March 2006 Edition

Dear friends,

I want to use my letter this month to share with you some news about coming services.

Family Service.

We have at St Thomas, been used to a monthly Parade Service at which our uniformed organisations have joined us at our morning worship.

I would now like to extend this and encourage any child (and parents of course) to attend this service – and consequently in future we shall refer to it as the Family Service.

A new service book will be produced, which hopefully will be more child-friendly. It will contain ALL the words of the service, and should be a lot easier to follow.

Our choice of music will also reflect the needs of our children, and I will be encouraging input from the children themselves.

We will use this Service Book for the first time on Mothering Sunday, March 26^{th
at 9.45am.}

^{Some years ago, St Thomas’ Church hosted a Children’s Activity Club during the mornings of Holy Week. I would like to know if there is any support for doing this again this year?}

^{The mornings in question would be Monday 10th to Thursday 13th April from 10am to noon. (On Good Friday we will repeat our usual Stations of the Cross for Children).}

<sup>For such an initiative to work, we need the involvement of adults, and any arrangements made need to meet the requirement of the Church’s Child Protection Policy. I do not see this a child-minding service, but rather something that families might want to attend together.
Please let me know if you are interested.

Confirmation

As previously advised, the Confirmation Service this year will be held at St Ann, Belfield on Monday 3rd July at 7pm.
Will those interested please fill in a form, available at the back of church, and return it to me.
The dates and times of the Confirmation Classes will be notified in due course.</sup>

^{With every good blessing,}

                                                                        Graham

This Month's Readings

March 5th 1st Sunday of Lent                                 1 Peter 3:18-22                                Mark 1:9-15

March 12th 2nd Sunday of Lent                              Romans 4:13-25                              Mark 8:31-38

March 19th 3rd Sunday of Lent                               1 Corin 1:18-25                              John 2:13-22

March 26th 4th Sunday of Lent                                Ephes 2:1-10                                  John 3:14-21

April 2nd 5th Sunday of Lent                                   Hebrews 5:5-10                              John 12:20-33

Services
Wednesday March 1st                   ^{7.30pm Service of Holy Communion with Imposition of Ashes}