St. John the Evangelist, Upper St Leonards-On-Sea -

Activities

The FROGs is our Sunday School. It stands for FRiends Of God and each Sunday morning the FROGs hop off to their swamp of the first half of the service. While the adults stay in the main church building for their ministry of the word, the children have their appropriate ministry of the word in the All Saints Room. When they come back we share what we've been learning and the children join back with us for the ministry of the sacrament.

A game at FROGs When we send them out we give them a Bible to take with them (for their readings and study), and we light a candle which burns on the altar to remind us that part of the family are worshipping elsewhere for a while. When they come back (just before the Peace) they return the Bible and we blow out the candle.

Every so often Fr. Andrew will leave the ministry of the word in Elaine's capable hands and will join the FROGs for their activities. At St John's we believe that children are very important!

Jesus told us that it was children (not religious adults or lawyers or pious old ladies!) who were the model for discipleship (look at Luke 18.15-17 & Luke 9.46-48) - so we'd better sit up and take notice!

We try and remember that children are part of the Church of today, and that the “priesthood of all believers” (see 1 Peter 2.5 & 9) includes children too.

Emmaus Groups

Small groups are an incredibly valuable part of our growing as disciples. It's not always easy to ask questions in church and the groups are opportunities to learn, to share, to pray together and to offer support as well as making sense of our faith in today's world.

We call our house groups “Emmaus Groups” because they started off a few years ago using the material produced by the Church of England called Emmaus: the way of Faith.

In the bible the story of the road to Emmaus (Luke 24.13-35) shows how two disciples meet the risen Christ and gradually walk with him, listening and learning until they have a ‘penny dropping' moment when they recognise Jesus in the breaking of the bread and their lives are changed as they rush off to tell others.

This story echoes our experience in small groups at St Johns - we seek to walk together with the risen Christ, to learn, to listen, to change and grow; and we also want to share our experiences with others just as the two in the story became apostles - sent to share. Sunday by Sunday we join together to meet Jesus in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup - so the Emmaus story is a model we embrace in our discipleship, both as a congregation and as smaller groups.”

Choir

St Johns Choir If you have a good choir voice, come and see us soon ...we are always keen to welcome more members!

Speaking of which, St John's has had a very strong musical tradition - a tradition which is kept going today by the choir.

The choir's role is not just to sound marvellous or to look pretty (more difficult for some than others...), but it has a much more important role in helping to lead worship and to helping to offer our very best to God. To read more about the choir, click here.

Tuesday Group

Set up 13 years ago as a non-judgemental safe space for parents & toddlers with no agenda, no pressure and an open policy.

Over the years we've built up a collection of toys and the drop-in has been used by hundreds of parents and their offspring; we've made thousands of cups of tea and snack lunches of cheese on toast.

Mollie Green and her gallant helpers are greatly appreciated by the parents who use the Group. We need a few more volunteers to help out: making tea and toast, setting up and clearing away, being available to chat...

It's a practical example of love in action.

Serving Team

The Serving Team in action The serving team assist at services and aid the worship. Like good waiters and waitresses they should hardly be noticed! To facilitate worship and ensure the smooth running of the liturgy is a great way to serve God.

There are various roles within the team and a rota basis. The more people who get involved the less often you need to serve, and there's plenty of variety:

Crucifier - carries the cross
Acolytes - carry candles, help set up the altar
Eucharistic Ministers - assist in the distribution of communion
The MC - Master of Ceremonies, who keeps the priest in order!
Thurifer - deals with the holy smoke!
Boat person - helps the thurifer

Jude heads up the team and is always keen to rope in new volunteers!

Eucharistic Ministers

The Eucharistic Team administering Communion

There are a team of eight Eucharistic Ministers, selected and chosen by the PCC, authorised by the bishop, trained and commissioned to assist with communion in church but also to take the sacrament to the housebound, usually each month.

If you can’t come to church, church can come to you! We service individuals and the many nursing homes in our area - many people say how much they appreciate a friendly face to keep them in touch.

It’s a real reminder that the Church is everybody, not just the priest, and this valuable ministry is a great comfort to those who are long term - or short term - confined indoors.

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