Parish Office.
Over the next few weeks, the office opening times will be sporadic. Mel will be mainly working from home.
If you leave a message on the answering machine (01626 211346), or send an email (office@newtonabbotparishes.co.uk), she will respond.
Anna Crocker
After spending the last few years in various nursing homes in the parish and nearby, Anna Crocker, a lifelong, faithful member of the church at Abbotsbury, and more recently St Paul’s, sadly died last week.
Anna’s funeral will be held at Abbotsbury Church on Friday 4th September at 10:30 a.m. and all who knew her are welcome to come along and give thanks for her life.
If you are coming to the service and would be happy to help serve tea and coffee afterwards, please contact Dave asap. Dave is also looking for someone to put together a pedestal of flowers for the church. If you have those skills, again do let Dave know.
All Saints’ Church Weekday Services
The recently started services of Compline on Mondays and Morning Prayer on Thursdays have proved to be very popular.
A cup of tea is served from 6:30 p.m. before the 7 p.m. Compline on Mondays with Jon leading.
Coffee or tea is served after the 9 a.m. Morning Prayer service on Thursday with Gareth presiding.
From 1st October, there will be a ‘dog walker cafe’ each Thursday, with the church remaining open until midday. All are welcome - working name is ‘The dog collar cafe’. Volunteers to help on Thursday mornings to welcome visitors and serve refreshments would be hugely welcome.
If you can help from time to time, please speak to Paul Cannock, or email him at allsaintswarden@newtonabbotparishes.co.uk .
St Paul’s Refurbishment Project- Update and Sponsored Walk
The PCC have been working on plans for a major refurbishment project for St Paul’s for some time and faculty permission for these works was granted in the early summer. Sadly, the tenders received for the works were far in excess of our current finances, and so last month, the PCC submitted reduced plans to the DAC for consideration.
These are expected to be agreed at its meeting in early October with the project now estimated to be somewhere around £200,000. Much of this money has been provided by a large legacy for St Paul’s received last year, with the rest hopefully coming from external grants from various charities, internal fundraising and other parish-wide legacies.
So, as part of an appeal for the congregation at St Paul’s to play their part and raise something around £30,000 towards these costs, two of the St Paul’s Congregation (pictured and both called James!) have offered to do a sponsored walk from St Paul’s to Exeter Cathedral.
Sponsorship forms will be available on Sunday at our joint service, should anyone from another one of our worshipping communities wish to support them. A tapand-give machine will also be available for single donations.
And if anyone would like to walk part or all of the way with them or meet them along the route with some refreshments or encouragement, James and James would be thrilled!
Study Course this September: Discipleship Explored.
Alternate Wednesday afternoons from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. starting Wednesday 2nd September in the Vicar’s lounge at St Paul’s. Invitation cards are also available now…
Discipleship Explored has been designed to help followers of Jesus discover the joy, unity, righteousness and love which are theirs in Christ.
This eight-session journey through Paul's letter to the Philippians will help believers young and old to discover the greatest love anyone could ever know, and how to live as disciples of Christ Jesus today. It features documentary-style films and inspiring real-life stories from around the world, Bible studies and weekly reading plans.
More details here: https://www.christianityexplored.org/courses/discipleship-explored/
After School Tea and Toast… The Next Step
DBS checks and date of next meeting.
We had a great meeting last week and have decided to run the after-school drop-in on Wednesday afternoons, starting towards the end of September.
The next step to is to make sure that everyone on the team has a valid DBS check which covers you for working with children and young people. To do that, please contact Rob our Safeguarding Lead on safeguarding@newtonabbotparishes.co.uk
Our next team gathering to discuss practical arrangements will be on Tuesday 1st September at 7pm at St Paul’s Church. We will gather in the Middleton Room, so please enter via the REAR (blue door) entrance.
A Month of Hospitality
At our meeting earlier this week, the PCC agreed to support September being a Month of Hospitality! Each church community will be looking for a way to eat together, but we are also hoping that as many of us as possible will invite someone from our church community into our homes during that time. It doesn’t need to be grand. It could be for a coffee, a sandwich, or beans on toast. The food doesn’t matter. The welcome does. So, let’s all seek to grow in the gift of hospitality during September. Invite cards will be available soon for you to use…
Invitation cards like the ones below will be available soon for you to use.
"Lunch with God" Location Change
Lunch with God will now be in a new location in the middle of Courtenay Street.Please come along and continue to pray for this outreach that the Invitations of Jesus that are being preaching will be accepted by people and lives will be changed
NEW! Morning Prayer Service, Coffee, Tea and Cake every Thursday All Saints’ Church, Highweek
Starting at 9 a.m. The service will be based on the Church of England Common Worship followed by an opportunity to meet and make friends.
Father Matthew’s Biker Pilgrimage
On Thursday 23rd July, following a special Mass at St. John's at 10.00am led by Fr. Robin and after a swift visit to St. Catherine's school for a wave off in the playground, I'll begin a journey of around 9,000km to many of Europe's great Marian shrines.
Over the coming weeks I'll be travelling by motorcycle through much of Europe, visiting places where Christians have prayed for centuries, meeting people along the way, and gathering the stories that will become my forthcoming book, Two Holy Bikers, to be published by Bloomsbury in October 2027.
If you would like to follow the journey, I'll be posting regular updates, photographs and videos at www.twoholybikers.com
Buy a Bible for a School Leaver
Each year the Parish buys one of these Bibles for each of the Year 6 children leaving All Saint’s Marsh and Wolborough Church of England Primary Schools. They cost £13 each, meaning the cost is over £600.
If you’d like to sponsor one or more Bibles this year, please make your donation in an envelope marked School Bibles and place it in the offering.
Alternatively, if you use the tap and pay machines at church, make your donation £13:00 and we will see what the gift is for.
Thank you.