St Peter's Yaxley

…reaching out in love and faith

Summer 2020

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Dear Friends

I hope that you are all keeping safe as we move into a new month, a time that has always been for holidays and breaks from some of the normal routines. Maybe you are hoping to have a break this month, maybe you are not able to get away this month or perhaps this is the furthest thing from your mind in these times.

I don’t think we will know what “normal” will look like for some time. For us as a church in Yaxley, we are working out what we are able to do in this season. We know that there are many things that we cannot do in terms of our services, singing or being together. However, St. Peter’s Church is now open on a Thursday evening for people to come in for their own private prayer between 7pm and 9pm. We have social distancing and hygiene measures in place. Anyone is welcome to come and use the church building on a Thursday evening for prayer.

At this time, our services continue to be online on our St. Peter’s, Yaxley YouTube Channel and we continue to plan as to how and when we can open the church building for worship.

Every summer St. Peter’s runs a Holiday Club. We are sadly unable to run this in 2020 in person due to Covid 19, but we are organising some activities for you to do at home or around the village and we are hoping that you will be an Explorer during the summer holiday as we look at creation. Activity packs will be available to collect from the church porch from Monday 27th July and these will have craft material and other items for different activities that will take place throughout July and August.

Each week there will be new challenges for you to undertake as you explore your home, garden and our village of Yaxley and perhaps you will find out more about our creation story in the Bible. We will put out the activities every week on our Facebook Pages – St. Peter’s, Yaxley and the Community of St. Peter’s Facebook Group so have a look every week and see some different challenges.

Please share the results of your challenges with us on Facebook or email photos to me at yaxleyvicar@gmail.com.
You don’t have to be a child to take part – all ages very welcome 😊

In this month, I pray that you are able to get some rest and relaxation after a strange few months, and we look forward to sharing our explorations with you this summer.

With every blessing, Rev Sarah (Vicar of St. Peter’s, Yaxley)

Is there more to life than this?

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Who are we? What’s our purpose? What is the point of it all?

I wonder if you’ve ever asked yourself these questions? Perhaps something has happened in your life which has caused you to ponder if there is any deeper meaning to it all. Maybe you’ve seen or read something which has challenged your perspective on life? Or it could be that you’ve simply sat with some friends over a coffee and found yourself contemplating such questions.

Most of you will know Bear Grylls from his TV shows such as Man vs. Wild and The Island in which he pushes himself, and others, to the limits of physical endurance. There are few who know more about adventure, danger, exploration and risk. Bear might be a nature and survival expert, a former reservist in the SAS who has climbed Everest and navigated his way over the Himalayas, but it’s his journey of faith which he describes as his “greatest adventure”. He recognises that it has not always been easy, that there have been ups and down, but that his Christian faith “has brought light to a dark path, warmth to a cold mountain and strength to a failing body”.

From Friday 10th March, St. Peter’s will be hosting an Alpha course running for nine Friday evenings. Alpha is a series of sessions exploring the Christian faith. Each session will start with refreshments at 7.30pm, will take a different question around faith and feature an engaging talk to inspire conversation. Alpha is open to all and will provide a safe space to consider life from a Christian perspective, to ask questions about God and to meet with other people on a similar journey in a relaxed and friendly environment.

If you’d like more information, or would like to attend Alpha, please contact us.

Watch Bear’s story:

With my prayers.

Mark Fuller (Pioneer Minister) 07766 310509; markfuller@saintpeters.co.uk

Read this article in the Yaxley Gazette.