Exciting times ahead!
Dear Friends,
What a joyful Easter time we had at Woking URC! It was wonderful to see the church bursting at the seams on Easter morning and to be able to lift our voices in praise of the risen Christ. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to help with the Easter services, celebrations, and activities. We had a beautifully decorated church, a sumptuous Easter morning breakfast, a fantastic hildren’s Holiday Fun club and youth hike/camping trip, not to mention the special times of worship where we journeyed through Holy Week to the climax of Easter Day. I pray that God was glorified in all that we did and that everyone who came to any of our events or services was touched by his love and grace.
Now it’s time to look ahead and we have plenty to look forward to.
Christian Aid week is fast-approaching and we want to make sure that we work hard to raise as much money and awareness as we can. Woking URC has a reputation for being a key supporter of Christian Aid and we will ensure that this year is no exception. Many of you will remember that in 2021 we held a sponsored Readathon of the New Testament over a 24-hour period. It was done on a platform similar to Zoom and was live streamed. People signed up for slots to share the reading and between us all we raised well over £7000!
So what next? Well, instead of reading just the New Testament, our plan is to read through the whole Bible over a period of just over 3 days! There are more details elsewhere in the magazine about the timings and how to sign up. We are inviting you (and hopefully many friends from beyond our immediate church family too) to sign up for a half hour slot. We’ll aim to have two people per half hour so you don’t have to read continuously if you don’t want to. Or perhaps you can sign up for more than one slot at different times. You can read from the comfort of your own home, as last time, by clicking a link (just like using Zoom) or there will be certain times where you can opt to come to the church building to read. We thought this might appeal to those who aren’t too keen on using computers, or who just fancy coming out. You’ll be sat reading in front of a computer screen (it won’t be from the lectern!) and there will be someone there to assist you.
As last time, we have set up an online sponsorship page so that all our sponsors can go to one place and we can amass a total together. I hope we can beat last time’s figure!
There will also be some special events as part of the Readathon. The launch night will be at our Recharge service on Wednesday 17th May at 8pm, with the reading starting promptly at 9pm. On Friday 19th, when we hope to reach the Psalms, there will be a special ‘Sing the Psalms’ evening where, instead of reading the Psalms, we will sing through as many as we can where we have settings that we know. Our young people will then take over from 9pm and have a sleepover at the church to take turns reading through the night until 9am on Saturday morning.
We will finish (God willing) sometime early on Sunday 21st May.
When we gather for our 10.30am service we will celebrate ‘All Nations’ Sunday. This is a tradition in our church family which dates back quite a few years now and usually falls on Pentecost. We are going to celebrate Pentecost early because it’s official date (28th May) is when many will be away for half term. On the 21st you are invited to come in Pentecost colours of red, yellow or orange or in the national dress of the place where you come from. We will celebrate the unity and diversity that we have in the Spirit and celebrate our varying cultures and languages. This will be followed, of course, by an ‘International Lunch’.
What a lot to look forward to!
Please do get the dates in your diaries and join in everything you can. It’s good to have opportunities to share in fellowship with one another as we grow together as a church family.
Everyone is wanted and welcome!
Lucy