St Peter's Yaxley

…reaching out in love and faith

Together We Are A Community

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The term community gets used a lot these days but what do we actually mean by community?

In the Bible, God encourages us to take care of one another; through this we ensure a thriving community. Therefore, the idea of community comes from a sense of responsibility that we have for each other.

The community of Yaxley, along with the surrounding villages, have shown overwhelming care for each other through the support of the Yaxley Foodbank over the past year. A staggering 7145kg of food was donated between September 2017 and August 2018. We’ve also recently celebrated the Harvest Festival, where we’ve had fantastic support from the school communities in and around Yaxley.

The donations we receive help many people and families, and we would like to say a big thank you for your generosity in supporting local people in need. We would also like to thank everyone who signpost to Foodbank and all those who volunteer their time to help and be a friend to those in need. It takes a team, a community, to ensure the success of the project.

Without our sense of responsibility to one another, great community projects such as the Community Fridge and the Winter Night Shelter, and St. Peter’s projects like Yaxley Foodbank and Community Sunday, would not succeed. It is through the help and kindness of each other that we are able to improve situations for those less fortunate, and ensure our communities thrive.

Thank you again for your continued support for your community.

If you would like more information on the Yaxley Foodbank, or other community areas God has called St. Peter’s to invest in, please visit www.saintpeters.co.uk/community

Follow St. Peter’s Church on Facebook and Instagram to see updates on the Foodbank’s shopping list.

God Bless

Laura

 

Parish Communications Officer

07939 449255, lauraashley@saintpeters.co.uk

 

 

Love your neighbour, build our community

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When I said in a recent interview that Yaxley was a close-knit community I was challenged by someone (not the interviewer) to support this comment.

I thought I would record here just two of the things which came to my mind in support of what I had said.

Firstly, just before Christmas we gave out hampers from the Food Bank to 29 families. These hampers had a combined weight of 1,138kg – all of which was donated by the local community. I am aware that some of this was donated from people living outside Yaxley. Thank you to everyone who so generously donated in order to enable us to support these families in Yaxley and the surrounding area.

Secondly, there have been three recent and tragic deaths in Yaxley where the costs of the funeral have been largely or wholly covered by “crowd-funding”. What amazing generosity has been displayed by both those who knew the families and those with no connection at all – other than wanting to reach out to a local family in distress. In addition, I know that an enormous amount has been done in and by the local community to support the bereaved families.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he responded by encouraging us to love God with all our heart, body, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Jesus’ response is the focus of our sermons  series throughout February and into March. Whether you have a Christian faith or not, and wherever you live, my prayer is that we would all love our neighbour as ourselves and continue to build our local communities. Through this may we come to know the real love of God.

It would also be wrong of me to let the month of February pass without mentioning Valentine’s Day. My congratulations to all those of you who have recently got engaged and who will do so on February 14th. If you would like to get married at St. Peter’s I would love to hear from you. Please contact me as soon as you can – we already have around 25 weddings booked for this year and 12 for 2018.

With my continuing prayers,

Jon Randall (Vicar) 01733 240339; vicar@saintpeters.co.uk

Read this article in the Yaxley Gazette.