Check out our website.

Please check St Mary's Church website for further details of all the events happening in the next few weeks. The website can be found by clicking the link on the right or on http://www.east-leake.co.uk/stmarys.html. It gives all information on:

• our weekly services and meetings,
• who our groups are, including those from the Uniformed Organisations,
• forthcoming events in November and beyond
• news items
• Photos gallery from our events and our Re-ordering
• Links to the Calendars for the church and the Hall
• and more......

Special events are also listed on the East Leake Village website 'Events Guide'.

Events and changes.

Please note: The National Boys and Girls Brigade Choir Concert will be held on Saturday, November 1st at 7.30pm in St. Mary's Church and not the Methodist Church, East Leake to accommodate the numbers attending. The concert will raise funds for urgent building work needed on the Methodist Church and towards the Brownies' Pack holiday.

Also, all young people please note that the 'Altern8' event planned for October 31st at St Mary's has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

The Christmas Charity Card Fair and Coffee Morning planned for Friday, 7th November is still on at St Mary's. There are some very beautiful hand made cards for sale. Come along and buy your Christmas cards and have a coffee and chat. If you haven't seen the new interior of St Mary's, this is your chance. You will also be able to order a CD of photos taken during St Mary's Re-ordering, which might make an ideal gift for Christmas.

Remembrance Sunday, 9th November, 10.55am. The parade and service with the Royal British Legion, young people's uniformed organisations and other groups taking part, will be held this year at Gotham. There will be a 9.30am celebration of Parish Communion at St Mary's, to include a short Act of Remembrance.

Don't forget!

Don't forget to turn your clocks back on Saturday night! The nights are getting darker now. Time to be more watchful for people crossing the roads.

Sunday, 26th October, 6pm. The Churches Together service for One World Week will be at St Mary's Church. The theme is Fair Trade.

Operation Christmas Child - if you have been preparing a shoe box of gifts for poor children in Romania, don't forget that they're due back in church by Nov. 2nd.

Friday, November 7th There will be a Coffee Morning 10.00-12.30pm, in St Mary's Church with stalls selling Charity Christmas Cards and Advent Calendars. Contact Ann on 852885 if you would like a stall or further details.

An item for your diary: The Borderlands Choir (a combination of choir, worship band, drama group and production team, from the 12 parishes in the South Notts Cluster of Churches) will be performing the musical 'The Promise' at 7.30pm on Saturday 13th December at St Mary's Church. It will also be at St Lawrence's Church, Gotham on Saturday 20th December. Admission is £5 (children are free), including a free glass of wine or juice. Further details and tickets are available from Steve on 856202, Janet on 853553 and Sue on 820252 The leaves are falling fast and our churchyard teams are working hard to keep it looking good. New helpers are always welcome. Just come along any Saturday morning. For those who have volunteered to assist with moving seating in St Mary's, there will be a brief meeting after the 9.30am service this Sunday - but not to move chairs!

Sunday's Baptism

Yesterday, we welcomed the family and friends of Sophie, for her baptism at our 9.30am service. Her big brother, Oliver helped too. On Saturday, about 24 people who had attended a Cursillo in the past, met at St Mary's for an Ultreya (meetings held after the Cursillo weekend). Cursillo is a Spanish word meaning 'Short Course' and supports and encourages Christians in their lives. If you would like to know more about this group, please contact Maureen or Jan. Please note: Sunday Sanctuary will not be meeting during the Half Term holidays. This applies to all the uniformed groups too, who meet in the Hall. The holiday is this week for Leicestershire and next week for Nottinghamshire.

Banquet in Heaven

The congregation containing many families, were invited to share in a 'banquet' on Sunday at the Worship Together service, just like the banquet that welcomes us in heaven. There were lots of happy hymns to celebrate what God has given us and how much He loves us. Our curate, Claire Goode and Gill Sprake led the worship. The music was led by the St Mary's Music Group using hymns from the book written by our own John Sprake.

A memorable weekend

We would like to thank Chrysalis for a memorable Saturday night, when we welcomed many people from the community to join us. The food was delicious and the entertainment by Chrysalis was superb.

The very talented ladies sang on the theme of 'Aspects of Love', ending with their testimonies on Christ-like love, the best love of all.

The professional musicians provided music on keyboard and strings, and it was a real pleasure to hear.

The stage lighting was arranged by two very able technicians who came with the group too.

The ministry of Chrysalis is to break down the barriers and misconceptions about Christianity, and they ask for your prayers to be able continue.

A good night out.

We are looking forward to sharing a meal followed by a cabaret performed by 'Chrysalis' on Saturday 11th October. All the tickets have been sold and the food is being prepared by our friendly, neighbourhood chef, Ian Spencer, formerly of The Nags Head. Watch the blog for photos of the event, if you would like to know more and haven't bought a ticket.

I know it's early, but you may have heard folks talk about 'Operation Christmas Child', but what is it? It's an opportunity to fill a shoe box with small gifts and help to bring some happiness into the life of a child this Christmas. This year the boxes will go to poor children in Romania. Leaflets giving details of what items are appropriate, are available in the church and you can bring your box to the church too. This is being organised by Ann Sharpe of the Roman Catholic Church in East Leake. In spite of the 'credit crunch', I'm sure people will be able join forces to fill a box, if not fill a box of their own. Please help this worthy cause. Our young people are already gathering items for their boxes.

Tapestry or tightrope?

The meeting was well attended by approximately 40 interested members of the congregation last Saturday 4th Oct for the consultation on worship at St Mary's. Our brains were well exercised, everyone's views were heard and we were still sharing ideas by 5pm! The tapestry represented a relaxing familiar pastime, and the tightrope - a new, risky, exciting venture, as our worship might be.

We would like to welcome anyone to St Mary's who would like to join us. There's no pressure. The Emmaus course is in its third week on Tuesdays at 7.00pm at the church, and welcomes anyone who would like to know more about Christianity. It's a good chance to ask all those questions you've always wanted to ask. If we can't tell you the answer, ..... 'we know a man who can'.

Let's get together with lots of people from East Leake this coming Saturday for an evening of after-dinner cabaret. Have you got your tickets for Chrysalis? If not, call Rosemary on 856202 or Avril on 852228. There will be drama, comedy and music. We hope to see you there - and say hello.

Nearly there!

The railings have now been placed around the Bley Tomb in St Mary's churchyard, which means the temporary fence will soon be removed. There are some final details to be resolved, and there will be some signing yet, to be placed inside the tomb railings and opposite, on Main St, to indicate the historical tomb for visitors. There were approximately 20 people who attended the talks in September by Mr Antony Grundy in the Library and in St Mary's, who enjoyed hearing about our benefactor, John Bley. East Leake and District History Society have spent a lot of time and effort working on promoting and raising funding from English Heritage to rebuild the tomb and bring it back to its former state. The Licensing of the new Priest in Charge, Revd Glenn Martin by The Rt Revd Tony Porter, Bishop of Sherwood, took place this Wednesday at Sutton Bonington. He will be working with Sutton Bonington and Normanton on Soar churches, and the South Notts. Cluster clergy, which include the East Leake and Gotham Benefices. We welcome him and his wife, Sally. For those who enjoyed the very entertaining concert by Nottingham Male Voice Choir in September, there were about 135-140 people who attended. £565 was raised on the night, plus other donations reached £620 in total, which was sent to CAFOD for their Burma appeal.

Harvest Time

It's harvest time and our Benefice churches will be holding their special services and events now. St Mary's held a combined Harvest Communion with a 'Back to Church' service last Sunday complete with balloons and some beautiful flowers.

Many people took the opportunity to accept the invitation to come back, and we were pleased to welcome them all. The usual refreshments after gave everyone the chance to meet and greet each other.

The children brought some of the gifts to the altar for a blessing, and these have been distributed to local families or those living alone this week. These brought plenty of smiles to their faces and thanks. We have missed those who are unable to come to church because of illness or infirmity and would like them to know they are always in our prayers. If you would like someone to visit you, please let us know.

The second 'Sunday Sanctuary' for young people was again, well attended. There were 40 young people at the first meeting the previous week. The event held at 5.oopm in the church, gives those who have never been inside the church the opportunity to share an informal gathering, led by Lydia, the Youth Worker.