to tackle the root causes of the problems rather than just the consequences. Find out more at: https://www.mercyships.org.uk/

Every blessing to you all.

Ian

01536 400225
07903 644609