Author: Peter Wells

No.112 April 2022

This month our focus is on St Andrew’s Sonning, Charvil and Sonning Eye

Please pray for:
Vicar:                                     Revd Jamie Taylor

Associate Vicar:                 Revd Kate Toogood

Youth Minister:                   Chris West

LLM:                                       Bob Peters

Wardens:                              Liz Nelson and Stuart Bowman

Parish administrator:        Hilary Rennie

Director of Music:               Hannah Towndrow

Parish Magazine Editor:  Bob Peters

In the Parish, please pray for:

• The three services we hold, 8am BCP, 10.30am family worship and our monthly Evensong service.
• The older members of the congregation and the Rendezvous Club.
• Messy Church for local families
• The Sunday Club for 5-11’s.
• STAY on Friday youth club for teens.
• STAY on Sunday Youth Group for teens.
• STAY schools work, including mentoring & assemblies.
• The new Alpha Course starting after Easter.
• Confirmation classes starting in September. 
• The detached youth work project in Charvil, under the leadership of Chris West.
• The newly established choral foundation, recruiting 4 choral scholars and an assistant      organist in the coming months.
• Continued protection of the team’s health.

In the Deanery we pray for:

• All Saints Wokingham on the verge of the re-ordering works starting at the end of March, for the church community worshiping in The Cornerstone centre for 7 months; and for all those involved in the works on the church building.
• Crowthorne, St Sebastian’s and Winnersh and Bearwood, all continuing in vacancy.
• Joel Knight as he moves to Wokingham to become Minister at Christ Church, Wokingham.
• Those Deanery clergy living with Long Covid.
• That the rest of Lent, will be a challenging and affirming time for all of us.
• All our Holy Week Services.
• A joyful Eastertide.

In the wider world we pray for:

• The people of Ukraine, those remaining there in terror and those seeking to leave.
• All relief agencies; those working on the borders between Ukraine and their neighbours and relief agencies in the receiving countries.
• That the countries receiving refugees from Ukraine will treat them with the respect and compassion they would expect if they were forced into the same situation.

Heavenly Father,
whose children suffered at the hands of Herod,
though they had done no wrong;
by the suffering of your Son
and by the innocence of our lives
frustrate all evil designs
and establish your reign of justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.           Amen

[Collect for The Holy Innocents’ Day, The Daily Office SSF]

No. 111 March 2022

This month our focus is on St Michael and All Angels, Sandhurst.

Please pray for:
Rector:                                  Revd John Castle
Associate Ministers:        Revd John White and Revd Jane Kraft
Wardens:                              Catherine Wilkins and Emma Hodge,
Families Worker:                Sarah Bishop
Youth worker:                     Mike Gower

In the Parish, please pray for:

• Revd John Castle as he prepares for his sabbatical at the end of April.
• Emma Hodge giving thanks for her hard work in the role of warden and prayer and that we will find a replacement.
• Our PCC and our upcoming APCM on 20th April.
• Our new Inter-generational ‘Churches Together’fourth Sunday Service.
• All outreach activities and those who use them, including Baby & Toddler Time, Knit & Natter & Dream Big Youth Club.
• The charities that we have planted and continue to support and those that use them, including The Sandhurst Counselling Service and Sandhurst Youth.
• The growth and development in all our youth work including Kidz Church and Reach.
• The group going to Spring Harvest, and those who are carrying on the services in holy week in Sandhurst.
• And give thanks for members of churches from Sandhurst and Crowthorne coming together to prepare for the performance of the mini-musical “Jerusalem Joy” on Palm Sunday evening.

In the Deanery, please pray for:

• The parishes in vacancy (Crowthorne, Winnersh and Bearwood and St Sebastians); for all those who are stepping up to take on new responsibilities and for all those involved in thinking about the next stage for those parishes.
• All Saints Wokingham for a good start to the re-ordering as the contractors begin work and a smooth transition to The Cornerstone for Sunday worship.
• Bishop Steven’s visit to the Deanery on March 1^st. The meeting for clergy in the afternoon at Yeldall Manor and the evening meeting for Church members at the Whitty Theatre, Luckley House School; a talk and opportunity to ask questions.
• All study and meditation groups and special services as we observe Lent in our parishes and Deanery.

And as we pray for our world:

Creation’s Cross

We, your people come.
We, who crucify this world,
stripping bare its soil,
crowning it with a wreath of broken trees.
Its air breathes painfully,
its waters weep for the folly that poisons them, Its creatures bleed.
We have eaten and drunk of life’s body.
Heirs of all,
we have sold our world.
Thirty pieces of silver is our price. Loudly declaring our love,
we have denied our Lord.
We are Judas,
We are Peter.
We are the cross of all creation.

 [From: Palmer, Martin. (1993). Living Christianity. Rockport, Mass : Element]