The Magazine, March 2005 (Section 1)

Magazine Production Team
Deadline for April magazine: 15th March

Team News

Annual Parish Meeting
The Annual Parish Meeting is on Wednesday April 6th when we shall meet at 8pm in the Langley Hall. Please check the Electoral Roll at the back of church to see if your name is on it and the details are correct. The Annual Report will be published before Easter and Nigel would like all reports in the Parish Office by Friday 4th March. After that date, we cannot guarantee inclusion, so please send in a report to the office if you lead any parish organisation.

At the annual meeting we shall be paying tribute to Graham Dives who comes to the end of his 6 years as Parish Warden. We have one nomination as a successor but others are invited.

PCC
The PCC meets on Wednesday March 16 when we shall look at the accounts. One PCC member wrote to me after the last meeting saying 'I do believe that we, as a PCC, are in serious danger, in particular with regard to the current ongoing debate on our current financial position, of getting "bogged down" in the minutia, rather than focusing on the medium to long term solutions, whatever they may be.

I think, it is important that, you and your colleagues don't become to despondent by the current financial situation. I believe, this is an issue faced by the Church, in general, and it should be the responsibility of the PCC and the Parish to provide you with the appropriate "tools".

I believe that we had the makings of a strategy discussion: the catalyst being, the item on Funeral Arrangements which, if we "grasp the nettle" correctly, could lead, coupled with the finance debate, to a strategic debate on the Parishes mission. Have we thought about an Annual Parish Plan, or is this a bit too radical at this stage?’ This kind of response is gold dust and I thank God for so many of those who serve as PCC and DCC members. No doubt the PCC will make similar responses at their meeting.

Gambian School
Two years ago, Helen and I invited people to sponsor a child in a Gambian School. We visited the Revd J C Faye Memorial School, in Banjul, whose Head Teacher intended to offer bursaries to children who wanted to go to school but could not afford it. All children in The Gambia pay to go to school which is why only 60% go to school. Helen and I have often pondered over the best way to give aid - giving money to individuals is not a good idea, but to provide a guaranteed education is probably the best way. We asked for names in exchange for the £400 we gave the school, but the names never materialised! Like most African/third world countries, organisation and/or corruption is always present. It was disappointing, but last week the Head Teacher came specially to find us whilst we were there and amongst long explanations gave us all the names we needed, and the receipts given to the parents. They are clearly genuine and we will be happy to show these around. If you come to the Annual Meeting, Helen and I will do a five minute slot on the latest position. Inevitably, of course, the school want to know if we can continue and the cost per year for one child is about £40 - £50 depending on the age. If the original contributors would like to contact us, we will start matching children up and hopefully we can now take things forward. We also met with the Diocesan Director of Education and were most encouraged by our conversation with him....................and we also had a good holiday!

David

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News from Holy Trinity

Tsunami Concert
Thank you to all who helped with the Tsunami Concert. It was a wonderful occasion and the final total raised was £4500. The event, I think, showed Holy Trinity at its best and it was humbling to be part of a whole church event. To Graham, Geoffrey, Mark, Katie and Helen our special thanks, but it really was a magnificent team effort.

Counters
For 10 years now the two Johns, John Ward-Smith and John Haynes have been our 'counters'. Every Monday morning they lock themselves in the office and count the collection and then bank it. They have done such a professional job, discreetly and without fuss, so much so that I guess most of us are unaware of their work. They have reached the point now where they would like to pass the task to someone else, and I wonder if there are two people in our congregation who could spare an hour per week to do this vital task. Please have a word with me or John Ward-Smith for more details, and John of course would be glad to offer all the help he can

Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday is on March 6 and we shall have our traditional service then, which will be a Holy Communion Service, but also include the uniformed organisations.

Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is on March 20 and we shall again share with our friends from St Joseph's at the Bandstand for the Ministry of the Word.

Easter Services
The Easter Services are shown in the Parish diary in the centre pages. Again there will be cards with the details on to give to friends and family.

Annual Church Meeting
The Annual Church Meeting is on the Sunday after Easter, 3 April at 10am. We shall need to elect a DCC and PCC member. Please check the Electoral Roll at the back of church to see if your name is on it and the details correct.

Smartie Appeal
The 2005 Smartie Appeal has begun. Please fill your tubes with either 20p's or £1 coins and return them by Palm Sunday. Last year we raised £1300! I would like to acknowledge a most generous £3000 donation to our roof appeal - the donor wishes to remain anonymous but we are most grateful. Our architect will be giving us an estimate on the roof shortly and we shall know the full extent of what is in store for us soon.

David

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News from St Andrew's

Skittles Evening
The big match took place in January between Holy Trinity, Theale and St. Andrew's Priestwood. Geoff Borrowdale and his team from Theale led for the first two games before St.Andrew's thanks largely to Frank Lay produced a comeback that was almost as exciting as the Welsh penalty to defeat the English in Cardiff recently. The evening was a great success (in Theale and I believe in Cardiff) and 25 people from the parish with 15 from Theale enjoyed a superb pub meal. We are all looking forward to a return match.

CandleMass
Thank you to all those who supported the early morning Eucharist at St. Andrew's to mark the Presentation of Christ in The temple. Our next early morning service will be the 1st March to mark St.David's day.

Services for Lent.
Each Thursday at 7.15pm at St.Andrew's there is an opportunity to share in the devotional service of Stations of the Cross. A good number of people support this service which reminds us of the path that Christ took to the cross.

Lent Courses
Each Wednesday we are sharing with Shepherds lane Methodist Church the course 'Voices from the South'. The study challenges us to a greater understanding of poverty and development issues and an understanding of the
role we can all play in God's Kingdom. It is always good to share a simple meal and hold discussion with our friends from Bracknell Methodist church.

Ecclesiology Course
At the end of January we met to think about models of the church and styles of ministry. We began with discussion, then shared a meal and finished with a celebration of the Eucharist. By the time this article has been printed we will have met again at the end of February but we will be meeting again in March and April. For details watch the news in the weekly bulletin.

Heating News
St. Andrew's does have a good reputation as a welcoming building, and indeed congregation, but we can now offer that great luxury Heat! John McNeill our heating engineer has fitted a superb new boiler and has cleaned out the old system and radiators. We should have a warm and a more energy efficient building. The cost will be around the £5000 mark.

Fund Raising
As we have a large bill to pay for the heating system St. Andrew's congregation are focussing their minds to the issue of fund raising. After Easter we will start our 100 Club which will enable people to contribute to the church by paying £36 per year and at the same time be in with a chance
of winning a prize each month. We hope that people from around the parish will support the 100 Club.

Another fund raising event will be the visit of the Patrick Sheen Singers to St.Andrew's on the 9th April. We do hope that you will support this evening with this popular Welsh Choir.

The third of our fund raising ideas comes from Maggie and Colin Garton who will be organising a hymn sing and cream tea on the 3rd July at St. Andrew's.

Holy Week Services
 

Parish Outing 25th June 2005
We are hoping to confirm details in the near future for a parish trip to Worcester.

Betty Shorter
Meryl has written a piece giving thanks for the life of Betty her mother in this magazine. Just for me to write that Betty was a much loved member of
St. Andrew's for over 50 years. Thank you to the many people who came to celebrate her life at St. Andrew's on the 31st January. Betty lived a good Christian life and shared her hospitality and love of music with many people in Bracknell.
God Bless you Betty

Annual DCC Meeting
Tthis will take place after the Parish Eucharist on 3rd April.

Fr Jeremy

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News from St Paul's

Shared Meetings
Despite January being such a dull and dark month St Paul's have enjoyed two shared occasions, the first being the consultation for a closer relationship between the two congregations which ended with a bring and share lunch and
the second a splendid pancake party and beetle drive. This was well attended by a wide age range and after playing beetle drive (where the children were much the best players) we enjoyed lots of pancakes with a variety of fillings from chocolate to apple and raisin. A big thank you to Sarah Byrne who made over 250 pancakes.

Coffee and Cakes
On March 5 we have our regular coffee and cakes fund raiser and this too is a good social occasion. This time we have the local community policeman from 11am to 12 noon and this is also a cleanup day to keep the church and
surroundings clean and tidy.

Clowning Around
This half term sees the production "Clowning Around" by the young peoples’ drama group, who work very hard to produce a show in one week with great success.

Easter Services
Looking forward through Lent to Easter we will be having a joint service on Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday and a breakfast on Good Friday

Annual Meeting
The annual meeting follows shortly after Easter when we will be looking for a new district warden, a PCC member and a deanery synod representative so please consider these and speak to Catherine, Anne or Russell for more
information.

I have enjoyed being district warden over the last three years and found it a very rewarding experience.

Anne Wood

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Parish Register

Please remember them all in your prayers

Baptisms

We welcome into the God's family

Holy Trinity
Summer Louise Lowe
Summer Emma Sheppard
Kelly Marie Reid

St Andrew's
Lyndsey Robinson
Marcia Sheppard

Funerals

We commit to God's care

Holy Trinity

Dorothy Maton (Milly)	Aged 97
James Henness (Jim)	Aged 89
Harry Dixon	Aged 84
Robert Heath	Aged 75
Audrey Thompsett	Aged 74
Harry Bray	Aged 72
Paul Manning	Aged 30

St Andrew's

Ivy Budd	Aged 96
Betty Shorter	Aged 90
Cynthia Linford	Aged 76

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March Diary

This can be found in For your Diary...

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March Prayer Diary

This can be found in Prayer Diary

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Taizé Meditation

These meditations are meant as a way of seeking God in silence and prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a day, take a moment to read the Bible Passage with this short commentary and reflect on the questions which follow.

John 6:22-34

“The work of God is to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29). For John, faith is the heart of Christian life. Believing means trusting in Jesus, welcoming the mystery of his being. That explains why, in John’s Gospel, expressions like “recognize,” “welcome,” “see” and “come to” are synonyms for believing. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry; whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). The object of faith is the person Jesus, who comes to satisfy the deepest longings of human beings.

To believe, according to John, we need signs. Faith is awakened by sight. Seeing comes before believing. When Jesus awakens Lazarus from the dead, “many who had come and saw what Jesus had done believed in him” (John 11:45). When Peter and the disciple Jesus loved “saw” the empty tomb, they “believed” (John 20:8).

In the text from John, the crowd also saw a great sign, the multiplication of the loaves. Thinking that they had found the Messiah, they went looking for him. But even if the crowd saw a remarkable sign, the people did not understand its true meaning. Seeing is only a first step on the road that leads to faith. Step by step, Jesus will invite them not to stop on the way.

First of all, by going off into the hills when they come to try and make him king, Jesus wants them to see that he is not the Messiah they expect. Sometimes, what keeps us from believing is our preconceived ideas. Since Jesus does not react in the way they imagine, the crowd does not understand what he is doing.

Then, Jesus wants to help them recognize the true reason they are looking for him. The crowd did not understand that Jesus is the bread of life. They looked for him because they were hungry and were fed. What keeps us from believing is to be fascinated by the sign but unable to go beyond it. In faith we are always invited to take another step forward, to “work for the food that remains to eternal life.”

What “signs” have helped me to believe?

What nourishes and sustains my faith?

How do I understand these words of Jesus: “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry; whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”?

Take time at the end to pray, thanking God for his presence, asking for what you need for yourself, and for those things close to your heart.

Further information on Taizé can be obtained from the Community's website.

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