What must Mary have thought at the message that the angel brought her? You shall have a son who will be holy. He will be called the Son of God, he shall be great, of his kingdom there will be no end.

No wonder she argued with the angel: “How can this be?”, only later changing it to those great words of acceptance of God: “Here I am the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.”

The news must have terrified Mary for a number of reasons, not least because God broke into her life in a way that few of us can imagine. In many ways, God’s news was not good for her personally. She must have imagined that her life was mapped out before her: marriage to Joseph, children, home - all the roles that a Jewish woman of the time was expected to fulfil - as well as all her own personal dreams and ambitions. And now they were all impossible. She had gone from a respectable life to one where she was on the edges of society – an unmarried mother (father of the child unknown), the risk of divorce and being ostracised from the community. Her problems didn’t end there as she became a refugee running from oppression and violence at the hands of Herod, and the mother of a man executed as a criminal. I’m sure none of those were on Mary’s life plan before God broke in.

The news that Gabriel brought to Mary didn’t just turn her life upside down, but the life of the world: the Saviour of the world born in such circumstances far from the spotlight, far from power and position; God taking our human form, sharing our human life in all its messiness with no part too embarrassing, too shameful, too unholy to be experienced in the flesh by God. The Church Fathers tried to explain it: “What has not been assumed cannot be Redeemed” they said. God shocks us and surprises us, showing us that the way we expect things to be is, so often, the wrong way.

Mary’s song the Magnificat expresses it so well:

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things

and sent the rich away empty.

March the 25th is also a significant date for another reason. It’s the anniversary of the passing of the Act that abolished the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in 1807. The abolition of that trade was earth shattering, changing the dominant way of thinking for many in the wealthy countries that benefited financially from it, and when we look around our country we can see so many ways that Britain benefited – the cities of Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow were built to a large extent on the slave trade or at least the slave - tobacco - cotton – sugar connections, our civic architecture, our education systems have all been endowed by the financial rewards of the trade. The campaigns that led up to the passing of the Act must have shocked people – what had always been held up to be right and true and God’s will (after all it’s in the Bible) was being held up as being profoundly non-Christian. And the campaign to abolish the slave trade was spearheaded by Christians, beginning with many from the Society of Friends (the Quakers) who began the campaign which was taken up, by among others Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, Olaudah Equiano, Zachary Macaulay, James Stephen, Charles Fox and, of course, William Wilberforce who saw what he was doing as a mission from God. As God had changed the world through Christ, so Christians were also called to change the world, to transform it for the better that all might have life.

And it’s something that we need to continue to do. Slavery continues in our world today – bonded labour, sweatshops producing goods in inhuman conditions but at prices we are willing to pay, and of course the trafficking of people. We can all too easily collude with it in the way that we spend our money or decide to keep silent. In this month’s edition of the magazine you’ll find ideas of things that we can do that can help to transform the world – our Fairtrade events, walks and ways to remember the Abolition of the Slave Trade as well as speaking out about it.

The message of the Annunciation is that God comes to transform our lives and the lives of everyone, to challenge and to change us. Mary shows us that we need to be open to that transformation, to proclaim in our words and in our lives God’s greatness and to rejoice in God our Saviour. Let’s do all we can to ensure our fellow human beings, now and in the future, can proclaim that song of praise with all their hearts.

Justine

* You’ll notice that we’re celebrating the Annunciation on 26th March this year – that’s not a mistake, it’s because the 25th is a Sunday and that takes precedence!

From the registers

Baptisms

11 February

Harley and Taylor Warwick

Harvey Belfield

Funerals

19 February

Ivy May Morris, age 93 yrs

22 February

Peter Oakley, age 79 yrs

Snippets

Congratulations to Don and Sheila Helps who celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary this month.

Welcome to baby James Kimber (to be known as Jack). Chris and Tamasine’s son weighed in at 9lb 9oz on 7 February. A new grandson for Jean.

Congratulations to Dan who was recently appointed Head Chorister. One of his first duties was to welcome Alex, James and Liam who have completed their probation and are now full members of the treble line. Dan’s predecessor, Henry, is now singing with the altos and tenors in the ‘back row’. Thank you, Henry, for all your good work as Head Chorister in the past.

The Beddington Park Old Fayre, arranged by Rotary and supported by a good number of local organisations, will be held on Bank Holiday Monday, 7. St Mary’s Social Committee are planning some children’s activities for the day and we hear that the Friends of Beddington and The Grange Parks will be running Duck Races.

Spring Cleaning? New Mobile Phone? - please don’t bin your old one. Help the Aged and Oxfam are only two of the charities who can make good use of old mobiles. Some are recycled, bringing a useful income from their scrap value. Others can be reconditioned for use in parts of the developing world where the landline infrastructures are poor.

Good to see Stan Coleman back in church after his knee replacement operation. As a bell ringer and our steeple-keeper, his next challenge is to climb the tower steps again. Get behind him and push, Val!

Snippets is where we shall be putting those little bits of news etc that deserve a mention. So let the editor know if there is anything or anyone you would like included.

In his pastoral letter, Bishop Tom writes: “In Lent we are given an opportunity to reflect on our call to discipleship both as individuals and through our membership of the world-wide Church. It is also a time when we might give some thought to personal sacrifice and of how we might help those who are less well off than ourselves. The Lent appeal offers us an opportunity to share in giving to others in different parts of the world.

Five projects from around the world have been selected to benefit from money raised this year. …… May I commend these projects to you and assure you of my prayers for a holy Lent.”

redthread Christian Youth Work, Dulwich-Herne Hill

redthread is a team of ten Christian youth workers, who are mostly co-employed by a partner church, in the Herne Hill-Dulwich area. They seek funding for a new youth worker for two years. (S)he would help local young people, through churches and schools, to engage with questions of trade justice and environmental concern, and enable young people from diverse backgrounds to work together as activists for change on issues that affect them all. Specific tasks would be to develop online resources and e-pal schemes, plan overseas trips and run redthread cafes with respect for ethical and community considerations. Total cost of the project over two years: £49,000.

Heaven’s Nest, South Africa

There are reportedly 840,000 orphans in South Africa, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic is projected to give rise to three million by 2015. Heaven’s Nest Child Care and Recreation Centre provides emergency foster care to children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, and to children who have been orphaned, neglected or abused, and provides recreational programmes for children who have prematurely assumed adult responsibilities in running homes where the parents are suffering from or have died of AIDS. They try to alleviate the plight of such children by providing nurturing care and building self-confidence, so that they can be reintegrated into the wider community, free from stigmatisation.

3Cs Jamaica

3Cs (Children & Community for Change) is a Christian Aid sponsored project supporting deprived children in Kingston, Jamaica, particularly through an after-school scheme. 3Cs works in an area where only 35% of children go on to secondary school, 20% can’t read or write at all and 50% are functioning far below their expected level (for example 16 year olds have the literacy level of 10 year olds). 3Cs works with the children and teenagers (usually aged 7 and up, though sometimes as young as 4) through drumming, dance, song and performing arts to increase self esteem and help them to express themselves. The 200th anniversary of the outlawing of the slave trade in the UK falls during Lent, and support for this project would mark the anniversary in a positive link with the Caribbean. £16,667 would completely fund Christian Aid’s support to 3Cs for 200.

Diocese of Peshawar Pakistan Earthquake Appeal

This request comes from Bishop Mano Rumalshah, the Bishop of Peshawar, Pakistan, who was an Assistant Bishop in Southwark Diocese only a few years ago. After the massive earthquake on 8th2005, the Diocese of Peshawar mobilised its emergency rescue teams to assist the people of Pateka village, and established a relief camp outside the village. Now the diocese is moving into the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction phase. Immediate needs are: provision of clean drinking water, sanitation, roads, school, basic health unit, livestock and livelihood recovery. A detailed survey and design plan is to be done at an estimated cost of £20,800.

The Diocese of Central Zimbabwe, linked with Croydon Area

St Patrick’s Mission Hospital was supported by last year’s Lent Call. A new 66-bed hospital is being built, though with long delays. The need is stronger than ever. Government medical care is in disarray. St Patrick’s is badly under-resourced for its 1,500 patients per month. It is heavily engaged in maternity care and inoculation. It copes with daily injuries and illnesses, plus occasional malaria and bilharzia. Widespread Aids brings many associated diseases, especially TB.

At St Mary’s, we will be thinking about the various projects during our weekly Wednesday Eucharist in Lent, and giving the donations from our Lent lunches (12.30 on Wednesdays) to the Call. There will be an opportunity to make individual contributions in church during the course of Lent.

Origins of the British Slave Trade

Britain and her empire became joined in the slave trade in the 16th century. This involved taking black African men and women from their homeland against their will and selling them to work on sugar plantations in the Caribbean and cotton plantations in America. Most of these slaves were stolen from their villages, often by their own chiefs, and then sold to the captains of British ships. The journeys to the West Indies and America were horrifying ordeals for the slaves. Herded like cattle in stifling conditions in the over-filled holds of the ships, they were subject to indescribable squalor and prey to typhoid, dysentery and other killing diseases. Not only were the many corpses dumped overboard like unwanted rubbish, but there was certified evidence that many captains dumped the sick overboard without waiting for them to die.

In this 21st century we may find these facts difficult to handle but the evidence for Britain's slave traffic is detailed and terrible. Two of our great national heroes, Sir Francis Drake and his cousin, Sir John Howard, have an honoured place in British history because they defeated Spanish attacks on Britain. But Drake and Howard were among the first British sea captains to carry slaves across the oceans and sell them as chattels. The arithmetic of this traffic is truly horrific. It has been calculated that in the two hundred years from 1600 to 1800, no fewer than 12 million black men, women and children were forcibly taken from Africa and sold as slaves. What cannot be computed is how many of these 12 million died at sea and were unceremoniously tossed overboard. Many merchants in Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow grew very rich because they bought, owned and sold slaves.

The first legal action in Britain against the slave trade was taken in 1772. At that time many of those who owned plantations in the Caribbean and America continued to live in Britain. They brought many slaves to work in their homes and estates and by the 1770s there were as many as 12,000 slaves employed by these plantation owners in England and Scotland. In the famous Somerset Case, heard before Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, in London in 1772, it was ruled that owning and employing slaves in Britain was illegal. Lord Mansfield delivered a landmark verdict. 'Let justice be done though the heavens may fall.' This ruling put an end to the employment of slaves in Britain but not in her colonies. That legal and humanitarian battle was yet to come.

Sunday 25 March this year marks a very important date in British history. On this date in 1807 a Bill was enacted in the House of Common in London that outlawed the transport of slaves in British ships anywhere on the high seas. It was an important legal milestone on the road that led to the final and total abolition of slavery in the British Empire 26 years later in 1833.

Ghana at 50 - A Year of (Golden) Jubilee

On 6th March 1957, the Gold Coast Colony, Ashanti Region and Northern Territories together became the first African country to obtain independence from the United Kingdom. On 1 July 1960, the new country of Ghana became a republic.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s independence on 6th March 2007, feelings are, not surprisingly, rather mixed. The enterprise of autonomy was begun with huge optimism and enthusiasm. A charismatic leader, Kwame Nkrumah, had been elected President, the country had considerable material wealth and institutions, such as the civil service and the army, were well-established. Agriculture, manufacturing and mining were all profitable enterprises and the Akosombo Dam provided not only Ghana, but several of her neighbours, with plentiful and affordable hydro-electricity.

But history has shown how difficult an enterprise the maturing of a nation can be. Nkrumah was as concerned with the welfare of other African nations as he was with that of his own and squandered much of Ghana’s wealth on the pursuit of his “pan-African” ideology. At home, he became a dictator and for much of my early life, I was aware of the struggle to get rid of him, which culminated in the CIA-sponsored coup of 1966, a day I will never forget, so overjoyed was my father on hearing the news.

My father’s friend, Professor K A Busia, was elected Prime Minister under a new constitution in 1969. An Oxford-educated man, his toleration of dissent was too liberal for many. The military, which should probably have been disbanded after independence, overthrew him in 1972 and ushered in an era of grave economic decline. This coincided with the tremendous hike in interest rates of the early 1970s, for which the peoples of many developing countries are still paying now.

The phenomenon of the military coup continued until 1981, when Jerry Rawlings had a second! However, with the current President, John Agyekum Kuffuor, having been democratically elected for a second term, it seems that such upheavals are a thing of the past.

Ghana has learned the hard way that political independence is nothing without economic independence. But much has been achieved, nevertheless. Ghanaians remain highly-educated, as a population, and apart from periodic disruption in the North, the country has been stable and free of civil war. The people remain confident and optimistic, entrepreneurial and adventurous. There are still vast resources – cocoa, diamonds, bauxite and, of course, gold. Tourism is on the rise and our football team is set to win the next World Cup!

In the year when we mark the abolition of slavery, a word needs to be said about the vast human resources taken from Ghana down the centuries, through the slave ports of Cape Coast and Elmina, where the castles and their dungeons are a major tourist attraction, particularly to African-Americans in search of their roots. Slavery still exists in the 21st century but part of Nkrumah’s vision, the liberation of the whole continent, has been realised and Ghana still leads the way.

Araba Taylor

The PCC Away Day

Unlike St Barnabus of Dibley, St Mary’s of Beddington has a Parochial Church Council of around 18 – an ever-changing selection of which meets monthly in the Centre to talk about a whole range of stuff affecting the life of the church. Much of it is actually dealt with by small working parties and committees often including non-PCC members. So at the main meeting we hear about fun and fund-raising from the Social Committee, boilers and windows from the Fabric Committee, paths from the Churchyard Committee, and a whole range of other issues to discuss, make decisions concerning and organise doing something about. We often have to make decisions on behalf of the church which are potentially divisive – and always I have been heartened by the fact that our ‘bottom line’ is our Christian faith, especially when it goes against business sense and the way of the world.

In the midst of this we realised that the members of the PCC have very little time to actually get to know each other and understand common goals: to stand back, put down the metaphorical paintbrushes, paperwork and financial forecasting, and look at where we are going and where God might be calling us as individuals and as a church. Our Away-Day was billed as a day of thinking about our work together, and perhaps sharing the loads more equally as some, albeit willing, shoulders bear a heavy burden. In the event of course it was nothing like that!

Around 15 of us met at St Michael’s and All Angels on a Saturday morning late in January, muffled against the cold and bearing refreshments in the traditional St Mary’s version of the Bring and Buy – the ‘Bring Food and Share’.

After the Eucharist, we repaired to the church centre. The Rev Kevin Turner, who is the Bishop’s Adviser in Leadership and works to support parishes in their development and mission, outlined the day. The morning was spent doing activities designed to help us understand each other better. Picking a (virtual) Dream Team to complete a number of very energetic tasks was a stimulating warm up with each group engaging in hot debate. We then moved on to a more difficult task – of sharing our own understanding of the church, what had brought us to faith, and what we found particularly difficult about it. As the age range was from 17 to well over 21, and we came with very different experiences – this was an enlightening and absorbing process with all contributions much appreciated and valued.

Lunch was the usual St Mary’s mirror-image of feeding the 5000 – much food is brought for a small number of people and there is surprisingly little left over. And can I for one say that the chilli and the coq au vin were very welcome on that chilly day.

Suitably refreshed, we set about the gruelling afternoon task of making something meaningful out of uncooperative coloured straws. Again we reverted to lots of discussion and much giggling. There were two tasks - the first was to portray St Mary’s as we see it now, and the second, as we hope it might become. These models are in church now and we would be happy to explain them to any who asks. Each group had very different ideas, but it was obvious that at heart, everyone was equally optimistic about the future of our church community for all its members: young and old, regular members of the congregation and those who see St Mary’s as the marker of important life events. We saw the church being there for those who come for peaceful personal worship as well as those who like to be more in the centre of things (pun intended).

And was it worth it? Well, speaking as one who hates team-building games and suchlike, this was very different. We learnt a great deal from each other, both personally and as representatives of the diverse parts of the church. I think we all came away with a clearer understanding of how others think and feel so we can be more empathetic and effective in our work together. The challenge now is to take the ideas that we shared and, after further discussion and refinement, to turn them into reality at St Mary’s.

PS If you’d like to find out more about being on the PCC then talk to one of the current members (names and photos in the South Porch) or to Justine.

Marion Martin

MU Matters

The MU & Open Group as well as dealing with serious matters affecting family life, can also have fun together. On Thursday, 4, we began the year with a New Year Party. Members and their guests enjoyed an evening of games and quizzes, accompanied with excellent food and drink.

On Wednesday, 17 January, 18 of us went as a group to the Secombe Centre to see the pantomime Robinson Crusoe. It was an excellent production, with realistic scenery, an amazing variety of colourful costumes, stunning effects, and professional music, dancing and acting. The show was of particular interest to us as one of the stars was Paul Goldsmith, the son of MU member, Rosemary Goldsmith. Paul, together with Jenny Barnfather who is responsible for designing and making the costumes, gave a talk to St Mary’s MU&OG in 2006 and had brought along some of their beautiful costumes for us to see up close. On hearing how much work went into each production, we made up our minds then and there to go along and see the next performance. It was well worth the trip.

Thank you, Paul, Jenny and all the members of The Carshalton Pantomime Company

Jenifer Davison, MU Branch Leader

At the beginning of February the MU had an eventful week. On 1 February, we were at Southwark Cathedral for the commissioning of Rosemary Kempsell as the World Wide President. It is great that our new President is somebody we know so well. Rosemary lives in Sanderstead and the Sanderstead hand bell team played in the procession at the start of the service. We also enjoyed the singing of a Zimbabwean choir. Rosemary had requested that the service took place in Southwark rather than Westminster Abbey. The Archbishop of Canterbury commissioned Rosemary and in his sermon spoke about being called by God. Samuel, when he was called, was told straight away the difficult task to which he had been called, whereas Paul had to wait three years. Rosemary, however, would not receive an agenda from Heaven but through establishing a deeper relationship with God and through the people with whom she meets and works, would discover where her position will lead her.

On Sunday the 4th, Jenifer was commissioned as our new Branch Leader. Mary has written more about this day below

Our Coffee Morning on the 6th was disappointing as only three people came from the church and two from other branches. Fortunately, an arts group were visiting the area and came to us for coffee. They gave us a generous donation enabling us to send a total of £48.80 to ‘Away From It All’, as well as add a further £25 to Church Funds. AFIA is an organisation which pays for holidays for people who, for various reasons, have been unable to have one. Three videos were shown and one contained footage of one of these holidays and the gratitude of the holiday makers.

It was sad to note that our link branch in Australia would be closing due to decreasing membership, but there was excellent news in that we have been able to arrange a new link branch in Congo. This is being organised through Sue Ardley’s sister, Judy Acheson, who is the Provincial Youth and Children’s Worker for the Anglican Church of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We will report back on the progress being made with this new and exciting link. Incidentally, Judy will be back in the UK at the end of this year and has agreed to give a talk about her work at the MU meeting in January 2008.

Several of us have now started knitting for premature babies and for poor children in Zimbabwe. More knitters would be appreciated.

Pam Vernon

Sunday, 4 February, saw a new phase beginning in the life of St Mary’s branch of the Mothers’ Union. Our Reader, Jenifer Davison, was commissioned as our new Branch Leader. All members who take up leadership roles are commissioned for their task and here hierarchy steps in: for a new branch leader the commissioning is carried out by the parish priest; for a deanery leader by the rural dean; for a diocesan president by the diocesan bishop; and as recently as last month the new World Wide President, Rosemary Kempsell, was commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury no less!

Also on this Sunday morning we welcomed a new member. Monica Philips was enrolled into our branch and we are delighted to have her with us. Monica received her certificate of membership and a badge. Keeping company with us too were Cynthia Smith, the retiring Croydon Area Vice President, and her successor, Kathryn Percival. It was good to socialise with them afterwards over coffee. Incidentally, Cynthia will be the guest speaker at the Women’s World Day of Prayer service at 7.30 pm on Friday, 2 March at the United Reformed Church in Wallington.

Later on in the morning about 20 of us went out to lunch at the Nepalese restaurant in Wallington. This had been kindly arranged by Eileen England and proved to be most enjoyable. We had the restaurant to ourselves and as the food was arranged buffet-style, we were able to choose exactly what we fancied and some of us (somewhat tentatively!) tried out new tastes - and liked them!

Finally, at the end of the meal, Jenifer was presented with a signed card and a very lovely orchid - hopefully this will last a long time as a reminder for her of a very happy day.

Mary Tapp

Breakfast Meetings

at St Matthew’s House, 100 George Street, Croydon

Open to all - coffee and croissants provided.

Monday, 5 March 8.30 am

‘Is There Room for Christian Reasoning at Work?’

Monday, 26 March 8.30 am

‘Commercial Culture v Spiritual Culture

Daily prayer topics in March

Thu 1 The Church and People of Wales

Fri 2 Women’s emancipation and freedom from slavery and abuse, worldwide

Sat 3 The people of Paraguay

Sun 4 For strength to stand up against allthat is evil

Mon 5 All who struggle to bring up their families in conditions of poverty

Tue 6 Those caught up in crime or addiction

Wed 7 Families bereft through HIV and AIDS

Thu 8 Lincoln Cathedral, Dean and Chapter

Fri 9 The sick and the bereaved

Sat 10 That we may have the grace to forgive as we are forgiven

Sun 11 Strength and grace to overcome our weaknesses

Mon 12 The Samaritans and marriage guidance counsellors

Tue 13 Refugees and those driven out of their homes by violence or disaster

Wed 14 Street children and those who have never known love and security

Thu 15 Better relationships between Eastern and Western nations

Fri 16 The United Nation and all peacekeepers

Sat 17 The Church and People of Ireland

Sun 18 Mothers and all who care for children

Mon 19 Foster parents and grandparents

Tue 20 Thanksgiving for Lindisfarne and all holy places

Wed 21 That all may be equally accepted and appreciated in their diversity

Thu 22 For a growth in understanding between peoples of different cultures

Fri 23 All who are stressed, anxious or depressed

Sat 24 Augustinian religious communities

Sun 25 The Abolition of Slavery in all its forms

Mon 26 Praise God for the ‘Yes’ of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Tue 27 That we too may learn to say ‘Yes’ to God

Wed 28 Our local clergy fraternity

Thu 29 Thanksgiving for our shared life in Christ

Fri 30 Our Link Dioceses in Zimbabwe

Sat 31 All poets and hymn writers

What’s on in March?
Thu “ “		1 “ “		‘Praise & Play’ for pre-school toddlers MU&OG. Annual General Meeting. The Centre Beddington Village Hall General Meeting	10.00 am 7.30 pm 7.30 pm
Fri		2		Women’s World Day of Prayer services: Bandon Hill Methodist Church Wallington United Reformed Church	10.30 am 7.30 pm
Sat		3		Churches Together Beddington & Wallington ‘A Quiet Day for Lent’ at St Paul’s Church, Roundshaw	10.00 am - 4.00 pm
SUN		4		SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT
Mon “ “ “		5 “ “ “		Breakfast Meeting at St Matthew’s House Magazine Panel meets at 35 Vanguard Way Friends of Beddington and The Grange Parks Annual General Meeting at the Grange Evening Lent Course. The Centre	8.30 am 2.30 pm 7.30 pm 8.00 pm
Tue		6		PCC Meeting. The Centre	8.00 pm
Wed “		7 “		Lent Course followed by Lent Lunch St Mary’s Guild	10.45 am 2.30 pm
Sat		10		Fairtrade Food & Fashion Lunch Event. The Centre	12.30 pm
SUN		11		THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT ‘Without Words’ Wallington Baptist Church	7.30 pm
Mon		12		Lent Course. The Centre	8.00 pm
Wed		13		Lent Course followed by Lent Lunch	10.45 am
Thu		15		‘Praise & Play’ for pre-school toddlers	10.00 am
Sat		17		Football. St Mary’s Choristers v St Elphege Cubs Ringers’ Annual Quiz Night.	KO 2.00 pm 7.00 pm
SUN		18		MOTHERING SUNDAY
Mon		19		Lent Course. The Centre	8.00 pm
Tue “		20 “		‘Time for God’ quiet worship. Carew Chapel Social Committee meets at 2 Caraway Place	9.30 am 7.30 pm
Wed		21		Lent Course followed by Lent Lunch	10.45 am
Fri		23		‘Families At St Mary’s’ Bring & Share Curry Evening The Centre	6.00 - 8.00 pm
Sat	24		DON’T FORGET TO PUT YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD AN HOUR TONIGHT - BRITISH SUMMERTIME BEGINS!
SUN	25		PASSION SUNDAY
Mon “ “ “	26 “ “ “		THE ANNUNCIATION Breakfast Meeting at St Matthew’s House (see page 13) MU Deanery Lady Day Service followed by lunch in the Centre (bring packed lunch - tea & coffee provided) Lent Course			8.30 am 12 noon 8.00 pm
Wed	28		Lent Course followed by Lent Lunch CTBW Prayer Meeting at St Paul’s Roundshaw			10.45 am 7.45 pm
Thu	29		Praise & Play for pre-school toddlers PCC Meeting. The Centre			10.00 am 8.00 pm
Fri	30		Kith, Kin & Canine Coffee Morning. The Centre			10-11.30 am

HOLY WEEK SERVICES
SUN	April 1	LENT 6 - PALM SUNDAY Procession of Palms and Sung Eucharist Passover meal in the Centre (no Evensong tonight)	9.30 am 6.30 pm
Mon	April 2	Eucharist Meditation and Compline	9.00 am 7.30 pm
Tue	April 3	Eucharist Meditation and Compline	9.00 am 7.30 pm
Wed	April 4	Eucharist Stations of the Cross	9.00 am 7.30 pm
Thu	April 5	MAUNDY THURSDAY Sung Eucharist of the Last Supper A vigil of silent prayer will be kept in the Carew Chapel following the end of the Eucharist until the start of tomorrow’s afternoon service	7.30 pm
FRI	April 6	GOOD FRIDAY Churches Together Walk of Witness (route to be advised). A Service of Reading and Music to commemorate the Death of Jesus on the Cross Last Hour by the Cross	12 noon 1.00 pm 2.00 pm
Sat	April 7	Easter Eve
SUN	April 8	EASTER DAY Easter Vigil Sung Eucharist Evensong	5.30 am 9.30 am 6.30 pm