Coronavirus – the Church is open although services are suspended.

The advice from the Church of England was updated on Tuesday 17th March:

In light of the Government guidance around non-essential contact, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have issued advice that public worship is suspended until further notice.

Churches should be open where possible but with no public worship services taking place. Prayers can be said by clergy and ministers on behalf of everyone and churches should consider ways of sharing this with the wider community

You can read the letter from the Archbishops here.

See the following earlier letter from Revd Becky about what measures we are taking to protect the vulnerable and limit the spread of the …

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the Christingle service such a wonderful occasion.

Revd Gary Collins was welcomed to the Benefice at a wonderful service last month and is already very much part of the team. He can be contacted by email – gary@st-john-newbury.org.uk

St George’s was packed to the rafters on the 4th November as we welcomed confirmation candidates from both our own congregation and other local churches plus the Bishop of Reading, the Rt Revd Andrew Proud.   If you missed the service, or would like to relive the joy and warmth of the occasion, here are a couple of photos below.  
Grace and peace to all who were confirmed that day.  

PS:  Revds Becky and Terry are always delighted to hear from anyone wishing to be baptized or confirmed!  You can contact them at vicar@st-george-newbury.org.uk

Did you know that every Wednesday morning we have a service at St George’s particularly aimed at parents with their babies and small children? 
All through the year we serve fresh coffee, tea, squash and biscuits (sometimes cake!) from 9am in the meeting room.  There are toys for children and its a chance for parents to have a chat and a catch up over a coffee.
At 9.30 we hold a very informal service in the kids corner of the church, where there are more toys as well as baby mats and colouring things for the children, musical instruments to play during the songs, and fruit for children during communion.  Its very low key, and very friendly.  Just …

Harvest Festival is on Sunday 7th October. 
Do come along to the family service at 9.30 where we give thanks for God’s good gifts and nature’s bounty.
If you would like to bring a harvest gift, we are requesting tinned, packet-ed or dried goods, rather than fresh produce, as all harvest donations are going to the Food Bank this year.
 

Celebrate our wonderfully mysterious, dragon-slaying patron saint, St George, at our Patronal Evensong on Sunday 22nd April.

The history of St George is shrouded in legend, but the story goes that the fiesty young knight was riding through Libya when he encountered a fearsome beast living in a swamp on the outskirts of a city.  The beast, having eaten all the livestock in the vicinity, was requiring regular meals in the form of one city-dweller per day.  In order to keep the hungry beast from rampaging and helping itself, the citizens would draw lots to determine who should be sacrificed.
St George rode into the city on the day that the King’s daughter was about to be fed …

All are welcome to attend a service to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Newbury on Sunday 11th February, 3pm at St John’s.
The service will be followed by a short act of remembrance at St John’s memorial gardens, opposite the church.  Refreshments will be served afterwards.
Photograph by Allan Mercado.
 

Everyone is welcome to a service of Compline, at St Francis Church, Wash Common.  The service starts at 6pm and refreshments will be served after.
 

John 1.43-52
Introduction: Season of Epiphany
Here we are at the beginning of a new year. The whole year lays before us, indeed the whole of the rest of our lives lay before us. There is a saying isn’t there, when contemplating change, about treating each day as the first day of the rest of my life. What do we want that to look like?
Sometimes, the decision is a difficult one. For some, life may have changed for the worse and there is a mourning for what has been lost. I acknowledge that. But for most of us there are aspects of our life we would like to change; things we would like to do, or know more …