This Sunday is second Sunday, meaning we begin with bacon rolls! We’re continuing our series ‘Stories Jesus told’, and I’m delighted that Steve McVeigh, the pastor of New Life Church will be joining us as our guest speaker. We enjoy a great relationship with the churches across Tunbridge Wells and it will be lovely to have Steve with us. As always, there will be time for worship and fellowship, groups for children and young people and we’ll be sharing Holy Communion together as well. I’m looking forward to seeing you!

It isn’t too late to join “The Prayer Course”. We meet every Tuesday evening, from 7:30pm in the Church Centre. The Prayer Course is written by 24/7 Prayer and is based upon The Lord’s Prayer. Do come along if you’d like to.

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.

Some while ago we mentioned the idea of an Easter themed Art Exhibition taking place during Holy Week. For this to work, we need enough people to commit to creating something for others to view. The idea is to open the church up as a kind of meditative gallery space where people might come and view what has been created and through the artwork, encounter God. If you would be interested in displaying a piece. Please can you let Em or I know as soon as you can?

Come along for a fun game of Bingo…and invite your friends as well! No money involved… fun prizes… and hot dogs at half time (£1)! It’s always a lot of fun so do come along if you can!

Sunday 15th March is Mothering Sunday and Josh Carter will be our guest speaker that morning.

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.

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

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.

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.

You can also get all the latest news emailed to you as a weekly newsletter.
Click NEWSLETTER below.

You may have heard me mention this on Sunday, but Rochester’s companion Dioceses in Tanzania are currently suffering a serious food shortage due to the failure of this year’s Maize harvest, upon which much of the country relies for food. Those coordinating our link write:

“We urgently appeal for your support…your generosity can make a real and immediate difference. A gift of £40 will buy a 100kg bag of maize, helping to sustain a family during this difficult period. By giving, you can help provide food, restore hope, and stand in solidarity with the people of Mpwapwa as they face this crisis together.”

The PCC have agreed to make a gift of £400 but I am mindful that some may wish to make a personal gift as well. The simplest way to do this is to use the Mpwapwa stewardship page: https://www.stewardship.org.uk/pages/mpwapwa2026
Please write “Hunger Appeal” in the Public Message of Support box.

We’re absolutely delighted to let you know that Meic Williams has agreed to become our Church Treasurer! This is such an important role in the life of our church and we’re so grateful to Meic for his willingness to take this role on. Please do pray for Meic as he settles into the role.

Do join us for pancakes on Tuesday 10th February at 6pm. We know it’s not pancake night, but pancake night is happening in half term this year and lots of folks are away…so come a week early…it’s never the wrong day to eat pancakes! Do invite your friends and family too!

This Easter Sunday there will be the chance to be baptised by full immersion. So, if you’re new to faith, haven’t been baptised before (if you have, see below) and would like to take this really important step, do let Craig or I know. If you’re interested but not quite sure and would value a chat about it, again, just let us know. For practical reasons it would be really helpful if you could let us know as soon as possible!

Wednesday 18th February is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of Lent. There will be a service in the chapel at 9am which will include Communion and the Imposition of Ashes. All welcome.

This Easter Sunday there will be the chance to be baptised by full immersion. So, if you’re new to faith, haven’t been baptised before (if you have, see below) and would like to take this really important step, do let Craig or I know. If you’re interested but not quite sure and would value a chat about it, again, just let us know. For practical reasons it would be really helpful if you could let us know as soon as possible!

This Sunday is second Sunday, meaning we begin with bacon rolls! We’re continuing our series ‘Stories Jesus told’, and I’m delighted that Steve McVeigh, the pastor of New Life Church will be joining us as our guest speaker. We enjoy a great relationship with the churches across Tunbridge Wells and it will be lovely to have Steve with us. As always, there will be time for worship and fellowship, groups for children and young people and we’ll be sharing Holy Communion together as well. I’m looking forward to seeing you!

This coming Saturday the PCC and Staff Team will be meeting together to talk about our vision for the next few years. Please do pray for us as we spend that time, seeking God together and making plans.