Parish News News

Priest-in-Charge Fr John Ainslie (revjohnainslie@gmail.com; 01628 629827)

SERVICES THIS WEEK: Thursday Mass at 10.30am; next Sunday Sung Mass at 10.30am.

THANK YOU to all those who brought supplies of food and toiletries to our Harvest Thanksgiving Service last week; they have all been delivered, together with the offerings from our St Michael’s Schools, to Maidstone Homeless Care, where they were received with grateful thanks. As I said in my Sermon last week, making our Harvest Thanksgiving offerings both encourages us to be people of gratitude, generosity and thanksgiving, and also reminds us of our dependency upon God our Maker, Redeemer and Sustainer for all that is good (a reversal of “The Fall”, where Adam and Eve choose to go it alone, trust to their own strength and “wisdom”, separate themselves from the loving grace of God, and as a result find themselves driven by fear and selfishness rather than the trust and generous love that comes from relationship with God). We offer our gifts together, as a corporate action, which builds our togetherness and sense of identity as God’s people.

The ALL SOULS SERVICE OF REMEMBRANCE OF OUR DEPARTED LOVED ONES is on Saturday 1st November at 4.30pm. It provides for a gentle time of prayer with the opportunity to light a candle, all in the context of a Sung Requiem Mass. As usual THERE IS A LIST at Back of Church for you to add the names of those you wish to be read out and remembered at this service.

We are offering this opportunity to remember departed loved ones to the people of our town, especially through other churches and through the Funeral Directors in Maidstone. Do please come and support this service, remember your own loved ones, and provide a welcome to others who come – who may be less familiar with our church than you are.

OTHER DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES: Sunday 26th October is our Dedication Festival, when we celebrate the Consecration and Dedication of our Church in 1876. We give thanks for all that St Michael’s means to us, and we re-dedicate ourselves to serve Christ in this place, through commitment to regular attendance at Mass, through growth in faith and discipleship, and through service to God and the local community. May this be a place where love, joy and hope in Christ abound, where others come to seek and to find the love and forgiveness of God.

Sunday 2nd November is All Saints Sunday.

Sunday 9th November is Remembrance Sunday, where we welcome our uniformed organisations to join us in remembering those who died in the two World Wars and in conflicts since.

Saturday 29th November is our Christmas Market.

FOR OUR PRAYERS: We pray for the Church – for Archbishop-Designate Sarah Mullaly; for our own Bishop Luke and for all the clergy and parishes under his care; and for St Michael’s Church, that many would come to find the love and forgiveness of God. We pray for our Parish, especially for families, the elderly and the vulnerable; for our schools, for care homes, for the Wendy House Pre-School and for the uniformed organisations which meet in our church halls. We pray for peace in all the places of war and conflict, and for the relief of suffering.

We pray for those in need, and especially Glynis Reynolds, Yvonne Young, Jessica O’Sullivan, Lindsay Wheeler, Martyn Nash, Fran, David Green, Norman Farrington, Chris Jenkins, Bridget Humphries and Bob Humphries.

We pray for the recently departed, especially Kathleen Damiral. We remember those who have faithfully served God in this Church in previous generations, and we pray for those whose year’s mind occurs this week: Thomas Milner Barlow, Gweneth Bryson, Ann Cook, Freda Wallace. SUPPORT ST MICHAELS: to make a donation towards the work and worship of St Michael’s Church go to: www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/maidstone-st-michael-and-aa-maidstone/