St Frideswide Day
Saturday 19 October 
The Priory, on which our Cathedral was built, was an important destination for medieval pilgrims.

On 19 October there will be a range of guided walks of varying lengths, bringing pilgrims into the city of Oxford from all points of the compass and all corners of the Diocese to a 4pm
St Frideswide Pilgrimage Service.

Website

Café Théologique

Zero Degrees Bar, Bridge St. Reading
All welcome, no charge, no booking

“Faith and Wisdom in Science: The Science-Religion ‘Conflict’ Lie”
Monday 7 October, 7.30pm, 
Tom McLeish FRS, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of York, will be exploring why science and faith aren’t in conflict.

“’We go to another world and God gives us his respect’:
Spirituality and People with Learning Disabilities”
Monday 4 November, 7.30pm,
Rachel Forrester-Jones, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bath whose research focuses on advancing the social inclusion of vulnerable adults through social networks and social support

SONNING   DEANERY   PRAYER   CYCLE
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No. 81                                                         September 2019

This month our special focus is on St Paul’s Wokingham, St Nicholas Embrook and Woosehill

 Please pray for:

Rector & Area Dean:  Rev’d Richard Lamey
Team Vicar:                      Rev’d Patrick Mukholi,
Assistant Priest:            Rev’d Judi Hattaway
Associate Priest:           Rev’d Jane Kraft
Church Wardens:         David Ruddock and Peter Wells
PCC Secretary:              Lesley Ruddock
Treasurer:                         Lyn Austen
Office Administrator:Louise Cole
Director of Music:       Louise Turner

The Community Church St Nicholas Emmbrook

Pro Wardens:               Liz Gallagher and Fiona Albinson
Secretary:                       Anne Armitage
Treasurer:                      Tony Roberts
Parish Pioneer:            Paul Armitage

Woosehill Community Church

Methodist Minister: Rev’d Catherine Bowstead
Methodist Preacher: Doreen Murgatroyd

In the Parishes please pray for:

• That the insights we learnt through the PMC process about each other and about our mission to the community will become the essence of our identity, enabling us to see God at work all around us
• Our new pastoral care groups at St Paul’s (called Tithings) will become a valued way of offering each other support and encouragement on the road as disciples
• For new leaders and volunteers to respond to God’s call on their lives
• For each Church to continue to look as if we believe what we sing, enjoy what we do and can’t imagine being anywhere else on a Sunday morning and during the week. That we are in the place God calls us to be and the places He sends us into in his name and in his Spirit.

In the Deanery please pray for:

• St Eligius Church, Alpha Course starting on September 24^th
• St John the Baptist Crowthorne, Christian Spirituality Course: Mondays Sept: 9,16, 23,30 Oct: 7,14,21.
• All young people starting new school, colleges, employment
• All our Churches as activities start up again after the break and that we all return refreshed and re-invigorated..

Hazel Berry:

A REFLECTION FOR THE DEANERY SYNOD AGM EUCHARIST
on Luke 5.1-11
June 25^th 2019

A good moment to think about what is a Deanery? And what is it for?

1)    The Deanery is a necessary legal and administrative function, a means of communication and connection between the parish and the Diocese, between the clergy and the Bishop.

2)    The Deanery is a reminder of the breadth of the Church of England in all of its range and adventure, that we are connected and united across different ethical positions and different ways of reading Scripture and listening to the voice and guidance of God. We do not get to choose who we worship next to Sunday by Sunday and we do not get to choose who else is an Anglican. The challenge in that is to make sure that we actually actively engage with each other and don’t leave those differences unspoken but dominant in the corner.

3)    The Deanery is a community of prayer and worship who support and encourage each other, and journey together-

e.g. Synod

• when someone local introduces an idea
• the prayer cycle
• the new support groups we are setting up of Wardens and Treasurers… all allow us to know that we don’t travel alone but are part of something bigger and broader and wider and more effective than just us. In some ways the Deanery is a local antidote to too much parochialism. It opens us up to new ideas and new possibilities and in that openness and potential God can work wonderfully.

4)    And in all of this, as the Church, we are called to let down our nets in deep water. At Diocesan Synod this month Bishop Steven gave an address on the reading we have just heard from Luke Chapter 5. He establishes two principles-

• that the call to let down our nets is from Christ himself and Christ alone,
• that letting down our nets will look different in every Deanery and parish. It will not be the same because every place is unique and particular and so is every Church community. Such difference is, to quote, “something to delight in for its own sake.”

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