Please find details below. We will keep the festival on Sunday 26th June with a Solemn Mass at 4pm rather than the normal 10am. There will be no 10am Mass that day. The preacher will be Canon Michael Shields SSC, some tim Vicar of St John’s, and the augmented choir will sing Mozart’s Mass K258.
Please find details of our Holy Week and Easter Services 2016. Please note Mass on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be at 7pm with a short address.
The latest edition of our parish magazine ‘About St John’s’ is now available. Just click on the image to go the correct page. This edition includes articles from Fr Robin on the recently restored bell and Fr Matthew on Lent. Marigold Seal writes about the original East w
indow and there is an account of our parish Panto back in January. There are also details of what is coming up in the next few months at St John’s.
The Church now finds itself in the season of Lent, a time when we remember Jesus going out into the desert for forty days and nights. We keep this season through the traditional means: Fasting, Almsgiving, and Prayer. Here at St John’s there are several opportunities to do this.
Stations of the Cross
These take place on Wednesdays at 7.30pm (6.30pm on 24th Feb) and 10.30am on Fridays, They last about 25 minutes and follow Jesus on his journey to calvary. Anyone is very welcome to join us.
Lent Group
This takes place on Thursday 17th, 25th Feb & 2nd & 9th of march. This year we are praying and meditating of the events of the Passion and Death of Jesus. There is soup at 8pm and a talk from 8.15pm till about 9pm. These take place the Clergy House parish room just off Allotment Lane.
Fasting Lunch
On Sunday 13th of March the Mother’s Union is holding a Lent Lunch after Mass on Sunday. This £5 for adults and £3 for children with all the money being raised going to charity. In addition on the 18th March St John’s will be hosting the North West fellowship for a service of prayer at 12noon and then a Lent lunch at 12.30pm.
Almsgiving
This year we continue in our support of the Additional Curates Society. ACS support and help fund Priests in poor parishes. Boxes are available at the back of Church for you to give your donations in.
Along with many Christians worldwide, and partially at the request of Bishop Norman of Richborough, St John’s is keeping year of Mercy. At our Christmas services we have been collecting. In total £1306 was raised. This will be split between Shelter, Crisis at Christmas, and the Church of England Children’s Society. Of course if you would like to increase these totals you are always welcome.
We are very conscious as we hear the Christmas story that it concerns a family who struggled to find anywhere appropriate to stay. To this end both Shelter and Crisis seem appropriate charities. Our Christingle and Children’s Nativity follows the old example of collecting for the work of the Church of England Children’s Society.
In a small way it is a good beginning to our keeping of the Year of Mercy, a reminder that it is not just ourselves that matter, but the needs of others.
Many thanks to all who gave.
The new edition of ‘About St John’s’ is now available online and in print. This magazine covers December and January. Catch up on the news of what is happening in the Church and parish. You just need to click on the image to get to the right page.
On Saturday the 26th of September, Fr Matthew Robinson was made Deacon at Rochester Cathedral. Fr Matthew has spent the last three months working in the parish as a lay pastoral assistant. He is now able to take up his formal role as Assistant-Curate in the parish.
Fr Matthew trained at St Stephen’s House, Oxford, under its present principal, Fr Robin Ward, sometime Vicar of St John’s. He will spend at least three years in the parish, God willing, being ordained to the Priesthood next Michaelmas.
On the Sunday morning after his ordination we celebrated with Prosecco and a cake, kindly provided by Fr Matthew & his family.
Fr Matthew is a great asset to our parish and we wish him all the best as our new Curate.
On Thursday 17th September we held our first Messy Church session for the year. In it we explored God’s love for us through Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. In series of activities we thought about the story. Coin rubbing allowed us to reflect on the Father allowing the son to have half of his fortune. A mock cocktail bar helped us think about the ‘wild’ time the Prodigal Son had. Pigswill jelly made us reflect on how desperate he must have been to ponder eating the food the pigs he cared for ate and pigs masks helped us remember the pigs he was reduced to caring for. A final collage of a farm covered in balloons, streamers, and party poppers, reminded of us of the Sons return home, and God’s unconditional love for us. We then went into Church to hear the parable more formally told, and to pray together. Afterwards supper consisted of sausages, chips and beans. Over thirty children and toddlers came along. Why not join us for the next session in December?
