The Holy Communion Services at St Stephen’s Church will be video taped and shared on YouTube.

The next services in September

Please remember that you need to book your place:for St Stephen’s with Lynn Mears (537190) and for St Leodegar’s with Joan Duberley (787801).

St Stephen’s Church on 27th September and St Leodegar’s Church on 4th October

We apologise for the late notice. We (PCC) have decided both for St Stephen’s and St Leodegar’s that this year we would like to make donations to our local food bank. The Church porches will be left open to allow you to drop off any donations you may have.

Checking the Foodbank website they currently need the following items: URGENTLY NEEDED ITEMS: TOOTHBRUSHES – URGENT, TAMPAX, SPONGE PUDDINGS, INSTANT MASH, TINNED FRUIT, NEWBORN AND SIZE 5 NAPPIES, TINNED GREEN BEANS, WASHING POWDER/LIQUID, DEODORANT. 

Dear Parents and Carers of Lighthouse and Solid Rock Youth Groups

I do hope you’re keeping well.

This email has two subjects… Virtual Youth Groups plus the monthly All Age Sunday Services are restarting on Sunday 13th Sept and priority booking is being given to families 🙂

Youth Groups

Understandably we are not currently able to run our usual youth groups as our young people come from various schools and year groups so we would be breaking many bubbles 🙁 

But instead we’re going to continue our fun virtual online youth groups but using Zoom this time.

Please note the new times and year groups.

Lighthouse is, 6.30pm till 7.20pm for school years 4 – 6

Solid Rock is, 7.30pm till 8.20pm for school years 7+

Both groups are on the following Wednesdays.

16-09

30-09

14-10

04-11

18-11

09-12

You can register your child as early as you like and then  I’ll email you the Zoom invite link a day or two before the session.

You only need to register your child’s interest once for the whole six sessions of the term. 

To register, all you need to do is reply to this email with your child’s name and year group. 

For any new young people who would like to join in, I do need a consent / registration for filled in, scanned and emailed to me.

I’m grateful to Andrea, Kate, Maddie and Natalie who are kindly co-hosting with me. 

Each young person will need a pen or pencil and paper. 

Try not to position your child with a window behind them, or else they’re just a silhouette and we can’t really see them.  

We will be using Zoom, so it does need downloading if you haven’t already.

There’s a few important safeguarding rules we’re needing to abide by as follows:

We can only include young people for whom I hold a registration and consent form.  

If your child would like to participate, please register them as above before 8am on the day of the session and I will email you the invite link. 

Sorry, no last minute joiners. I now have another job during the day, so I probably won’t have spare time before the sessions start. 

Your child / YP needs to be playing from a communal room in your home, not in their bedroom. 

You as their parent / carers don’t have to stay visibly present, but please stay in earshot so keep the door open if you’re in another room. 

You may have heard on the media that on occasions inappropriate material / content has been said or shared in such online group setups. We are keen to avoid any similar occurrences so if there’s anyone we leaders don’t recognise they will be removed from the ‘session’ or if there’s anything inappropriate said or shared we will remove them from the session and discuss later. Sorry this all sounds a bit sharp, but it’s just not possible to deal with issues discreetly whilst in a shared meeting room with other young people present. 

Lastly, please do not share the zoom link with others. All attendees need to receive the link from me.

Should you need any further info I look forward to hearing from you. 

All Age Family Church Services

Starting next Sunday 13th September I’m resuming leading the All Age Service at St Stephens Church 9.30am on the second Sunday of the month, and as usual I welcome any young helpers with readings etc. 

I’m afraid to say there are limited spaces due to social distancing etc, but the great news is that the Church Wardens want to give families priority. To book your family’s pew, please phone Lynn Mears on 01243 537190. It is necessary to wear face masks when inside the church. 

I repeat the All Age Service on the following Sunday (alternate months) at St Leodegars Church Hunston, booking through Joan Duberley on 01243 787801.

For more info on any of the above do get in touch.

Best wishes

Alistair

Alistair Ghinn,

07780 875837

The Holy Communion Services at St Stephen’s Church will be video taped and shared on YouTube.

13 September 2020
9:30am     All Age Worship in Mundham (see note further down in this email)
11:00am   Holy Communion in Hunston

Please remember that you need to book your place:for St Stephen’s with Lynn Mears (537190) and for St Leodegar’s with Joan Duberley (787801).

We are very happy to announce that Alistair Ghinn will be leading the All Age Service on the 2nd Sunday at St Stephen’ Church and the on the 3rd Sunday at St Leodegar’s Church, from September onwards.

Since having to book a place in church, we have had no families attending. It would be really lovely to have some families and younger children join us, at the All Age Worship services in particular.

Priority booking will be given to families with children for the All Age Services at St Stephen’s Church. We are looking forward to welcoming families back to church! Lynn will notify by Friday at the latest if your booking was successful or not.

You are also welcome to book for any of our other services too!

Please contact (for St Stephen’s) Lynn Mears (537190) and (for St Leodegar’s) Joan Duberley (787801).

The church leadership team

We are keen to have a MHWBC in St Stephen’s and St Leodegar’s.  This role has come about through a joint initiative by the Diocese and Together in Sussex. The easiest way to give details of this is to copy what their website says, as follows:-
“Introduction
Together in Sussex, a joint venture between the Diocese of Chichester and the Church Urban Fund has responded to the need to improve mental health awareness in our church communities by developing a new role – Mental Health and Wellbeing Contacts (MHWBC)
Role of MHWBC
The aim is that all churches become and stay a welcoming church to anyone experiencing mental health and wellbeing concerns.
This requires all church members to understand something about mental health and for any issues of stigma or discrimination to be sensitively addressed. The MHWBC will work with the church leadership team to ensure Mental Health is kept on the radar.
The MHWBC is not expected to address mental health issues themselves but to offer a listening ear, support the person and signpost them to other sources of help. The role of MHWBC does not include individual pastoral care, counselling and prayer ministry.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Contact will receive Mental Health First Aid Awareness Training and be supported in their role by Elle Weaver, Mental Health and Wellbeing Facilitator and others training providers.”
There is more information about this role plus many helpful resources  on their website  https://togetherinsussex.org.uk/
If you are interested, please contact a member of the Leadership Team (Lynn Mears, Robert Leeder, Joan Duberley, Peter sanders, Stephen Everard, Kat Walker).  You will need to complete an application form, which can be found on the website,  and to have the backing of the PCC.

Kat Walker

Although there is currently no date for our next Deanery Confirmation Service, I would be interested to hear from any young person or adult who would like to consider taking this step on their Christian journey. Confirmation is partly about taking on for ourselves the Christian vows often made on our behalf when we were babies and partly about the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit afresh as the Bishop lays his hands on you.
If you are interested or would like to find out more, please contact me on either jsne@talktalk.net or on 07407354021.

Thank you. Stephen Everard

The September 2020 issue of connect is available!

In spite of the reduced activities in the churches and villages, because of COVID, the magazine is still full of local information. There are reports from the churches and the parish councils, from local groups in the villages and the surrounding areas.

If you are not subscribing yet, please contact us so that you don’t miss out!

Advertising
We  have spaces available in the magazine for local companies who want to advertise their services and wares to our readership. Please contact us if you want more information!

Deadline for next issue
The deadline for submission for the October 2020 issue is coming up: 9 September.

editor.churches@hotmail.co.uk

The Gospel Choir can resume getting together and singing in the village hall. They are planning a session on Friday week.

Please contact Lynn Mears for more information or if you are interested in joining.

Remembrance Day
We have been talking to both churches who cannot see the restrictions placed on church services changing significantly before the end of the year. We would not want to be bringing significant numbers of people together to remember the fallen if the side effect is that someone else contracts COVID. We are therefore considering other options such as a service at the war memorial at 11:00 on Wednesday November 11th and will keep you informed.

Poppy Lunch
As well as being a great “Villages” social event, it is our one opportunity a year to raise funds for the Legion. It is therefore necessary to have a minimum number of attendees to cover costs and we set and normally achieve our target of 100. Due to social distancing rules this would not be possible in the Village Hall and our excellent helpers in the kitchen would also not be able work in a small space. It is therefore with great regret that the Lunch has had to be cancelled.

Poppy Appeal
The Legion HQ has determined that house to house collections are not possible due to social distancing so our 20 strong team of doorbell ringers will this year not be able to raise the significant funds they invariably achieve. The Legion is still looking at how to enable the public to donate and get their Poppies and this is likely to centre around tins being available at shops and pubs. Andy Forsyth