On October 19th, at the Family Service at 10.30a.m. at St Mary’s, we celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the Scout Group which meets in the Parish Hall.  We have always had strong links with the Group, and continue to do so - Jenny Hales is the Group Chair, and Gary is the Treasurer.

The anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Charter on 24 October 1945 has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948.  It has traditionally been marked throughout the world by meetings, discussions and exhibits on the achievements and goals of the Organization.

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, writes for this year’s UN Day, ‘We will be judged in the future on the actions we take today - on results. On this United Nations Day, let us rededicate ourselves to achieving them.’

As Area Dean, Gary attended the UN Flag-raising Ceremony at the Civic Centre on October 24th.

All Souls' Day, November 2nd,  directly follows All Saints' Day and is an opportunity to commemorate the faithful departed - we remember all those loved ones who have died, either recently or in the more distant past. Our All Souls’ Service will be on Sunday, November 2nd, 4.00p.m., at St Alban’s.  Lists will be in Church for you to add the names of those you wish to be remembered at the service.

Used Postage Stamps

Many thanks to all who have contributed to the Appeal.  Through our combined efforts I have been able to put the sum of £68.40 into the Church Funds so far in 2008.  This is an ongoing project, so please keep on saving stamps and get your friends and neighbours to help as well.
John Payne

Ed., and thank  you , John, for all your hard work in collecting the stamps together and getting them ready for sale - much appreciated.  Especially with Christmas coming up, do remember to collect as many as you can.

Covenant Welcome

At the beginning of September, on successive days, we were delighted to welcome Fr Antony Gatt as the new Priest at Immaculate Conception Church, and Lawrence Fellick, new Minister at Swaythling Baptist Church.  The welcome services for both were splendid, although very different, and we are delighted to welcome them to the Covenant of Churches.

Revd Peter McNeil, of Swaythling Methodist Church and the University has not been well over the Summer, and we send him our prayers for a speedy and full recovery.

Thank you everyone who supported the various mission events last month - USPG Coffee Morning, Christian Aid Tea and the Macmillan Coffee Morning. The Christian Aid Tea in September raised over £60 for Christian Aid, in addition to our other Coffee Mornings that month - thank you, Stuart and Sarah, for arranging it, and everyone else who contributed.

The Mission Coffee Morning this month will be on Wednesday, November 19th, 10.30a.m., in the Community Room at St Alban’s, and is in aid of our work with children in the Parish.

On Friday, November 21st, at 2.30p.m. at 301 Woodmill Lane, the Mission Group will meet. We meet once a year to plan the missionary fundraising events for the following year, and anyone is very welcome to come. Please do come and contribute if you can, and if there are particular charities or causes you think we ought to support, do suggest them to one of the clergy for consideration at the meeting.

And my thanks to the Mission Group for all their support and hard work during the year to make the Mission Coffee Mornings and other events run so smoothly - thank you all.

We supported Basics Bank at both of our Harvest Festivals. They send the following letter after the gifts were taken to their depot in St Mary’s in the City Centre:

We do very much appreciate the food received for Harvest. Autumn and Harvest celebrations are our opportunity to stock up on those items of tinned and dried food that we are often short of. With your help our replenished stocks will keep us going until Spring next year.

During the year ending March 2008, we were able to provide 6425 people with food to last them up to five days.

Please pass on our grateful thanks to everyone who has helped us to ensure that those in need of food do not go without.

Yours sincerely
Chris Davis, City Missioner

We have Basics Bank boxes in both Churches for you to make small regular donations to Basics Bank - thank you everyone who supports week by week.

…is having to change because our previous inter service provider (ISP - Fish, part of Christian Aid) is no longer offering this service.

From sometime in October, the address changed to:

Swaythling(dot)Parish(at)tiscali(dot)co(dot)uk

If you have our old address on your computer, please amend it to the new one. Thanks.

Canon Bruce Hartnell retired as Vicar of Sholing a year and a half ago, having been Rural Dean of Southampton, University Chaplain here, Curate at South Stoneham and many other things over a long and distinguished ministry.

It was here that he and Poppy met, and her funeral service was held at St Mary’s after her illness in August.

You may have noticed that Bruce has ’pitched his tent’ in the Parish, and is leading and taking part in worship here, and supporting our ministry and mission in other ways.

We are delighted that he has become part of the ministry team here, along with myself, Kate, Chris Day, John Davies, Gillian Hargreaves, Chris and Chris Medway, and alongside all those others who share the breadth of our ministry here. This is good news indeed, and we are delighted to have Bruce, with all his experience and wisdom, in the Parish.