'Yes' or 'No'?
Yes or No to ‘Better Together’? What is the decision? No, not that referendum! (Although we will soon know what our northern cousins have decided to do!) But what about ‘better together‘ in Luton? In Stopsley? In a story Jesus told some complained ‘You have made them equal to us’. How dare he! Surely we are better than them! Are we offended by God’s grace, that includes everyone - or do we rejoice with the angels?.......
See Matthew 20:1-16 (p987) where Including is part of
A Life Worth Living. Do you feel included? You are! But who do you need to also include? How can you show it?
See you Sunday? (8:30am, 10am, 11:30am or 6:30pm) Either way, have a great weekend.
Here are some further details from this week's
STOPSLEY PARISH NEWS
the Newsheet of STOPSLEY PARISH CHURCH - ST THOMAS‘
SEEKING TO SHARE GOD’S LOVE to all
Headline News:
Harvest - Are You Thankful?
Harvest is on Sunday 5th Oct. StTs will be holding special services at 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am and 6:30pm. Why not invite someone to celebrate with us? As usual we shall be collecting food, especially tinned and other non-perishable produce, for the Foodbank and for any others in need or who would perhaps value a token of practical love. We shall also be collecting shoeboxes with gifts for those in need. Look out for further details in this newsheet and on the website.
Harvest is on Sunday 5th Oct. StTs will be holding special services at 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am and 6:30pm. Why not invite someone to celebrate with us? As usual we shall be collecting food, especially tinned and other non-perishable produce, for the Foodbank and for any others in need or who would perhaps value a token of practical love. We shall also be collecting shoeboxes with gifts for those in need. Look out for further details in this newsheet and on the website.
Season of Invitation - Who are You Going to Invite?At StTs we are very inviting! At least, we would like to invite people to join us and if they come we will make them very welcome. And, fortunately, we are entering a ‘Season of Invitation’ - Harvest, Remembrance & Commemoration, Advent & Christmas Tree Festival, Christmas and, finally, the New Year. All of these give us excellent sensitive opportunities to invite people to Church. Who will you invite? Experience shows that it sometimes takes a while for people to pluck up courage to say ‘yes!’. So it helps to be able to invite people to a few things - and these seasons give us some excellent opportunities quite close together. So ask people to more than one of these events. These events are very suitable to ask friends, neighbours and family members. So please start praying for the people you could to ask. We shall be issuing in church a prayer calendar and some special ‘invites’ to use when you ask people along. It sometimes helps to be able to hand an invite alongside your spoken ‘Would you like to come to this event at church with me?’ (For your information: at StTs we are going to hold ‘Back to Church Sunday’ in January as a New Year fresh start, rather than in September which some churches practice. We shall see how that works!) Time to start praying and inviting!
Calling All Babies and ToddlersWe have just the group for you and now have a new name - StT’s Baby and Toddler Group - mainly because our babies have turned into toddlers and we are getting some new babies coming along! We now are going to make a small charge of £1 per family to cover our costs.
It will now also have a more structured time:
It will now also have a more structured time:
9.30am Soft play area for babies
Toddler Toys
Creative Table
10.30am Picnic time
10.45am Singing and musical instruments
11am Home time
There will also be two parties:
Mini sparklers on 8th November 1-3pm cost £1.50
Christmas Party Sat 20 December 10-12am cost £2
Do You Care?We have a Care Team in Stopsley! Based at StTs they seek to provide care for anyone in need. Could you help? There is a meeting of the Care Team on Mon 22nd Sept at 8pm in the Church Hall.
Stopsley ‘Shining Star’!
StT’s churchwarden Steve Dolby has won the Community Champion of the Year award for his work with MNDA, Street pastors and StTs! Well done and arise Sir Steve!
StT’s churchwarden Steve Dolby has won the Community Champion of the Year award for his work with MNDA, Street pastors and StTs! Well done and arise Sir Steve!
Soup-er Servers Needed for HomelessA team of Stopsley people from StTs and other local churches serve soup to homeless people every Monday evening at the NOAH centre in Park Street. We now need some more helpers for this vital work especially as the evenings will soon grow colder. If you could help with this on a monthly basis (one Monday evening every month) please contact the Parish Office.
Support the Yoof in our TownLuton Churches Education Trust (LCET) annual service is on Sunday September 21st at 6:30pm at Stopsley Baptist Church. Join with Christians from around Luton to hear more about this exciting work. (There will not be an ‘official’ evening service that Sunday, so that we can attend the LCET service)
Ice Bucket Continues...The vicar, pastoral worker, a churchwarden and Chloe have now taken the ice bucket challenge in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) charity! It is rumoured there may be another contestant on Sunday 28th!
Could Counselling Help?
Sometimes talking to a trained counsellor can help with various issues in our lives. A new quality counselling service starts at StTs on Oct 1st for anyone in our community with our counsellor Sara Smith. If anyone would like to make an initial appointment to see if counselling might be helpful, please contact 01582 729194 or the vicar or pastoral worker for further details.
Sometimes talking to a trained counsellor can help with various issues in our lives. A new quality counselling service starts at StTs on Oct 1st for anyone in our community with our counsellor Sara Smith. If anyone would like to make an initial appointment to see if counselling might be helpful, please contact 01582 729194 or the vicar or pastoral worker for further details.
‘Man in a Shack’ - From Scotland to Wales.
Dave Hall, a member of Stopsley Striders Running Club, has reached (at the time of writing) Chepstow on the border between England and Wales, after starting from John O’Groats. Dave is running the length of the UK 1000 miles over 40 days! He is sleeping in a replica shack each night and running a marathon each day! Incredible! He is doing all this to raise money for very poor people in Sierra Leone. Support him via: www.maninashack.com
Dave Hall, a member of Stopsley Striders Running Club, has reached (at the time of writing) Chepstow on the border between England and Wales, after starting from John O’Groats. Dave is running the length of the UK 1000 miles over 40 days! He is sleeping in a replica shack each night and running a marathon each day! Incredible! He is doing all this to raise money for very poor people in Sierra Leone. Support him via: www.maninashack.com
Can you Cut Grass?
Thanks to those who helped mow the lawn in the churchyard this week. Join the Vicar in cutting some more grass on Wednesday 1st Oct morning anytime from about 8am onwards. It would be helpful to have a Saturday grass cutting session soon - could you volunteer to help organise this?
Thanks to those who helped mow the lawn in the churchyard this week. Join the Vicar in cutting some more grass on Wednesday 1st Oct morning anytime from about 8am onwards. It would be helpful to have a Saturday grass cutting session soon - could you volunteer to help organise this?
Sunday Club & Fiery Bushes!
Last week StTs Sunday Club made wonderful fiery bushes to remember the story of Moses. Now is a good time to invite new children, who are always welcome, to come along to Sunday Club. What will they do this week?
Last week StTs Sunday Club made wonderful fiery bushes to remember the story of Moses. Now is a good time to invite new children, who are always welcome, to come along to Sunday Club. What will they do this week?
Update from Vicar of Baghdad
Canon Andrew White (who was a college with our vicar) shares his news on http://frrme.org/canon-andrews-blog/ to help us pray for the crisis. ‘There are still hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced People who have been forced to move from Mosul and Nineveh. A large number of these people are Christians. Our work supporting these people providing relief has been huge. We have provided food, medical care, wheel chairs, baby’s cots and much more. We know though that with G-d’s help we will continue and still cope and move forwards and upwards. Everybody says there is no future or hope but we know that there is, We just don’t know what it is yet but soon we will. Blessings’
Canon Andrew White (who was a college with our vicar) shares his news on http://frrme.org/canon-andrews-blog/ to help us pray for the crisis. ‘There are still hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced People who have been forced to move from Mosul and Nineveh. A large number of these people are Christians. Our work supporting these people providing relief has been huge. We have provided food, medical care, wheel chairs, baby’s cots and much more. We know though that with G-d’s help we will continue and still cope and move forwards and upwards. Everybody says there is no future or hope but we know that there is, We just don’t know what it is yet but soon we will. Blessings’
Relay Well Done!Congratulations to all from StTs and Stopsley who completed the 24 hour ‘Relay for Life’ at Stockwood Park recently. A lot of money was raised, fun had and memories shared. Next year there will be a ‘StTs Tiger Team’!
Luton Town Centre Chaplaincy Service Invite
We would like to invite you to our Annual Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving for the work of the Luton Town Centre Chaplaincy to be held at 6 30 pm on Sunday 19th October 2014 at St Mary’s Church, Church Street, Luton LU1 3JF. We are looking forward to an exciting evening where we will be hearing stories from our Chaplains and those they work with. We will also be thanking God for what he has been doing in Luton through the work of the Chaplaincy, and giving people the opportunity to discover what it means to be a Town Centre Chaplain. Our main speaker for the evening will be Alan West from Luton Christian Fellowship. We really hope you will be able to join us for what promises to be an inspirational evening.
We would like to invite you to our Annual Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving for the work of the Luton Town Centre Chaplaincy to be held at 6 30 pm on Sunday 19th October 2014 at St Mary’s Church, Church Street, Luton LU1 3JF. We are looking forward to an exciting evening where we will be hearing stories from our Chaplains and those they work with. We will also be thanking God for what he has been doing in Luton through the work of the Chaplaincy, and giving people the opportunity to discover what it means to be a Town Centre Chaplain. Our main speaker for the evening will be Alan West from Luton Christian Fellowship. We really hope you will be able to join us for what promises to be an inspirational evening.
Stopsley Escapes Road Closures on Sun 26th Oct
October 26th is the date of the Luton Half Marathon. Road closures shouldn’t affect us in Stopsley too much unless you are to wanting to travel from elsewhere in Luton. There will be road closures in the town centre and Bushmead areas. The race starts at 10am. More details on www.luton.gov.uk
October 26th is the date of the Luton Half Marathon. Road closures shouldn’t affect us in Stopsley too much unless you are to wanting to travel from elsewhere in Luton. There will be road closures in the town centre and Bushmead areas. The race starts at 10am. More details on www.luton.gov.uk
It’s a Girl!Congrats to the Green family on the birth of Sophie last weekend.
Cuppa Tea Please Mate!We love our tea and coffee after our services at StTs! A big thank you to all who are involved in providing refreshments. We need some extra helpers on Sunday morning once a month to help serve tea and coffee. We also need someone to serve breakfast once a month about 9:15am. Contact the Vicar or Parish Office if you might be able to help. Cheers!
Mamma Mia!
Local charity for homeless young people LAMP is holding a Mediterranean-themed Movie Night showing the film ‘Mamma Mia’ on September 20th. at 7pm at LCF, Castle Street, Luton. Please come and help us raise funds and have a great night out at the same time. Tickets to be purchased in advance £10 adults, £5 concessions and under 18s (includes popcorn, soft drink and a raffle ticket).
Local charity for homeless young people LAMP is holding a Mediterranean-themed Movie Night showing the film ‘Mamma Mia’ on September 20th. at 7pm at LCF, Castle Street, Luton. Please come and help us raise funds and have a great night out at the same time. Tickets to be purchased in advance £10 adults, £5 concessions and under 18s (includes popcorn, soft drink and a raffle ticket).
Sew, Thanks to Jean!Thanks to Jean Phelps are due after she has repaired some robes for StTs. Thanks Jean!
‘Daily’ Morning Prayer has restarted
Our Morning Prayer has restarted after its summer break. Join us for prayer and Bible readings at 9:15am on Mon, Tues, Thurs in Church. The service lasts about 30 minutes. We also have Communion on Wednesdays at 9:45am, and Meditation on Wednesdays at 6:30pm. It would be lovely if Morning Prayer was everyday - if anyone is available to lead this on a Friday or Saturday please speak to the Vicar.
Our Morning Prayer has restarted after its summer break. Join us for prayer and Bible readings at 9:15am on Mon, Tues, Thurs in Church. The service lasts about 30 minutes. We also have Communion on Wednesdays at 9:45am, and Meditation on Wednesdays at 6:30pm. It would be lovely if Morning Prayer was everyday - if anyone is available to lead this on a Friday or Saturday please speak to the Vicar.
Ferrets Are Go!
There will be a Ferret Race Night in aid of mnda at Stopsley Working Men's Club On Friday 3rd October, Doors open 7pm, first race 8pm. Details from Steven "the ferret" Dolby.
There will be a Ferret Race Night in aid of mnda at Stopsley Working Men's Club On Friday 3rd October, Doors open 7pm, first race 8pm. Details from Steven "the ferret" Dolby.
Interesting Quote:
‘An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity’ Martin Luther King, Jr.
DATES FOR THE DIARY
- Sun 21 Sep, 6:30pm LCET Luton Churches Education Trust Annual Service at Stopsley Baptist Church
- Sat 27 Sep, 10-Noon Coffee Morning for Macmillan Nurses
- Wed 1 Oct, 12:30pm Parish Lunch
- Fri 3 Oct Harvest Supper
- Sat 4 Oct, 10-Noon Coffee Morning
- Sun 5 Oct Harvest Sunday
- Sat 11 Oct Games Night
- Sat 15 Nov Quiz Night
- Sat 22 Nov Bazaar
- Sat 6 / Sun 7 Dec Christmas Tree Festival
- Sat 13 Dec Christmas Meal
WEEKLY EVENTS:
Sunday Morning Services Rolling Worship
8:30am Communion 9:30am Breakfast
10am Communion 11am Coffee Time
11:30am Informal service
Sunday Evening Worship 6:30pm
Midweek Communion Wed, 9:45am
Community Eve Tues 6:30pm
Cafe Church Tue 8pm
Morning Prayers, 9:15am Mon, Tues & Thurs
Wednesday Prayers, 1pm in Church
Parish Office Mon -Thurs, 10am-Noon
Parent and Baby Group Mon 9.30-11am
Homeless Soup Kitchen Mon 6:30pm
Sewing Group Tue 1pm
Christian Meditation Wed 6:45pm
Scrabble Thurs 10am
Tent Project - weekly social, Thur 2pm
Choir Fri 6:30pm Music Group Fri 7:30pm
CAN WE HELP?
We would love to help! To contact our Vicar,
Pastoral Worker, Care Team, Wardens, Counsellor or Administrator please contact the Parish Office
01582 729194 office@stopsleyparish.org.uk
We would love to help! To contact our Vicar,
Pastoral Worker, Care Team, Wardens, Counsellor or Administrator please contact the Parish Office
01582 729194 office@stopsleyparish.org.uk
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THIS WEEK’S READINGS
Jonah 3:10-4:11 (p928), Matthew 20:1-16 (p987)
PLEASE PRAY FOR
Unwell:
Philip Francis, Dick Ward, Liz Fagan, Mary Barden, Liz Hughes, Nicole, Sally.
Some with Long-term Needs:
Seyan Tills, Marilyn Hosker, Peter Pullan, Kathleen Steventon, Craig
Those grieving for:
Michael Stock, William Weedon, Eric Clark, Judith Bosely, Constance Tomkins, Peggy Wallbank
More Info www.stopsleyparish.org.uk
Newsheets Online - via website or http://stopsleyvicar.blogspot.co.uk
Contact us: 01582 729194, office@stopsleyparish.org.uk
Have a great weekend!
GB!
Dave
