Hello Everyone
We hope you have had a good week in the Autumn Sunshine. The schools are back; the roads are busier as more people return to work, we celebrated Chalgrave Church's 800 years anniversary last week in glorious sunshine with a picnic and a Thanksgiving service; the last of the tomatoes are ripening, there are blackberries in the hedgerow ready for picking to go with the fallen apples and pears, we harvested a home grown marrow... What a wonderful time of year this is.
Autumn is traditionally the time when our churches celebrate harvest and this week we have harvest celebrations at three churches:
Westoning Church at 11am
Chalgrave Church 9.30am outdoor Harvest Service, (Please bring your own chair)
Toddington Church 11.15am Harvest Service inside Church.
We are delighted that Bishop Alan, the Bishop of St Albans will be joining us at both Chalgrave and Toddington Churches to preach and to celebrate Communion. He has been wanting to visit the churches for some time, so we are delighted that he can be with us tomorrow.
Next Sunday Harlington Church will celebrate their Harvest Service at 9.30am and Tingrith celebrates theirs will be at 4pm.
Each church will be sending their harvest donations to the local foodbank this year as so many people are in need. Toddington, Chalgrave and Harlington churches send their foodbank contributions to Dunstable foodbank. Westoning and Tingrith send theirs to the local branch with any fresh produce going to the Noah project. Any harvest donations you are able to offer will be very much appreciated.
Besides the usual Social distancing measures for our services inside church and outside church, there will be a separate area to place your Harvest donations so you can place the donations socially distanced to avoid contact. Items will be isolated safely until they can be passed on to Foodbank.
This week we also follow the latest government guidelines to avoid 'mingling' socially, and to be aware of the requirement not to meet in individual groups of more than 6.
Other Services this week:
Zoom Upper Room Service at 6pm Sunday eve. This week's theme is: The Storms of Life. Please request the access link from Nigel at nwashy2@gmail.com. I will also forward the link separately.
This week's recorded service was filmed at Chalgrave Church. Do click in to see the beautiful scenery of the church and the church grounds, especially at the end of the service. Nigel is preaching and Philip and Eileen from Westoning church offer the readings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe0ul4E4EXM
Monday and Thursday 9.30am Morning Prayer at Toddington Church, followed by an hour of private prayer at 10.30am on Thursday.
Wednesday 10am Morning Worship, Harlington Church
Westoning church -hour of Private Prayer 12 noon on Wednesday
Wednesday 8pm Westoning Going Deeper prayer hour by zoom (request a link from Nigel)
Please hold our schools in your prayers this week as they work hard to teach and care for the children whilst facing many functional challenges linked to Covid-19.
Please also pray for Debbie and Daryl who get married at Harlington Church on Friday.
We wish you every blessing this week,
Linda and Nigel