Author: Judy French

All are very welcome to come and celebrate Harvest Festival at St Mary’s Church at 10am on Sunday 29th September.

We are having two collections:
One is a collection of tools which we will send to TWAM (Tools with a Mission)
where they will be refurbished, sorted into trade kits and sent overseas to Sub-
Saharan Africa to help transform the lives of the recipients. Please leave them in
the church or contact Mary (810504).
The other is to raise funds for the people of Slatyne in eastern Ukraine, close to
Kharkiv and the Russian border. Over the last few months we have been
developing links with the Our Lady of Kazan church in Slatyne. Due to recent
extensive bombing there is a desperate shortage of transport in the region. We
are hoping to raise enough to buy a van to distribute aid throughout the town.
There will be a presentation about this during the 10am service on Sunday.
We raised £150 at Font Café on 19th September for Slatyne and will be giving the
proceeds from Font Café on 26th September as well.

From Sunday 1st September 2024 the time of the principal Sunday service has changed from 9.45am to the new regular time of 10am.

Font Café will reopen on Thursday 5th September. You can find more information about Font Café here.

Huge thanks to our dedicated teams who provide the coffee and the cakes every week through the rest of the year. They’ve earned their summer break!

If you’d like to offer to help with making the coffee/tea, providing cakes, or setting up/clearing away, please contact us. We would love to hear from you. Thanks!

Patronal Lunch 8^th September

To celebrate the feast of St Mary the Virgin and our church’s official ‘birthday’ we will be having a special service at 10.30am on Sunday 8^th September followed by drinks and a buffet lunch. 

We would like to invite the whole community to come and celebrate with us and to thank you for your support for our role in the town.

Please RSVP to parishoffice@charlburychurch.uk by 2^nd September so we have an idea for catering numbers. 

Rev Fergus Butler-Gallie

Join us for the first Charlbury Community Breakfast on Sunday 1^st September 9am in St Mary’s. Everyone welcome. This will be followed by a service at 10am.

Calling all children and young people – School Bag blessing 

Sunday 1^st September 10am.  Come along to the 10am service for a back to school blessing. Bring your bags and pencil cases!

The theme of this year’s Holiday Club was The Charlbury Paris Olympics. We had five groups of ten children, with each group representing one of the Olympic rings. The rings, in turn, represent the five populated continents of the world. The Olympics were to promote – Liberty, Equality and Friendship and intended to bring all the world together.

The children heard a bible story each day which had a sport within it – archery from Samuel, rowing from Luke, sprinting from Jonah and climbing from Mark.

A variety of activities were enjoyed, including singing, music making, crafts of all kinds and games. Every day we were entertained by a funny drama too.

Thanks to the support of lovely kind adults, young helpers and the Churches Together in Charlbury, and above all the children, our Holiday Club was a very  happy event.

Rachel Gallagher

Photos by Paddy Gallagher

A selection of choir members from St Mary’s will sing Choral Evensong on Sunday 11th August at 6pm in All Saints Church Shorthampton. All welcome.

Tragedy, Bravery and Mystery: Beating the Bounds 1924

This is a tale of tragedy, since three children drowned in the Evenlode. Of bravery, since heroic efforts at rescue led to the award of two medals for gallantry. And mystery – since it is difficult to understand why the final group of boundary walkers took the punt upstream from where others had crossed safely, and with such catastrophic consequences. Using eye-witness accounts, testimony at the inquest, and contemporary photographs, Rob Stepney pieced together the events of that fateful day.

The film will be shown in St Mary’s Church Charlbury at 11.30am on Sunday 28th July.

Once again Wilderness is supporting St Mary’s Church, and have kindly donated two lots of 2 adult general camping tickets, worth £556 per pair, which are auctioning during the first two weeks of July to raise funds for St Mary’s and its community initiatives.

Details here. You can place your bids by emailing danielajenkins@btinternet.com

Bidding ends at 12noon on Friday 12th July. Thank you for your support.

St Mary’s Church gratefully acknowledges the support of The 2024 Wilderness Festival.