Dear Congregation and Friends of St Mary Longcot,

Please find attached the Benefice Newsletter and associated documents for this Sunday.

Holy Communion –  St John Fernham.   Tomorrow’s service at St John Fernham will be Holy Communion at 9.30am and will be led by the Revd Norma.

Opening of St Mary The Virgin Longcot.  We are planning to hold our first service in the newly refurbished St Mary on Sunday 3rd October at 3pm.  It will be a Village Harvest Festival service with our Methodist colleagues.  Details will be published shortly but you can rest assured that there will be more that just coffee and cake in the way of refreshments.

Volunteers Needed.  In the meantime there is still much to be done inside St Mary in order to ensure that we are ready for that first service.  The bell ringers have already made a start in the bell tower and the windows in the nave have already been cleared of their cobwebs and builders dust, but there is much more that would benefit from the help of some willing volunteers.  For example, we need a small group to move tables and chairs up to the mezzanine this coming week (say Tuesday 14th September at 6pm for 20 minutes?); then a larger group of strong volunteers to move pews and give them an initial clean on Saturday 18th September from 10.30am to 12.30pm; and then a group to clean the nave and sanctuary from 14.30pm to 16.30pm in the afternoon of Saturday 18th September.  Please offer whatever time you can – there will still be plenty to do in the following weeks.  Please just send me an email or text me so that I have a rough idea of who will be turning up. Depending upon the progress that we make, I will ask for further volunteers for specific tasks in the following weeks.  Thank you in advance!

Best wishes,

Dennis

Longcot with Fernham PCC