News

Christmas Page

NEW! We have a Christmas page for all things leading up to the big day!

Science and Christianity - Friends or Enemies

Did you miss Prof John Bryant's talk "Science and Christianity - Friends or Enemies"? Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf3wzYoaxEI

His blog https://www.bigbangtobiology.net/blog

And some books:

"Fifth Miracle" by Paul Davis

"The Goldilocks Enigma" by Paul Davis

"From the Big Bang to Biology - Where is God?" by Graham Swinard and John Bryant

Christians Against Poverty:

Sunday 19 November we heard about the work of CAP. As well as helping us to grapple with the question: ‘Does God care about the poor?’ we heard about how we, as a Parish and as individuals, might get involved. You can find out more about CAP at https://capuk.org/ Contact Dave if you would like to know more or get involved.

Missed some church services?

Catch up on You Tube - same series in each church

Abbotsbury Church YOUTUBE

St Paul's Church YOUTUBE

Advent Books: Our Advent Devotional – The Radiant Dawn

With 25 readings to take us all the way from 1 st December to Christmas Day, the short reflections will help us get ready to celebrate the coming of our Saviour. The books are priced at just £1! Grab your copy this weekend whilst stocks last.

Operation Christmas Child

Thank you to everyone who brought a box along to St Pauls or who welcomed people in. We’ve collected 205 boxes which, by the time you read this, will have been collected and started their journey to eager and grateful children. If you’d still like to send a box, you can still do so on line by following the link here: Shoebox Online (samaritans-purse.org.uk)

Reflections on National Collection Week and The Big Shoebox Challenge

Ian Tresidder has received this message from David Gibbons of Samaritan’s Purse.

The message is edited. If you would like to follow it up, please get in touch with Ian at ian.tresidder@icloud.com

Dear Church Collection Centre Team Leaders,

I do hope you all had a fantastic National Collection Week, receiving shoebox gifts and having conversations with those who came in to drop off their shoeboxes. I enjoyed visiting many of you during the week and know that you’ve all had very different experiences this year. Some of you saw well over double the number of boxes dropped off compared to last year, some of you have not seen as many coming in as you’d hoped in your first year, and several of you have had

4 wonderful opportunities to speak with people in your communities you’d never have had opportunity to meet otherwise!

If you have any photos or videos that you took, I’d love to see them! And if you have any stories to share about what God did during the week, I’d love to hear these too!

This year’s shoebox packing opportunities are not yet over! One thing is that on Tuesday this week, the day after National Collection Week concluded, we launched “The Big Shoebox Challenge” with huge God-sized goal of seeing an additional 100,000 children receiving shoebox gifts packed online this year. To this end, we’d love if you can support this challenge by sharing within your church and via your social media channels.

If you’d like to share Operation Christmas Child’s social media posts about this, as a church or personally, that’d also be fantastic! There are posts with videos and images about this already, with more to come in the coming days.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/occuk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/occuk Blessings, David

Used Stamps please!

Please can you save used stamps and bring them to church, or the office. We save them and send them to an organisation that helps people with leprosy.

Proposed Improvements at All Saints:

Earlier this week we had a constructive conversation with the Deanery Advisory Committee (DAC), looking over the various plans our architect had drawn up. She now has some more work to do to clarify the preferred (and DAC backed) option, but we are confident that we now have the outline of a scheme that will work and be acceptable to the DAC.

Parish Office Hours.

Parish Office at St Paul's Church, Devon Square is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For all enquiries, please phone 01626 211346 or email office@newtonabbotparishes.co.uk

Mel Dunn, Benefice Administrator.

A Christmas Journey

Over 100 6–7-year-old children will be coming along to experience the Christmas Journey this December.

The last training session for those on the team is this Saturday from 11 a.m. at Abbotsbury Church. Don’t forget to come along if you missed the first one. We also still need the following props. If you can supply any of the following, please let Dave know.

A lifebuoy

A crown (plastic)

3 shepherds crooks

10-12 large cushions

Some wooden toys

6 bales of straw

20m of rope (min 5mm think)

Soft toy sheep and camels

1 large pop-up gazebo,

Lots of coloured drapes/sheets for backdrops and screens.

Review of Service Patterns

When we adopted the current service patterns the PCC agreed to review things after 12 months. We shall be doing this at our PCC meeting on Monday 20 th November, so please pass any comments on to your Church Wardens or PCC reps. Note, this is not about the differing styles in our churches as we are committed to being varied in style. This is only about the mix of service types.

SOS from Newton Abbot Street Pastors.

Last year, thanks to your wonderful support and kind hospitality, I was able to recruit 10 Street Pastors including Prayer Pastors. Sadly, this year I have lost 6 Street Pastors due to moving away from the area, or for health reasons and one sadly passed away. I feel 2 more may resign for health reasons in the next few months. This has put me almost back to where I was last year, struggling to get a team out every weekend. We badly need some new recruits.

To find out more, please contact me, Dixie Kendall-Dunn, NASP Coordinator

Phone: 07505 354684, or Email: kendalldunnd@gmail.com

Come and Pray: Our Diocesan Day of Prayer on Saturday 2nd December

The Acting Bishop of Exeter is inviting people across Devon to take part in a Diocesan day of prayer, Come and Pray, on Saturday 2 December. The Rt. Rev’d Jackie Searle says she wants to make prayer a priority for the next 12 months as the process to appoint the next Bishop of Exeter continues. Details HERE

Greece: In the Footsteps of St Paul Pilgrimage 15 to 25 April 2024

The Right Reverend Nick Mckinnel, former Bishop of Plymouth, and the Venerable Nick Shutt, former Archdeacon of Plymouth, are leading an 11-day McCabe pilgrimage in Greece. The pilgrimage will follow St Paul's route, travelling the length of Greece visiting Philippi, Thessaloniki, Berea, Athens and Corinth and offer optional worship in some ancient and very special locations. To see the full itinerary, further information and the cost, please click here to read the brochure.

A few more participants are needed to make this trip viable. You are welcome to speak to Bishop Nick about it.

The Rt Rev’d Nicholas McKinnel 07773 363330

Confirmation Preparation

Within the Church of England, Confirmation is a service of public declaration of a personal Christian faith and a sign that you wish to be considered part of the Church of England. It’s often the way that those who were baptised as children can declare that faith to be their own, but it is also useful for those who come to faith in adulthood to declare their faith and ‘membership’ of the church after first being baptised. Starting in mid-September, Dave will be running a short series of confirmation prep classes, leading to a service of confirmation in the late autumn. If you are considering being confirmed, do chat to Dave as soon as possible

School Leaver Bibles

Each year we give Bibles to year 6 pupils leaving Wolborough and All Saints (Marsh) Primary Schools. The youth Bibles we give away cost about £15 each, which is obviously a large expense. If you’d like to make a contribution towards one or more of these Bibles, please put your gift in an envelope marked ‘School Bibles’ and place it in the offering over the next couple of weeks. Thank you.