NEWS
Christmas Events
We have had numerous services during Advent and on Christmas Day. Carols on the Green (inside) Christingle, Singing at Oxenholme Railway Station in support of Manna House Kendal. Our all age Christmas Day service. As well as Compline, Communion services and holding services for our local schools.
Christmas Coffee Morning
Some pictures from our highly successful coffee morning held in our church
Thank you to everyone who support this event, either by providing cakes, mince pies or prizes for the raffle and tombola. It was great to see so many people enjoying themselves and helping raise over £300 for the church.
Agape Meal
20 parishioners met on Monday and sat around a very long table in the vestry for a very special meal. We met for an agapē supper which dates back to the earliest days of the Christian church. It was a blend of worship, prayer, singing, conversation and sharing a wonderful selection of dishes brought by the participants.
It is a special meal for Holy Week because it shares many of the features of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. Everyone went home after three hours feeling well fed, happy to have worshipped and shared in good fellowship. Thanks to Gill and her team for a memorable evening.
Anna Chaplaincy
On February 9th Gill Pilling was commissioned as an Anna Chaplain. The Commission took place during our weekly 10am service and it was done by Revd Shanthi Thompson from Kendal Holy Trinity church and Sam Pester, Anna Chaplaincy lead in Cumbria. We wish Gill every success and encourage anyone who wish to help in this ministry to talk to Gill.
The days up to Christmas saw us carol singing, unfortunately not on Natland Green this year but in church with Kendal Concert band raising money for MNDA and carol singing on Oxenholme station in aid of Kendal Food Bank
Our Christmas Eve Christingle service attracted 200 people raising more than £400 for the Children’s Society. 50 people attended Midnight Communion with another 18 on Christmas Day.
Morning Service with Nativity Story
As part of our Morning service we held a scratch Nativity Story, getting volunteers from the congregation to dress up and play the characters of the Christmas story.
There was an age difference of 90 years between the oldest and youngest actors.
Remembrance
On Armistice Day St Mark’s Primary school held their Remembrance service in church. The poppies and wreaths the children had made were laid in front of the altar and around the the font to join the poppy wreaths that Families@4 had made on Remembrance Sunday
Recent Concerts at St Mark's
Chris Bannister returned to St Mark’s on Saturday 28th October to give a concert of John Denver music and a few of his own songs. Chris described the church as ‘one of his favourite venues’ because of the excellent acoustics and the warm welcome he always receives from audiences.
On September 29th we had a concert given By Harps North West. A group of Harpist not just from the North West of England but also from Scotland and Yorkshire.
The concert attracted their biggest audience to date.
The Big Green Hike
The Helm Mission Community Environmental Prayer & action group took part in the Big Green Hike raising money for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
15 of our members had a short walk over and around the Helm in Oxenholme, it was quite wet in some places.
Due to the generosity of people, to date, we have raised with gift aid £392. If you would like to add to our total please click on the button.
Eco Church Award
A year after achieving our bronze award we have been awarded our silver award.
We discovered that we were already a Fairtrade registered church and the PCC have agreed to have hold a Fairtrade coffee morning during Fairtrade fortnight next September.
During the summer we have been growing wild flowers in the churchyard did you notice them?
During the year we have been doing nature surveys of the churchyard, we have been campaigning over global environmental issues. Encouraging people to sell their surplus plants and turning any surplus fruit into Jam to be sold in the church porch.
Eco Church Award
St Mark’s has recently been awarded the bronze Eco church award and we are on our way to silver. In March 2022 the PCC agreed to start the process of becoming an Eco church. We focused on the five key areas of church life promoted by the scheme: worship and teaching, management of church buildings, management of church land, community & global engagement and lifestyle. We had already, as a church, taken steps to reduce our carbon footprint and met many of the criteria for the award.
We were awarded our award on November 16th 2022
Where do we go from here
In the first three key areas we have achieved silver and even gold in the worship and teaching area. The other two areas, community and global engagement and lifestyle which we need in particular to focus on.
We will need to raise the profile of our support for sustainability projects both globally and locally, to re-examine our commitment to Fair Trade and to be encouraging church members to reflect on how their lifestyle can be made compatible with caring for God’s creation.
We have recently started the process of bringing more wild flowers to the churchyard.
‘Bring your Copper’ Coffee Morning
With the money already donated two copper art pictures were created in time for the Coffee Morning. One was in a form of an icon of Jesus and the other was of a man praying.
