Our Vicar Serena spent some special time this past week with the children from St Lawrence School next door, explaining the miracle of Easter.

Over the past 12 months, many of you may have seen in the press some of the WWI commemoration installations that have been taking place across the country. Earlier this year, on behalf of the church we applied for a grant from the There But Not There 2018 Armistice project to fund our own installation. Following the widespread acclaim of the placing of 51 transparent seated military figures in Penshurst Church over Remembrance 2016, the Armed Forces Covenant Fund is supporting the There But Not There project to fund the costs of similar installations for schools, places of worship and charities across the country. As a recipient of such a grant, it means that St Lawrence Church is able to display 10 of these transparent silhouettes in church over the Armistice weekend this year. The aim of the project is to create representative figures for those names on local war memorials across the country, to raise awareness of the work of the Armed Forces and to also create a time for reflection, as part of the centenary commemoration of the end of the First World War.

You will see these figures seated amongst the pews when you come into church on Armistice Sunday. They will be part of a wider community project, involving St Lawrence School, St Lawrence Pre-School and the St Lawrence Brownie Pack as well as our church and local residents. We will be opening the church on Saturday morning (10th), where we hope to attribute names and stories to some of the silhouettes through displays of local history and research, together with some WW1 items and photographs. Please do come along for a coffee from 10am – 12pm. If you have any information or family history you would like to be included in the display, please contact Sally Rees on [email protected] or 07900 167430.

St Lawrence Church, Seal Chart
Concert in aid of
Sevenoaks Area Youth Trust
At 6pm on Sunday November 1st, 2015
Greg Tassell – tenor
David Flood – accompanist and organist

Greg and David will be performing a varied programme ranging from operatic arias and folksongs to Noel Coward and Ivor Novello songs, taking in on the way comedy songs by Flanders and Swan.

Greg Tassell trained at the Royal Academy of Music and is in great demand in the UK and abroad for recital and oratorio appearances, most recently in Krakow, Poland singing Bach’s St John Passion. The Times music critic Hilary Finch has described Greg as ‘personable and musically intelligent’.

David Flood is Organist and Master of the Choristers at Canterbury Cathedral and, as well as accompanying Greg on the piano, will also play solo organ pieces.

Tickets (£12 to include interval glass of wine and refreshments)
are available from Carol Lambert Telephone: 01732 810913

Sevenoaks Area Youth Trust is a Christian Trust founded in 2001 to employ, manage, train and support Christian Youth Workers in the Sevenoaks area whose role is to undertake detached youth work in the streets and parks in local towns and villages – wherever young people are. Funding mainly comes from local churches and St Lawrence Church has supported the excellent work of the charity since 2001.

Stone Street Village Hall

Saturday 3rd October 2015- 7pm

Please come along – families welcome.
2-course meal with cheese and coffee, entertainment, quiz and bar.

Always a popular evening. Please book early.

Tickets £12 per adult – £6 for children under 12
Available from:
Carol Lambert 01732 810913
and
Rosemary Cole 01732 763107

Christmas Carol Singing

We shall meet at 5.45 pm on Tuesday 16 December in the barn at Foxbury Farm to sing and enjoy Mince Pies and Mulled Wine.

It is then on to Chart Farm Shop to sing again and enjoy more Mince Pies and Mulled Wine (courtesy of the Peterson Family).

Come and join us, help to swell the ad hoc choir, and above all enjoy a good evening!

The Collection during the Evening is for The Children’s Society

I approached our archdeacon, the Ven Clive Mansell, to enquire about ways of securing the future of both St Lawrence’s and St Margaret’s when I retire in the summer/autumn of 2016. At the present time each church is a separate parish and therefore a quarter time appointment (together they make a half time post sharing the same vicar) and as such they are potentially vulnerable. Plans are being made at the moment which will bring our diocese in line with other dioceses and the allocation of money for ministry could in the future be decided at a deanery level. People will quite rightly be making decisions about where ministry money should be spent and small parishes do not offer good value for money. One possible solution would be to legally bring the two churches together. The best model for our two churches would be a “Joint Benefice”, with two PCCs; four church wardens and separate finances – working together more closely, but retaining our
identities.

The Standing Committees, of both churches, have met twice to discuss this and both PCCs have met and there is a willingness to explore this further and to get answers to questions raised at the meetings. As part of the process of discerning what might be a good way forward we would like to involve people from both congregations in the discussions that are taking place. We would need to agree about what we might like to share together, or what we would like to commit to and this would be part of our application should we decide to go ahead. I would appreciate you coming (if you can) to a joint Away Morning to help to shape this. We will be meeting on the 8th November at Platt Church Room (adjacent to the church in St Mary Platt) from 9.30 am – 12.30 pm.

If we came to the decision that it would be right for our churches to become a Joint Benefice there would be a process to go through, which might take some months. The change could be made by what is called a Pastoral Scheme, and it would need the agreement of both PCCs. The diocese would then have to make the decision to proceed at the Pastoral Committee (that would come with a recommendation by the archdeacon); Bishop James would then have to send the required paperwork to the Church Commissioners; the Commissioners would ask the parishes to consult locally, to see if there are any objections; then the Commissioners would take the final decision. The process could take 3-4 months, or maybe longer? The diocesan secretary has already been informally approached by the archdeacon and would be agreeable to this change should we decide to make it. The archdeacon wondered why this had not happened 20 years ago when the churches were linked together with the same vicar?

Please come to the Away Morning, if you possibly can, and please pray about this.

Carol

St Lawrence Christmas Fayre

will be held in

Stone Street Village Hall
on

Saturday 22nd November – 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm

GIFTS, CAKES, CHOCOLATE TOMBOLA
JEWELLERY, GLASS, POTTERY, CHOCOLATIER,
LUCKY DIP, COOKIE DECORATING, RAFFLE
MULLED WINE & MINCE PIES
FESTIVE STALLS & MORE !

Special guest for the little ones, as well as St Lawrence’s own Plum Puddings
St Lawrence School Brass Band

Please do mark the date and come along!

Entry £1 per Adult

Please click here for more.

Stone Street Village Hall

Saturday 4th October 2014- 7pm

Please come along – families welcome.
2-course meal with cheese and coffee, entertainment, quiz and bar.

Always a popular evening. Please book early.

Tickets £12 per adult – £6 for children under 12
Available from:
Carol Lambert 01732 763415
and
Rosemary Cole 01732 763107