Summer, Joint Services, Harvest – and bad news about money

As I write, summer is upon us at last with temperatures in the 30s, at least for a day.

Warm Welcome will be taking a break in August, with the last session being Thursday 25 July. We will be back on 5 September under Sam’s leadership (the new Mrs Brown!) Then, Dave & Mauv Lee will take over for the winter season from October.

I’m looking forward to welcoming Mark Escott as my colleague at St Catherine’s 7 St Paul’s Hoddesdon. His licensing service is 7.30 on Saturday 7 September, and we will have a joint service at St Catherine’s & St Paul’s on Sunday 8 September at 10.30am.

Harvest Festival this year will be on Sunday 22 September, with an All Age service at 10am and a bring & share lunch afterwards. Always a special time, so please come and enjoy it with us.

Finally, some less good news about our church finances. Despite our Giving Campaign, and the fact that many people did increase their giving as a result, we are still not meeting our commitments. I will be explaining the situation in more detail soon, and our finance committee is urgently seeking the best way forward. The first response we need to make is to pray – this is an opportunity for us to grow in faith. Let’s put our trust in God who has all the resources we need. Fran Murray came up with a great idea at a recent prayer meeting – let’s all commit to praying about this at 10am every day. Set an alarm on your phone, pause for a minute or two, and let’s all seek God together.