I am incredibly pleased to have been given the opportunity to take on house box network here at St. Mary’s; also, to be able to continue the tradition of selling The Children Society Christmas Cards here in the Church and at The Annual Christmas Fair.

It was such good fun to be involved with the Christingle preparation too, where all monies raised go to The Children’s Society.

HOUSE BOXES – This year there were 24 house boxes returned which once counted, amounted to £528.00. It has been a difficult time for the house boxes following the covid 19 pandemic but hopefully things will be getting back to “normal” for 2022.

I have spare boxes that are looking for a home so if anyone would like a house box to put their spare change into, please contact me on 01460 221356 and I will pop in to see you with a box or give it to you at church.

If any box holders find they no longer deal with cash, I have new Direct Debit forms, which I can give to anyone who would like to switch to this way of giving and it means that the donation will still be considered part of our network.

CHRISTMAS FAIR – we had a stall at the Christmas fair where we sold £118.25 worth of Christmas Cards which added to the grand total of £207.25 of cards sold this year.

 We also had stocking fillers for 50p each plus June brought along some lovely things to sell for the Children’s society. Both of these ventures raised £41 for The Children’s Society.

CHRISTMAS CARDS – This year I ordered 80 packs of cards on the Sale or Return order form. 59 packs were sold raising £207.25 for the Children Society.

DONATIONS – People were very generous with donations so a very big thank you goes to them.

CHRISTINGLE – There were a total of 47 money candles returned at the Christingle Services held on Christmas Eve which raised £123 plus a further £32 which had been donated after the event. Grand total of £157.

Monica

St. Mary’s Christian Meditation Group

Every Thursday at 7pm in St. Mary’s Church.

Our meetings are open to all; you do not need to be a member of St. Mary’s Church.

The meditation begins with a short reading and short Taize recording, followed by twenty minutes of silent contemplative prayer, also known as meditation.

If you would like to join us please let me know in order that I may keep you updated regarding venue.  If you have no experience of Christian meditation or you would like to discuss anything about this please feel free to contact me. Meanwhile I look forward to   welcoming you at our meetings.      Robin

Our February meeting was the A.G.M. and Wave of Prayer Service. Heather was unable to attend due to an operation on her hand, so we welcomed Lydia Munday to help with the meeting and the enrolment of two new members. Rita welcomed Lydia and everyone and explained to those present why Heather was not there, and it was suggested we pray for her during the wave of prayer (which we did).  During the A.G.M. we had an enrolment ceremony. We all renewed our commitment to Mothers’ Union with the two new members and they were presented with their certificate and a badge. We then we moved on to the wave of prayer written by the diocese.

To begin, we held an outline of a butterfly, and were asked to write one thing God has changed in our lives for which we were thankful. This led to a silence as we all thought what to write (maybe not so easy?).  Do you know that a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope? Then we started the wave of prayer entitled “Transforming Lives”.  The gospel reading from Luke 19 was the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus. After the reading we had a short discussion about the love of God for EVERYONE. We then moved on to pray for the link dioceses, False Bay in South Africa, Shinyanga in Tanzania, Umuahia and Ijebu in Nigeria, Vellore Church of South India, and Bath and Wells, read by different members. We finished the wave of prayer with the grace. Then we had tea enjoying some cakes that Pam had made. Our best wishes to Sylvia Barrett, our indoor member.

Hopefully we will see everyone at the March meeting when Rev Georgina Vye will be talking to us about Shrove Tuesday.

Rita Bagg

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We were very pleased to welcome Peter  to our meeting last month, who came to give a presentation on the work of the Rotary Club of Chard – Peter is now President.  A particular project they have been involved with for quite a while now is Rotary’s promise to the World to end polio. We saw a video showing mainly children suffering from polio and the effect it has on their lives and the whole community, mainly in Africa. The vaccination programme set up around the World, supported by Rotary, has worked well, and in some countries it has been completely eradicated.  There are still some areas affected and work continues to overcome this. We had a good question and answer session, and consequently learnt a lot about this horrible     disease, and the way Rotary works across the World.  Thank you very much Peter.

Unfortunately there were only a few of us able to attend, but we were pleased to welcome Anne Perez, the Parish Administrator, who came to join us after working all morning in the office.

A reminder that we shall be hosting the Deanery Advent Carol Service on Friday 10th December at 2.30pm followed by a Christmas tea in the hall.  We have decided that the donations from this will be given to the MU Emergency Relief Fund. Lydia will be bringing her usual Christmas Carol Quiz. Please come and bring your friends.

Best wishes to Sylvia – you are in our thoughts and prayers at this time.

Heather , Branch Leader