Rev’d Pat Dickin will be on holiday from Friday 11 August to 2nd September.
We will have our usual range of services with some new and familiar faces taking the services for us.
The church will be open as usual for you and Pat’s deputies (Paul Spensley and Angus Gribbon) and Jenifa Muscat (Cluster Adminstrator on 07738239388) are available if you need any help.
We hope Pat and her family have a relaxing (and well-deserved) break.
In July, Mereworth will again be offering its famous summer cream teams. Starting on Sunday 9th July, you can drop into the church grounds any time between 2 and 5pm. We will be serving cream teas and there will be lots of cakes to choose from.
You can enjoy a relaxing sunday afternoon tea in our beautiful grounds with a delicious piece of cake….
We are delighted to welcome Bishop Ian Brackley, former Bishop of Dorking, to the service at 6pm on Trinity Sunday, 11 June, at Mereworth Church. Bishop Ian was suffragan of Guildford Diocese for 20 years, and served under 3 different Diocesan Bishops.
Bishop Ian is about to take over the role as Chair of the Retired Clergy Association.
Rev’d Pat Dickin adds, “He was also a key part in my selection for training and ordination, and I very much look forwards to welcoming him to Mereworth.”
Photo and short biography on the link below. Come Mereworth 11 June, 6pm to hear more from Bishop Ian.
Pray with us for healing in heart and body for the wounded and traumatised; for comfort for the grieving; pray for those still missing to be found. Give thanks for the NHS and the medical care everyone will receive for free, regardless of their social status, gender, culture, faith or language.
You may want to use this prayer:
OH LORD OUR GOD, SOURCE OF ALL GOODNESS AND LOVE, ACCEPT THE FERVENT PRAYERS OF YOUR PEOPLE; IN THE MULTITUDE OF YOUR MERCIES LOOK WITH COMPASSION UPON ALL WHO TURN TO YOU FOR HELP; FOR YOU ARE GRACIOUS, O LOVER OF SOULS, AND TO YOU WE GIVE GLORY, FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT, NOW AND FOREVER. AMEN.
Make a note in your diary now….
On Sunday 18th June, there is a Summer variety show at 4pm at St Lawrence Church. Tickets are just 2 pounds (free if you are under 11) and includes light refreshments.
We have a whole selection of events planned in West Peckham, Mereworth and West Malling for this special time of year. There is traditional, modern, serious, fun, early, late and even an Easter egg hunt. We hope you will find something for you….
Sunday 9 April
11.00am, Liturgy of the Palms & Holy Communion
Thursday 13 April
10.30am – Chrism Eucharist at Rochester Cathedral
Thursday 13 April
7pm – SEDER MEAL (free meal, all ages welcome, Essential to book a place), hosted in Mereworth Church
Good Friday, 14 April
10am Easter Interactive Service (Discovery School)
11am Walk of Witness in West Malling (Starting at the Roman Catholic church)
2pm Meditations on the Cross at Mereworth
Easter Sunday, 16 April
6am Dawn Service at Offham church
9.30 Easter Family Communion, Mereworth
11.00 Easter Family Communion, West Peckham, followed by an Easter Egg hunt for children.
Fr Ted eagerly awaits the arrival of MereBunny and her groom for their wedding, with children from Mereworth school
Maybe we can help you out?
Double-click to view the full size poster
There will b a special retirement service for Ven. Clive Mansell on Sunday 19th March at 9.30am at Mereworth.
Please double-click to see full size
We pray today for those in love, those off love and those in between. We remember especially those who find themselves a little bit lonelier than normal.
We do not pray today for loved-up couples, exchanging overpriced flowers and foil wrapped hearts, leaking pheromones like diesel fumes at candlelit dinners. We are pretty sure, Lord, they will be OK for now.
Instead we hereby dedicate this happy-crappy day to all the brave teenagers who dared to send a card (hoping in vain with every fibre of their beings for something back.) Let them be a little bit more OK because we prayed.
We think of the mother, coping alone, who quietly bought herself flowers yesterday. Let her kids be kind today. Let teenagers tidy their bedrooms. And if that’s a miracle too far (we realise you’ve got a lot on in the Middle East right now) could they at least initiate a hug at bedtime. And, Lord, let those daffodils last longer and shine brighter than the overpriced bouquet of red roses which also caught her eye in the supermarket.
Finally we ask you to look upon the elderly gentleman gazing today at a fading sepia photograph in a silver frame of a wedding in another time. Look at him and look with him and be with him in the remembering.
King of Love come comfort the unlovely and the unloving parts of our world and of ourselves today.
Song of Songs inspire a surprising turn of phrase, a thoughtful act to rekindle a little romance in marriages mired in the mundane. Melt our tiny, tinny expensive chocolate hearts.
And forgive us today we pray for this cheap, gaudy, hysterical, isolating thing we have sometimes somehow tried to make of you. Amen.
courtesy of Pete Craig
