Shrove Tuesday this year falls on 4 March and, as usual, pancakes will be served in the Church Centre from 7.30 pm onwards. Betty and her helpers are looking forward to seeing you there. As well as pancakes there will be puzzles, quizzes, a raffle and sales table. Ticket cost £3 and will be on sale from mid-February.

On Ash Wednesday, 5 March, both Eucharists will include the imposition of ashes as the mark of our corporate commitment to the process of Lent. They are (said) at 10 am and Choral at 7.30 pm. The ashes are made by burning last year’s palm crosses, so please make sure that you have returned yours to Selwyn, either in church or through the Rectory letterbox, by lunchtime on Shrove Tuesday.

Friday, 7 March is the Women’s World Day of Prayer. Services will be held at 10.30 am at Bandon Hill Methodist Church where the invited speaker will be Mrs Maureen Kyle, MU Southwark Diocesan President; and at 7.30 pm at St Michael’s, North Beddington, where the speaker will be Rev Caroline Canter. Both services will be followed by refreshments.

Churches Together has set up a very impressive programme of Lent lectures on the theme Spirituality and..., which will take place at St Elphege’s on Wednesday nights in Lent at 8.00 pm. After each speaker there is a coffee break, and a time for questions and general discussion when we come together again. Please note that the first of these is on Tuesday 11 March. For further details see the complete listing.

We say thank you, goodbye, and God speed to David and Margie Lewis who will be leaving Wallington on Sunday 9 March. David has been vicar of Holy Trinity since 1987, and has been a good friend to St Mary’s during that time. Please pray for the clergy and people of Holy Trinity as the process gets under way for finding his successor, and particularly during the complexities of the building project now well under way there. We wish David and Margie well for many happy years of retirement in Cambridgeshire!

Evening Prayer on Sunday 23 March will be said at 6.30 pm.

The feast of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary falls this year on Tuesday 25 March, and will be celebrated with a Sung Eucharist at 7.30 pm.

A date for your diary in April. At 6.30 pm on Sunday, 6 April, in place of Evensong, the choir will present a concert for Lent and Passiontide - including the Requiem by John Rutter Refreshments will be available in the Centre afterwards and a retiring collection will be made in aid of church and choir funds.

Please note the Annual Parochial Church meeting will take place in the Centre on the evening of Tuesday, 8 April. Full details can be found here.

He who goes a-mothering finds…

Violets in the lane

On Saturday evening 29 March we celebrate the combination of mid-Lent (when you effectively get a little time off for good behaviour), Refreshment Sunday, Mothering Sunday, and the approach of summer (or at least Summer Time) as the clocks go forward an hour with an evening of readings of poetry and prose on a variety of topical themes. Lent, Easter, spring, and no doubt mothers and families will all feature prominently.

The pieces are chosen and read by Diana Harries, Harold Hore, Mary Tapp, Cassie & Selwyn Tillett. The evening begins in the Centre at 7.30 pm, and will as usual include supper (including traditional simnel cake) at half-time. Tickets £6 (in advance only) from members of the Social Committee. All proceeds in aid of the re-wiring project.

Books for Lent

Maybe Lent could be the time when we finally get around to reading that book that’s been on the shelf for months – or maybe we feel we ought to invest in something that could actually help us on our journey through the six weeks to Easter. Here – drawn from catalogues that I’ve been sent over the last few weeks – are a mere sample of six good ideas to supply that need.

Lost Icons by Archbishop Rowan Williams. In ‘finding a new language for the soul’ Archbishop Rowan considers such things as images of childhood, our awkwardness in speaking about ‘community’ – even Christian ‘community’ – and our unwillingness to think seriously about remorse. An enlightening and surprisingly easy exploration of some difficult aspects of modern Christian thought. T & T Clark, £ 7.99.

Best Sermons Ever compiled by Christopher Howse – drawn from Christians of all traditions and over many centuries. Something not only to edify, but to delight and amuse, and of exceptionally wide range and historical interest. Daily Telegraph, £10.99.

Best Spiritual Reading Ever compiled again by Christopher Howse. Readings of real literary merit, featuring ‘big names’ from John Donne to Martin-Luther King – based on material originally in English, but with translated examples from the works of other writers who have influenced the religious life of the English-speaking world. Daily Telegraph, £16.99.

Faith without Hostages by Harriet Harris. She celebrates Jesus’ passionate faith and shows how we can begin to live up to his incredibly simple yet incredibly hard demands, and asks us to consider what injustices he might be asking us to fight, and how we are really to see him in the world around us. SPCK, £7.99.

Voices from the Desert by Leslie Griffiths (the Archbishop’s Lent Book). The desert is often viewed as a place where we escape from the pressures of everyday life to hear God’s voice – as Jesus did for the 40 days which are our model for Lent itself. This book explores the ‘deserts’ of today’s world, and teaches us to hear the voices of unlikely prophets who speak the truth about our human condition and challenge us to change. Canterbury Press, £ 7.99.

And finally for something completely different – The Gospel according to the Simpsons by Mark Pinsky & Samuel Parvin. Each chapter revolves around an episode of the popular cartoon series, which readers are invited to view before thinking about the issues it raises; and it encourages readers to think ‘outside the box’ about prayer, morality, God, religious diversity, the institutional church, heaven, hell, the Bible . . . the list is pretty long and challenging, as well as being huge fun. A good book not only to buy but to give any of your friends tempted to take themselves that bit too seriously – Oke-ely doke-ely? Westminster John Knox, £4.99.

Selwyn Tillett

Readings for Sundays & Festivals in April

Sun 6 Apr

Lent 5

Jeremiah 31: 31-34 (page 522)

Hebrews 5: 5-10 (page 524)

John 12: 20-33 (page 525)

Sun 13 April

Palm Sunday

Isaiah 50: 4-9a (page 529)

Thu 17 Apr

Maundy Thursday

Exodus 12: 1-14 (page 162)

1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 (page 165)

John 13: 1-17, 31b-35 (page 165)

Fri 18 Apr

Good Friday

Isaiah 52: 13-53: 12 (page 167)

Hebrews 4: 14-16; 5: 7-9 (page 172)

Sun 20 Apr

Easter Day

Acts 10: 34-43 (page 541)

1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 (page 543)

John 20: 1-18 (page 543)

Sun 27 Apr

Second of Easter

Acts 4: 32-35 (page 547)

1 John 1: 1-2; 2 (page 548)

John 20: 19-31 (page 549)

Saints in March

Sat 1 David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c 601

Mon 17 Patrick, Bishop, missionary, Patron of Ireland, c 460

Wed 19 JOSEPH OF NAZARETH

Tue 25 ANNUNCIATION to the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Bishop’s Lent Appeal 2003

As usual, Bishop Tom commends five projects for our Lenten generosity. Here are some basic details about this year’s – and you can learn much more about them from the posters in church and in the Centre, or from the Diocesan website.

New School building at Aiome Anglican High School
Papua New Guinea Church Partnership

In Papua New Guinea the churches run many of the schools and health services as well as worship and pastoral care. Only since 1996 has the Highland region had a secondary school - Aiome Anglican High School. The school cannot yet seek financial help from its former students. Half of Aiome's school has been built of local timber and thatch by children themselves. They are temporary structures and leak in the frequent equatorial downpours. Sanitary conditions are rudimentary. The school needs dormitories, classrooms and an improved water, drainage and power infrastructure. Aiome School is an area listed by UNICEF as one of the five most remote communities in the world. Even a few thousand pounds could greatly improve reliability of water and power supplies.

St Michael & All Angels, Khayletisha, Cape Town, South Africa
School building project

St Michael and All Angels, Khayletisha, Cape Town, South Africa is the link parish of St Michael's East Wickham. The project is to build a primary school to continue the children' education once they leave pre-school nurseries. It is an investment for the future of the Township. The Khalletisha project also runs a counselling and nutrition service for people with HIV/AIDS; Simamaleni - a ministry for abused children in the area; an income generating sewing group and a craft market providing local jobs and income.

Thanarbaid Village Health Project , Bangladesh

Thanarbaid is a rural parish about 100 miles north of Dhaka. The village health project aims to provide a healthcare programme by and for the local people that is radically committed to the poor to promote a cohesive and caring community. The project has 9 full time workers and 12 part-time. There is a hospital and clinic, together with a neighbouring clinic for diabetes and TB.

Neutral Ground Child Contact Centre, Abbey Wood

Set up 10 years ago by William Temple Church to enable children of broken partnerships to meet with their absent parent in a safe, friendly and above all neutral environment. It caters for children from a wide range of minority ethnic groups and people travel from all over the UK in order to have contact with their children who live in or near Abbey Wood. All of the children are emotionally damaged by the inability of their parents to make provision for beneficial contact and many households have a history of domestic violence. Some children have special needs and disabilities. BBC Children in Need have funded 50% of expenditure through to March 2003 but a further £11,000 is needed.

Zimbabwe - Aid to our Link Dioceses

Zimbabwe's current unstable political situation is damaging the economy badly. Inflation is raging and trade with other nations is seriously affected. Families suffer, education suffers, health suffers. Lent Call has raised funds each year for projects in our link dioceses, but the situation has become increasingly difficult. We shall still put aside monies from the Lent Call fund, although at present we cannot specify the projects they will be used for.

Each Episcopal Area is linked to a Diocese in Zimbabwe

The Croydon Area is linked with Central Zimbabwe.

The Kingston Area is linked with Matabeleland.

The Woolwich Area is linked with Manicaland.

Selwyn Tillett

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Annual Parochial Church Meeting

If you are not on the Electoral Roll of St Mary's (Anglican-speak for our official membership list) but would like to be, you have the opportunity soon when the Roll receives its annual update before the Annual Parochial Church Meeting. Simply obtain an application form from Mary Tapp any time from Tuesday 11 March onwards, and return it to her, duly completed, at any time up to the end of Monday 24 March (in other words the actual revision process runs for just under a fortnight). Mary or the form itself will explain the necessary qualifications, and once she has your returned form the system will do the rest. You will then be eligible to vote during the Annual Meeting itself, which takes place in the Centre at 8.00 pm on Tuesday 8 April.

The minutes of last year's Annual Meeting, this year's Annual Report and Financial statement from the PCC, and the Agenda for this year's Meeting, will all be available in good time, from Saturday 29 March at the latest. Among the business of the Meeting is the election of Churchwardens and PCC members for the coming year. If you are considering standing for election in either of these capacities, then once again you need to be on the Electoral Roll, and the relevant forms will be available in plenty of time, from Saturday 29 March if not before.

Once you have got yourself on to the Roll, you may like to take part in this year’s elections but are not able to attend the meeting itself. In that case you can apply beforehand for a postal vote. Application forms for these will also be available in plenty of time. Once again the system will then spring into operation. It works like this:

Return your application form to Selwyn, Margaret Freeman, Pat or Diana before the Annual Meeting. Should an election be necessary, a voting paper will be got to you by the late evening of Thursday 10 April. You then have up to 12 days in which to think, pray, vote, fold your paper and return it to The Rectory. Papers must be returned there sometime during the week from Tuesday 15th to Tuesday 22nd, and they will be stored safely and unopened as they arrive, together with the papers filled out during the Meeting itself.

Selwyn as Chairman of the PCC is required to be present during the count, but as usual will be on holiday immediately after Easter. Voting papers will therefore be counted on the morning of Monday 28 April, by people who have not been candidates in any of the elections. All candidates will be notified of the result that same day, and the new PCC will be announced and commissioned during the 9.30 Eucharist on Sunday 4 May.

That is just in time for the Churchwardens and PCC members to be in training for the first meeting of the new PCC which will happen on Monday 19 May, and to attend the Archdeacon's Visitation and Swearing-In either at St John’s, Shirley on the evening of Wednesday 7 May, or at The Good Shepherd, Carshalton Beeches on Wednesday 21st.

Selwyn Tillett

Daily prayer topics in March

Sat 1 The Church and people of Wales

Sun 2 Give thanks for the Anglican Church in Mexico

Mon 3 All churches as they make plans for Holy Week and Easter

Tue 4 New beginnings and Lent resolutions

Wed 5 The grace to keep Lent faithfully

Thu 6 The Lent lecturers and those attending the lectures

Fri 7 Equality and justice for women throughout the world

Sat 8 A closer walk with God

Sun 9 Give thanks for the Episcopal Church of Rwanda

Mon 10 For the unity of humanity

Tue 11 For tolerance and understanding

Wed 12 Honesty and fairness in the workplace

Thu 13 That the ordinary good may prevail

Fri 14 Respect between cultures

Sat 15 Work as creative activity

Sun 16 Give thanks for the Church of Ireland

Mon 17 The people of Ireland

Tue 18 All who live in Jerusalem

Wed 19 Foster parents and the children they care for

Thu 20 Our local community and industries

Fri 21 The unemployed and all who work to help them

Sat 22 Transformation of unjust structures in society

Sun 23 Give thanks for the Church of England

Mon 24 All who have to make difficult choices

Tue 25 Thanksgiving for Mary’s acceptance of the angels announcement

Wed 26 Greater commitment to mission

Thu 27 The Mothers’' Union

Fri 28 Housing Associations and Charities helping the homeless

Sat 29 Our Poetry and Prose Evening

Sun 30 Thanksgiving for all loving and caring mothers

Mon 31 Give thanks for the Church of South India.

What’s on in March?

Sat	1	A Quiet Day for Lent at St Michael’s Church	10.30 - 4.00
		Choir Sponsored swim at Whitgift School	2.00 - 5.00
SUN	2	LAST BEFORE LENT
Mon	3	Magazine Panel meets, 35 Vanguard Way	6.00 pm
		Bible Study Group meets, 23 Mortlake Close	8.00 pm
Tue	4	Shrove Tuesday
		Mothers and Toddlers meet in Church	10.00 am
		Annual Pancake Party. Church Centre	7.30 pm
WED	5	ASH WEDNESDAY
		Said Eucharist and Imposition of Ashes	10.00 am
		Choral Eucharist and Imposition of Ashes	7.30 pm
		St Mary’s Guild meets at St Mary’s Court	2.30 pm
Thu	6	MU&OG: A talk by Vivien Lovett on Mediaeval Markets, Fairs and Early Shops. Church Centre	8.00 pm
Fri	7	Women’s World Day of Prayer
		Service at Bandon Hill Methodist Church	10.30 am
		Service at St Michael’s Church	7.30 pm
SUN	9	LENT 1
Mon	10	Bible Study Group meets, 23 Mortlake Close	8.00 pm
Tue	11	Churches Together Lent Lecture at St Elphege’s	8.00 pm
Fri	14	Lent Lunch at the Rectory	12.45 pm
SUN	16	LENT 2
Mon	17	Bible Study Group meets, 23 Mortlake Close	8.00 pm
Wed	19	MU Corporate Eucharist	10.00 am
		Churches Together Lent Lecture at St Elpheges	8.00 pm
Thu	20	MU&OG: A Talk by Bev Shew on the History of Beddington. Church Centre	8.00 pm
Fri	21	Lent Lunch at the Rectory	12.45 pm
Sat	22	St Mary’s Court Trustees meet at St Mary’s Court	10.00 am
SUN	23	LENT 3
Mon	24	Bible Study Group meets, 23 Mortlake Close	8.00 pm
TUE	25	THE ANNUNCIATION - Sung Eucharist	7.30 pm
Wed	26	Churches Together Lent Lecture at St Elpheges	8.00 pm
Fri	28	Lent Lunch at Rectory	12.45 pm
Sat	29	Poetry & Prose Evening. Church Centre	7.30 pm
SUN	30	LENT 4 - MOTHERING SUNDAY British Summertime begins
Mon	31	Bible Study Group meets, 23 Mortlake Close	8.00 pm

Lent Lunches

Selwyn will be running his usual series of ‘fasting lunches’ on Fridays, at 12.45 at The Rectory. These have a very simple format – there is an introduction about the week’s project, and we shall consider each of these Lent appeal subjects in turn. Then there is a period of silence for prayer and reflection about the week’s cause, followed by a brief prayer or two. Finally we share a bread-and-cheese lunch, and there is the opportunity afterwards to make a donation towards the project we have been thinking about. There is no need to notify anyone beforehand, just turn up.

These lunches will be held on five of the Fridays during Lent, beginning on 14 March. There will be no lunch either on 7 March (Women’s World Day of Prayer) or on Good Friday.

We shall also consider, during these sessions, whether this lunchtime format would be a better one for a prayer-group that could meet regularly through the year – not necessarily weekly, but at convenient intervals to suit its members. This would replace the Friday evening prayer group in church, which has died through lack of attendance despite being warmly welcomed by many when it was first set up.

Fasting and Feasting

Lent can be more than a time of fasting; it can be a season of feasting. We can use Lent to fast from certain things and to feast on others. It is a season of which we can:

Fast from	Feast on
Judging others	Christ dwelling in them
Emphasis on differences	The unity of life
Apparent darkness	The reality of light