A big thank you to everyone who celebrated Christmas with us this year, and our warmest wishes to those of you who were with us in spirit.

Our monthly charity for December is the Children’s Society. We will be collecting donations for them after the morning services on Sunday.

The Children’s Society has helped change children’s stories for over a century. Through their direct practice, policy work and campaigning, they fight childhood poverty, harm and neglect.

Saturday 1st December, 11am to 3pm

Stalls include:

• books
• toys
• crafts
• bottle tombola
• china and glass
• children’s craft activities
• handmade cards
• jewellery
• homemade cakes
• preserves and jams
• raffle prizes

Lunches served from 12 noon. Licensed.

Our monthly charity for November is the Leprosy Mission. We have been and will be collecting donations for them after the morning services on Sunday.

[A]n international Christian development organisation that diagnoses, treats and offers specialist care, including reconstructive surgery, to leprosy patients. Our aim is to transform and empower the lives of people affected by leprosy.

Next Sunday we will be marking the Armistice Day Centenary.

Our rector, Chris Davies, will be leading a service of remembrance on King’s Green in Loughton, beginning at 12:30pm.

In the evening at 6pm we will be holding an Armistice Centenary Service at St John’s. Join us for anthems, songs and readings to celebrate the centenary of the signing of the armistice. The concert will end with our award-winning bell-ringers tolling for the centenary.

Please note that our 11:15am Family Communion will not be held. Instead we will have family activities in advance of the parade to King’s Green for the remembrance service there.

The 8am and 9:30am services will be held as normal.

Please support these acts of remembrance in this centenary year.

Come and join us for a presentation by Debbie Coupland, in St John’s Church, Loughton at 8.00pm on Thursday 8th November in remembrance of the centenary of the signing of the Armistice, as a prelude to peace in 1918. Debbie’s presentation will include details of the actions of Private Sidney Godley VC who rests within Loughton Cemetery and our other local fallen heroes. Debbie will review the war, it’s final stages and the consequences for world peace. She has an abundance of forensic detail, born of a lifelong passion for the War to end all Wars. Do come for a fascinating insight into the world of our forefathers. The retiring collection will be in aid of the Army Benevolent Fund.

Debbie Coupland

Debbie has been a keen student of the First World War since childhood. She decided not to go to university, as expected, but instead, take an Officers Commission in the Army. In due course, as a lieutenant (in the Women’s Royal Army Corps) she was posted to Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, linked inextricably with the most famous memorial to the missing (72,195) of the battle of the Somme.

Having left the Army to bring up a her family, she completed a University degree in Military History, as a mature student. She left her job within the Civil Service, recruiting men and women to serve as Officers in the Army, to create Great War Tours, providing personal escorted Great War Battlefield experiences.

Fireworks will be taking place on Saturday 3rd November from 6pm to 9pm, and we are hoping to sell as many tickets as possible beforehand to help with queueing and congestion on the night.

Tickets can be ordered by calling 07383 489556 and bought from the church each Sunday after our family service 12.30pm to 1.30pm from Sunday 7th October

Tickets will also be on sale inside St John’s Church at the following times:

• Tuesday, 30th October, 8pm-9pm
• Wednesday, 31st October, 8p-9pm
• Thursday, 1st November, 8pm-9pm
• Friday, 2nd November, 8pm-9pm
• Saturday, 3rd November, 10am–4pm

Pricing remains the same as the last few years, ie £15 family (2 adults and up to 3 children), £6 adult, £3 child, and we would ask that you bring the correct money with you as it really helps our volunteers!