Sabbath Rest

From the creation story in Genesis onwards, the Bible has stressed the importance of rest.  God rested on the seventh day, and commands us to do the same; in the Deuteronomic books, the people of Israel are commanded to give all time to rest (householder or slave, Israelite or foreigner); and in the New Testament, Jesus always sought to ensure there were times when he rested with the disciples – before the feeding of the five thousand, for example, he took them away into the wilderness to rest.
 
With this in mind, the PCC has taken the decision to keep August as a ‘light’ month.  The Sunday morning pattern will be maintained, however there will be none of our regular mid-week or evening services (with some exceptions for special days).  We hope that this will give all who diligently day in and day out serve or help to serve at the altar an opportunity to rest and enjoy the summer.
 
The normal service pattern will begin again from September.

Safeguarding

The Diocese of Lichfield and the Church of England treats the duty of care it owes to children entrusted into our care very seriously.

The safety and security of children is of the utmost importance and guidelines and policies are part of the processes that have been adopted to ensure that all children taking part in activities in our churches may do so in a loving, caring and safe atmosphere.

Our Parish Safeguarding Policy, together with links to contacts for safeguarding advice and concerns can be found on the policies page of our website here.
 
The PCC encourages all members of the congregation to consider participating in a church-wide online Safeguarding Training course called C0.  This course helps equip us all to engage positively with the protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults in both a practical and theologically informed way.  You can access this course here.

Stewardship

We all recognise the importance of All Saints, Holy Trinity, St Thomas’, and all our work in our local area and Parish school.

Our calling to live, bring and tell people in our homes and community about God’s love for them has a tremendous impact on those around us. It is a real privilege to serve in such a vibrant church at the heart of the community, and we are all grateful to God that Berkswich is such a loving, welcoming church family.

As a PCC, we are committed to helping our richly gifted church family continue to revitalise the church, and regularly reviewing our income is an important part in our journey.  You can find more information about why and how we can give in the leaflet attached to this link.

If you would like to use the Diocese Giving Direct scheme, this Direct Debit giving process, you can find more information and a Direct Debit form here.

Toilet twinning

Together, our Church and school have managed to raise around £900, which is enough to twin every toilet in the church buildings - thank you to everyone who took part. 

We have twinned our toilets with facilities in:

• Uganda
• Zambia
• Tanzania
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Myanmar
• Malawi
• Central African Republic

With the remaining funds, we’re going to challenge local businesses to match our donations and twin their own toilets to see if we can raise even more to support the provision of good toilet facilities.  Photos of our twinned toilets are up in each facility.  Many thanks for all your hard work, from Yr 4 and the PCC.