June Newsletter

Dear Friends,

As you may know, under the new deanery plan, I am meant to give a certain amount of my time to supporting All Saints parish.  This has been fairly informal - mainly helping out with funerals, weddings, baptisms and other services as needed.  I am also involved in a few projects on the Larchfield estate.

In recent years, several churches in our deanery and from different denominations have been trying to work together on shared initiatives in Larchfield.  ‘Open the Book’ was really the start of this. For almost three years now, a team of people drawn from five different churches has been taking weekly assemblies into Larchfield Primary School, based on Bible stories. I have been delighted with the contribution our church members have made to the Larchfield team.

I have also been serving on a small working party looking at how the local churches can work together to serve Larchfield.  Representatives from other local churches are on the group: from All Saints, St Mary’s, Maidenhead, the URC, River Church and Furze Platt.  We hope that our churches can work together on two special events this summer:

1. Larchfield Festival.  River Church is planning another weekend festival on the Larchfield Estate this year from 1st-3rd July, following the very successful event organized last summer. A number of different activities are planned. The aim of the festival is ‘to give local residents the chance to come together, get to know their neighbours better and have some fun – whilst also raising funds for community work or services on the estate.’ River Church is keen to work in collaboration with other churches on this event. I very much hope that as a church we can get involved and give our practical help and support.

2. Children’s Holiday Week.  A holiday week is also being planned which will run from 9.00am-12.00, Monday to Friday in the second week of the school holidays (1st-5th August).  This is being co-ordinated by a member of the URC Church in Maidenhead, but the hope is that we can draw volunteers from our different churches to help.  We will need at least ten helpers from across the churches on each morning if we are to run the event.  If you can spare time to help with a few sessions it would be very much appreciated. For those who haven’t already got CRB clearance, this can be arranged. 

These are both wonderful opportunities to work together across churches in our local area to serve our wider community, and to reach out to the people in Larchfield.  Please pray for those organising these events, but also consider how you can get involved.

Joan