Lent & Easter 2024
Sermon Series
Lent is a time, not necessarily to “give something up” but to give more attention to living well in community with others. The theme of this year's Lent series for the Church of England is "Watch & Pray" and we’ll be following this in Sunday services and on Facebook Live on Wednesdays at 1pm starting 21st February. Click here to go to our Facebook page. If you miss a live session, they will be available in the Facebook "videos" tab to watch when you are ready.
Junior Church
There will be themed junior church sessions on some Sundays during the season and family friendly activities in the take-home noticesheet each week.
Watch & Pray Booklets and App
To help you follow the theme, you can pick up a booklet from church or download the app for your phone for daily prompts. If you still have the CofE "Follow the Star" app, this will update to become the Watch & Pray Lent app or you can download it here for Apple or Android
In depth study - paperback & videos
As well as the booklets/app, there is a "full fat" paperback with video series (links below) that you can follow as individuals or Life Groups for those who would like to study in depth.
Jeff's Lifegroup, which meets online on Thursday evenings will be following the study throughout Lent and anyone is welcome to join them.
There will be a Lent Study group at St Andrew's on Tuesday evenings at 7.30pm for anyone who would like to join John, Nigel and Sydney. It will run for 6 weeks starting 20th February. Our course will center around "Tarry Awhile" but have 6 headings as follows:
Week 1 20th Feb Unity
Week 2 27th Feb Movement
Week 3 5th Mar Spirit
Week 4 12th Mar Quiet
Week 5 19th Mar Healing
Week 6 26th Mar Reflection
To join one of the groups, please talk to Jeff, John or Nigel by 13th Feb so that they can prepare materials. If you would like to order the paperback for personal study please ask Natasha or you can find the link to order the book from Amazon here. You can find the free video series on The Big Church Read.
A quote from the book: "Tarrying is a particular spiritual practice... It recognises the interdependence of the individual and the community for encounter with God. It is a time of surrender to God in the hope of personal and communal transformation. It is also a moment for intercession, for bringing our personal needs to God as well as our loving concern for our neighbours and the world...It provides us with space to face our creatureliness, our struggles, our humanity and our mortality. It allows us to confess, to tell the truth and to lay bare the matters we push under the rug to deal wih 'another time', which often never arrives. It allows us time to ponder the ways of God that are not our ways and our ways within the life of God. It can be uncomfortable, as it brings to the surface things we would rather not see. But if we are open as we tarry, the Spirit of God may come to examine our hearts and lives and invite us to let go or take up, to tear down or build."
Ash Wednesday 14th February
Our Ashing Service will be at 7.30pm in St Andrew's Chapel. This quiet, contemplative service is for anyone who wants to mark the beginning of Lent with prayer, communion and spoken worship together. If you wish, you can “receive the sign of the cross” on your forehead or hand in ash, made from palm crosses.
Mothering Sunday 10th March
Join us for our traditional Mothering Sunday Family Service at 10.30am at St Giles' to celebrate and thank all who nurture us.
Baarmy Sheep Easter Trail 26th March - 14th April
Knit and Natter have been hard at work making woolly sheep for our Easter Trail.
Spot the 7 sheep hiding around the village - they could be in a shop window, in the EcoGarden or perched in an unlikely spot outdoors or indoors.
Can you find Sandra, Steve, Sally, Sydney, Shirley, Sammy and Sophie the sheep? Tell us where you've spotted them and the most correct entries will win a prize of one of the sheep or a chocolate easter egg (winner's choice)! Enter using our Google form here by the closing date of Tuesday 16th April and we'll notify the winner by email the following week. You'll need to come and collect your prize from the church after the school Easter holidays.
Paper entry forms are available from St Andrew's foyer or the Post Office and should be posted in the black mailbox on the steps of St Andrew's by the closing date.
Maundy Thursday 28th March
Maundy Thursday Service with Agape Meal 7.30pm at St Andrew's.
On Maundy Thursday, Christians recollect the Last Supper, the first Communion and the events leading to the arrest of Jesus the night before he was crucified. We share a simple supper of fellowship and a time of contemplation and prayerful worship and Holy Communion.
Why not come and learn more? Please RSVP on the clipboard at a church service for catering or email or phone the church office 01753 642331 by Tuesday 26th March.
Good Friday 29th March
Good Friday is a remembrance of the day Jesus was crucified.
Taken by itself, it is a sombre reminder of just how low humanity will stoop to get rid of what (or who) it thinks is the problem. As part of the Easter events, it is the dark before the dawn. All are warmly invited to witness what this means to us as Christians.
Our service starts by the flagpole on Bells Hill at 10am, then we process behind the cross in silence to St Andrew's and our indoor service starts there at 10.30am.
Refreshments will be served afterwards.
Easter Sunday 31st March
Easter Sunday in Stoke Poges celebrates Jesus resurrection from the dead. Allelujah!
If you would prefer a quiet early service, please join us for "Son-rise" at 8am at St Giles' with traditional liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer and communion for those who wish to take it.
Then our Family Communion Service at St Giles' 10.30am will be followed by refreshments and an Easter egg hunt (will the eggs freeze or melt this year?!)
All are welcome to come and see what this most important day in the Christian calendar means. You don't have to take communion or join in with all the words.
Our special services this term...
