I am delighted to report that (as many of you will already know) we have been voted a grant of over £900,000 from Essex Early Years towards the building of an extension to St John’s. I wish to record our enormous gratitude to all those who worked so hard to make our bid successful, especially to John Purbrick; Gaynor Carter; Tony Dunhill, Claire Bland and our architect John Inkpen. Please continue to pray that we will be guided to use this grant aright in the service of God’s kingdom and our local community, especially as detailed preparation is now undertaken.
Members of the Prayer team have been available to pray with people at St John’s every Sunday and at the healing service at St Mary’s.
The team will now also be available after communion, during coffee, at St Mary’s every week. Prayer will take place in the Choir stalls. Should you like prayer for yourself or others please make yourself known to a member of the team at either church. In St John’s prayer is at the back of the church behind the screens. Members of the Team can be spotted wearing Prayer Ministry team badges.
St John’s has applied for funding to build an extension to our premises to provide additional capacity for our preschool and after schools clubs. The proposed extension will provide two additional rooms for these groups.
If the funding application is sucessful the building work will start during the 2010 Summer holidays. While construction work continues on the new building during term time we will continue to provide a full service in the existing building. This will be achieved by securely and safely closing off the area where the building work is taking place and by providing a safe and secure temporary external play area in the car park.
Plans of the proposed extension can be downloaded below. They are pdf documents.
This group is for any children under 16 years who enjoy singing or playing a musical instrument.
Once a month we will be leading 1 or 2 songs during the service.
The first dates for practice will be: Sunday 26th April and Sunday 3rd May. The children will need to arrive at 10.40 am and we will meet in the small room at the front of the church where Stars Sunday School group meets.
We will then be singing and playing during the service on Sunday 10th May (All age and parade service).
Please see Jane Curno or Jill Hurley if your children are interested. Any CRB checked adults who would like to help are very welcome.
Dave Marshall, the new CTB chair, will be speaking at the Churches Together in Basildon celebration to be held at St Johns on Sunday 25th January at 6.30pm.
Join us to celebrate Christian Unity week and to renew our vision for 2009.
Among items to be discussed are the Belfry project and the Altar Cross. The theme of the meeting will be “Encouraging Congregational Engagement with Worship”.
If you have any suggestions, issues or comments there will be a Suggestion Box in the foyer of St. John’s for the next few weeks, please submit your views with your name, and post them in our box for inclusion on the Agenda. The box will remain in place until the 11th January. This is a good opportunity for your voice to be heard.
Alpha is an opportunity to explore the Christian faith in a relaxed setting over ten thought provoking weekly sessions. Our Alpha Courses begin on the following dates:
Evening course: Thursday 25 September, 7.30pm
Daytime course: Friday 3 October 1.15pm. This is an ‘Express’ course with slightly shorter sessions and free childcare for age 2 years +.
For more information on either of these courses speak to Colin, Donna Martin at St John’s or Eddy Lee at St Mary’s. You can also find out more on the Alpha website.
Registration forms are available at St Mary’s and St John’s - simply return to the Parish Office by 7th September.
You may have noticed a cross on the tower outside St John’s. Why is it there? Well, we are considering putting some form of cross on the tower and this is a temporary version so that we can see what it looks like. Any opinions? Let us know!
We need your support, views, ideas and prayers as we consider relaunching our ladies breakfasts. Everyone (men and women) is welcome to a meeting about this at St John’s on Friday 12 September at 7.30.
Tuesday 23rd September is our next men’s night. This will be at St John’s at 8pm - 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 the different sites that will be used for the games.
