The Parish of Langdon Hills

August Bank Holiday (August 23-25) at St Mary’s

Steve Spencer, our new curate was ordained as a deacon on Sunday at Chelmsford Cathedral. St John’s was full in the afternoon as we had a lunch to welcome Steve and his family.

Steve is married to Linda and has three children, Laura (21); Emma (18); and James (12). He has come to us from St Paul’s, Bentley Common, near Brentwood. Steve will be working full time with us in the parish alongside Colin and Terry, who will be continuing in his current role as curate.

I tried to take some pictures of Steve and Colin giving speeches on Sunday but they didn’t really work - everyone kept blinking or being blurry. I’ll try and take a picture of Steve at some point so that everyone knows what he looks like!

St John’s and St Mary’s Picnic: Sunday 3 August 1pm

Meet at Westley Heights (behind the Harvester). Fun and games for all ages: rounders, football, treasure hunt and lots more. Or you can just come along and relax and watch the fun. Bring your own picnic and chairs.

The next men’s group will be on Tuesday 15th July at St. St. John’s at 8p.m.

We are joined by St. John’s First Aid who will be looking at how men can cope when there is an accident in the home. There will be a chance to do some practical work as well as finding out how to prevent some of the accidents happening. Hope you can make it. So that I have an idea of how many to expect please could you contact me.

Please book in your diaries now Tuesday 23rd September at 8p.m for our next men’s night. This will be held at St. John’s at 8p.m and the speaker will be Duncan Green who is to be the chaplain to the London Olympics. He will be describing his work as well as informing us about all the different sites being used for the games. I will send out a reminder in September.

The Chelmsford Christian Festival is from 12 - 20 July 2008. Take a look at the website to find out all about it.

Chelmsford Christian festival kicks off on 12th July with Fun in the High Street, Comedy and live bands.

From 11 a.m. the High Street will be fun all the way with bands, puppets, mime and drama for everyone and a special Central Park based fun time for 5 to 8 year olds from 2pm. In the evening the choice is comedy with Jimmy Cricket or for the young and young at heart fantastic live music from Electralyte and YFriday. Come and join in the fun and visit our bookings page to secure tickets.

There are lots of other events too, including the London Community Gospel Choir and a production of Godspell.

There’s also a Facebook group: Facebook | re:fresh - Chelmsford Christian Festival

By the way, don’t forget our Facebook group, now up to 16 members: Facebook | St Mary’s and St John’s, Langdon Hills

1) Chinese Meal

The Men’s Group have enjoyed a Chinese meal at the New Dragon in Southend and had a great time, so we thought we’d give it a try. It’s on Monday 30th June meeting at Laindon Station at 6.45pm. Buffet meal priced at £10.99, buy your own drinks as required. Please contact Gaynor at the Parish Office (01268 490400) before 23rd June if you would like to come along as tables need to be booked in advance. Thank you.

2) West End Shopping Trip, Saturday 25th October. We need to see if we can fill a coach of 49 seats. If we can the cost will be £10 per person. Leave St John’s at 9am and drop off at Harrods in London. Have the day to yourselves to shop where ever you choose and enjoy lunch out. Coach will pick up again outside Harrods at 5pm and return to St John’s. Refreshments will be provided on the journey home.

Sorry but £10 payment needs to be paid by Sunday 22nd June to secure the coach booking as already dates closer to Christmas are getting booked up.

Please contact Nicky on nickylegon (at) btinternet.com or Gaynor at the Parish Office 01268 490400 to purchase a ticket or for more information. Thank you.

A summary of a few of the items from our notice sheet:

• Children’s bowling - there are a few spaces left for a trip on Wednesday 28th May
• Pastoral care course - Wednesday evenings from 18th June
• Alpha planning meeting - Tuesday 10th June, 8pm
• Helpers required for coffee at St Mary’s and reading / intercessions at both churches
• Ladies breakfast at St Gabriel’s Pitsea - 2nd August 8.30am
• Exams: please pray for those taking them at the moment

If you’d like more information about any of these please get in touch.

A group from St Mary’s and St John’s is going to Spring Harvest in Minehead during the next Easter holidays. The dates are Tuesday 14th - Sunday 19th April. If you’re interested send a message via the contact form and I’ll put you in touch with Eddy Lee, who is organising it. he needs to know final numbers by 4th June.

Saturday 21st June: Music for a summer evening (with strawberries and bubbly). An informal evening of music in aid of St Luke’s hospice. 7.30pm at St John’s.

The Langdon Hills Link drawing I did for this is below:

Sunday 8th June. In summary:

• BBQ, bouncy castle, disco, face painting
• 3pm-5.30pm
• Adults £3, Children £1.50 - must be purchased in advance

This is my Langdon Hills link drawing giving details:

The last Ladies group meeting was a film on Friday 2nd May. I’ll post the details of the next meeting here as soon as I know details.