Hoddesdon Parish Church
St Catherines and St Pauls
'The church opposite Morrisons'
WELCOME TO OUR NEW CURATE!
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We are delighted to introduce our new Curate, Kate Carter and her husband Chris. She was ordained at a great service at St Albans Cathedral on Sunday 30th June.
We want to thank and celebrate all those in our church community and outside for all their hard work, time and resource contributions towards our Mission Action Plan priorities.
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These are:
1. Building up our work with children and young people.
2. Making further connections with our local community, including contacts linked to Life Events such as Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals.
3. Increasing confidence among church members to know and share their faith.
We want all of these to be underpinned by a commitment to our prayer life together.
Celebrating some of our activities
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• Outstanding foyer displays made by Early Birds, YPZ and the Early Years classes at St Catherine’s School contributing to our Harvest and Christmas celebrations and commemoration of Remembrance Day.
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• Harvest and Remembrance Day Services with supporting refreshments for the large congregations. These also included the Borough of Broxbourne official civic service marking the 100th anniversary of the First World War Armistice.
• Joyful celebrations at our Christmas services, including our new Crib Service.
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• Co-ordinating the delivery of Lebkuchen to the shop workers in town, and drinks and mince pies to the market stall traders
• The completion of the review process of our patterns of worship, leading to the decision to hold a joint service including baptisms on the first Sunday of the month, and two services on other Sundays; a 9:30am traditional services and an 11:15 am all age worship service. We have also begun a trial of new seating arrangements and a new location for the choir.
• Members of the church have attended training courses relating to, maximising the potential of Baptisms as a way of encouraging new members to our congregation, understanding the culture of a congregation and how it interacts with the Mission Action Plan, and understanding factors which can influence whether a church may or may not grow.
• The Mothers Union team that supports “reading” at St. Catherine’s School has been expanded, and the feedback from the school management team is very positive. The team members have recently attended a training course related to their work.
• The Community Audit has been completed, presented and considered, and is influencing our approach to engagement with the community.
• The congregation is committing time, supplies and funding to the Hoddesdon Winter Night Shelter project.
• The Hoddesdon Food Bank continues to receive generous support, and for the first time this Christmas we supported HABS (Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Settings) in their work with local families in need of support
• The Alpha course took place in the autumn term and guests, hosts and helpers report very positive experiences.
• We participated in the “Hoddesdon Loves Christmas” event by running a stall and taking part in the parade.
Rachel delivering refreshments to Hoddesdon Market traders