Category: Saint George’s latest news

We desperately need someone to look after and maintain our altar servers albs here at St Wilfrid`s.   If you can help with this please see David Hoad.

Sunday 26^th September 10:30am Mass. So far we have raised £65.50 towards our Harvest Festival and one of our charity’s – CAFOD. Thank you for all those who contributed so far, there will be a donation basket at the back of the Church. Please don’t forget to bring fresh produce before Sunday for our colourful display, which will be sold after Mass for our charities.

On Friday 8^th October at 12 noon we will be having a Parish Lunch at the Kings Head in Horsebridge. Two course OAP lunch £10. Buy your own drinks at the bar. MUST know numbers by Mon 4^th Oct please.  If you need a lift, please contact Joan – 07873390944. Thank You

Margaret Gearing’s Ashes will be buried at St George’s on Thursday 28th October after Mass.

St George’s table sale is being run by Children’s liturgy, suitable second-hand items to sell are needed, books, toys, puzzles, China etc. Please leave donations at the back of church clearly marked. Fundraising will be used for Church groups and social activities for the parish.

At St George’s we are getting into gear for this year’s Love In A Box campaign. There are leaflets and a small number of ready wrapped shoe boxes for collection at the back of the church, please help yourself.  For the month of October the sale table will have a range of little extras for you to take to “bolster your box” and add to your shoebox.  These are NOT for sale, help yourself. All boxes to be returned by Sunday 14th November please.  If you’re not able to make up a box yourself, you might consider making a donation towards the cost of transport as each lorry costs £4,000.

Thank you for your continued support, we are really able to make a great difference to the children in Romania who get our Christmas presents.

Are you a Snoopy fan? Sometimes he gives us a really good message. I have just read a message which I thought was really helpful. He said: ‘Keep looking up …….that’s the secret of life.” In the Book of Proverbs verse 25 says: “Keep your head up, your eyes straight ahead, and your focus fixed on what is in front of you.”

In Psalm 121 King David says in the first line: “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” When David became king, he wanted to remember that even in the darkest places, God was still there, leading him, protecting him, fulfilling the promise He had given him when he was a youth, even when it seemed impossible. There are other examples in the Bible where individuals lifted up their eyes and saw God. Three examples to illustrate this: First for the apostle Peter, the “hills” he looked to might have been a memory of the problems he had when he followed Jesus as a disciple, knowing that Jesus loved him and protected him and eventually filled him with His Holy Spirit to do miracles and preach with power. Secondly: For Jesus, the “hills” He looked to were the cross of Calvary that He had to endure for the joy that He knew was set before Him on the other side. Third: For Joseph of the book of Genesis, the “hills” he looked to in Chapters might have been a memory of his years in the dungeon, waiting for God’s purposes to be fulfilled.

Now I invite you to do something yourselves: Lift up your eyes to your own “hills.” What are your own hills? They might include your times of greatest darkness and despair, when it seemed that God had forgotten you, but when afterwards you could look back to see that He was really holding you. He was there.

There is no doubt, however, that if any one of us lifts up our eyes to the heavens we would see the same events that have always been there for us to see: the sunrise or sunset, the moon and the stars, clouds drifting across. Jesus saw them as did all people during their lives. King David wrote about 1000 years before Jesus “The heavens declare the glory of God”, so, wherever we live and whatever we are doing, always try to remember to do as Snoopy says “Keep looking up!”

Parliament in Your Parish – Fri 17 Sep 11-1 pm Parish Hall

We are delighted that our MP, Maria Caulfield, has agreed to come to St Thomas More Seaford on Friday 17 September to engage with us as Christians from the Lewes constituency on issues such as the causes of poverty, inequality and the climate emergency in anticipation of the COP 26 meeting in Glasgow in November.

Parliament in Your Parish is a CAFOD initiative responding to Pope Francis’s challenge in Fratelli tutti (2020) to Christians to ‘rethink the future of our common home’ in light of the global Covid pandemic. Members of Seaford, Lewes and Polegate parishes and other churches are also invited to come along. A Parliament in Your Parish meeting has taken place or is planned with MPs from over half the 26 constituencies in Arundel & Brighton diocese so far.

Please do put the date in your diaries — Fri 17 September, 11 am – 1 pm — and come along. Full briefing notes will be provided and non-verbal presence and support is welcomed along with those happy to ask questions or engage in discussion! Please let Vicky Cosstick know on [email protected] or 07798 803410 if you would like to come.

St George’s Food Bank donations – we are asking all parishioners to continue to support our local foodbank by bringing donations and leaving in the basket at the back of Church.  The September offerings will be taken away following Harvest Sunday on 26^th September and we hope to have plenty to give.  Items urgently required are: Tinned Meats/Fish, Jam, custard/rice pudding, Tinned fruit (not peaches), Crisps and Shampoo/Conditioner. 

Following on from last week:-

Where was the father? – the second instalment of last week’s story..

The father was about thirty feet away from the boy all through the night. He was in the forest, next to trees that sheltered him, and he watched his son, but he would not leave his son, because he knew the great danger and he knew that his boy could really have been destroyed by the wild animals in the forest.

But he stayed with him, but the boy never knew it, never thought of it. And so, when the little boy came home, he bragged to his brothers and sisters, “Yes, I have done this wonderful thing and it’s my honour and now I am a man in the tribe.” And they gave him a sword and they gave him a shield and everything.

Why do I tell that story?

What saved that little boy?

The presence of his father. The presence of his father shielded him, took care of him, without him even knowing it. But if it wasn’t for the presence of the father, terrible things could have happened to that child, and yet he himself never knew it. Now, if you think of that, you must remember that this is the presence of God among us. God is hidden, in a way, but not hidden. He is always there when we open our hearts to Him and ask.

But it is we who must search and we who must find and we who must strive with great honour and fall into the arms of a God who has always, always, taken care of us and will continue to take care of us all our lives.

Those are just two little examples. And what does it mean? It means that we are not alone, that God is with us and it is the presence of God that is with us. And then, one day in the not too distant future, Jesus will give us a sign and symbol that will be the best of all. And he will bring them, his little disciples, into the room and he will bless the bread and say, “This is me. This is myself. I give it to you. Take it and eat it.”

And he will bless the wine and say, “This is my blood poured out for your healing and your salvation. “Never again must you be afraid of the darkness. Never again must you walk away from what is your responsibility. Never again. “Why? “Because I am with you all days, even to the end of the world.”