This Week - CAP Sunday

This Sunday is Christians Against Poverty Sunday. With rising costs of living and higher levels of inflation, the numbers of people struggling with debt is spiralling and the statistics suggest that the situation is only going to get worse. Yet… in the midst of this deep darkness there is real hope. This week, we will be seeing how your involvement with Christians Against Poverty is providing practical help to many. We are so grateful to those who are part of our CAP team, those who pray regularly for the work of CAP and all those who give financially to our church to enable us to undertake this important work.

This CAP Sunday, we will be finding out how people are being released from their debt and much more besides. Natalie Gavan (our CAP Debt Centre Manger) will be guiding us through. Do join us if you are able.

Click here to watch a video in which Melinda shares her story of finding hope and breaking free from debt.

As a church, we are delighted to support and fund both Natalie Gavan and Steve Worts (in part-time roles) to offer help to those struggling with debt and we rejoice to see members of our church family also serving week by week. To increase your planned giving, or to make a one off donation to our church, to enable us to continue to support and expand this area please click here.

Children’s groups will continue this week and refreshments will be served both before and after the service.

This Week - The Words of the Amen

This week our small groups continue with the ENABLE course and we come to the end of Jesus’ letter to the churches in Revelation 2-3. If Jesus’ words last week were shocking, His words this week are sobering. He writes to a dying church, a weak church and a lukewarm church... but the reason He writes is because He loves His church and for each of these churches there is real hope.

It can be hard thinking about our life together as Jesus speaks to us. Maybe, as you come to this final section, spend some time praying that Jesus’s words would come in power. At the end of each ‘letter’, Jesus says, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. I assume that is because we find it hard to hear. Let’s pray that, this week, we might have ears to hear.

Prayer Evening - Next Thursday

Our next Christ Church Prayer Meeting is next Thursday the 19th October at 7.30-9:00pm. It is a wonderful opportunity to come together and pray for our Church family as well as to hear about all the plans we have for our church.

This month the prayer meeting will be held at Stephen and Liz Baird’s house - details of their address can be found on ChurchSuite.

Launch Day - 16th October

You are all welcome to join Dockyard Lounge Mondays 10am-2pm for a coffee, lunch, or a play. If you are interested in supporting this project, they still have some equipment to buy and need volunteers to help set up and close down. Please see their website link below for opportunities to give funds and volunteer time.

This is a wonderful expression of unity as members of five local churches and the community come together to form this new team. Please join the Dockyard in praying: for the team as they serve; for the logistics that come with running a pop-up cafe and that they would reach those most in need. 

Youth Weekend Away - This Weekend

This weekend lots of our 11-18 year olds are heading off on a Youth Weekend Away. They are going to Heatree Activity Centre in beautiful Dartmoor for an activity-packed weekend. We are really grateful for Ben Ireland who is going to be providing teaching from God’s word on the theme of ‘Living in light of eternity’ and to all those involved in cooking, transport and running extra sessions and activities.

As a church family, let’s commit ourselves to praying for the young people who are going and the whole team.

Living in Love and Faith

Many will know that, at the moment, the Church of England is undertaking a process called Living in Love and Faith and exploring the possibility of introducing prayers of blessing for people in same sex relationships. Our ministers (Marc and Hugh) have written to the church family about this process a few times in the past. You can read their previous letters from January 23 and February 23 by following the links below. Our Parochial Church Council (the trustees of our church) continue to have this on their agenda. Marc and Hugh have also been joining some Small Groups that have requested visits to answer questions (and they are very happy to continue visiting any Small Groups who request it).

For some time, the St Kea Leadership Team have been seeking to also host a meeting for church family members so they can hear more from Marc and Hugh and have a chance to ask questions. The week after next we have no scheduled midweek Small Groups or Prayer/Fellowship Meetings, so we are inviting members from St Kea or Christ Church to an informal meeting at St Kea - Wednesday 25th, 7:30-9:00pm.

As that meeting is during half-term we know that some people might not be able to attend. If that is your situation, and you would like us to organise an additional meeting at another time so you can attend, do contact either Marc or Hugh. Also, if you wish to discuss any of this individually with either Marc or Hugh, or seek their support, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Light Party - 31st October

Join us this year for a fun-filled party, including games, crafts, food, music and a short talk from the Bible. The party is aimed at all primary school aged children and their families. It is being run for all the churches across Trinity between 4 - 5.30pm at St Kea Church.

We’d love to see many coming along, so do sign up if you have primary age children yourself and do consider who to invite. Please do also get in touch if you could help us run this event, there are all sorts of roles that you could serve in.

Key Dates

Dockyard Lounge Launch - 16th October - 12pm-2pm

Christ Church Prayer Evening - 19th October - 7.30pm

Light Party - 31st October at St Kea Church - 4-5.30pm

Weekly Prayer Points

Each week there will be a few things for our church life and church family that we can join together in praying for:

1. Please pray for all our young people who will be going to Heatree this weekend. We pray that this will be a great time of growing together as a group and deepening their faith. We also give thanks for all the leaders who are giving up their time to take this group.

2. Let us pray for our mission partners Compassion UK and for the ongoing support of the sponsors which is helping Compassion-supported children receive routine health screenings that enable local staff to monitor the health of your sponsored child.

3. We are so grateful Lord for all the volunteers in our church who continue to serve us each week, allowing our services and church to run smoothly. We pray that, as our church grows, more people will come forward to serve in the different ministries.