Community Bread Basket
We are open again and meeting on the fourth Sunday of each month! Join us between 9.30am and 11.00am on Saturday 27 April in Plaxtol Parish Church for our usual cafe breakfast.
Our aim is to create a community hub where everyone is welcome to share in our monthly breakfast. Our hope is to create a relaxed, friendly atmosphere where neighbours and friends can get together. There is a book table and a children’s colouring table.
There will be a collection for the Chatham Foodbank. Boxes are placed in both our churches, normally over the fourth weekend of each month, for donations of food and toiletries, to coincide with our Community Bread Basket event.
The Magpie Centre in Chatham, which is connected to our link parish (All Saints’ Church in Chatham), appealed to us in February 2024 for donations of small kitchen equipment, including settings for 4 people (plates, cutlery etc) and small pots and pans, as well as clothes, towels and curtains. We are setting up collection points in St Giles Shipbourne and Plaxtol Church on the 4th Saturday of each month to coincide with the Community Bread Basket. Thank you for your support.
Annual Parochial Church Meeting
All are invited to attend the Annual Parochial Church Meeting which will take place this year at 8.00pm on Tuesday 23 April 2024 in St Giles Church Shipbourne. There will be reports on the activities of the church over the last year and the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2023 will be discussed at the meeting.
Benefice Silver Jubilee
We shall celebrate the Silver Jubilee of our Benefice over the weekend of 13 and 14 July.
Saturday 13 July:
We are planning a “safari lunch” – the first course in Plaxtol Memorial Hall, followed by a walk to Shipbourne Village Hall for the second course.
– there will be an organ recital in Shipbourne Church at 4.30pm
Sunday 14 July:
8.00am – Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) celebrated by our former Rector, Dr Susan Ramsaran
10.30am – Baptism and Confirmation with Communion at Plaxtol Church. Our Bishop, Rt Rev Dr Jonathan Gibbs will preside. This will be the first confirmation service in the Benefice for nine years. Further details of our plans for the weekend will follow.
Twenty five years ago the parishes of Shipbourne and Plaxtol were joined to create a new joint Benefice. Each parish has its own Parochial Church Council but the Rector serves both the parishes in the Benefice.