James Potter: Very sadly, and with much reluctance, James our Director of Music has told us he will be leaving his post after Christmas. James has found the complexities of a portfolio career difficult to maintain alongside the professional standards he expects of himself and needs to create some space for his career to flourish. We are naturally very sad to hear this and will be wishing James every good wish as he leaves us. We are very grateful that he has given us time to prepare for this by recruiting his successor. Plans for this are well advanced.

Community Outreach: Battersea Communities is looking for volunteers to help with a community listening exercise, to determine the need for a potential new public space on the Surrey Lane Estate, as part of the Council’s proposed redevelopment of Randall Close. This is an important issue for residents of the estate, and it is a great opportunity for us to build bridges in our community. Speak to Aaron if you are interested, and come along to our meeting on the 10th September, 7.30-9.00pm, at Salesian House, 47 Surrey Lane.

Summer in the Square 2020: If you might be interested in helping in a group to plan this community event, which we held very successfully last year, please email Simon as soon as possible ([email protected])

Invitation Services: This Autumn we are trying something new with our First Sunday Services, by making them special Invitation Services. These will be special one-off services to which we hope you will feel able to invite family and friends. Invitation flyers will be available for you take to send to people soon. The first of these will be on Sunday October 6th and will be our popular Blessing of Pets Service. Take an invitation or two for friends today. There will also be a Pets’ Parish Lunch that day.

Assisi Update: Owing to the uncertainty around the costs of a trip to Assisi (with Brexit scheduled to take place between now and the date of the trip) we have decided to postpone this trip for the time being. Once things become clearer, we hope to replan. On the positive side, David and I are exploring the possibility of a pilgrimage to the north-east next year, based in Durham, including visits to Lindisfarne, Jarrow and York. More details soon. Simon

Sunday 8th September: St Mary’s Day & Launch of St Mary’s Rule of Life

Sunday 29th September: Harvest Festival

Sunday 6th October: Invitation Service – The Blessing of Pets. The first in our new approach to First Sunday services. Followed by a Pets Parish Lunch

Wednesday 16th October: An Open Meeting about Community Organising. We will be discussing together the possibility of St Mary’s rejoining WandsworthCitizens, part of Citizens UK. Details soon.

Sunday 20th October: The Admission of Children to Holy Communion. Preacher: Rt. Revd. Tim Thornton, Bishop at Lambeth

Saturday 26th October: Ecumenical Pilgrimage to Walsingham. Sign up soon to secure your place (£25)

Sunday 3rd November: Invitation Service: Hymns & Pimm’s. The return of a popular charity service when you choose the hymns

Plus: A further Parish Lunch on Sunday 1st December

Notice about St Mary’s e-newsletter

Many of you will know that we have had a both weekly ‘hard copy’ noticesheet and a monthly e-newsletter for some time, although the latterhasn’t been published for a few months. Happily we are now launching aweekly e-newsletter to enable us all to be kept up to date on what’s happening at St Mary’s on a weekly basis, which is ideal when we aren’table to come to church every Sunday. If you want to receive this weekly newsletter, all you need to do is register on the website (https://www.stmarysbattersea.org.uk/newsletters/) and you will receive it in your inbox every Friday. This will include details of the Sunday services, readings for the week, stories that will encourage, notices about activities and occasional articles on specific subjects. We will no longer be producing a monthly e-newsletter, although hard copies of the weekly version will be included in the Sunday service sheets.

Sign up from today at the back of the church

Parish Pilgrimage to Walsingham, Saturday 26th October: First details of our pilgrimage with Sacred Heart Church to this Anglican/Roman Catholic Shrine in Norfolk are now available at the back. Please sign up soon for coach booking.

Rule of Life: We will be launching St Mary’s Rule of Life on Sunday September 8th, which we are keeping as our ‘Patronal Festival’ (the day we give thanks for the patronsaint of our church, in our case Mary the Mother of Jesus. If you are thinking of joining in that venture, look out for further information in the coming weeks.

Church Address Book: The office is currently updating the church address book, which we make available to all who wish to be included in it, and is used to help us keep in touch with one another. If you are not in the current edition (you can tell because youwon’t have a copy if you’re not), and would like to be included in the current edition,please let Sue in the office know as soon as possible ([email protected]) Please note: for data protection reasons this is only available to those who indicate they are happy to be included. Please do this by the last week of August.

Save Two Dates for 2020!

Friday 7th to Sunday 9th February: A Retreat at Home with Padraig O’TuamaA wonderful speaker will lead a series of

reflections over the weekend.

Week Commencing 30th March Pilgrimage to Assisi (details in August)