Invitation to the Week of Christian Unity

I am writing to you to invite you to contribute to our Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service that will be held on the 25th of January, beginning at 12.30pm with lunch followed by a service, at St Barnabas, Langney, who’s home team kindly host us.

This year, the theme is ‘Do you believe this?’, due to the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. For more information please see here: https://ctbi.org.uk/week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-2025/

A group of inter-denominational churches in the east side of Eastbourne have been having this service for the past two years. This will be our third year, and we would like to widen the invitation. We have had roman catholics, methodists, anglicans, free-church, united reformed members and more – the more the merrier!

The way we have shared in each other’s gifts and treasures from our different tradition in worship of the one Lord Jesus that unites us all is to create an act of worship made up of authentic ‘parts’ that we stitch together.

You do not need to contribute to the service, and you can simply attend. However, we would love for a wide variety of Christians to share as part of our service. If you would like to contribute we would ask that you consider one of the following:

  • A prayer station / installation set up around the room for people to interact with as they wish before and after the service.
  • A piece of sung worship.
  • A reflection / short preach (5-8 mins or under) on the text of this year’s theme (John 11) or an artwork connected to John 11.
  • A short (5-8 minutes or under) prayer time/exercise to lead us in, with guidance, remembering many may not be familiar with your traditions.

When we pray together we fulfil a piece of Jesus’ own prayer that we might be one in John 17. Coming together is pleasing to God and gives him the glory: it is good that we do this! Remember too, that we agree on much more than that which divides us. It’s ok to not participate in a prayer activity if you do not feel comfortable, or if you hear something you wouldn’t hear in your church. We are all contributing in an authentic way, and so we have to be gracious with one another in our difference.

We also like to gather greetings from senior figures in our respective denominations. This year, we think we will publish short letters of greeting in the order of service. So if you can contact your senior pastor / bishop / circuit leader etc ahead of the service for a short epistle of greeting, we would be glad to include it.

Please share the attached poster in your churches, even if you yourself cannot come. It’d be great for many different christians can come along to share together.

If you are coming, it would be great to have a sense of the size of your group if this is possible for catering and such. Please do let me have whatever information you can manage.

I wish you a holy Advent and a very happy Christmas when it comes,

Fr. Danny Pegg

The Revd. Danny Pegg

Associate Vicar for Mission and Discipleship

The Parish of Hampden Park & The Hydneye and The Parish of Willingdon

01323 659993

Eastbourne Street Pastors supplies of emergency items exhausted: – Urgent Help Needed

Eastbourne Street Pastors supplies of emergency items exhausted:
We were so grateful for the response back in the summer but due to the extremely bad weather in recent weeks we have again exhausted our supplies of some of the emergency items we give out to rough sleepers and others.

We urgently need additional supplies of New or Used (clean)

* Sleeping Bags
* Blankets
* Groundsheets
* Winter Coats

If you can help with any of these please give them to a Street Pastor or Prayer Pastor
Alternatively we will have people available to accept any items from the list below at our Safe Space in the Victoria Baptist Church Car Park at the following times:

Friday morning 10am – 11am (December 13)
Tuesday morning 9am – 10am (December 17)
Wednesday afternoon 1.30pm – 2.30pm (December 18)

Any questions please contact Graeme at eastbourne@streetpastors.org.uk

Thank you

PS   If you want to know about how to become a Street or Prayer Pastor please contact us on eastbourne@streetpastors.org.uk

Parche Seeks Office Manager

PARCHE (The Church in Care Homes) is a Christian charity operating in the Eastbourne area. We need an Office Manager to deal with all administrative tasks. This is a small part-time paid position covering 18 hours per calendar month, working from home, £12.50 per hour.

Please refer to the attached Office Manager Job Description.

Please email PARCHE a letter of interest with your CV.

Deadline is Tuesday 7th January 2025.

Looking to interview the week beginning 13th January 2025, with the aim to appoint the successful person soon after.

Please email interest and CV by the 7th January 2025 to: info@parche.org.uk

If you would like more information about the role before applying, please telephone Bernie Watts on 01323 325231 (up to 6.00pm)

JOB DESCRIPTION

Post: Office Manager

Location: Home Based

Responsible to: PARCHE Trustees

Hours: 18hrs / calendar month worked flexibly £12.50/hr

Rate: 12.50/hr

Benefits: 5 weeks paid holiday – pro-rata, plus bank holidays

SUMMARY AND MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB

The role of the Office Manager is to run the PARCHE Head Office and HR Functions and give admin support to the Trustees as well as ad hoc support to the Eastbourne Local Coordinator.

Main Tasks

  •   Organise and run the office
  •   Securely Maintain the Eastbourne Volunteer Database, including up to date training records – in liaison with the Local Coordinator – within the bounds of the PARCHE Data and Privacy Policies.
  •   Process all Resource Orders and manage the Stock, in conjunction with the Trustees
  •   Plan and run the Annual Events, in conjunction with the Local Coordinator
  •   Maintain the Local Bookkeeping Records, in liaison with the Treasurer
  •   Maintain HR Records for all employees and update policies and manuals, in conjunction with the Trustee Responsible for HR

Other tasks

  •   Produce, edit and coordinate the distribution of the Quarterly Newsletter and Prayer Requests
  •   Organise and facilitate the Trustee Meetings in conjunction with the Chair of Trustees
  •   Project Work

o Ad hoc project work, in agreement and conjunction with the Trustees

o Maintain Policies and Procedures, in conjunction with the relevant Trustee.

Key Relationships

  •   Local Coordinator
  •   Trustees
  •   Treasurer

 Expert Volunteers – those who give their specialist advise in support of PARCHE, eg IT / Finance

Skills & Attributes

Essential

  •   Practising Christian who is an active part of a Local Church Community
  •   Ability to set own priorities and work unsupervised a must
  •   Good communication skills both written and oral
  •   Excellent computer skills
  •   Experience of running an office / working as an administrator

Desirable

  Previous Experience working within the Church environment and Voluntary Sector a bonus

  Experience of working on and managing projects

BACKGROUND ON PARCHE

The older population is growing and PARCHE cares passionately about the Spiritual welfare of those living in Care Homes. Whether discovering God’s love for the first time, or being Christians all their lives, residents receive fellowship and personal encouragement from the PARCHE Teams. God has something new for every older person – no one is too old, marginalised, vulnerable or lonely to receive from God.

PARCHE is an interdenominational Christian Charity and our heart is to reach older people with the Love of God. All of our funding comes from Church and voluntary donations and this position has arisen through a grant made by a Christian Trust.

As a network of Church-led teams PARCHE provides:

 To older people in Care Homes / Sheltered Accommodation/ Nursing Homes:

* Services

\* Bible Studies

\* Communion

\* Pastoral Support

 For Teams and Churches involved in PARCHE ministry:

  • Training
  • Support
  • Resources

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Kings Church Christmas Special

Sunday 15th December at King’s. Tickets £4. Performances begin at 4pm & 7pm.

A 75 minute all-ages Christmas celebration featuring live music, carols, dance, video and spoken word.

Come early to view the art gallery with our live Christmas jazz band playing from 3pm & 6pm. Refreshments, mince pies and mulled wine served free of charge. Licensed bar open.

From 3pm we will also have our family-friendly pre show celebration. We’ll have Christmas crafts, sports, games, and plenty of fun designed especially for kids up to age 11 all leading up to our main 4pm performance.

Tickets can be purchased here at £4 each.

Tickets will also be available from King’s Centre reception or by phone ( 01323 521125) using a credit or debit card. Seating in the auditorium is numbered and tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

All proceeds from this event will go to support the Love Eastbourne Fund, helping those struggling financially in our community.

An invite to, We Love God’s Spirit Conference 2025

King’s Church Eastbourne are inviting you to our ‘We Love God’s Spirit’ conference from Friday 31st January – Sunday 2nd February.

Our hope is to further equip us to walk daily in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, with teaching from Liam Thatcher, former teaching pastor at Christ Church London, and now Associate Pastor at Oxford Community Church.

On the Saturday, we’ll be running special kids’ sessions for children in Reception up to age 11, focusing on the Holy Spirit and inspiring them to walk with God. Our hope is that over these sessions our kids relationship with the Holy Spirit will be deepened, equipping and empowering them to make a difference in their schools and wherever they go.

The sessions will run from 10:00 am–1:00 pm and 2:00 pm–5:00 pm. Spaces are limited, so all children will need to purchase a children’s ticket in advance.

Costs

The ticket cost includes entry to the conference, refreshments during breaks, and pastries on Saturday morning.

Adult ticket – £15

Student /Concession – £10

Child – £5

Free Ticket – If the ticket price is a barrier for you to attend, please book a free ticket.

Book in here https://kingseastbourne.churchsuite.com/events/byzwq5a1

https://kingseastbourne.churchsuite.com/events/byzwq5a1

We Love God’s Spirit – King’s Church Conference (31-Jan-2025)

kingseastbourne.churchsuite.com

Sanctuary Eastbourne Receive an “MBE for organisations” award

It is the highest award in the UK for voluntary groups who make an outstanding contribution and significant impact to their local communities.  It is also part of the formal honours system and is the equivalent of an MBE for groups.There will be a formal presentation from the Lord-Lieutenant in the spring and a trip to Buckingham Palace in the summer.  You can find more about the award and recipients here.

All of you have been part of our journey in some way and we are truly grateful for all the connection, support and partnership we have shared with you over the years.  There is still so much more we can do to warmly welcome people seeking refuge in Eastbourne and to support them to flourish as part of our local community.  We look forward to working together with you to continue to make a real difference in people’s lives.

If you are interested in hearing more about how Sanctuary is supporting people to flourish, please go to the website, scroll down to the bottom of the home page and sign up for the quarterly newsletter.

Old Town Peace Vigil -7th December

Old Town Church Leaders are inviting our community to gather for a Vigil for Peace in St Mary’s Church grounds on Saturday 7th December from 4 to 4.30 pm … Bring a torch or lantern and stand together for peace in our world … Just turn up …