Thursday 14 January 2010

Mission Partnership Joint Choral Evensong


The next in our series of Mission Partnership Choral Evensong services will take place at St Peter's Church Oadby at 6.30 pm on Sunday 14th February. A joint mission partnership choir led by Janet Arthur from Smeeton Westerby will lead the singing at this traditional Book of Common Prayer service.
Do come along for what promises to be a treat for those who love choral church music.

Monday 11 January 2010

St Luke's Six - Everest Base Camp 2010

Six worshippers from St Luke's Church are on their way to Everest Base Camp.
The 19 day trip will be a tough test as they raise money for The Hope of Glory Foundation and CLASP, The Carers Centre. Follow their progress (internet connection permitting) at their blog.

Vicar serves hot drinks to sledgers at Thurnby


On Saturday 9th January when the county was covered in snow, Thurnby families turned out in large numbers to enjoy sledging down the hill behind the Rose and Crown pub. Jon Barrett, vicar of Thurnby, went along with his family and using St Luke's new insulated coffee dispensers provided hot drinks for all.


A great time was had by all - the initiative was a great success and everyone was delighted, especially as the coffee was free!

Mission Initiative: Community Choir at Foxton


Caroline Johnson, reader at Foxton writes:

Back in October, a small group at Foxton studied "The Square Mile" using the DVD and booklet from the Evangelical Alliance which challenges people to think about mission in their mile of influence.
One of the group, Andy, was challenged to look at the way we reach out to Gartree, an area of the parish where we do not have much influence. Both Andy and our daughter Becs were unemployed at the time and met up each week for lunch and came up with the community choir idea. Becs is a music graduate specialising in singing. Having had the Gareth Malone choir on the TV recently this was the inspiration. They produced a very attractive leaflet and then went round Gartree one Saturday knocking on doors and asking if people would like to sing in a choir at the Christmas carol service. Subsequent targeted knocking in Foxton resulted in 35 people aged 7 – 85 turning up to the first practice in November. Andy had followed up the visit by texting people to remind them to come along and 5 people from Gartree came none of whom has had any contact with the church. Becs made us practice silly warm ups and we provided coffee afterwards to get everyone to know each other. At the carol service we sang ’ O Holy night’ with one of the newcomers, Shelley singing the solo. There were a number of new faces in the congregation many of whom had been invited by our singers. Sarah’s husband came to church for the first time in 23 years, Elaine’s husband to his first carol service in 15. Liz had invited her work colleagues who had never been to church and initially were very scathing. Three days later we went carol singing round the village with the same singers and had mulled wine and nibbles afterwards. Billy, a prison officer, and Liz both brought their families to the midnight and Christingle services.
We hope that the new guys have found the church community friendly and welcoming. The singing conducted by Becs was certainly of a higher standard than usual and lifted the congregation.
What next? We are planning a follow up event at Easter – a musical evening with gospel music.
We were challenged by the fact that our new singers asked all their friends to come to the carol service – how many of the normal congregation brought someone new along? Not many I fear.

Growing in Wholeness Course Part 2

The Growing in Wholeness Course Part 2 will begin on 27th January, the last Wednesday of the month, and run for 6 consecutive Wednesdays with a break during half term week. The first week will be held at St Luke's Church, and the following five sessions at St Luke's School, starting at 7.30pm and finishing at 9.30pm.

Part 2 course is for those who have completed Part 1. Please contact Helen Bence if you would like to enrol on 011 2707820 or email helen@thurnbychurch.com. Part 1 will run again later in the year.