Friends of St Thomas a Becket CP School….. Calling all businesses…. Do you own or work for a business which might be interested in supporting us by way of a Christmas raffle prize donation? If so, please get in touch via email [email protected]
All donations will be accredited to the sponsor. Thank you in advance from all at Friends of St Thomas a Becket CP School.
Some good news that was brought to my attention by Joe Roberts.
How do they make Olympic medals from unwanted phones and electronics? This web link will show a short video: https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/olympics-medals-recycled-gold-silver-ve50222a5?amp
A behind-the-scenes look has shown how Olympic Tokyo 2020 medals are made from recycled smartphones and electronic devices. It is the first time in history that the Olympic and Paralympic medals have been made using recycled metals.
“Approximately 5,000 medals have been produced from small electronic devices that were contributed by people all over Japan,” the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games wrote.
“We hope that our project to recycle small consumer electronics and our efforts to contribute to an environmentally friendly, sustainable society will become a legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Games.”
It is now the month of November so the harvest season is well over. The first frosts tell of the season that is set to come. I cannot say that we had a good harvest, so we can be anxious and conscious of leaner times to come. One of the most important fruits of any harvest time is that it contains the seeds for future planting and harvests to come. We must cherish those seeds and set our minds and hearts to truly value them, and to see that they are well planted to bear fresh fruit – fruit that will last.
Among the seeds is the special lay synod that is desired by Pope Francis. There are people I know who believe that this is most important; in fact vital to our future. For us who really believed in and hoped for a great outcome for the 2nd Vatican Council, only to realise it was failed in so many ways. Now a fresh impetus, a new enthusiasm, may be like a Vatican III, well fit for purpose. Yes new fruit, new seeds – for fruit that will last. We can have fresh hope, if we are ready to prepare the ground, to plough and to harrow, so that we can look forward to preparing good harvests.
For a moment let us now focus upon the greatest of feasts; the one that is on the horizon “The Feast of Christ the King”. All our hopes are built upon this great event. “Christ will return in all glory”. That is why during the month of November we should pay attention to the Holy Souls. The great multitude who have gone before us, with their own share of human failure, losses and crosses. There has been a long tradition of having Mass offered for our loved ones and our benefactors. A really helpful good thing to do.
After this a new Advent, a new time of sowing, and we are preparing an outline plan that the Bishop and our Diocese has asked us to do.
A two-year ‘synodal’ process is taking place in the Catholic Church beginning October 2021. It will culminate in the final Synod Gathering of Bishops in Rome in October 2023. The overall theme is “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission”.
For the first time, the Synod Office in Rome has produced a comprehensive process which encompasses the stated aim of the Holy Father that the Church in today’s world should have a vision of missionary communion orientated to evangelisation. It’s an invitation for us, as Catholics, to ‘walk together’. Every member of the Church has the right to speak, and the obligation to allow those charged with the work of discernment the freedom to do so.
The Synod will be opened by Pope Francis on 9-10 October this year and will be opened in individual dioceses by the respective bishops, on 17 October.
The Diocesan Phase will take place October 2021 – April 2022. This phase will end locally with a pre-synodal assembly: the culminating moment of diocesan discernment.
The National Phase (before April 2022): A period of discernment will begin for bishops gathered in an assembly called an Episcopal Conference. They will listen to what the Spirit has inspired in the churches entrusted to them. A ‘synthesis’ will be drafted and sent to the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops along with the contributions of each of the local churches.
The Continental Phase (September 2022 – March 2023)will have the task of discussing the text of the first Instrumentum Laboris.
The Synod of Bishops in Rome (October 2023): The synodal journey will culminate with the celebration of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission”. #Synod2023
This last year has been a very challenging time for everyone, especially when our thoughts and prayers turn to those we have lost, whether through the time of the pandemic or before. Many of us have found it difficult to get to Church through lockdowns, to sit with the Lord and to share our thoughts or find comfort in His embrace. The limited numbers permitted at funerals may have meant that we were unable to be with friends and family at that special moment. With these challenges in mind, you are warmly invited to join a Station Masses this November for the intention of those lost. Join Bishop Richard as he offers Mass for your intentions, for your friends and loved ones. There will be Mass said in each Deanery across the Diocese throughout November 2021. Here are the details for your Deanery Mass: Thursday 4th Nov: Eastbourne & St Leonards Deanery Station Mass at 7 pm Our Lady of Ransom parish, Eastbourne (will include Fr Kevin Dring’s Induction). The Mass can be viewed live on www.youtube.com/OURLADYOFRANSOM
Lunches at Kings Head – Horsebridge: Thursday 4th November at 12noon. I must have final numbers by Wednesday 4th Nov. please. Tel: Joan 07873 390944 I also need to know if you require transport.
Our Christmas Lunch at the same venue, Thursday 9th December at 12noon. If you would like to join us on this jolly occasion, then please sign the list circulating between church after Mass and the hall after Sunday Mass or Tel: Joan on 07873 390944. When putting your name on list please pay the full amount of £18 which includes a 3 Course Meal, Mince Pies, Tea/Coffee and Tip. When you pay you will be given a copy of the menu to choose beforehand. So much easier for the chef and prompt service for us. We look forward to you joining us on this happy occasion. Would you like transport? Please let me know. Thank you. These two occasions are of course open to our friends from St George’s, please join us.
The South Downs Singers are a community choir based at our hall in Polegate. The choir has used the hall since it first began more than 20 years ago. They support local charities through concerts held up to three times a year. This year has been very difficult for the choir due to the Covid pandemic and, once the green light was given to rehearse again, they met up and used the car park to begin with! Now back in the hall, their Christmas Carol concert this year will be held at St George’s Church on Saturday 4th December at 3.30 pm. It will be a perfect opportunity to begin your preparation of Christmas with a beautiful selection of carols and seasonal music. Tickets are priced at £8.00 available from Shirley or Kelly at St George’s, or ring 01323 504753 to book.
The Bereavement Book will be available in St George’s Church, until the end of November for anyone who wants to add names of their deceased relatives and friends. Please pray for the deceased and their families during November.
As one of the older parishioners she is paying tribute to Fr Kenneth McCarthy who died last week (Oct 21st) aged 92. Father came to Hailsham about 1990 and served for 10 years. He retired due to ill health and was given a house in Walton-on-the-Hill, where he lived for more than 20 years, supplying in the area, until he was almost blind. He went into hospital with heart failure, but was moved into a covid ward. He was for many years the longest serving priest in the Diocese, he was ordained at the early age of 23 in 1953 and he had been in the junior seminary. He was a priest for 68 years.
I will be brief today as I am going to ask you to do something for yourselves. In Wednesday’s Psalm there was one phrase which gave me the idea. “Let me sing of the Lord, He has been good to me”.
Well please choose one day, perhaps when you are sitting with a cup of tea or you have a visitor so you can use his/her thoughts and think of the many ways in which God has been good to you during the year. Please write them down and maybe add to them from day to day. Then you will have a good list to say thank you for to God when you pray or sing.
