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Climate change hits hardest the poorest countries and poorest people of the world, and it is our responsibility to safeguard God's creation and achieve a just world. The Church of England Environment Programme exists to help us with this responsibility and the Eco Church scheme is a way to get all parts of our church life working to care for creation. Eco Church is a scheme run by A Rocha UK equipping churches to care for God's creation through their worship, buildings, land, community engagement, and individual lifestyles. Furthermore, by completing an online survey, churches can be considered for an Eco Church Award at either Bronze, Silver, or Gold level. There are five areas that a church must demonstrate environmental engagement in order to receive an award: Worship and teaching Embedding creation care in worship, prayer and learning Management of church buildings Finding energy efficient and innovative ways to manage our places of worship Management of church land Nurturing spaces for people and nature Community and global engagement Transforming local and global communities and ecosystems Lifestyle Living joyfully and sustainably as followers of Christ Eco Church is a current agenda item for our PCC meetings, and our Eco Champions have begun to assess the Eco Church survey and develop plans in order to help our church become more eco-aware and eco-friendly. You will be hearing more over the coming weeks and months... In the meantime you can view more information about Eco Church from this link: https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/ Plus here is a link to one of their promotional videos: https://arocha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2-minute-overview-of-ARUK-1.mp4

We joined together on Sunday 14th April at 3pm to worship and support candidates taking an important step in their Christian discipleship. We had 7 candidates to be confirmed and 4 candidates being admitted to receive communion. It was a joyous occasion led by the Bishop of Winchester, Rt. Rev'd. Philip Mounstephen and Rev'd. Rachel Noël. The youth confirmation course included the making of flat breads which helped to shape the liturgy for this service. During the opening hymn, the congregation was invited to add flour to a bowl followed by some salt during Confession. Water was added to the mixture during the Hymn 'Down Mountain The River Flows' and then some oil before the Gospel Reading. Following the Gospel reading, the mixture was kneaded and cooked to make bread before being shared amongst the congregation in the breaking of the bread at communion. Thank you to everyone who helped to organise, played a part and came along to provide support... Below are a handful of photographs taken during the service...

We held a Harvest Lunch at St. James following our Harvest Service today, open to anyone who wished to join us. It was a lovely time of fellowship and sharing, giving us the opportunity to give thanks for the food that we have and the beauty of creation. Thank you to everyone who came along, and to those who helped in the organisation, preparation and cleaning up afterwards.

Top of Page Welcome to St. James Our Next Services... Further details of all upcoming Services and Events can be viewed in the Calendar. Would you like to subscribe to our Newsletters? Our Weekly Newsletter is published on this website... If you would like us to keep you updated about what is going on at St. James' Church, through our Newsletters and periodic communications, then please fill in the Sign Up form and we will be in touch. Church Flowers All flowers in church are donated by members of the congregation to celebrate an occasion or in memory of a loved one. The flowers range from a large pedestal arrangements by the main altar and in the Lady Chapel, to large or small window displays. ​ If you would like to know more, please telephone Carole Norman on 01202 430199 Blog - Latest Articles & Updates / Archive 1 day ago 1 min Eco Church 2 likes. Post not marked as liked 2 6 days ago 1 min Confirmation Service, 14th April 2024 5 likes. Post not marked as liked 5 Oct 1, 2023 1 min Harvest Lunch - 1st October 2023 1 like. Post not marked as liked 1 Social Media Streams Safeguarding St. James' Church is committed to the safeguarding, care and nurture of everyone within its community. The Local Safeguarding Officer can be contacted via the following: Telephone : 07476 047796 Email : safeguardingofficer@stjamespokesdown.co.uk ​ Further information can be found here or via the Staying Safe menu above. ​ Photo & Video Consent Our Photo and Video Policy and further Photo and Video Guidance are also available on the website, from the Staying Safe menu above. Please take some time to read the information and complete the form to confirm whether you consent to the use of images. Photo & Video Consent

Operation Christmas Child Operation Christmas Child began in 1993 when the Samaritan’s Purse President, Franklin Graham, received a call from a man in England asking if he’d be willing to fill shoeboxes with gifts for children in war-torn Bosnia. That year 28,000 wrapped shoe boxes, filled with gifts and a letter found their way to the Balkans in time for Christmas. Since then every year shoeboxes containing gifts, school supplies and hygiene items have been collected and shipped to countries all over the world, bringing both Christmas love and the story of Jesus’ birth to children. Since 1993 Operation Christmas Child has delivered more than 198 million shoeboxes full of gifts to children in over 170 countries. In 2020 alone more than 9.1 million Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts were collected throughout Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which is amazing considering the world was in the grip of a Pandemic. Shoeboxes of gifts ready for despatch Our link with this charity began when Sylvia Jones started making up the shoeboxes, along with her family, in 2006. However, Andy and Ann have taken over the crusade of collecting shoe boxes, donations of goods and then posting the boxes. Sylvia still helps in any way she can and continues to make up her family boxes. It is an all-year-round effort to collect and wrap the boxes in Christmas wrapping paper, collect donations and pack up the shoeboxes. Shoeboxes are packed and marked up using the following criteria – Boy or Girl and age groups of 2-4 years, 5-9 years, or 10-14 years. ​ Then fundraising must take place to pay for the postage to send the shoeboxes off to their various destinations. Samaritan’s Purse recommends a £5.00 donation for each shoebox. Once the boxes are complete and postage paid, Andy places a barcode into the boxes, packs them into his car and delivers them to a central warehouse for distribution. This usually happens in November. The bar code is added so that Andy and Ann can find out where the boxes have gone to. Their 2021 shoeboxes went to children in Central Asia, Liberia, Benin, Bosnia and Albania. ​ Andy and Ann have started the shoebox campaign for this year and already have 40 shoeboxes complete. They would like to thank all those who knit, donate new gifts, sew bags and dolls clothes, scour the charity shops, and then store all the goods and boxes until they can be taken to the warehouse. However, the campaign to fill shoeboxes continues and they could always do with more donations, in particular small books for boys aged 5-9 years. Ideally the books need both words and pictures. Further Information Website Links: Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child ​

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