Coming up…
- Sunday 6th December, 9:00am – Second Sunday of Advent in building service
- Sunday 6th December, 10:00am – Second Sunday of Advent online service
- Monday 7th December, 10:30am – Our weekly discussion group on Zoom
- Wednesday 9th December, 10:15-11:15am – Coffee Morning on zoom. Phone in or join us on the internet, all are welcome – you’ll need to make your own coffee.
- Wednesday 9th December, 6:00pm – 7:30pm – Our weekly discussion group on Zoom
- Sunday 13th December, 9:00am – Third Sunday of Advent in building service
- Sunday 13th December, 10:00am – Third Sunday of Advent online service
Advent and Christmas services update
Given the move back to tiered restrictions to control the spread of Covid-19 within the UK (Hampshire is in tier 2), we’re happy that we can welcome you back in to St Mark’s from the 6th December!
For the foreseeable future, our Sunday service pattern will be a 9am service in St Mark’s Church, which will also be streamed online, followed by a 10am online only service shared between Pennington and Lymington Churches. Masks continue to be worn when inside the church, and please ensure you maintain social distancing with anyone outside of your household or bubble.
As we approach Christmas, our intended services are as follows:
- Sunday 13th December
9am – In building and streamed communion service
10am – Online only service - Sunday 20th December
9am – In building and streamed carol service
10am – Online only service - Tuesday 22nd December
6pm – Online Interactive Fun Carols service - Thursday 24th December – Christmas Eve
10-11am – collect a Christingle in a bag kit from St Mark’s Church porch
4pm – Online only Crib and Christingle service
6pm – In building and streamed Christmas Eve Communion service (replacing what previously would have been the midnight service.) - Friday 25th December – Christmas Day
7am – Advent Calendar day 25
9am – In building and streamed communion service
10am – Online only service - Sunday 27th December
10am – Online only service
We’d love to hear your thoughts
At Lymington and Pennington Churches we’re really keen to understand more about how you’re connecting with our services and our churches, what’s working for you and what we could do better, and to understand more about how life is for you, what’s on your mind at the moment. Please take a few minutes to follow this link and fill in the questions, to help us as together we find the way forward this unusual season.
The questionnaire has been put together by Rob and Mair Ellis, working in conjunction with Rev Rachel Noël and Rev Peter Salisbury. Rob and Mair have joined our church during 2020, but also have a background leading a market research company, and they have generously offered to create and host this questionnaire for us for free. Please do follow the link and share your thoughts with us, it really does make a difference. The full answers will only be shared with Peter and Rachel and there is no obligation to provide your personal details.
Our Christmas tree on the BBC – and if you’ve added to it, we’d love to hear from you!
If you are knitting or crocheting a square, and would like to have the potential that you could appear in a BBC Breakfast piece about our community christmas hedge, please do email us videos of you making a square by the end of Sunday 6th December… perhaps film yourself in front of your christmas tree or wearing a christmas jumper… please only share a video with us if you’re happy for this to go online with Pennington Church, and to be used on BBC News and social media channels. Add them to our facebook page, or email them to takepart@penningtonchurch.uk, or message us and we can arrange a whatsapp transfer. We’d love to celebrate the work of so many incredible people across our community.
COVID Morning Prayer
With St Thomas in Lymington, we continue to ‘pray for our nation, for its leaders, its health and essential services and all those who suffer’ this week at 9am on Zoom led by Jane Nicholson on Mondays and Wednesdays and Sarah Salisbury on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please do join them either by computer or phone:
- https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
- Meeting ID: 895 2990 2640 Passcode: 2020
- Dial in from a landline phone: 0131 460 1196
Vocations Information Sessions
Are you thinking about how God might be calling you to serve him? Do you know someone who is exploring calling in some way?
Winchester Diocese have two sessions coming up for people who want to find out more. Whether it’s the Bishops Commission for Mission, Licensed Lay Ministry, Ordination or your Monday to Saturday work, come and find out about how we can help you discern what God is saying.
- Saturday 12th Dec 10–11.30am with Bishop David,
There will be a chance to ask questions and talk about any of these pathways as well as hearing from +Debbie and +David on the subject of God’s call to us, and from Angi Nutt about the Vocations discernment process.
For booking and the Zoom link please email Lynda.mumford@winchester.anglican.org
Quiet Morning Online
On Saturday 12th December, from 10-12:30 we will be having an Advent Quiet Morning online on zoom. Kevin Smith, ordinand in training and Rev Rachel Noel will be leading the morning. Quiet Days are a chance to ‘Come away’ and be still, away from the distractions of everyday life. An opportunity to stop. Rest. Refocus. Re-create.
Do come online from 9:45am, bring your own cuppa with you, we’ll have welcome and introductions, followed by morning prayer together. We’ll lead you in some short reflections, followed by an extended time of quiet (you can have your video on or off during this, whichever feels most comfortable for you). A quiet time for you to connect with God in whatever way you find helpful. Some like to journal, others to respond to God creatively using art materials, others to be still in nature in a garden or go for a walk. We’ll give you some ideas for reflections too.
- At 12.00 we’ll gather back together to say prayers and to have the opportunity to share anything that has struck us during the time of quiet if we want to.
- At 12:30, you can either stay online with other participants to share lunch together, or you can sign off and continue your quiet on your own.
All are welcome to join us. If you’d like us to send you more information and the text for the prayers in advance, please let us know you’re coming by emailing us at takepart@penningtonchurch.uk
The zoom details are here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84800762384?pwd=MjVGdURzbUlWN3c0dkJhTzJjeDJ5QT09
- Meeting ID: 848 0076 2384
- Passcode: 295455
Pennington Stands Together – Community Advent Calendar 2020
This year, to mark Advent, we are creating a community advent calendar on our hedge. School, pre-school and nursery groups are each decorating a board, and various members of the wider community are reading stories. We will be sharing a video online each day from December 1-24th on YouTube and Facebook. It would be great if you could watch them, press the like button on them and share them with friends, to help us to celebrate the fabulous community of Pennington.
To get into the spirit of Advent at home, if you have not yet done so you might like to think about making an advent wreath or candle to use at home. We’ve created a couple of videos with some ideas to get you started:
…and we’d love to see photos of any that you make at home. Email to takepart@penningtonchurch.uk
“Being With” Course
Mondays 10:30-12:00 or Wednesdays 6-7:30
We are piloting the new “Being With” Course. This is an opportunity for those wishing to explore the Christian faith for the first time, those wishing to be baptised or Confirmed this year and those wanting to explore Christianity within the particular inclusive theology that we share. It’s a ten-week course, that will take place on zoom online, continuing on Monday 7th and Wednesday 9th December. As we join the HeartEdge network, and are one of the few churches across the country that have been invited to pilot this course, we’d love you to join the conversation. Please email vicar@penningtonchurch.uk to book a place.
Making it a Pennington Christmas!
We’ve put into action on plans for a yarnbomb on the hedge again this Christmas. We’ve asked for anyone to knit or crochet 12″ squares in festive colours; these can be plain or patterned, the choice is yours. We’ve made a yarn christmas tree to light up Pennington and cheer us all up this coming Christmas season: but there’s always space for more and we’ve made it in such a way that the only way to go is up! Please do hand in any squares that you’ve made as soon as possible, so that we can include them in the Christmas tree project. Last date for handing in is 15th December.
Join the Sunday service via Zoom
If there are people you know in our congregation who do not have access to the internet and would like to phone in and listen to our services, please share this information with them to join the Pennington Church zoom during the service and listen to the audio. To phone in, please dial 0203 695 0088.
- You will hear: “Welcome to Zoom, enter your meeting id followed by hash”
- The meeting id you need to enter is: 971 631 0618 #
- You will then hear it say “Enter your participant id followed by hash, otherwise just press hash”
- Please just press the # key. then you will be asked for the passcode, please enter 1839 followed by hash (#).
You will then be part of a conference call, and you will be able to listen to the service, and then talk to others afterwards.
Sunday Services – are you in our virtual congregation?
We’d more than ever love to see your photos of you at home getting ready for the service. Plus, as we stream from the Lady Chapel, we’re hoping to see more of you in our virtual congregation as well so please do share a photo of yourself for us to add to our wall by email to takepart@penningtonchurch.uk, it’s such an encouragement for us. After the service, you’re welcome to join us in zoom for coffee (you will have to brew your own!)
Rachel’s art for sale!
If you’d like to purchase art that our priest Rachel has created and showed in our our worship recently, please check out our new Red Bubble shop. Profits from sales of these items all go to support the ministry of Pennington Church.
YouTube and Facebook
All our services can be found on our YouTube channel here. We also stream our services on our Facebook page too, here.
Lords Prayer
We invite you to video yourself on your phone or computer reading the Lords’ Prayer. Please then email your recording to takepart@penningtonchurch.uk
We’re now showing the Lord’s Prayer in our services with each line read by a different person and we’d love to include as many of our congregation in this as we can. Please be brave, and join in the fun. (Trust me, it was strange for me to get used to leading the service in front of a camera or a phone too.) Others in the congregation will be so delighted to see you taking part, as we are each encouraged by seeing those that we know and love.
Hampshire County Council Hub
If you would like to help with the community at large, the new Hampshire County Council Hub to support the community through the crisis has now been established. If you are able to offer support and would like to be involved, please contact them on 0333 370 4000. Your call will then be triaged and you will be passed to whichever organisation or local contact would be most appropriate.