Annual Parochial Church Meeting
The Annual Parochial Church Meeting will take place at 8.00pm on Monday 9 May 2022 in Shipbourne Church.
Community Bread Basket
We are open again! Join us between 9.30am and 11.30am for a cafe style breakfast on Saturday 28 May in Plaxtol Parish Church. 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 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
We shall have our own celebrations in the village, for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, during the bank holiday weekend of Thursday 2 June to Sunday 5 June 2022.
Thursday 2 June
9-11am special Platinum Jubilee Farmers’ Market at Shipbourne Church
4pm onwards – barbecue, bar and bring your own picnics, on the Shipbourne Cricket Club ground – there will be fun and games for the children, ending with the lighting of the Jubilee Beacon at 9.45pm
Friday 3 June
10.00am to 12.00 midday – bring your posy for the Queen to Shipbourne Church for display in the church over the Jubilee weekend, in honour of the Queen – see below for further details
Sunday 5 June
10am Benefice “Open Air Praise” on Shipbourne Green
It will be great to see as many of you as possible at these events, to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Make a posy of flowers for the Queen
Wherever the Queen visits, somebody gives her a little posy of flowers to welcome her. The posies are made to complement her outfit, so each is a special gift to her. She is lucky to be able to wear any colour!
We want everyone to have the chance to make a posy for the Queen for her Platinum Jubilee – whether you are at school, a friend of the Church, or a member of the Flower Guild, a stallholder or a visitor at the Farmers’ Market, a member of the PCC or the Parish Council, a member of the WI, the Cricket Club or the Tennis Club, or just love Shipbourne.
We shall have photos of the Queen in some of the outfits she has worn over the years of her reign and they will be in the Church. The colours of the outfits will be pink, pale blue, green, yellow, mauve, cream or crimson. You can make your own choice of flowers and greenery to complement one of these colours. The posy should be suitable for her to hold in her hand if she came to the village – so no bigger than 23 cms (9 inches) in diameter – and tied with a ribbon. Attach a label with your name, telephone number and email address. We shall give a prize for the best posy made by an adult and the best made by a child (14 years old or less). Please note on the label if a posy has been made by a child. We shall announce the winners at the Morning Service on Sunday 5 June and in the Parish Newsletter in July.
Please bring your posy to the Church on Friday 3 June between 10am and 12pm and we shall display them all in the Church in celebration of H.M. the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Mums Ahoy!
A time for coffee hospitality and mutual support…..and perhaps even singing, music making, discussion….for Mums, Dads and carers and pre-school children. We will meet normally each month in Plaxtol Church on the fourth Thursday of each month at 9.30am. Note that because of the Coronavirus pandemic, meetings of the Mums Ahoy! group have been suspended from March 2020 until further notice.
The Rector writes: “We still want to offer hospitality to any who might appreciate the chance to have a nice cup of coffee made for them……..We are not offering coffee for a chance to ram the Bible down your throat! We’re looking to serve this section of our community as a gentle expression of our faith and God’s love for all.”