Recent Events
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Saturdays at St Margaret’s 04 September
SAMS is back for the autumn, with craft and even baking jam tarts! Our theme today was The Journey of Life. Adults enjoyed catching up with news and of course the coffee and croissants.
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Holiday Friday at St Margaret’s 20 August
Another Holiday Friday went with a swing for the action songs.
and then all eyes on the storyteller: how would God feed the journeying people in the desert?
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Exploring Practical Spirituality 17 August
At 19a St Margaret’s Road. The topic was Julian Spirituality (i.e. based on the writings of Julian of Norwich), led by Jennifer Brooker. This was our best attended meeting so far, and the session, led with clarity and humour, included a helpful period of practical meditative prayer. Future topics: praying with icons, silent prayer, Taizé worship, and more on a personal rule of life.
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Holiday Friday at St Margaret’s 13 August
The weather was grey but it was a great day for action songs and games at Holiday Friday. A large attendance had a good time and learnt about Moses leading his people across the Red Sea.
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Parish Eucharist with visitors 08 August
Peter, Sabina, John, and Dan from the Maasai people of Kenya, visited us. They sang a setting from Jeremiah in place of the Psalm.
John, their pastor, preached a very rousing ten-point sermon.
We adjourned for refreshments to the garden of 19a for chat…
And some songs and dances.
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Holiday Friday at St Margaret’s 30 July
From 9.30—11.30 every Friday in the school holidays, children up the age of eight years and their carers will be able to partake in a range of activities themed around the story of Moses. Beginning and ending with informal acts of worship, there will be refreshments, crafts, games and stories.
Last Friday we made edible Moses baskets!
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Exploring Practical Spirituality 20 July
Topic: Franciscan Spirituality, with Thalia Carr. This was a really thoughtful meeting, in which Thalia invited us into the world of Franciscan practice and prayer as experienced by a member of the Third Order of St Francis. We are hoping to continue the theme, focusing on Silent Prayer, at a future meeting, but the next meeting, on Tuesday 17 August, will be on Julian Spirituality.
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Shared Parish Feast in celebration of our Patronal Festival 18 July
The weather was kind, lots of us came, and the food was lovely!
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Patronal Festival 18 July
At the Eucharist an exciting new setting of the Mass, the Missa Sanctae Margaretae by Gabriel Jackson was used. The setting was commissioned in memory of Dr Gwyneth Davey. Read more here.
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Exploring Practical Spirituality 22 June
The subject was ‘making a rule of life’. We read through three different approaches to this and discussed how we allocate our time, the balance of work, leisure, prayer, etc., and how we individually responded to the concept of a rule of life. Finally we each decided on one change we would aim to make in the way we organize some part of our time and on which we will report back at the next meeting, Tuesday 20 July at 19a St Margaret’s Road (newcomers welcome).
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Cricket match! 20 June
Held in beautiful sunshine on Sunday 20 June between St Margaret’s and St Giles’s on St John’s College Sports Ground. St Margaret’s batted first and scored 105 for 4 before the overs limit.
After a stupendous tea
St Giles’ fought back valiantly but managed only 43 for 6.
Perhaps their revenge will come next year.
An official photographer recorded the match.
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SAM’s (Saturdays at St Margaret’s) 05 June
St Margaret’s Saturday breakfast café. Come along and enjoy a free breakfast, good coffee and a look at the newspapers. Relax and enjoy conversations with friends and neighbours. Children’s art and craft activities—something for everyone.
On Saturday 5 June we had breakfast outside in the churchyard!
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Nurturing Children’s Spirituality 20 May
How can we recognise, encourage, and share children’s spiritual journey through life, helping them to grow into the rounded adults of tomorrow? In her talk Dr Caroline Canfield M’Caw defined spirituality as an awareness of our relatedness to others, to ourselves, to the world, and/or to God, but is distinct from ‘faith’, which we may put around it. If we have a partner whose beliefs are different to our own, this doesn’t exclude the possibility of nurturing of our children’s spiritual side within the family.
Four things we can do to nurture the innate and present spirituality in our children:
- Discover, wonder, and appreciate together: reading, family nature walks, games
- Chat openly about experiences, values, and the big questions of life
- Don’t be afraid of the children knowing about your spiritual side and activities.
- Encourage creativity and imagination, experience and reflection.
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Exploring Practical Spirituality 17 May
An initial meeting was held at 19a St Margaret’s Road: Sally Welch introduced an exploration of Spirituality and Personality using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. We looked at the different personality types and then how these might operate, or have difficulties, in church life and spirituality. We plan to look at some of the four kinds of spirituality which correspond to four main MBTIs, the Ignatian, Augustinian, Franciscan, and Thomistic, at the next few monthly meetings, so please watch for announcements. This is a practical course for integrating our faith into our daily lives. Everyone welcome, no experience needed!
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Rogation-tide Procession 09 May
On Sunday 9 May we processed as we do every year around parts of the Parish, blessing its activities. Here the railway:
and the Aristotle Lane playground:
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Saturday at St Margaret’s 01 May
SS Philip and James, Apostles
Members of St Margaret’s Choir came and sang seasonal songs at the Saturday morning breakfast café.
And a good time was had by both children:
And adults:
