The Parish of Flitwick
Church of England
Diocese of St Albans
News from the parish
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Baptism
Picnic Lunch
It’s two years since the Mothers’ Union restarted delivering anniversary cards to those who have been baptised in our church. Mostly they are children and they have cards on the first, second and third anniversaries and, where appropriate, we include information about Little Fishes and Sunday School. There have been adult baptisms and we have found suitable cards to take on their first anniversary. As part of our “outreach”, invitations will shortly be sent to these families to a picnic lunch on Sunday 6th July, starting at 1.00pm. Hopefully, we shall have an enjoyable time and, if successful, we shall regard this as a regular event.
Flora Harding
Branch Secretary
Tesco Collection 2008
The Friends have been allocated dates for a Tesco charity collection. These will be on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th September 2008. This will give us an opportunity to raise further money towards repairing the Chapter House roof which is in urgent need of attention.
To make full advantage of this collection, further volunteers are needed. If anyone can spare an hour to help with the collection, please contact Val Hyde on 01525-714718 to be included on the rota.
All help will be greatly appreciated to make this a successful fund raising event.
Churches Together at
the Mind Body and Soul Fair
Saturday April 19th – Sunday April 20th
How did this event go where the Churches Together in Ampthill and Flitwick ran a stall with helpers from members of the two Anglican, the Roman Catholic, the two Methodist Churches of Ampthill and Flitwick, as well as Ampthill Baptist Church.
The theme as last year was “The Church’s Ministry of Healing” using best Butler Bedfordshire honey on biscuits to make contact, a DVD on the life of Jesus, candles to light for prayer and a selection of the inspiring leaflets and cards given by the Evangelical Sisters of Mary at Radlett, and a Deck of playing cards (The Jesus Deck) each of which had a beautifully illustrated a text, 13 chosen from each gospel.
Many visitors to the fair stopped to look, some to engage in conversation or choose one or more of the leaflets, one or two accepted a gospel. People gave donations (not solicited).
Many people expressed their gladness to find a Christian presence at this peaceful event. There were stalls selling jewellery, semi sacred objects, stones and therapies of different kinds. There were other stalls offering healing. We pray that God will have used our stall to help others on a Christian journey. Certainly we all gained from being there.
The donations amounted to £23, which were made up to £75 and sent to the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary as a thank offering.
Anne Roby
From the Church Registers
May, June, July 2008
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Baptisms We welcome into God's family... |
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1st June |
Isla Elizabeth Cole |
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1st June |
Toby James Read |
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8th June |
Grace Alexandra Cook |
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22nd June |
Jack Scott Pater |
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22nd June |
Ffion Nancy Lorna Harris |
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6th July |
Liam Edward Johnson |
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6th July |
Daisy-Louise Wood |
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13th July |
Karenza Rose Hart |
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13th July |
Amelie May Williams |
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Weddings & Blessings Congratulations to... |
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There were no ceremonies in June |
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5th July |
Samuel James Stephen Price & Lisa Dawn Cooke |
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19th July |
David James Allen & Kirsty Elizabeth Broe |
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26th July |
Samuel John Fathers & Suzanne Evelyn Toben |
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Funerals Our thoughts and prayers for the families and friends of ... |
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Confirmation 2008
The
confirmation service took place on Wednesday,
11th June at 7.30pm and the Bishop of Bedford, Richard Inwood,
officiated. We welcomed three of our own candidates, one
adult from St Peter’s, Bedford, two young people from Eaton Bray and two
adults from Moggerhanger at the service. Please remember our own candidates in
your prayers ~ Sophie Kean, Imogen Diver and Natasha Abbott.
Those who attended the service said what a warm and welcoming atmosphere it was. Thank you to Jill who made a wonderful cake for the occasion and to Chris Thompson who made cards and bookmarks and ciaran Diver who also made some bookmarks for the candidates.
Revd. Michael Bradley
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Summer
Fete 2008
Well, what can we say? summer it certainly was not! Spring it may have been. Much needed rain decided to fall upon us for the second consecutive year forcing us from the outside, inside. This however, did not dampen the enthusiasm of a wonderful band of helpers co-ordinated by Val Hyde. The result was an amazing £837.27 making all our efforts and the support given by many others all very worthwhile. Helen Butler supplied the picture. Many thanks to everyone for a sterling effort. More pictures below.
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Family Fun Day
Saturday 12th July ~ 10.00am to 2.00pm
at Flitwick Methodist Church, Chapel Road, Flitwick
For more information, please telephone 01582-881058
Margaret Fletcher
Christian Aid Week 2008
The facts and figures
Thank you to all those who took part in this year’s collection in May which was very, very good! The collectors excelled themselves, the counters were praised for their efficiency and all who gave must have been generous.
The total collection for Ampthill, Flitton, Greenfield and Flitwick was £9,177.96 so with the £557.27 collected at Pentecost in the Park Service the wonderful total of £9,735.23 has been sent to Christian Aid from our area.
From our own church thirty four collectors, fourteen of them “new” this year, managed to collect in seventy five roads (with a range of 3-81 houses in each). Most rounds returned about half the envelopes with money in them. The best percentage collector had to be Eve Golding who collected in twelve envelopes from a close with only eleven houses- one had visitors when the intrepid Eve called for the envelope! Together we collected £1,775.47 which was £837.79 up on our collection in 2007.
The total for the whole of Flitwick was £4,267.88 and there are still roads which were not collected this year so maybe next year even more volunteers will come forward and we could collect £5,000 in 2009!!!
Thank you all for your contribution to this year’s effort. Well done.
Mary McKeand (Christian Aid Representative for Flitwick Parish Church)
The Great Stink!
2008 is the United Nations Year of Sanitation! Poverty will never be eradicated where people have no safe place to go to the toilet.
There is a global crisis in sanitation and it undermines all development efforts. In the world today there are 2.6 billion people who do not have a safe place to go to the toilet and 1.1 billion live without access to safe water. Every day 5,000 children die as a direct result of this, entirely preventable, public health situation.
In July Japan is hosting this year’s G8 Summit and we can join in with the call for sanitation and safe water for all the world’s people. The charity Water Aid is running a campaign called “The Great Stink” and you can log on at: www.endwaterpoverty.org/take_action to find out more and to add your name to the petition which they will be presenting at the G8 Summit.
Please pray for the world leaders at the G8, that they take good decisions for the world and that they truly commit to improving the lot of all.
Mary McKeand
PCC July 2008
Summary of a Meeting of the
Parochial Church Council
at the Chapter House, SSPP on
Monday 14th July 2008
Flitwick and District Stroke Club
Whether you are a stroke survivor yourself or involved as a carer, you will benefit from meeting others. So come along and join us and share your concerns, successes, and new ideas, which may also help others.
We have Guest Speakers, Quizzes, a Raffle, other activities, refreshments and a nice chat.
We meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 2pm at Ellenshaw Court, Hinksley Road, Flitwick.
For further information, please contact:
Bill Gray on 01525 872604 or John Farmer on 01525 717181
An invitation from
Flitwick Church Choir
Affiliated to Royal School of Church Music (RSCM)
New members always welcome
“That was amazing!”
“I’ve never experienced anything like that before”
“I got that top A!”
These are just a few of the comments made by our choir members as they prepared to leave St Albans Abbey after the Diocesan Choirs Festival Service on 17th May. Being part of a choir of nearly 300 singers and joining with the abbey choir, had certainly been an overwhelming experience for both singers and congregation alike.
This was also an extra special occasion for two of our choir members, Emily Diver and Elen Jones, who both recently passed their Dean’s Award examinations. They were presented with their awards by the Dean of St Albans during the service. These awards are equivalent to a national bronze medal in choral singing and musical knowledge.
Three members have also achieved the Light Blue singing level – Matthew Holman, Elizabeth Ronayne and Georgina Sidwick. These ribbons are presented in our own church.
After a busy few weeks with the Confirmation and Flower Festival services, the choir will be having a break from practising during the summer holidays. However, they will still be singing for Sunday services and for a number of weddings during the coming months
Choir practices this month will be on
Fridays 4th, 11th and 18th July: 7.15pm to 8.30pm
The new term will begin on Friday 5th September.
Children (aged 7 and over) and adults are welcome to join us at any of these practices. If you would like any more information, please contact Susan Sims on 404264.
For further details and enquiries, please contact:
Susan Sims (Organist/Choirmaster)
Telephone: 01525 404264
Email: susansims99@yahoo.co.uk
Sunday School
We welcome parents and want to include all of your family in the life of the church. St. Peter & St. Paul’s is definitely a church for all ages. We all want the very best for our children. It is important to us that they have the opportunity to grow, develop and achieve their full potential. The most important thing that you can give your child is the opportunity to learn about God and his love for them.
In the early years of a child’s life, they need this grounding in faith, which will be vital for them if they are to develop into happy and balanced adults. At St. Peter & St. Paul’s we will work in partnership with parents to do our best to enable children to be welcomed into the family of the church.
Sunday School is held in the Chapter House at 10.30am every Sunday, except the first Sunday of the month, which is Family Service. Children may be left and collected at 11:45 am.
Parents are more than welcome to stay for the church service during Sunday School.
Refreshments are available afterwards in the Chapter House.
For further information, please contact Rachel Jones on 01525~754290.
Wheelchair for Church Use
Thanks to the efforts of Rachel Thompson we now have the facility of a wheelchair. This can be used by anyone accessing the parish church premises. Rachel began her search on e-bay and was luckily outbid moments before a free one arrived on her doorstep. An answer to prayer indeed!
Other access facilities
We also have other facilities to enable access for everyone, namely a toilet and portable ramp, large print service and hymn books and a loop system for those with hearing aids. The church building has two steps which are no higher than 6 inches but access can be made without negotiating these through the main South Porch and Chapter House entrances.
There is always someone on hand to assist where necessary.
Wednesday Lunches
After
preparing and serving the lunches for over 20 years, three of the
helpers have now retired and are coming to the lunches as guests.
With only two helpers remaining it is now only possible to provide a
lunch once a month. (first Wednesday) Due to the rising costs of food
the charge for lunch will now be increased from £1,50 to £2.00.
Still very good value!
Joan Brown
Little Fishes
Little Fishes is a parent and toddler group that meets in the Chapter House at 10.00am to 11.30am on Mondays (term time) has some new members, mostly in the younger age bracket. Please come and join us.
We could do with additional help; if you enjoy being with young children (we do have fun), please give Anne a ring on 01525 718529 and come and see what we do.
NB: We shall not meet during Half Term weeks or School holidays
Phone Anne Roby on 01525 718529 if you want to know more.
Flitwick Bell Ringers
invite you to learn the art of bell ringing. Practices are held at Flitwick Parish Church every Friday from 7.45pm until 9.15pm. Adults and children* welcome. Contact Michael Trimm on 01525 720561.
*Please note that some smaller children may not be tall enough or strong enough to ring safely but we encourage children from around the age of 10 years old to come and have a go.
This page last updated 18/08/2008