Many of you will have seen the news about the tragic accident that occurred at the Big Church Festival over the weekend. The incident made the national news and has caused many to ask questions about the issue of suffering.

Our prayers are with the family of the man who lost his life, and with all those affected by the accident, including of course, the organisers of the event itself.

Amy Orr-Ewing, who is a great theologian and Christian apologist, wrote the following article. I share it with you in case it is of help to you.

https://amyorrewing.substack.com/p/when-disaster-strikes?r=89poqa&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_id=97758_v0_s00_e0_tv0&fbclid=IwZnRzaAUCcT1wZG9mBWZkaWQWUNhJOYAdzO7J2HGIbvLIFJr9kBrSB2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR7_I0DcGJRIRP9OnQXwXPsorocIEBoE6Dj7mNEm5coC3cjOtaUqE0bY8YNKsg_aem_oCERiMUHMY7aRrsyBtgEHg

Our regular Tuesday evenings focused on discipleship will resume on Tuesday 8th September.

Tuesday 8th will be an evening given over to worship and prayer. An opportunity to spend time in the presence of God and to be refreshed by His Holy Spirit.

From Tuesday 15th, we'll be running three different courses; Alpha, Romans & Ephesians.

Alpha, an amazing opportunity to explore the Christian faith. It's perfect for those new to faith or just exploring faith. It's also a really helpful and encouraging course for those who've been Christians a long time. I've done Alpha lots of times and have always found it a real encouragement. If you've never done Alpha, do consider signing up!

Romans, is the latest course from the Bible Society. It uses a combination of video and discussion time to explore the gospel as expounded through Paul's letter to the Church in Rome.

Ephesians, will look at another of Paul's letters. This course will be more discussion based.

Please sign up for the course you'd like to take part in using the sheet in the foyer. Signing up really helps us plan!

[Each evening will begin at 7:30pm with coffee and cake. We'll aim to finish around 9pm.]

This Sunday we'll be gathering at both 8am, for our monthly Book of Common Prayer communion service, and at 10am for our All-Age service.

At our All-Age service we'll be thinking about the theme of new beginnings. If you have a pair of new shoes, especially if they are new school or work shoes, please wear them! It doesn't matter if they don't go with your planned outfit! We'd love to see as many people as possible wearing their new school / work shoes to church this Sunday!

We'll also be welcoming our new Ordinand, Ed Tranter, who will be joining us this Sunday. So do come along to meet him and say 'Hi'!

Please note – At the 10am service, we will be serving teas and coffees upon arrival and bacon rolls and cake after the service! Do stay for a feast!

We're really looking forward to welcoming our new Community Pioneer, Josh Carter, and our new Ordinand, Ed Tranter.

Ed's first day will be Sunday 6th September, and Josh's first day will be Monday 14th September. Please do hold them both in your prayers as they begin new seasons in their lives and come and join us at St Philip's.

Beginning Monday 7th September Tunbridge Wells churches will be joining with churches right across the world in a week of prayer. In Tunbridge Wells the event will be hosted at The Gatehouse, in the Market Square, just behind The Victoria Place. All the details can be found on the flyers in the Church Foyer. I will be leading a time of prayer and worship focused on Tunbridge Wells on Weds 9th, from 7-8pm, so do come along and join in if you can!

On Sunday 20th September, we are going to gather at Church as normal, but after the main service want to encourage you to join us across the road on the school fields at Skinners Temple Grove for a picnic, games, a bouncy castle and an ice cream van!!! It will give us a great chance to spend a little longer together following the summer break and is always lots of fun! Do pop it in your diary and come along! More details to follow!

Julie will be organising a trip to Folkestone on Saturday 3rd October to attend 'The Well', a day conference for women. We've heard excellent things about the conference over the last few years and are keen to take a group. Tickets cost £20, which includes lunch and refreshments for the day. If you'd like to go, please contact Julie asap. (Once we know numbers we will also coordinate transport to the event.)

Throughout the week, at various groups and events, an increasing number of people smoke or vape just outside the church doors. The result is that the building begins to fill with the smoke / vapour, especially in the warmer weather when the doors are open. Please could all smokers or vapers refrain from smoking in the vicinity of the church doors. We really appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

A quick update for parents, Sunday night youth group is now on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month, 6 - 7:30pm as usual!

Sometime ago I let you know about the funding we have received from the Diocese to appoint a Community Pioneer. We have made much progress over recent weeks and are aiming to begin advertising the post sometime towards the end of May. I will keep you updated as to exactly when this will happen, but please do be holding this process in your prayers as we reach this exciting moment. The aim is for the for successful candidate to begin with us in September.

On Mondays, 1.45 – 3pm (term time only) we run a weekly Practising English class. It’s a friendly group, providing people opportunity to practise their English in a conversational setting. If this is helpful to you or someone you know, do let them know. The class is led by Cathie Kitley.

Our parent/carer, baby and toddler group for pre-schoolers, called Play & Chat, takes place every Friday morning (during term time) from 10am to 11.30am during term time and includes stories, songs, and a space to play, chat and make new friends.

Please note we have moved our monthly pre-service bacon rolls to the first Sunday of each month. This makes it a little easier for the children’s team!

If you have been baptised, might you like to be confirmed? Confirmation involves restating your baptismal faith, can be a great way of ‘owning’ your faith, especially if you were baptised as a child and have more recently found your own faith in Jesus. It’s also a great way of making that faith public, similar to baptism. We do not have an exact date yet but there will be opportunity later this year. If this is something you’re interested in, again, please do speak to Craig or I as soon as you can.

Alpha – Tuesday nights at 7:30pm. The simple format for the evening will be as follows:

7:30pm Refreshments and Puddings – Eating together is an important part of the course!
Do come with a little room for a slice of cheesecake or similar!
7:50pm Alpha course in the Church Centre.
9:15pm Close - We will always finish by 9:15pm. Some weeks may finish a little earlier.

It’s not too late to come along to Alpha. If you’ve never taken part in Alpha, it’s a great way to explore the Christian faith. There’s lots of chance for conversation and questions.

This term, our Sunday night youth group will be led by a far more youthful team of people, Dan Allen, Joey Cheesman and Ella Thomas, supported by the slightly older Catherine Root, Nick Cheesman and myself!

We won’t be following quite the same pattern as last term, so please make a note of the following dates when youth will be on. Youth is open to all those in year 7 – year 13 and runs from 6 – 7:30pm at the Church.

12th October / 26th October / 9th November / 23rd November / 7th December

Please speak to Dan Allen for more details.

We may over the next few weeks and months experiment with some different chair layouts. We are often well over 80% full on Sundays and in order to make room for others we want to find some ways of creating more space. If on one occasion you're favourite chair is no longer where it used to be, please bear with us, we want to be welcoming and create as much space for as many people as possible!

A significant percentage of the Sunday morning congregation now sit in spaces not serviced by our current PA system. As such we are going to be experimenting with some different configurations to see whether we can improve the sound in the chapel, the side room and in the first few rows. As with the chairs, please do bear with us in this...we hope to improve the sound for all, no matter where you find yourself sitting!

For those who use hearing aids, the whole of the main church (not the side room or the chapel) is serviced by a hearing loop. Do make adjustments to your own hearing aids in order to connect to this. Do please give occasional constructive feedback to Martyn, Andy or Craig on how the loop is working.

We're committed to being a church that is welcoming to all and safe for all. We're also a church which is fortunate to often welcome new comers. In order to increase safety and to make life easier for those who may be visiting, we are going to be encouraging certain teams to wear lanyards on the Sunday's they are serving. The two teams initially will be the youth and children's team and the prayer ministry team. It's really helpful for people, especially guests, to see at a glance who they can receive prayer from and who they can leave their children with!

Follow the link on the home page to watch this Easter's baptisms.

Throughout 2025 we are gathering monthly for prayer and worship on the first Tuesday of each month.

We’ll meet for about an hour, with approximately 30 mins dedicated to worship and 30 mins dedicated to prayer. This month we’ll be looking back with thankfulness and looking forward with faith and hope!

Do come along if you can!

The Community Larder opens each week on a Tuesday from 11.00am - NOON.

We have a cafe beforehand serving tea and coffee providing a space for people to sit and chat whilst they wait to go in. This normally opens around 10.30am.

Bring a bag plus minimum £5 donation per bag.

For more information on the Community Larder please see: https://www.stphilipstw.co.uk/community-larder

If you have a query, please email: larder@stphilipstw.co.uk

If you would like to give a donation, which will allow us to purchase food and equipment for the Community Larder, please visit our Just Giving page: http://bit.ly/larderdonate

Our youth group meets fortnightly on Sunday evenings beginning at 6pm and is open to all those in school years 7 - 13. For more info please contact Rich.

We’re really blessed to have a good number of young people coming along on Sunday’s. We also have a youth group that meets fortnightly on Sunday evenings (6-7:30pm). We are looking to build the Sunday evening team, so if this is something you might be interested in helping with, do let me know as soon as you can!

The 8am service will take place once a month, on the first Sunday of each month and will alternate between the Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship communion services. The service will last about 30-40 minutes.

CHILDREN & YOUTH
We’re looking to expand our children’s and youth team for September. We’d love to be able to increase what we do on Sunday mornings, and so, might you be willing to lend a hand and get involved. Our aim is for people to only serve once a month. If you’d be interested in joining either the children’s or the youth team, please do speak to Julie re: children, or Catherine re: youth. (For these teams, DBS checks will be required.)

AV
As from September we will need a few new people to join the AV team. (The team that operates the PA system and the projection software.) Full training will be given. Our aim is for people to serve a maximum of one Sunday a month. If interested, please speak to Andy Collins.

Might you be willing to provide (bake or buy) some cakes periodically for after the Church Service. If so, how about joining the cake rota! You don’t need to be the next Paul Hollywood…last time Julie and I did it, we bought doughnuts!!! If you’re willing and able let me know as soon as you can.

If you’re interested in standing for PCC or Church Warden, please can you notify me by Sunday 21st April. You’ll need to complete a form which includes the details of those nominating you. If you would like to discuss what is involved in being on the PCC or acting as Church Warden before deciding, please do get in touch as soon as possible.

Some of you asked if I might send a reminder of the ‘Nine Practices of Jesus’ I mentioned very briefly during a recent sermon. They were, Sabbath, Solitude & Silence, Prayer, Fasting, Scripture, Community, Generosity, Service and Witness. I’d really encourage you to experiment with these practices as you partner with the Holy Spirit in the life-long process of spiritual formation and becoming more and more like Jesus. Start where you’re honestly at, not where you think you should be…i.e. if you don’t usually read the Bible at all each day, begin with a short section from a gospel, or perhaps a Psalm. How about this week, you start with Sabbath, a day of your choosing given over to worship, rest, and the cultivation of joy! (If you want any recommended reads or pointers, do come back to me!)

Every six years we have to completely re-new our electoral role, meaning everyone comes off and everyone needs to re-apply. The electoral roll is the closest thing we have to a membership list. Being on the roll allows you to vote in church meetings and to play a part in the governance of the Church. Being on the electoral roll doesn’t commit you to anything. It’s a formal way of indicating that you consider yourself a part of St Philip’s. The most helpful situation is when the electoral roll closely resembles the actual worshipping life of the church, i.e. when those who worship regularly are on the electoral roll. To this end, on Sunday 16th and 23rd March electoral roll forms will be available. Please do complete one and pop it into the box that will available. It’s very simple and will take about 1 minute! (The forms can also be completed at other times if you're not able to be present on those Sunday's.)

We get together for morning prayer each week, Monday to Friday, at 9am via Zoom. See PRAYER under
ABOUT US in the main menu for Zoom details and words.

All our talks are available as podcasts and can be found here: https://stphilipschurch.podbean.com

At 9:00am every Sunday we have 30 mins of worship and prayer for the life of the church, the nation and there is time to listen to God for the service itself. Do join us if you can.

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