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 [email protected] Revd Nigel Taylor [email protected] Anthony Harris [email protected] Ruth Brooker [email protected] 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)