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8.00am HOLY COMMUNION (said)
President: Rev. Kevin Maddy, Rector
10.30am SUNG EUCHARIST
President and Preacher: Rev. Kevin Maddy, Rector
Setting: The Hadleigh Service – Ridout
1 Samuel 1: 20–end
2 Corinthians 1: 3–7
Luke 2: 33–35
Anthem: For the beauty of the earth – Rutter
Hymns: 336, 161 (t. 385), 185, 282, 475
Voluntary: Fugue on the Magnificat BWV733 – J. S. Bach
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Join us in church for our Sung Eucharist at 10.30am or online at any time
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6.00pm CHORAL EVENSONG
Sung by the Sopranos and Altos
Responses: Sarum
Psalm 30
Isaiah 40: 27–41: 13
2 Timothy 4: 1–18
Magnificat: tone VI
Nunc Dimittis: tone I-2
Anthem: My song is love unknown – Archer
Hymns: 376, 69, 75
Voluntary: Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ, daß du für uns gestorben bist BWV 623 – J. S. Bach
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Join us in church for Choral Evensong at 6.00pm or online at any time
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The Collect for The Mothering Sunday
God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
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This week at St Stephen's
Monday 28th March
7.00pm Bell Ringing practice
Wednesday 30th March
10.15am HOLY COMMUNION (in church only)
10.30am Acorn Community Café (in the Church Hall)
5.15pm Trebles' rehearsal
Thursday 31st March
7.00pm Canterbury Cantata Choir rehearsal
Friday 1st April
7.30pm Full choir rehearsal
Sunday 3rd April
THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
10.30am SUNG EUCHARIST (in church and online)
6.00pm CHORAL EVENSONG (in church and online)
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<<First Name>>, do share this online version of Pews News with anyone you think might be interested, and encourage them to sign up to receive it by email each week.
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Ukraine Collection
Kevin is making a virtual pilgrimage to Walsingham during Lent to raise money for the Ukrainian Disaster Appeal. If you would like to sponsor him, there will be a sign-up sheet at the back of church, or you can email him at revkmaddy@gmail.com.
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St Stephen’s Parish Church Electoral Roll
Why does the Church need an Electoral Roll? By ensuring you are included on the Roll (meeting the relevant criteria) you will become a voting member of our Church. This ensures there is a group of lay members involved in the decision-making process of the Church.
Interested? Please talk to a Churchwarden or to Enid (our Electoral Roll Officer). St Stephen’s Church APCM (Annual Parochial Council Meeting) takes place on Sunday 24 April 2022 after morning Service and if entered onto the Electoral Roll you will be able to attend this meeting and have a vote. The cut-off date for inclusion on this years Electoral Roll (and become a voting member) is Saturday 9 April 2022. (Unfortunately, you will not be able to be elected onto the PCC (Parochial Church Council) until you have been entered onto the Roll for 6 months prior to the APCM).
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Christian Aid Week 15–22 May 2022
St Stephens’ has always raised a lot during Christian Aid week, and although at present we are all understandably concerned about Ukranian refugees, we should not forgot the longer term need and poverty which Christian Aid addresses. Lent is a good the time for each of us to consider what we can do this year:
- Cake sales, plant sales, quizzes, breakfasts or coffee morning, and sponsored events raise a lot of money. Would you like to do something like that for Christian Aid this year? If you haven’t done anything like that before there are lots of ideas on the Christian Aid website https://www.christianaid.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising
At one time most of the money we raised came from house to house envelope delivery and collections, but the pandemic and decreasing use of cash means this no longer works, so this year we are trying a new approach:
- visiting each house only once, and only in our own and neighbouring streets where we are known (which always did better than collecting from strangers.)
- When we visit EITHER delivering a letter about Christian Aid and how to donate in cash, by cheque or online OR take a collection tin and collect what people can give on the spot.
If you think you could do this sort of street collection please sign up on the sheet at the back of the church, or email christianaid@ststephenscanterbury.net with the streets you can cover and the type of collection you want to do and we will arrange for you to receive briefing notes and necessary materials
These days many of us are in touch with more people online than in our streets. If you want to collect using your online network then you may prefer to set up an e-envelope https://envelope.christianaid.org.uk/your-e-envelope/add and ask people to contribute to that. Again we can provide necessary materials on request.
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St Stephen's Eco Group
St Stephen's is currently represented on the deanery Eco Group by James Taylor, and we are grateful for his service. It would be good if James could be supported in his role of Eco Champion for St Stephen's by others, so if you would be interested in joining him in furthering the commitment of our church to become more ecologically and environmentally aware and active, please see James or Kevin.
Caring for Creation Pledge Tree
As part of our Lenten observance, this year we will have an “Eco-pledge” tree in church. Members of the congregation and church visitors are encouraged to write one thing they pledge to do to reduce their carbon footprint, and hence their contribution to global warming, on one of the paper leaves by the Tree, and hang it on the Tree.
This project is one of the Deanery Eco-group activities, and several Canterbury churches have already done this. Here are some recent pledges:
- lower my heating
- use car less
- plant 5 trees with National Trust
- Plant 3 hawthorn bushes
If you worship online and would like to add your eco-pledge for Lent you can email it to ecochurch@ststephenscanterbury.net and we will put it on the tree for you.
A couple of pledges made so far:
'Lower my heating'
'Vegetarian for Lent'
'Plant five trees with the National Trust'
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Meatless meals for Lent
One thing we can all do to help combat global warming and help the environment is to eat less meat, because plant-based food produce only half the green-house gases than meat does. Lent is traditionally a time when Christians give up meat, so it is a good time to experiment with meatless meals. The Eco-group has been collecting ideas on good ways to eat well without eating meat from members of churches in Canterbury as. Our target was the collect 40 recipes, one for each fasting day of Lent, but in fact we got far more ideas. These have been put together in a recipe book which can be downloaded from the parish website in the “Living Lent” area of the information on Lent, Holy Week and Easter - https://www.ststephenscanterbury.net/wp-content/uploads/meatless-meals-for-Lent.pdf
If you can give any feedback on recipes and/or want to add your own ideas for the second edition, please email ecochurch@ststephenscanterbury.net
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After the recent loss of our representative to Christians Together in Canterbury, we are now in desperate need of someone to represent our parish at CTC meetings. If you would be interested in volunteering to help with this, please see Kevin or one of the church wardens.
Friday Walk of Witness and Service, Friday 15th April
We will be joining together again for a Walk of Witness and an outdoor service on Good Friday morning in Canterbury City Centre. The service is led by leaders from different churches around the city, and everyone is welcome.
10:45am Tea/coffee and hot cross buns at The Salvation Army, Whitehorse Lane, just off the High Street
11:20am Walk of Witness leaves the Salvation Army
11:30am 30-minute service in the Long Market (outside what used to be Café Rouge)
Praying for Ukraine, Friends Meeting House garden every Friday 7.00–7:30pm
Canterbury Quaker Meeting will be holding a candlelit vigil for peace in Ukraine in the Meeting House garden, every Friday 19:00–19:30 until further notice. All are welcome to join us and bring appropriate banners and placards.
More information is available by emailing canterburyclerk@kentquakers.org.uk or by telephoning the Meeting House warden on 01227 7645612.
‘Awaken the Dawn’ – Easter Prayer Devotional
Alice Wilson-Sharp, of St Andrew’s URC, has written an devotional booklet to help you pray in the run-up to Easter. She writes:
I have written an Easter devotional called 'Awakening the Dawn' which runs from 27 March until 23 April, looking at Mark's account of Jesus's final days alongside Psalm 57. These will be available from St. Andrew's church office from Tuesday 22nd March to Friday 25 March, 9:30 - 12:30pm. If those times are not convenient, please e-mail office@standrewscanterbury.org The devotionals cost £5.
Connecting Canterbury
David Hartwell shares the following update:
There has been a huge increase in people and families in fuel poverty, and Connecting Canterbury continues to try and help people by the payment of small, discreet, emergency grants at our Thursday hub at Lily's Cafe, Canterbury Baptist Church, and on Friday mornings at All Saint's Church. In 8 weeks we helped 97 people paying nearly £1900, compared to a total of 190 small grants for the whole of 2021. If you are able to help us continue our vital work please have a word with me, or for details of bank transfer arrangements see below.
Also, having secured support from The Canterbury Christian Council and external trusts, we have appointed Tim Cook as our new part time Network Coordinator. Tim is a member of Canterbury Baptist Church, and will be asked to develop our work ecumenically, and our links to other agencies and charities etc.
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Would like to contribute to the services week by week by becoming an intercessor?
We are very short of intercessors at the present time and consequently people are being asked to do them rather often; it would be good to have some new blood. It is not difficult, you are given the scriptures for the week and the names of those sick to pray for and those whose deaths fall on the particular Sunday. You can make up your own prayers or you can use prayers from the large variety of books available. We can take you through the procedure and give you an opportunity to have a practice to get the feel of doing them. There is always someone available to help you whenever you feel you need support. If you are interested please speak to either Margaret Horwood or the Rector. Thank you.
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News from our Bell Tower
Our Tower is open for ringing practice every Monday evening 7.00–9.00pm. There is no need to book a place in advance, just turn up! If you are interested in learning, contact Jane or Adam - their details are on the church website.
At the moment, there aren't always enough people to ring before every service - if you're missing the bells, have you thought about joining the team so that we can keep this tradition going at St Stephen's?
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Moving forward from COVID restrictions - The PCC agreed to leave these measures in place for the time being at their meeting on 8th March.
Government guidance is that it is no longer a legal requirement to wear a face covering during worship. However, in order to protect each other as much as possible, we would encourage members of the congregation to continue to wear masks if they feel that they are able. For the time being, we will continue to provide more space for social distancing at the back half of the nave. Please respect people's desire for a bit of space. This guidance will be continually reviewed over the coming days and weeks. If you have any questions, please speak to Kevin or the Churchwardens.
| Masks |
Congregation encouraged to wear masks when possible.
Choir remove masks when singing. |
| Hand sanitiser |
Congregation encourage to continue to sanitise their hands as they enter and leave church. |
| Congregation seating |
50/50 full capacity and socially distanced.
The front half of the nave available for those who are comfortable sitting closer together, the rear half of the nave will continue to be socially distanced with alternate rows roped off and only one household per pew. |
| Choir seating |
The choir will sit more closely together to aid singing as an ensemble, but will take a lateral flow test before each rehearsal and service to help protect each other. |
| Processions |
Only clergy process. If during a hymn, then clergy do not sing whilst walking through the congregation. |
| Congregational singing |
Congregational singing reintroduced at services (but encourage mask wearing). Those not comfortable singing or being around those singing should sit in the rear half of the nave in the socially distanced area. |
| Service Sheets |
Continue to use orders of service and quarantine after each use for at least 48 hours. |
| Hymn books |
Reintroduce the use of hymn books, using those on the top two shelves for the Eucharist and those on the bottom two shevles for Evensong. |
| Communion |
Communion in one kind only (no chalice)
Distribution from standing station at the chancel step for choir and from the east end of the nave for congregation. |
| Sharing the Peace |
We will continue to share the Peace in a non-contact way as we have done throughout the pandemic. |
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The Canterbury Society is a civic association registered with the Charities Commission. All its work is done by unpaid volunteers. This includes managing open green spaces in the community, litter picks, assessing planning applications and building designs through to protecting the City’s heritage. There are many members from St Stephens and everyone is invited to join at www.canterburysociety.org.uk.
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Canterbury Food Bank
In these difficult times, Canterbury Food Bank are finding themselves supporting more people in our community than ever. If you are currently unable to afford food, please go to CanterburyFoodbank.org or ring 07718 108875. If you can afford food but can’t get to the shops because you are self isolating you should contact Canterbury City Council, who have set up hubs to provide assistance. Go to http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/help or ring 01227 868598.
Whilst our church and church hall are closed and our Foodbank drop-off points aren't accessible, if you can, do make a contribution at the local supermarkets when you are doing your own shopping. If you're in a position where you could donate some money to help the Foodbank, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-canterbury-food-bank-during-coronavirus or https://canterburyfoodbank.org
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If you have an item for Pews News, please send it to pewsnews@ststephenscanterbury.net by midday on Friday. You can also add your news or event to our website by clicking on ‘ News and Events’ and choosing ‘ Submit a News Story’ from the menu. Anything submitted to the website will automatically be sent to Pews News.
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