New Associate Priest announced

The following announcement was made by the Rector on Sunday 15th December:

The Rector and PCC with the permission of the Bishop of Reading are delighted to announce that The Reverend Anna Harwood has been appointed as the next full-time Associate Priest to the parish of All Saints Wokingham.

Anna is currently serving her first curacy in the benefice of Twyford and Ruscombe with Hurst; she will take up her role at All Saints in June 2014 on completion of her curacy. Anna will live with her husband in Bishops Drive Wokingham.

Anna trained for the ordained ministry at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Oxford. She was ordained deacon in 2011 and priest in 2012. Previously Anna has worked for over ten years as a qualified youth and children's worker in church and local authority contexts. She serves currently as a school governor at St Nicholas C of E Primary School in Hurst and is one of the  Oxford diocesan vocations advisers covering Reading and Reading University.

She has an honours degree in Religious Studies from the University of Wales , a postgraduate certificate in youth and community work from Brunel University and a postgraduate diploma in Ministry from Oxfords Brookes University.

David Hodgson 15th December 2013

Messy Christingle!

The spirit of Messy Church came to the Christingle Service this year as families attending got stuck into making up the Christingles themselves during the service. Everyone received an orange wrapped around with a red ribbon on arrival and then bags containing the other ingredients were provided during the service. Rector David Hodgson  said "Actually lots of Christingles were made successfully with surprisingly little mess!"
Over £400 was donated to The Children's Society.

There are 65 million Bibles in China

Rector David Hodgson writes about his visit to the Nanjing Amity Bible printing press in China last month. 

On my recent trip to China with the Bible Society I visited the Nanjing Amity Printing Press; which is the largest single unit Bible printing press in the world and the leading thin paper book printer in China. The factory is huge. We were welcomed warmly by the General Manager and his senior staff team and given a very well - organised tour and presentation.

The Amity Press is a joint venture of the Amity Foundation, a major Chinese faith - based charity, and the United Bible Societies (UBS). It prints some 3.5 million Chinese bibles per annum and about another 2 million bibles in other languages for export, including English.  It's run as a social enterprise and ethical business with profits going to fund the Amity Foundation and the UBS' work.

There is an extensive national network of Bible distribution centres at local churches across China, which gets bibles into the hands of local Christians. In China bibles may be purchased only at church premises though anyone can walk in and purchase a bible for personal use. To make bibles affordable to the poorer members of rural churches UBS subsidises the printing costs by purchasing the paper on which the bibles are printed, raising funds worldwide through national Bible Society campaigns; such as the China Vision appeal currently being run by the Bible Society of England and Wales. This subsidy cuts in half the price to the customer, giving Chinese Christians the opportunity to obtain a good quality bible for less than £2. In some very poor communities or in special circumstances bibles will be given freely to local Christians.
The press also produces Braille bibles and a range of funding streams enable these to be purchased affordably. A whole Bible in Braille comprises 32 volumes and without subsidy would be priced at about £75.

Since it opened in the mid- 1980s the Amity Press has produced over 120 million Bibles of which 65 million have been distributed in China; and it has moved to a new state of the art plant in 2008.

Bells rung to celebrate our patronal festival of All Saints

Our celebration of the All Saints weekend began with bell-ringing last Saturday morning .The ringers attempted a full peal and the bells rang out for an hour and a half over Wokingham to celebrate our patronal festival as a parish. If you'd like to find out more about bell-ringing at All Saints Church Wokingham visit the dedicated website.

View of a bell-ringing practice in All Saints Church tower from above

The blessing of owning your own Bible and what it means for China

The annual Bible Sunday was celebrated yesterday at All Saints.

 In his sermon David the Rector picked up the Bible Society's focus theme this year which is the blessing of owning your own Bible and the call to help the Chinese Church to print and distribute millions of new Bibles in China. David said:

"I'm privileged to be invited as a guest of the Chinese Church to visit China next month with a Bible Society group of British church leaders. We will see the printing of the Bibles first-hand in Nanjing, meet Chinese church leaders and worship with Chinese Christians. A highlight of the trip will be the opportunity to take part in the distribution of free Bibles in one of the rural areas in the region around Suquian City in Eastern China"

Read David's sermon for Bible Sunday with more details about the growing demand for Bibles in China

What's a prayer twirler?

The Reverend Helen Charlton with the prayer twirlers created by the 11am Family Service congregation yesterday.

Revd Helen Charlton congratulated

Applause from the congregation greeted the announcement yesterday that the Reverend Helen Charlton has been licensed by the Bishop of Reading to continue to serve All Saints Parish following the successful completion of her four years of post-ordination training.

A weekend of cultural exchange for All Saints Church

Last weekend saw All Saints Church involved in cultural exchange in two directions.
 On Sunday afternoon the church was full of people to see the Maasai Warriors from Osiligi in Kenya. They delighted the audience with their jumping, dancing and whistling accompanied by their  traditional songs and gospel songs. Earlier in the weekend All Saints Church Choir were the "cultural imports" as they sang Anglican choral music pieces to an audience of over 1000 members of the Reading Indian community at a Bengali cultural festival in the Rivermead centre on Saturday. A return visit to All Saints of performers of Bengali music is promised!

Osiligi Maasai Warriors on their way to Wokingham

Ticket sales for the Osiligi Maasai Warriors concert have been vigorous. Bookends, the book and gift shop on Peach Street,  has now sold out of its allocation of tickets and the Parish Office will be closed from 1pm today Friday. Those still wanting to attend without tickets are advised to turn up on the church door from 2pm on Sunday and purchase tickets there. Cash sales only please as there are no electronic payment facilities at the church.

There will be cool drinks and snack refreshments available in the interval and Maasai craft products will also be on sale.

Tickets are £12 fr adults and  only £1 for any child or young person under 19 years of age.

Guest speaker from the PACT charity at All Saints Parish Communion service this Sunday

This Sunday 13th October All Saints Church will welcome a guest speaker at the 9.30am Parish Communion service. Linda Reid is from the charity Parents and Children Together (PACT). PACT exists to build and strengthen families and to help families to be able to make the very best life for their children, especially those from more vulnerable backgrounds. PACT is a professional agency set up in 1911 as the social welfare arm of the Anglican Diocese of Oxford.

Today PACT continues to be supported by the Oxford Diocese in the area of nurturing family life. In 2011, PACT celebrated 100 years of caring. PACT has a long history of providing adoption and fostering services to couples and single people. In 2012, the agency placed more than 100 children with their forever families.

All Saints Church prays for and donates regularly to the work of PACT. David, the Rector, said, "I'd like to see All Saints Church becoming a key partner parish in the work of PACT. I'm looking for greater awareness across our church membership of the work of PACT for the benefit of vulnerable children and the building of families in the Thames Valley region". 

All Saint parish's relationship with PACT was deepened some years ago when the Eric Rand legacy funded a  dedicated PACT Family Support Worker in the All Saints Primary School.

New Parish Office opening hours to improve access for parishioners

All Saints Church's Parish Office opening hours are changing. From next Monday the office will be open the same hours every weekday Monday to Friday 9.30am until 12.30pm. This replaces a previous pattern where times varied depending on the day. 

David, the Rector, said,  "We believe  this change will make it easier for visitors and callers to access the Parish Office in person if required and improve further  the service we offer to our parishioners". Mrs Jo Asplin, Parish Administrator, has said, "Individual pre-booked appointments will be available in the period 12.30pm until 1pm for a parishioner who may be at work themselves or otherwise unable to attend before 12.30pm." 

These changes do not affect other existing arrangements whereby any parishioner may book an appointment through the Parish Office to see a member of the clergy either at one of the set times on Monday evening 6.30pm - 7.30pm , or Saturday mornings 10.30am - 11.30am; or at another mutually agreed time.

The Parish Office may be contacted by email at  parishoffice@allsaintswokingham.org.uk  or telephone 0118 9792797. With the exception of Thursdays parishioners are able to meet one of the clergy team in church at 9am or 5pm when morning and evening prayers occur Monday to Saturday.

We are still seeking a new Associate Priest

The search continues for a new Associate Priest at All Saints Church Wokingham after the the first round of advertisements failed to provide any candidates suitable for the position. The post is to be re-advertised in the Church Times from 18th October with a new closing date of 12th November. Prayers are asked that the right person will be found. The details of the role may be viewed here.

Why no "Animal Blessing" service this year?

There will be no Animal Blessing service at All Saints Church this year.

David, the Rector, has written to explain:

"The Animal Blessing service last year (2012) was very poorly attended. There were 37 adults and 10 children present even though the occasion was attended by the Borough Mayor and the Wokingham M.P. In earlier years we have expected  and received attendance figures between 100 and 150 combined adults and children but in recent years this figure has not been achieved. In earlier years there has been a wide diversity of animals present but in 2012 there were 10 dogs only.

Therefore the church Worship Committee reviewed the event and concluded that the current format had run its course as people were no longer choosing to attend. This was in spite of the greater publicity efforts that had been made in 2012 compared with previous years.  The Worship Committee has concluded that a new format is needed.

All Saints Church remains absolutely committed to a Christian understanding which acknowledges other sentient creatures as partakers of God's love and care.

As a church we would like to continue to stimulate and enable our local community to celebrate the divine gift of animals, and the life and world humans and other animals share together. But we recognise that a church service in the traditional format may no longer serve this purpose. 

We needed more time to consider a new approach and this, coupled with a staff vacancy in the clergy team which we are carrying during this latter half of 2013, meant that we decided not to run an Animal Blessing Service this year.

We welcome sugggestions for a future event format which will meet our objectives"

Harvest celebrated with a musical feast and raising funds for the world's poorest people

At our Harvest Celebration evening service All Saints Church Choir  and Richard our Director of Music were joined by the Rotherhurst String Quartet and visiting accompanying organist Nicholas Woods to offer a wonderful performance of Vivaldi's stirring Gloria within the context of an evening service. The singing of the Gloria in Latin was interspersed by readings of the English translation and readings from the Bible as well as congregational hymns. With 150 people in attendance it was the largest congregation at an evening service since the successful Pentecost Evensong in May, also led by All Saints Church Choir. Over £200 was raised from the retiring collection for our Harvest charity The Miriam Dean Fund which directly funds health and development projects in the poorest communities of the world

Church says thank you to music group leader

Words of appreciation and thanks were expressed and a gift of a plant was made to music group leader Gail at the Harvest Festival 9.30am service. Gail has stepped down after leading the music group for more than 25 years. During that time the group has led the introduction into All Saints' worship of hymns and songs from Taize, Iona, and writers  like Graham Kendrick.

Harvest Festival news

The altar arrangement at Harvest Festival 

Gifts of food filled the sanctuary at our all-age Harvest Festival Communion service yesterday morning. The congregation responded magnificently to an appeal for food gifts to for the central Wokingham Food Bank run by Churches Together in Wokingham and to replenish our own church emergency food cupboard. Families in the parish who find themselves without food can get access on referral to a bag to help them through. A big thank you to all involved!