Leesfield Parish March 27th 2016

 Today we are admitting a large group of children to communion at each ofour churches. We welcome them on this the next stage of their Christian journey, and we thank Katie and Karen who have prepared the children for this step.

Exploring Prayer sessions will begin again on Wednesday March 30^th 7.30pm in the vicarage. This is more or less a ‘repeat’ of the sessions held last October, but people who attended then are most welcome again! There will be 5 or 6 sessions lasting around an hour. We will explore a variety of different ways of approaching prayer. They are stand alone sessions but please do attend as many as you can.

If you are interested in being Confirmed in July (24^th) please give your name to Edith or Ruth.  There are many adults in our congregations who are regular attenders……is this going to be the year you take this step?

Tickets are now on sale for the Big Band Gala Night on the 2nd July. £10 adults, £5 children (although probably only suitable for older children}, includes buffet supper. From the 20th April any tickets remaining will be made available through "Churches Together", and later to the general public, so to avoid disappointment it's best to buy your tickets early. There will only be 120 tickets in total because of the seating capacity at St. Edward's Hall, so if you are unable to come because of other commitments please don't buy a ticket as we would love to have a "full house" on the night. However, if you wish to support the event in another way, donations of cash or raffle prizes will be gratefully received.

Preparing for the work at St Thomas, we need to know who has keys to the church. A redistribution may be called for –and David still doesn’t have a key!  Could you please let Lesley or Edith know if you have a key, and if you don’t need it now could you return it?

Magazine  articles to paulmdent@gmail.com) please

Items for the newsletter to Edith by Wednesday eve please.

Wed Mar 30^th         Exploring Prayer  7.30pm Vicarage 1^st session

Sat April 2^nd             Coffee at 52 Spring Lane  10.30 to noon

Wed 6^th April           Exploring Prayer  2^nd session    7.30pm Vicarage

Thurs April 7^th          Ladies Group Celebration of Lady Day  7.30pm Library

Sun April 10^th          PCC meet straight after service at St Thomas to approve accounts

Wed  April 13^th       Exploring Prayer 3^rd session

Sat    April 16^th        Parish Social  St John’s hall in evening. Free! Details to follow

Wed  April 20^th      Exploring Prayer Vicarage 7.30pm

Sun April 24^th         Annual Parish Meeting  following Parish Service at St Thomas  

Wed 27^th April      Exploring Prayer   Vicarage 7.30pm

Thurs May 5^th          Ascension Day   Services at St Hugh’s 9.15am St Thomas’ 7.30pm

Sat May 7^th              Rose Queen crowning at St Agnes

                                   Wedding at St Thomas  1pm

Leesfield Parish Buildings Committee

At the March P.C.C. meeting we agreed to form a committee to deal with all aspects of maintenance of our Church premises.

Functions of the committee are expected to include:-

¨ Drawing up a maintenance plan for each Church building and ensuring that regular checks and tasks are carried out.

¨ Formulating and monitoring premises-related policies.

¨ Working from the priorities highlighted by the architect’s Quinquennial Report to keep the buildings in a good state of repair.

¨ Compiling and updating inventories of Church property.

¨ Reporting and making recommendations to the P.C.C.

¨ Dealing with insurers and making claims as required.

¨ Preparing Faculty applications for submission to the Diocese to obtain permission for repairs and alterations.

¨ Liaising with contractors and architects on planning any works and    during completion.

These functions are currently undertaken to a very limited degree by a small number of individuals. We would like to pool all available resources across the parish, share our knowledge and work as a team to ensure that our Churches are well-maintained, safe and comfortable places.

So all we need now is some people!

The Churchwardens would have to be on the Committee, but they are not necessarily equipped to deal with all aspects of its work and will require help and advice.  As well as people with some building knowledge we will have to have some with administrative skills to deal with the paperwork involved. Scheduled meetings would probably be no more than 4 each year, but       occasionally it may be necessary to call an emergency meeting.

Could you or anyone you know help?

The more volunteers we have, the lighter the workload becomes. You don’t need to be on the P.C.C., or even come to Church, you just have to want to preserve our lovely Churches for future generations. If you are interested please see Lesley at St. Thomas’ or Philip at St. Agnes’.

Leesfield Parish March 20th 2016

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. This is the most important week of the year for Christians, as we remember Jesus’ journey towards the cross and resurrection. Please try to attend as many of the extra services as you can this week. Details of all services are on the back of the news sheet, in the magazine and on the parish blogspot  -  leesfieldparish.blogspot.co.uk

If you would like to contribute to flowers at St Thomas for Easter, please give your donation to Audrey

Fundraising group meet on Tuesday in the library at 7pm…all interested welcome

Exploring Prayer sessions will begin again on Wednesday March 30^th 7.30pm in the vicarage. This is more or less a ‘repeat’ of the sessions held last October, but people who attended then are most welcome again! There will be 5 or 6 sessions lasting around an hour. We will explore a variety of different ways of approaching prayer. They are stand alone sessions but lease do attend as many as you can.

Please could everyone try to be in church at least a few minutes before the service starts, to encourage a prayerful atmosphere as we prepare for worship. Children will only be marked present if they are here before the service starts at St Thomas, or by 9.10am at St Agnes.

We are setting up a Buildings Committee –to care for both of our churches. If you have skills (not just practical – we need paperwork people too!), contacts and/or interest please let Lesley or Philip know.

The parish Electoral Roll needs to be updated in preparation for our Annual Church Meeting in April. Please check you are on it, and if not fill in a form.

Preparing for the work at St Thomas, we need to know who has keys to the church. A redistribution may be called for –and David still doesn’t have a key!  Could you please let Lesley or Edith know if you have a key, and if you don’t need it now could you return it?

If you are interested in being Confirmed in July please give your name to Edith or Ruth.  There are many adults in our congregations who are regular attenders……is this going to be the year you take this step?

Tickets are now on sale for the Big Band Gala Night on the 2nd July. £10 adults, £5 children (although probably only suitable for older children}, includes buffet supper.From the 20th April any tickets remaining will be made available through "Churches Together", and later to the general public, so to avoid disappointment it's best to buy your tickets early. There will only be 120 tickets in total because of the seating capacity at St. Edward's Hall, so if you are unable to come because of other commitments please don't buy a ticket as we would love to have a "full house" on the night. However, if you wish to support the event in another way, donations of cash or raffle prizes will be gratefully received.

Magazine  articles to paulmdent@gmail.com) please

Items for the newsletter to Edith by Wednesday eve please.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Thurs Mar 24^th        Maundy Thursday 7.30pm St Thomas

Fri  Mar 25^th             Good Friday  10.30am  St Thomas then in village   at 12.30

Sat Mar 26^th             Easter Vigil St Agnes  7.30pm

Sun Mar 27^th            Easter Day   Usual service times at both churches

Wed Mar 30^th         Exploring Prayer  7.30pm Vicarage 1^st session

Sat April 2^nd             Coffee at 52 Spring Lane  10.30 to noon

Wed 6^th April           Exploring Prayer  2^nd session    7.30pm Vicarage

Thurs April 7^th          Ladies Group Celebration of Lady Day  7.30pm Library

Sun April 10^th          PCC meet straight after service at St Thomas to approve accounts

Wed  April 13^th       Exploring Prayer 3^rd session

Sat    April 16^th        Parish Social  St John’s hall in evening. Free! Details to follow

Wed  April 20^th      Exploring Prayer

Sun April 24^th         Annual Parish Meeting  following Parish Service at St Thomas  

Thurs May 5^th          Ascension Day   Services at St Hugh’s 9.15am St Thomas’ 7.30pm

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER

Leesfield Parish March 13th 2016

This afternoon Bishop David will lead a service of Stations of the Cross at St Mary’s High Crompton, starting at 4pm. This is a deanery service – all are welcome.

PCC meeting  tomorrow, Monday 14^th March, 7pm in St Thomas church. Please will all members do their best to attend.

Tuesday March 15^th Final Lent lunch Zion Methodist Church 12 noon. All welcome!

Wednesday March 16^th  Churches Together AGM 7.30pm Zion Methodist Church. All welcome!

Thursday March 17^th Dementia Awareness Lees Library 7.30pm (use side entrance) This is organized by Ladies of Leesfield but all are welcome at this meeting. It is an important subject for all of us, and the session will be led by Rev J Callow and Rev B Christopher.

Rose Queen Dinner Dance Friday 17^th at the White Hart

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday

Please could everyone try to be in church at least a few minutes before the service starts, to encourage a prayerful atmosphere as we prepare for worship.

Children will only be marked present if they are here before the service starts at St Thomas, or by 9.10am at St Agnes.

The parish Electoral Roll needs to be updated in preparation for our Annual Church Meeting in April. If you live in the parish or attend our churches regularly and are 16 or over you are entitled to be on our electoral roll. Please check whether you are on the roll, and if not please fill in a form. Copies of the Electoral Roll and forms are available at the back of both churches.

If you are responsible for compiling a report for our APCM booklet and haven’t yet submitted your report can you please get this to Paul as a matter of urgency.

If you are interested in being Confirmed in July please give your name to Edith or Ruth.  There are many adults in our congregations who are regular attenders……is this going to be the year you take this step?

Please have a look our revamped Parish website - it's free! You can add your e-mail address to receive an e-mail whenever it's updated to make sure you don't miss anything. The web address is leesfieldparish.blogspot.co.uk  Many thanks to Judith and Liz for their work on this.

Magazine  articles to paulmdent@gmail.com) please

Items for the newsletter to Edith by Wednesday eve please.

 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Sun Mar 13^th            Deanery service - Stations of the Cross led by Bp David 4pm

                                   at St Mary’s High Crompton

                                   

Mon Mar 14^th          PCC  St Thomas 7pm

Wed Mar 16^th          Churches Together AGM  Zion Methodist  7.30pm

Thurs Mar 17^th        Ladies group Dementia Awareness session 7.30pm library

Fri Mar 18^th            Rose Queen Dinner Dance White Hart

Sun Mar 20^th            Palm Sunday –usual time services

Thurs Mar 24^th        Maundy Thursday 7.30pm St Thomas

Fri  Mar 25^th             Good Friday  10.30am  St Thomas then in village   at 12.30

Sat Mar 26^th             Easter Vigil St Agnes  7.30pm

Sun Mar 27^th            Easter Day   Usual service times at both churches

Wed Mar 30^th         Exploring Prayer  7.30pm Vicarage 1^st session

Please note Annual Parish Meeting is on April 24^th, directly after the service, at St Thomas’. This service will be a parish service (no service at St Agnes that day) and there will be no sermon. Please do your best to attend this important Parish meeting.

Leesfield Parish March 6th 2016

This week we have our DCC meetings, in preparation for the PCC meeting on March 14^th.

DCC meetings are open forums… open to all adults. Come along and share your ideas, ask questions, be involved in decisions. Don’t leave it to someone else!

St Thomas Monday 7pm

St Agnes    Wednesday 8pm.

Tuesday March 8th Lent lunch Zion Methodist Church 12 noon. All welcome!

Please could everyone try to be in church at least a few minutes before the service starts, to encourage a prayerful atmosphere as we prepare for worship.

Children will only be marked present if they are here before the service starts at St Thomas, or by 9.10am at St Agnes.

The parish Electoral Roll needs to be updated in preparation for our Annual Church Meeting in April. If you live in the parish or attend our churches regularly and are 16 or over you are entitled to be on our electoral roll. Please check whether you are on the roll, and if not please fill in a form. Copies of the Electoral Roll and forms are available at the back of both churches.

If you are responsible for compiling a report for our APCM booklet please get this to Paul as soon as you can, and certainly by March 12^th.

If you are interested in being Confirmed in July please give your name to Edith or Ruth.  There are many adults in our congregations who are regular attenders……is this going to be the year you take this step?

Our Parish website is being completely refreshed and updated by Judith. There are lots of things on there, including our weekly newsletters, excerpts from the monthly Parish magazine, the full Parish calendar and much more. Please have a look at it, it's free! You can add your e-mail address to receive an e-mail whenever it's updated to make sure you don't miss anything. The web address is leesfieldparish.blogspot.co.uk

Magazine  articles to paulmdent@gmail.com) please

Items for the newsletter to Edith by Wednesday eve please.

 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Mon Mar  7^th           St Thomas DCC 7pm in church

Wed Mar 9^th            St Agnes  DCC 8pm   school hall

Sun Mar 13^th            Deanery service - Stations of the Cross led by Bp David 4pm

                                   at St Mary’s High Crompton

                                   

Mon Mar 14^th          PCC  St Thomas 7pm

Wed Mar 16^th          Churches Together AGM  Zion Methodist  7.30pm

Thurs Mar 17^th        Ladies group Dementia Awareness session 7.30pm library

Fri Mar 18^th            Rose Queen Dinner Dance White Hart

Sun Mar 20^th            Palm Sunday –usual time services

Thurs Mar 24^th        Maundy Thursday 7.30pm St Thomas

Fri  Mar 25^th             Good Friday  10.30am  St Thomas then in village   at 12.30

Sat Mar 26^th             Easter Vigil St Agnes  7.30pm

Sun Mar 27^th            Easter Day   Usual service times at both churches

Wed Mar 30^th         Exploring Prayer  7.30pm Vicarage 1^st session