Making Mission Possible - 11th October 2020 during our 10.30am service 

As well as our regular support for our Mission Partners, Making Mission Possible is the opportunity to make a further one-off gift to our Mission Partners to help support their work sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ across the world – from Woking to Asia, America and Africa!  As in previous years, it is also an opportunity to give a one-off donation directly to SMoB to support our work sharing the Gospel in the local community and beyond.
 
We’re encouraging everyone who can to give online and we’ll be explaining how this works on the day, but it will be possible to give by cheque and forms will be available nearer the time.
 
One of our mission partners will be speaking to us and we’ll have mission prayers, as well as celebrating Sarah Tapp’s priesting as she presides at Holy Communion for the first time.
 
At a time when everything’s feeling very uncertain, this is a great opportunity for us to celebrate how God is at work through our Mission Partners and here at SMoB, and to respond to God’s goodness to us.
 
Please save the date and join us in person or online as we give thanks, pray and celebrate together!

York Road Project Harvest appeal 

YRP are appealing for support in providing essential food and toiletries for rough sleepers and those with them in their temporary accommodation at The HG Wells conference centre and adjoining Woking hotel.
You can send monetary donations via the website here: https://www.yorkroadproject.org.uk/donations/new/campaign/2 or you can arrange to drop physical donations to the HG Well conference centre by contacting them via Tel: (01483) 728739 or E-mail: info@yorkroadproject.org.uk.
YRP are asking for: fresh fruit, vegetables, potatoes and rice; tinned food from soups to baked beans; cereals, cereal bars and individually wrapped crisps and snacks; long life milk and juices including cordial; toiletries such as shaving foam and deodorants; hygiene products & PPE items such as gloves and masks.

The Church Office is back

Jess and Sharon are back covering the Church Office Monday-Friday 9.30am-12.30pm. Sharon may be working remotely some of the time, so please arrange visits beforehand via call or email. 

Physical church: staying safe

Now that we have been meeting for several weeks, a few notes for those in church. Thank you for playing your part in keeping everyone safe as we worship together.

• Avoid moving chairs together - we've spaced them out carefully.
• Ensure you wear your mask correctly, ie over your mouth and nose.
• Try to avoid conversations in church with those outside your household; it's safer to talk in the car park after the service.

The rest of our guidance:

• We can fit 75 people in the building; there is plenty of space so far.
• Don't come to church if anyone in your house has a temperature, persistent cough, loss of taste or smell, or if you're shielding and have been given medical advice not to be in public meetings.
• Observe social distancing and stay 2m away from other households.
• You must sanitise your hands on arrival.
• There's a one-way system: everyone enters via York Road and exits via Mount Hermon Road.
• We have no Bibles or refreshments in church, so please bring your own.
• Our welcomers/stewards will register you when you arrive. We'll need contact details for anyone who's not on the SMOB address list. (We dispose of these after 21 days.)
• You will need to wear a mask.
• There's no singing in church; we will have songs on screen.
• There are no groups for children or young people, so if you bring them, please bring something for them to do. Weekly resources for them continue to be shared by our team.
• We'll be sharing Communion once a month, distributing bread only, and taking appropriate precautions.
• The service is being live-streamed online, so if you're in the building you may be seen online. The recording will be available for 24 hours, with just parts like the sermon left up after that.

Please pray for all of us as we meet together in person again and are online too.

Annual Church Meeting Sun 18 Oct

Our delayed annual church meeting (APCM) will take place 10.30am Sunday 18 October in church and online. We will ensure that people can participate fully online.

Could you help lead SMOB?

Could you help provide strategic leadership in mission and ministry over the next few years of our church's life? Can you help steer our vision, staffing, building project and response to Covid? If so, then our church council (PCC) needs you! We have vacancies for people to serve for three years, including for our strategic link with other local churches (Deanery Synod). If you are interested, please talk to any current member of the PCC (names are on the website or the board in church), and get a nomination form from Becca Rowland in time for the APCM on 18 October.

Electoral roll update 2020

We are currently updating our electoral roll (church membership list) before the APCM. If you consider yourself a member of SMOB, you should be on the roll – if you are not sure whether or not you are, do check with the office. If you have recently joined SMOB (have attended regularly for at least six months), are 16 or over and baptised, you can join – you will need to log in or create a user and click the tab called 'Electoral roll' and fill out the form.
Any questions, or if you would like a paper form, please speak to Jess.

Sunday services online

This Sunday we have a live stream of the service at 10.30am available on our Facebook page or our website here: https://stmaryofbethany.org.uk/services. You don't need to be a Facebook member to watch.

Shopping online and with Amazon can help SMOB

We have two ways that you can help SMOB when you shop online which are at no cost to yourself.

1. Easy fundraising. Using a free and easy app, you can collect donations for us every time you shop online at many retailers, with Easy Fundraising. It’s a really easy way to help us raise funds and we’d really appreciate your help so please register to support us at: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stmaryofbethany/

2. Amazon. You can also help us when shopping through amazon, follow this link to setup SMOB as your amazon smile charity: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1128813-0 then use smile.amazon.co.uk to shop with amazon, if you use their app on your phone you can also setup your smile settings there so all purchases you make on your phone help SMOB, check under "Settings" -> "AmazonSmile" in the app.

 

Beirut appeal

The recent explosion in Beirut killed over 100 people, wounded thousands and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, in a country unable to cope with such a catastrophe. Our mission partner Tearfund has an emergency appeal here - please give whatever you can.

September prayer diary is out now

Download your copy from here.

Monday to Friday prayer meetings

We are praying together at 9am Monday-Friday on Zoom. You can join us by following this link.
Here are some instructions on how to download and use Zoom. You don't need a zoom account to join a meeting and you don't have to download the program either.

This week on the blog...

...Mark has posted about why we don't understand US elections. Visit our team's blog here.

Collect used stamps for FEBA Mission