Dedication Festival News

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

Do please join us after Mass for Tea, Coffee and Cake in the Vestry Hall - - just ask if you don’t know the way!

SERVICES THIS WEEK: Thursday Mass at 10.30am; Saturday Requiem Mass for All Souls 4.30pm; next Sunday Sung Mass at 10.30am for the Feast of All Saints.

MASS OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM: This will be on Saturday 8th November instead of the usual first Saturday of the month.

NEXT SATURDAY, 1st NOVEMBER AT 4.30pm - ALL SOULS REQUIEM MASS IN REMEMBRANCE OF OUR DEPARTED LOVED ONES. This 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.

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 give thanks and praise for this Church of St Michael and All Angels, for all the Blessings we have received here, for the worship offered and pastoral ministry provided for nearly 150 years. We pray for our Churchwardens Zoe and Jonathan and for the PCC, and all who worship in this place or contribute to the life, worship and ministry of St Michaels Church. May Almighty God accept our worship and hear our prayers. We pray that many would come here to find the love and forgiveness of God, and that we would be a truly welcoming Christian Community. We pray for Margot, her parents and Godparents, that she will grow up knowing and rejoicing in the love of God and come in due time to confess her faith for herself at Confirmation.

We pray for the worldwide Church of which we are a part; for Pope Leo, for Archbishop-Designate Sarah Mullaly; for our own Bishop Luke and for all the clergy and parishes under his care;. 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 and Kathleen Owen. 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: Malcolm Stanley, Marjorie Mason, Ann Giles, Florence Hawker, Mandy Epps, Mark Judd. 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/