G'day from the Vicarage - Sept 2011

Dearly Beloved in the Lord,

I write this on the day that the Deputy Lieutenant for Enfield and the Mayor of Enfield were guests at our morning service. For the last year or so, I have been the Padre of Air Cadet Squadron 2473 (Southgate and Highlands) which first became a squadron in 1968, but has never had a banner. So this morning a new banner was dedicated in our service, with thirty cadets, and another 15 in the Northern Region Band also present, and an Air Vice Marshall, Two Group Captains, and Two Wing Commanders. Afterwards the Squadron Committee provided light refreshments in the hall.

Next Saturday we are having a Harvest Supper with Auction of Goods and Talents in Aid of Tear Fund. One of the things you can bid for may be Kaushal preparing a curry in your home! The next day is the Harvest Service, with gifts for the Whitechapel Mission, and we hope to have a parade of Guides and Scouts.

The Men’s Dinner will take place at the Jolly Farmers on Saturday the 19th of November. The next Saturday after that James Murray is organising a Concert of Chamber Music, in the church building at 7.30pm, in aid of the Spire Appeal. The Greek Night raised over £400 and we recently had a gift of £500 in memory of Doreen Avery (who died on the 24th of July), which makes the current total £24 000. [The latest estimate of the cost to replace the spire as it was, is £60 000].

Stan Blaney passed away up in Cumbria, so we will be having a memorial service for him on Saturday 26th November at 2pm in the church. Andrew Mitchell’s mother passed away on the 30th August, and my mother on the 23rd of July. I was able to go out to be at the funeral in Canberra and memorial service in Sydney. That weekend I had planned to be visiting our missionaries Chris and Lotta Strajnic in Serbia, which I hope I will be able to do sometime in the future.

Janet and Peter Dallman, our OMF missionaries, are coming back from Sapporo in Japan for a year of rest and refreshment. They arrive back on Wednesday 19th October, and will be staying at 8 Brookdale, Arnos Grove, London N11. Wera Laschenko from the Netherlands, is the temporary replacement at the Japanese Language Centre, helping settle in new missionaries, while they learn the language.

Our new volunteers and staff have arrived, and are settling in – you can read about them later in the magazine. Carmen and Rob Alger have taken over responsibility for the older and younger Sunday evening teen-age groups respectively. Mark and Val Weddell have started an additional youth group on Saturday evenings, @toms Fusion. One Wednesday afternoon recently there were 65 children at @toms – which was a slightly-too-large all time record!

We are planning the usual Christmas events – the Christingle on the 11th of December at 4pm; the Carol Service on 18th December at 6.30pm; and are thinking about a Haydn Mass, rather than Mozart, for the Midnight Communion at 11pm on Christmas Eve.

Thank you for your partnership in the gospel,

Christopher Hobbs

From the Registers

Baptism

Alfie Johnathen Maskell

Temidire Olafimihan Agbede

Temidola Anjolaoluwa Jasmine Agbede

Reece Callum Williams

Rajinder Pryor

Wedding

Richard James Ellis and Lisa Louise Cable

Aden Durde and Kate Danielle Doyle

Funeral

Adassa Allen

Doreen Avery

Celia Ann Martinez

Stanley Missen

Peter Shea