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.