On Wednesday 2nd March there will be said services of Holy Communion with ashing at 11am at St Mary’s Kidlington and St John’s. At 8pm in St Mary’s Kidlington we will have a sung service with ashing, short sermon, and the full choir and choristers singing Allegri’s Miserere and Byrd’s 4-part mass. This service will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person.
Thanks to everyone who supported our February Tea Talk – it felt so good to be gathered together for a social event again. David Meara gave a fascinating talk and we enjoyed that and the following tea and cake.
We will be holding another Tea Talk on Sunday 13th March, when Joanna Foster, CBE, will talk on “Work-Life Balance; myth or reality?” Do join us
As always, we will be marking the World Day of Prayer on the first Friday of March. This year our service will be in-person at St Thomas More Church at 7.30pm on 4th March, when we join the ring of Christians around the world praying as the day progresses. The theme is “I know the plans I have for you” and the service has been drawn up by women in the churches of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This used to be called “Women’s World Day of World” and is still prepared and led by women but we always do welcome participation by men, boys, girls and everyone in between.
During Lent we will be running the national course, ‘Living in Love and Faith’. We will use resources prepared for all sectors of the Church of England addressing questions of identity, relationships, sexuality, gender, and marriage.
This is an important national conversation and we hope that as many people as possible would get involved in these groups and so be able to feed back your views to General Synod before the national deadline (30th April).
For further details see information on our Lent and Easter page.
We are pleased to announce that our February Tea Talk will be going ahead on Sunday 13th February, at 3pm in St Mary’s Kidlington. We really do plan to serve tea after the talk, COVID permitting. We will be taking suitable precautions so the building might not be as warm as you would like, so do come well wrapped. Our own David Meara will be talking on “A Passion for Places – England through the eyes of John Betjeman”
CTK is again holding mid-day prayers during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This runs from Tuesday 18th January to Tuesday 25th January inclusive. The time of prayer will be on Zoom every weekday (but not Saturday and Sunday). For details of the link needed to access the prayer time please contact webmaster.
Because of COVID constraints it has been decided not to hold a united service in-person this year. And we plan to reschedule our traditional Fellowship Meal to a more appropriate time.
5.30pm, St Mary’s Kidlington, Sunday 16th January (and every third Sunday)
Join us for this contemplative and worshipful service led by the choir and choristers. Music to include: reading responses, Wood in D canticles, Joubert “O Lorde, the maker of all thing”, Bach “St Anne” Prelude in E flat major BWV 552. There will also be two congregational hymns.
We regret to announce that we have cancelled the Tea Talk due to be held this Sunday, 9th January. We are very grateful to Sir Peter Ratcliffe for offering and preparing this talk but together have come to this decision given the current COVID situation as he thinks it would not be possible to communicate as effectively as he would like. We hope to rearrange for a future date when circumstances permit.
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.
