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News and Notices

Order your 2025 calendar now to support Catching Lives and the Street Pastors

Last year, Catching Lives could not afford to run its winter shelter. As part of its fundraising drive ahead of this winter, Denise Smith, one of the street pastors, has created an A4 calendar featuring her rather beautiful local photography as below. At only £7 each, these should make a great gift for yourself or someone else! St Peter’s will be putting in an order - to reserve a calendar, please let Donna or Naomi know.

 

 

Update from Revd Danny on the Refurbishment of the Church chairs The church council has agreed to have about 120 damaged seats reupholstered, including treatment of dry joints and addition of a membrane to prevent future damage. This will cost about £50 per chair. We hope you will be pleased with the results.

 

Should any member of the congregation wish to sponsor a chair, please place your sponsorship in one of the blue envelopes and complete your details, including gift aid information. We are indebted to Phil Myers, Richard Cockell, Solomon Hammond and our centre manager, Donna Fitzgerald, for their work and diligent research in progressing this project. Thank you - Danny <><

 

Ride and Stride 2024 Congratulations to the plucky St Peters athletes who took part in this year’s event: Liani Saudin, Lucy Bryan, Naomi Woods, Donna and Noah Fitzgerald. Thank you to the members of St Peters who sponsored them and who welcomed visitors to our Church on the day. A total of £530 was raised for The Friends of Kent Churches, of which half will be returned to St Peters to help fund our work here.

 

Bible Study/House Group starting 7th November This new group will be running on Thursday evenings from 7th November to 5th December. Each session will be prompted by the Sacred Space Advent Book for 2024 for bible study and fellowship. Please speak to Ruth or Kirsty for more info.

 

Canterbury Singers presents a selection of Sacred Music 9th November at 3pm to include Stanford, Daley, Pärt and Randall. NB - This will be held at St. Paul’s Church - Free entry with a retiring collection.

 

The Diary of a Violin This blog may be of interest to anyone who would enjoy reading the Revd Harvey Richardson’s reflections on music and faith, uniquely expressed through the experiences of a violin - read all about it at stringstogodsbow.com  

 

Classical Concert (Brahms, Schumann etc) 30th November George Needham and Jessica Meakin will provide an enchanting evening of classical music for piano and violin, and help raise money for the Epilepsy Society. For more info see the poster outside church or Eventbrite. Tickets are £10.

 

 

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Inclusive Church Status

St. Peter's Methodist Church are proud to annouce that we have become members of the national Inclusive Church network.

We have spent a great deal of time and effort in becoming as inclusive as possible, therefore we are very happy to be recognised and registered with inclusive-church.org.

About Inclusive Church

Inclusive Church is an educational charity (no. 1102676) founded in 2003. Although originally Anglican in origin, they now work with churches of different denominations encouraging them to explore ways in which they may become more inclusive.

In 2015 the Trustees of Inclusive Church compiled a document 'Clarifying the Purpose of Inclusive Church'  This may be viewed by clicking here.

The story behind Inclusive Church

Inclusive Church was initiated in 2003 in response to a particular incident within the life of the Church of England. The Rev’d Dr Jeffrey John had been nominated as Bishop of Reading; this was withdrawn when it became publicly known that Jeffrey John was in a long-term same-sex relationship. The unease felt by so many led to the creation of an online petition, asking individuals and churches to support what became known as the Inclusive Church Vision Statement.

The response was immense and soon the Petition reached nearly 10,000 signatories. Subsequently a small group of supporters met to consider this overwhelming response, and concluded that Inclusive Church was here to stay.

Find out more on their website...

We are pleased that we have been able to worship together online during the Covid Pandemic and we are happy that we are continuing to offer this service to those who are unable to attend worship in-person.


We are now able to live stream our services on Sunday mornings - you can find a link to our Youtube Channel here.

 

Bach to Baby concert series comes to Canterbury 

Bach to Baby, the critically acclaimed London-based classical concert series for babies, children and parents, came to Canterbury in 2015. St Peter's hosts the monthly series and the concerts are performed by professional musician, local mum and Bach to Baby North Kent's organiser, Alexandra Callanan and Bach to Baby's founder, pianist Miaomiao Yu.

Bach to Baby believes children can enjoy exceptional live classical music from their very earliest moments. So North Kent families can expect outstanding musicians from the UK’s top concert stages performing for them in inspiring locations right on their doorsteps.

Rochester-based bassoonist and mum of two young boys, Alexandra Callanan is thrilled bring the series to the area. Alex has performed with many of Britain’s best orchestras including BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony and Welsh National Opera. As part of The Thorne Trio, Alex is heard up and down the country in recital and education workshops.

Alex said, “Music plays an important role in the development of children's imagination, memory, cognitive skills and musicality. So I believe quality live music should be available to all, including the babies and young children of North Kent!”

Miaomiao Yu, an award-winning pianist and Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, founded Bach to Baby in 2011 after becoming frustrated at not being able to take her children to the sort of quality classical concerts that she enjoyed as a professional musician.

Bach to Baby now presents monthly concerts in 30 venues across London, Kent, Surrey and Thames Valley. "It's about Mozart and Bach, feeding and crying, and dancing to music - all of it. We haven't made it through a concert without at least one nappy change. That's the way it should be.” Miaomiao said, adding that it felt like the right time to bring the series to new areas.

Concerts at St Peter's will run from 10.30am to 11.30am with a half hour pre-concert ‘coffee mingle’ offering much needed caffeine, calories and company for mums and dads.

For more information on tickets and venues, visit the bachtobaby website.