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Lent lunch

We had a lovely Lent Lunch last Saturday and raised over £250 for the Brunswick Hub, based in south Leamington. Among a wide range of services, they offer support to local people around health and wellbeing, bereavement and dementia, they run a Community Food Project, and offer support and resources for families and carers of those with additional needs. If you want to know more about them, their website is www.brunswickhlc.org.uk.Thank you to everyone who came and supported this event and to our Social Team who, as always, did us proud

​Dog Walkers Coffee Mornings return this month – this time on Saturday 20th April. If you’re out with your special furry friend that morning, do pop in and say hello.

Readers, Intercessors and Stewards – Geoff will be putting together the next rota very soon. If you are aware of any dates between May and August when you know you are not available, it would be really helpful if you could let him know as soon as possible.

Foodbank Donations

At the moment, the foodbank is short of cuppa soup, shampoo, razors & shaving gel and squash, but any donations are always welcome.

There is a box for donations at the back of church. May we also take this opportunity to thank those of you who bring donations for the local foodbank – please know that we don’t take your generosity for granted.

Churchyard Clearing mornings

The dates for churchyard clearing this year are:

• 13 th April
  
• 15 th June
  
• 17th August
  
• 19th October
  
• 14th December for a leaf clearing morning
  

Please put all these dates in your diaries and come along and help if you are able between 10.00am and 12.30pm (bring your own tools).

Churchyard mowing is now getting underway – may I remind those of you with graves in the churchyard that we ask you to only have one pot or container on each grave, to make life a little easier for our wonderful team of mowers, who have to move them (and put them back!) each time.

We may move excess pots onto the stone slabs by the war memorial and little memorial statues or crosses will be put in church for safe-keeping until you can collect them.

Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting will take place on Sunday 28th April after a shortened service of Matins – please stay and hear what our PCC have been doing on your behalf over the past year

The annual review of our Electoral Roll is taking place over the next few weeks, in preparation for our Annual Parochial Meeting at the end of April.  Membership of the roll allows you to vote at that meeting and is a formal way of recording your membership of St James. If you are already on the roll, there’s nothing you need to do. If you would like to join, and have been a member of the church for at least six months, speak to Claire Drage, our Electoral Roll Officer, by 9th April at the latest.

Join us for Coffee & Chat in the Parish Room, between 10.30am and 12.00 noon. We meet during the nursery school’s half-terms and holidays, so the dates for 2024 are:​

• May 29th
  
• July 31st
  
• August 28th
  
• October 30th
  

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​Thought for the month: Living in the light of Easter

Lord of all life and power,

who through the mighty resurrection of your Son

overcame the old order of sin and death

to make all things new in him:

grant that we, being dead to sin

and alive to you in Jesus Christ,

may reign with him in glory;

to whom with you and the Holy Spirit

be praise and honour, glory and might,

now and in all eternity.

Collect for Easter Sunday

Did you manage the challenge on the Lent Cube to stop and spend 5 minutes in God presence each day? I don’t know about you, but the last three months have felt particularly busy and it’s been quite difficult to stop and catch my breath some weeks. Much of it has been connected to church but not all, and fitting in the essential meetings and activities without losing contact with friends and family has been a challenge.

As I write this, we are heading into Holy Week, that whirlwind of emotions and events that take us through to Easter, and a week when there can be so much to do that it leave us very little space to stop and recognise the enormity of the message that Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that we may know eternal life with our God.

With so much to take in, it can be easy to reach Easter Sunday, breathe a sigh of relief and ‘switch off’. But the Sundays after Easter continue right through until mid-May.

The altar frontal will be white for celebration and we should still be rejoicing in the wonderful news that Christ is risen from the dead. Our readings throughout this time are full of hope for the future: the Acts of the Apostles encourage us to go out and share the good news of Jesus’ resurrection with the world around us, we get glimpses of the second coming in the book of Revelation, and reassurance from the risen Jesus in John’s gospel that he is still with us.

The theologian James Woodward says this:

‘Easter is about a God who refuses to give up on us, and that means many things. It means hoping against all hope in the most difficult parts of our lives and world. It means hope and love in our own lives as families and individuals. Easter has made a mark on human history that is indelible, through the Christ who encounters us in all our fragility every Easter and every morning and every day.’

(from ‘Journeying with Luke’ by James Woodward, Paula Gooder and Mark Pryce)

I think that’s very relevant for our world at the moment, and with so many wonderfully positive and affirming passages of scripture to encourage us in the coming weeks, we can all travel confidently on our journeys of faith, knowing that Jesus is there to help us to understand God’s purpose for our lives and to assure us that he is with us each and every day.

We are an Easter people. Over the coming weeks, let’s continue to celebrate the good news of the resurrection and may each of us know his love, renewal and forgiveness in our lives as we joyfully continue to proclaim ‘He is risen indeed! Alleluia!’

With love, Sue 

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Clergy

Revd. William Smith      316475      wms.smith@btinternet.com

Revd. Sue Fairhurst       735254      sue@fairhursts.me.uk

Revd Cerys Smith                          curate@lillingtonparishchurch.org

Churchwardens

Michael Rayner         831522

Carol Lane           427240

Website & emailwww.stjamesoldmilverton.co.ukinfo@stjamesoldmilverton.co.uk

​​​Parish News​

St James The Great

​Old Milverton, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire