Churches Together Polegate Willingdon and Jevington
Tea in the Tower will take place in the Saxon Tower of St. Andrew’s Church, Jevington, from 11.00 am until 4.00pm on June 29, August 10th and 31st. Visitors will be warmly welcomed to tea, coffee, homemade cakes and savouries. Teas are free, but donations will be very welcome to help in the maintenance of St. Andrews Church. This Norman church has been a place of worship for over 1000 years!
St George’s 1st Holy Communion: Last Sunday at St George’s Fr Chris Benyon conducted a lovely service for the 1st Holy Communion of Keon and Lily. Thank you to Fr Chris and thanks to all who contributed to the dignity and beauty of the service. This weekend they will celebrate again and enjoy a feast after Mass.
Humour for this week: The pastor grabbed the young man by the hand as he came out of the Church after the Easter Sunday Mass, and pulled him aside. “Young man”, he said to him, “you need to join the Army of the Lord!” The young man replied, “I’m already in the army of the Lord, Father”. The pastor questioned, “How come I don’t see you except as a Christmas Poinsettia and an Easter Lily?” He whispered back, “It’s because I’m in the Secret Service of Jesus”.
Knights of St Columba
This year the Order of the Knights of St Columba are celebrating their Centenary Year.
Just after the First World War a group of 24 Catholic gentlemen met and decided to form an organisation which would strive to serve the Church through its tenets of Charity, Unity and Fraternity. Currently they have around 4000 members in 300 locations throughout the UK.
This year the Order has (in conjunction with SPUC) distributed over 500,000 Rosary Cards in parishes all over the country. They would like to ask all parishioners to join themselves and SPUC in praying the Rosary throughout the year.
In addition, they would like to ask if any like-minded gentlemen would be willing to join us in the work that they do. For more information please go to www.ksc.org.uk
Deacon John Writes:
In a recent Gospel Jesus instructs the crowd that they should not babble like the pagans, repeating empty phrases. He is telling us that it is not how many words we use that is important but is about the love we show to God in all our everyday actions. So he gives us the Our Father as a model prayer. This prayer is in three parts. In the first part we place ourselves in the presence of God our Father and then there are two groups of petitions. The first group of three are for the glory of the Father, which draw us towards Him, and in the second group of four we present our needs to Him and commend ourselves to His grace.
One of these needs is ‘lead us not into temptation’, which Pope Francis last week allowed to be changed to ‘do not let us fall into temptation’. He went on to point out that it is us, as humans, who fall into temptation, rather than being led. I ask you to incorporate this change into the prayer. I realise that this is not easy to do as we have all been saying it for many years, but let us try to do it, at least for today.
It is worth mentioning that with the final “Amen,” which means, “So be it”, we state that we agree and believe all that is contained in the prayer that God has taught us.
Monday 8 July. You are invited to a Wine and Cheese Social from 6.30pm. At 7.30pm Deacon Paul Scholey, a deacon for over 22 years, with a background in housing and homelessness, will talk and ask the question ‘What is the purpose, goal and essential mission of the Church?’ What do Catholics and non-Catholics believe it to be? Venue: Christ the King Parish Room, 3 Princess Road, Eastbourne, BN23 6HT. Organised by Eastbourne and Bexhill Newman Association. Entrance free. All warmly welcome. Contact Alex 07957632208 or Edward 01424219788 or John 01323 726334
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This Sunday, Corpus Christi, Keon and Lily are making their 1st Holy Communion at St. George’s. They have been working through the book called “I Belong” since January, and are now prepared to join us fully in Holy Mass. There will be a breakfast party for them next Sunday 30th June all the children will be welcome to come and join in this festive occasion after Mass.
The Dementia Kaleidoscope: Helping to put the pieces together Individually and as a community we are all affected in some way by dementia – these days it is a very common disorder and many people are living with dementia in their own homes, with varying degrees of support from relatives and friends, or from voluntary organisations and churches. We are planning a day seminar with Louise Morse and Dr Jennifer Bute, who wrote the book “Dementia from the inside, a doctor’s personal journey of hope”. This will be on Saturday July 13th at Ripe (Hayton Baker Hall adjacent to the church). In addition to hearing from these two excellent speakers, we will welcome Revd Roger Hitchings, who will talk about “The Spiritual Dimension in Dementia”. The three speakers are provided by Pilgrims’ Friend Society. The seminar will run from 9.30 am to 3 pm, with a break for lunch (please bring your own!). It is open to anyone, men or women, church member and others. Please put the date in your diary. We shall need to know in advance (preferably by 30th June) the approximate numbers expected, so that we can ensure seating arrangements and refreshments (tea, coffee, fruit juice, and cake) are adequate. We shall request a donation of £10 per head to cover speakers’ travel expenses and hall booking fee etc. More information available and booking forms from Mrs Jane Anderson (Old Postman’s Cottage, Alciston, BN26 6UW), or from Dr Ruth Butlin ([email protected]). C Ruth Butlin (member of St John’s Church, Polegate)
Deacon John Writes:
I hope you like this story from India with its message at the end: An old man used to sit and pray every morning under a large tree on the bank of a river. One morning while he looked at the river flowing past, he noticed a large scorpion caught in the current, floating helplessly along. The roots of the tree went right into the river, and the scorpion got tangled up in them. The more it tried to struggle free, the more tangled up it became. Because it couldn’t help itself, the old man reached out his hand to free the captive scorpion. But as soon as he touched it, the scorpion lifted its tail, and stung him. The old man licked his hand, and then started to reach out to the scorpion again, to try to help free it. While he did this, a young man who was walking past, stopped to watch him. He said: “Don’t do that, you stupid old man! You’ll get stung! Why bother risk getting hurt in order to save an ugly, vicious creature?” The old man, holding his hand because of the pain, turned to the young man, and said: “You are right, I will probably get stung again, and it will hurt; I may get hurt so bad that I will die. But think of this: It is the nature of a scorpion to sting. Why should I make that the reason for giving up my own nature, which is to be kind and to help to forgive and to care?
