Dear friends,
I hope you are well. Today I want to invite you to join Naomi and me at the Vicarage for an exciting new adventure as we explore what it means to bless.
Beginning in September Naomi and I will be hosting The Blessings Course at the vicarage on Wednesday evenings. The Blessings Course is intensely practical. Key themes we’ll explore are:
THE GOD WHO BLESSES/ Grasping the goodness of God
BEING BLESSED/ Our Personal Discovery of Foundational Truth
CALLED TO BLESS/ The Priestly Role of Every Christian
BLESSING/ The Person in Front of Me
BLESSING/ The Land
BLESSING/ Areas, Regions, Nations
BLESSING/ A New Life and a New Community
By the end of the course you should expect to be more confident in your personal relationship with the Lord; enjoying the experience of his blessing on your life; and effective at blessing others through words as well as deeds.
If you are interested, please could you sign up below. If you’d like to know a little more please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Love
Grant
are hedges your thing?
We are looking for a green fingered, hedge lover, with some free time and suitable equipment, to trim the Beech hedge behind the War Memorial, in the St. Stephen’s car park. It is quite pricey to maintain if allowed to grow past its current manageable height. It would be good to have it cut back, anytime from now onwards. If you can help please let Jo Eley know. Thank you.
SERVICEs THIS WEEKend
St Mary's
A short said service of Holy Communion using the tradition Book of Common Prayer format. We enjoy a said service this week, with scriptures, prayers and a sermon. A perfect way to begin a Sunday morning in worship.
This week we gather for a Family Communion service with short readings and sermon, plus some well known hymns. Bring the whole family as we gather around the Lord’s table. We look forward to seeing you.
Join us at 10am as we host our Christingle Service with special performances from Basildon Primary School. We will build the Christingles as part of our service and enjoy some delicious refreshments afterwards. Absolutely everybody welcome.
across the villages
Our weekly play session for babies and toddlers meets on Thursday mornings in St Stephen’s Upper Basildon during term time. We start at 9.30 and it’s a wonderful time for the little ones and their carers to come together for play, craft and yummy snacks too finishing at 11am.
St. Stephen’s Cafe is open weekly on Monday mornings. It runs alongside the community post office at St. Stephen’s church. Various groups help to run and support it as we raise funds for various causes. Come along and join us for lovely hot drinks, freshly made homemade cakes and a good catch up with friends.
See all upcoming events on our website
Services next Sunday 13th August
The Christmas Story for all the Family. Everybody is encouraged to come dressed as a Nativity character (or anything else!). There will be cracking carols, lots of celebration and lots to eat and drink! Come and join us as we celebrate Christmas in style.
In our new style crib service we will gather together and re-tell the greatest story every told! We will sing some wonderful carols and encourage full family participation. Come dressed as a bible character. Yes tea-towels are mandatory! - or come as any of your favourite superhero’s - perhaps there will be a Batman instead of a shepherd this year? Who knows? Bring your friends and family and neighbours for what promises to be a fantastic way to enter into Christmas!