ST PAUL’S & ST LUKE’S EVENTS CHURCH DIARY PAGE Spirituality & Prayer

ST PAUL’S & ST LUKE’S EVENTS
CHURCH DIARY PAGE
Please see the back for contact details for
St Paul’s at the Crossing and St Luke’s, Chuckery
Sun 12/10
9.30 am
11.00 am
Parade Service St Lukes
Holy Communion Harvest Service
with the Deaf Church St Pauls
Monday
10.00 am
Morning Prayer
Tuesday
10.00 am
7.30 pm
Morning Prayer
Doubt Group
Wed
11.00 am
1.10 pm
Holy Communion Day Chapel
Quiet Time
Thurs
10.00 am
Morning Prayer
Fri
10.00 am
Morning Prayer
Sat
10.30 am
Quiet Time followed by Soul Space
Sun 19/10
9.30 am
11.00 am
Holy Communion St Lukes
All Age Service with Positively
Special and the
Blessing of Isabella Wilson
Messy Church St Lukes
4.00 pm
Quinta
Book the date for 2016 – 8-10 July
For those who attended Quinta this year. Please pick up a
letter today. If you have any photos from the weekend that
you are happy to share with others. Please email them to the
Church Office so that we can put together a collage of our
memories.
Spirituality & Prayer
23 October 7.30 pm Day Chapel
A follow-on from the previous evening in July
Living Faith Film Night
24 October 7.30 pm St Lukes
Sunday 26 October
Annual Memorial Service
Sunday 9 November
Remembrance Service
Bp Clive at the Cenotaph - 100th Anniversary WW1
Followed by Holy Communion at St Pauls.
Sunday 30 November
Advent Sunday
Thank Offering Day. (Please note change of date.)
Letters will be available early November.
The evening will be an Alternative Advent Service at St Lukes.
(front page (cont)
I have also noticed an increase of sanctions on those with chronic
disability or illness who receive ESA, it is hard to attend when in
hospital! (The Zacchaeus 2000 network have noted an over 400%
increase of these sanctions in first quarter 2014 compared to 2013).
Supporting the Foodbank is one response. Another is possibly
volunteering at Small Street. But there are deeper issues here about
justice and abuse. The polemic has stigmatised so many and the media
via programmes such as Benefit Street have given naive people the
opportunity to make their name, but also reinforce the stereotype. The
use and abuse of money fills 10% of the Gospels and nearly half the
parables. On this Harvest Day as we celebrate God’s blessing let us
become more aware of those still waiting for that blessing.
Rev Mark Kinder
COLLECT PRAYER & BIBLE READINGS
FOR THE MORNING PRAYER SERVICE
You may wish to use these as your daily readings
12 October 2014
St Paul’s & St Luke’s
Church Epistle
Grace, Encounter and Renewal
Collect
Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life;
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Readings
Sun
Ps 141
Zech 9.9-12
Matt 11.16-19; 25-30
Mon
Ps 71
1 Kings 21
Luke 11.29-32
Tue
Ps 73
1 Kings 22.1-28
Luke 11.37-41
Wed Ps 77
1 Kings 22.29-45
Luke 11.42-46
Thur Ps 78.1-39
2 Kings 1.2-17
Luke 11.47-end
Fri
Ps 55
2 Kings 2.1-18
Luke 12.1-7
Sat
Ps 146
Isaiah 55
Luke 10.1-9
(Luke the Evangelist)
Email: Revd Mark Kinder mkinder@hotmail.co.uk
Revd Nigel Taylor nigelr.taylor@btinternet.com
Anthony Harris stpaulsparishworker@hotmail.co.uk
Ruth Brooker crossingchurchoffice@gmail.com
Websites:www.thecrossingatstpauls.co.uk
www.achurchnearyou.com/chuckery_st_luke
Church Office Tel: 01922 620669
This year’s harvest gifts will be passed onto the Black Country
Foodbank, specifically the Small Street Centre in Caldmore. This centre
is the most used in Walsall, last calendar year feeding nearly 2,000
people for three days. The first quarter of 2014 showed a 46% increase
on 2013, if this continues Small Street can expect to feed over 3,000
people in 2014 ( nearly 10,000 days of food).
This is a huge number and I feel we should pay tribute the volunteers
who sort and date the food, meet voucher holders providing food, but
also signposting to other services and simply being a listening ear. We
should also recognise the work Andrew and others do in the church
office in issuing vouchers as the first point of contact to people in crisis.
We have worked hard as a team to develop our approach to provide an
appropriate amount of support and signposting, being open and nonjudgmental without being naïve. This year to date we have issued 265
vouchers (many for more than one person).
The overall figures do not give a sense of the needs we encounter. This
year I personally have given vouchers to two different women escaping
abuse, several who have had significant delays to benefits due to
admin errors mainly due to change in circumstance eg coming out of
hospital or prison.
A significant number have been subject to sanctions due to missing
appointments. It is important to realise that the benefit is stopped
without investigation of cause and only reinstated via appeal that can
take weeks, in the meantime…
(cont inside)