St James' Church
At St James' we are followers of Jesus, seeking to be a community, who:
- Love God wholeheartedly.
- Love our neighbours as ourselves.
- And are trying to forgive extravagantly.
To that end:
- We want to help all people explore the Christian faith, and enable people to grow and develop spiritually through regular Sunday worship and by meeting together in small groups.
- We want to ensure that we care for all in the parish and provide practical help and service that cannot be found elsewhere.
- We want to show we are a caring community by making a difference to those less fortunate than ourselves.
And:
- We believe in the power of prayer, and in our worship we seek to bring the needs of the world, our nation and community before God as well as our own.
- We believe in the Bible, and in our worship we have it read so that we can hear what God has to teach us through it, we want to encourage people to read it daily so they can order their lives by it.
- We believe in being God's community, and we seek to express it not only in our worship, but also by discovering and living out daily, God's individual calling to all members of the congregation.
So:
"Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together ... but encouraging one another." Hebrews 10 verse 23-25.
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Introduction from Tony Berry (Rector)
Welcome to Abinger, and a particular welcome from the church family of St James'.
St James' has been at the heart of the parish for centuries, indeed worship has taken place on its site for over a thousand years.
Many of the households have links with the church through baptisms, weddings as well as a place of worship - we hope you will want to forge some links of your own.
We hope you might want to find out a little bit more about those of us who worship there week by week; so we have set out some of the things that take place, some of he things we value, and a short description of the type of services that happen.
Our Services
There is a service in St James' each week, and we also have weekly services in our sister church of
Christ Church in Coldharbour.
On the first Sunday we hold a Communion Service at 10:30am using the Common Worship Service Book. This uses more contemporary language with a mix of types of music.
On the second Sunday of the month we hold an 8:00am service of Holy Communion using the traditional language of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It is a quiet reflective service without music.
On the third Sunday our first service is sung Morning Prayer again from the Book of Common Prayer, sometimes referred to as Matins. This takes place at 9:45am. It has considerable input from our
choir and is much loved by those who enjoy traditional Anglican worship. This is followed by our All Age Worship service at 10:30am. It is a much more informal service, with participation from the children and young people of KC, and has contemporary songs and activities. It is a lot of fun but thoughtful and uplifting.
On the fourth Sunday we repeat the 8:00am service of Holy Communion from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
If there is a fifth Sunday we meet with the other churches of the Leith Hill Group, namely Wotton and Holmbury, by rotation.
Click here for a schedule of services this month and next.
Who's who?
Mad Berry
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Tony Berry
Draft -
awaiting Tony Berry Photograph
| Tony and Mad Berry have been at the Rectory (tel: 01306 737160) for some time now. Tony was inducted as the Rector in 1993. Their day off is Friday.
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The Churchwardens are:
Jane Ratner (tel: 01306 730182 email: cluckratty@aol.com) and
Hilary Swift (tel: 01306 730898).
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Hilary Swift
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Caroline Sack is Tony's secretary and is in the Parish Office (tel: 1306 737160) on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. She is also the PCC secretary.
The body responsible for leading the church along side the Rector is the Parochial Church Council or PCC. The PCC members are Tony, Mad and the Churchwardens, Caroline, Tim Prideaux, as Treasurer, and also Liz Rawlings, Paul Spearing and Peter Borrowdale. Each year there is an Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) where church members have the chance to discuss matters and elect members of the PCC.
KC, or Kid's Church, is how we hope to help children and young people learn about the Christian faith. On the first Sunday they leave the service just after the start and then, by thinking about a Bible story, prepare for our All Age service. Sheila (tel: 01306 730613), Sallie (tel: 01306 730259) and Emily (tel: 01306 731279) are the team that puts it all together. If you would like to help or find out more for your children then do get in touch with them.
We also run a Café called SJ's every Wednesday morning in term time from 8:40 am till 10:00 am. Why not join us for a cup of bottomless coffee, croissants or the healthy option of juice and fruit?