Soon we will be celebrating Harvest in the Buxted and Hadlow Down parish. This year St Mark’s Church is celebrating first, on the weekend of 25th September; St Mark’s School will be having their Harvest assembly on Friday 23rd.
On Sunday 25th, a Harvest parish communion service in the church is at 9.00 am and then the Harvest lunch will be at 12.30 in the school hall. Tickets for the lunch are £12 for adults and £6 for children. If you would like to join us, please phone me, Janet Tourell, on 01825 830478. An early call would be appreciated because there are a limited number of tickets available.
The following weekend the other churches in the parish are celebrating their harvests – St Margaret’s is also hosting a supper in St Mary’s Church Hall on the Friday night (30th Sept) and there will be a concert in St Margaret’s church on the afternoon of Sunday, 2nd October.
Recently we, at St Mark’s, have been giving quite a lot of thought about how to make our church spaces more flexible. Using a huge space only once a week on Sundays seems a bit silly when it could be utilised for other activities as well. Prior to the lockdowns there was a Cub/Scout group using the nave every Monday evening, but lack of numbers has meant that this has stopped now. So, we are looking for replacements.
We already have an excellent craft group on Friday mornings after the school assembly. You don’t have to be a regular attender at church to be part of this group, you just need to be partial to a cup of coffee and a chat – and oh, if you are working on a piece of sewing, knitting, felting, etc all the better. Also, we are thinking of holding a Barn Dance in the nave once again and are also investigating using this space for a Dementia Café in the future.
Last week in the church I talked to a group from the University of the Third Age (U3A) who were interested in the history of local churches, and I thought then what a good venue this would make for lectures and talks – if anyone in the local area has any ideas about what we could do or would like to have a regular discussion group, please contact me and we’ll see if we can get something going.
Finally, to those gentlemen in Hadlow Down who having attended two recent funerals in St Mark’s and commented on the poor state of the plasterwork and offered to help. Once we get the damp sorted out and some money to do the work you may be called upon. Thank you for your interest, it’s good to know that there are local people willing to help us out.
Janet Tourell, Deputy Church Warden
Services at St Mark’s Church during September
Sunday, 4th September All-Age Service 9.00 am
Sunday, 11th September Parish Communion 9.00 am
Sunday, 18th September Parish Communion 9.00 am
Sunday 25th September Harvest Celebrations 9.00 am
The Harvest Lunch will follow this service at 12.30