Latest News

The next talk in our series for Kidlington Theological Forum will be this coming Sunday, 21st, at 11.30am in St Mary’s Kidlington. The Rt Revd Steven Croft, Lord Bishop of Oxford will be speaking on “Artificial Intelligence: Opportunity or Threat?”

Sunday 14th November – After the Remembrance Sunday service we are having a Parish Ramble to Annie’s in Thrupp – the Parish’s contribution to the BBC’s Countryfile “Children In Need”.

Andy writes: It’s only a couple of miles and takes about an hour – so we’ll head off at 11:30 and be at Annie’s in time for lunch. For food, you can bring a picnic (to share if you want) or, of course, Annie does wonderful grub. If you aren’t in church for the service, just rendezvous with us in front of St Mary’s at 11:30 – we’ll go over to the Wight Bridge (Good people of Hampton Poyle, feel free to join us there) and then along the Cherwell, through the woodland to Thrupp. We’ll walk through Thrupp Community Woodland and then across the fields to St Mary’s on the way back, but if you don’t fancy walking, you join us there, and if you don’t want to walk back, simply walk to the end of the road and catch a bus back to the High Street.

We’re hoping the weather will be favourable, of course, but it would be wise to wear reasonable shoes or boots with good grip, and a waterproof too.  If you want to get sponsored, that would be great, and if you can’t join us, then see if there is someone you can sponsor. Well behaved dogs welcome.

On Sunday 7th November, at our service in St Mary’s Kidlington, Yo Davies, our Safeguarding Officer, gave a talk reflecting on the need for safeguarding in each of our churches. You can download her talk here. She will be giving similar talks in the other churches in the coming weeks.

If you need to contact someone regarding safeguarding, please contact Yo: 07865664451, safeguarding@kidhp.org.uk

Sunday 7th November to Sunday 14th November

All our usual services, Zoom chats and Hub sessions are running as usual this week. The extra things to note are:

• Sunday 7th November – the Traidcraft Christmas stall will be at St Mary’s Kidlington after the 10am service.
• Sunday 7th November – there will be a service of Remembrance for All Souls and Remembrance Sunday at St Mary’s Hampton Poyle at 5pm.
• Sunday 14th November – there will be the traditional Remembrance Sunday service at 10am in St Mary’s Kidlington and at 10.45am outside at the War Memorial
• Sunday 14th November – After the Remembrance Sunday service we are having a Parish Ramble to Annie’s in Thrupp – the Parish’s contribution to the BBC’s Countryfile “Children In Need”.
• Sunday 14th November – we will have a service of Holy Communion at St Johns at 10am; this will include a simple Act of Remembrance
• Sunday 14th November – the Traidcraft Christmas stall will be at St John’s after the 10am service.

On Saturday 30th October the bellringers at St Mary’s Kidlington joined with others around the UK to ring in the COP 26 Conference now starting in Glasgow.

Although it hasn’t been practical to hold our stall selling Traidcraft goods over the past months, we have arranged one for the weeks leading up to Christmas. We will be selling Advent Calendars, Christmas cards, Christmas nibbles and lots of chocolate after 10am services at:

• St Mary’s Kidlington on Sunday 31st October and Sunday 7th November
• St John’s on Sundays 14th and 21st November.

Please do come along to stock up and support Traidcraft. To make it even easier we are now taking payment by credit/debit card as well as cash or cheque.

Sunday October 31st at 5.30pm is our annual All Souls service at St Mary’s Kidlington, when we remember those dear to us who have died. We will be reading out the names of those whom we have lost throughout the year, and from Sunday 24th October we will have a preliminary list on the front desk of St Mary’s so that you can manually add on the names of those you wish remembered. Alternatively, email the Parish Office at office@kidhp.org.uk. You will be invited to light a candle for each person. Additionally, this year you are asked to bring a single flower for each person that you are remembering. (we will make instant flower arrangements during the service). Spares will be available if you forget!

There will also be an All Souls service of remembrance at St Mary’s Hampton Poyle at 5pm on Sunday 7th November.

As we get nearer to Christmas, which can be so hard for people who have lost loved ones and friends, we will also be holding our service “Presence and Absence” at St Mary’s Kidlington at 5.30pm on Saturday 11th December.

Do let others know about these services if you think they would value them. Each is a gentle time of remembrance.

On Saturday 6th November at 6pm the Choir and Choristers of St Mary’s Kidlington are putting on a big concert, celebrating music-making at St Mary’s and raising money for the church (specifically, our Kidlington 800 projects). We’re going to be performing a host of choral classics and it promises to be a really special evening. Entry will be free, with a retiring collection. We’re going for an early start time (6pm), and the programme won’t be overly long, so it’s intended to be family friendly.

Please let your friends and family know it’s happening.

Just a reminder of all that is happening today.

The 10am service at St Mary’s Kidlington will be an ecumenical service led by members of the Kidlington churches to mark the start of the 9 days of 24-7 prayer for Cop 26. The guest speaker will be Jack Wakefield from Tearfund. Last month we hosted the young people on a relay walk to Glasgow and on Sunday we will be hosting another group who are cycling from Runnymede to Glasgow. The subject is so important that many different people are doing many different things. In Kidlington we are committing to praying all day and all night, but we need your involvement in this. Prayer stations are set up in the Baptist Church (nice and warm in there!) to help us in our prayers and the link is here if you feel able to sign up for a single hour. https://www.24-7prayer.com/signup/ec0889

There will be no service at St John’s but there is an 8am communion at St Mary’s Kidlington and also 10am at Hampton Poyle.

Straight after the ecumenical service we are delighted to be able to start again with the Kidlington Theological Forum lectures at 11.30am. Get your cup of tea and come back to welcome Professor Nigel Biggar talking on: ” Thou shalt not kill….” Is war ever justified? “ (and in November we will welcome our Bishop Steven who will talk on artificial intelligence.)

At 5.30pm on the same day everyone is welcome to St Mary’s Kidlington for the monthly service of informal congregational singing and reflection ‘Sing To The Lord’.

We have developed a plan of services for the period September 19th to December 19th to ensure a range of different services which, between them, cover our diverse needs and interests. You can find out more at Worship Onsite. We have also reviewed and revised the COVID protocols to apply in our worship over this period.