Joint Churches Prayer Meeting

Once a term we are aiming to gather everyone together from across all the communities at St. Luke’s and St. George’s to share the big picture of all that is going on and pray for God’s help!

This term we will be particularly focussing on our plans for Christmas and the issues facing the churches as we prepare for 2023. So, please join us at St. Luke’s church on Monday 21st November at 7pm.

A new way to Give

St. George’s has recently signed up to the Parish Giving Scheme, which enables you to set up regular giving with the church through a Direct Debit System. This system does not cost St. George’s anything in fees, so your whole donation comes to the church and takes some of the workload of setting up new donations away from volunteers like our treasurer.

Why use the Parish Giving Scheme?

The scheme enables you to:

  • Give monthly, quarterly or annually by Direct Debit
  • Sign up to inflation linked giving annually, if you choose
  • Enhance your gift to the parish by having Gift Aid at 25% added to your giving
  • Give anonymously, if you prefer
  • Give securely

How do I set it up?

There are three ways in which you can set up a Direct Debit to give regularly to St. George’s:

  • Via paper ‘Gift Form’ – available from your PGS parish representative
  • Via their telephone service on 0333 002 1271, Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm (You will need to quote our Parish Code: 060606196 – Ramsgate: St. George, Canterbury Diocese). The call usually takes about 10 minutes to complete. They will then send you a confirmation of your new gift by post or email.
  • Via this website

What happens when I sign up online?

The website will guide you through the process well and it only takes a few minutes. Below is a rough guide to the steps you will be asked to take:

  • On the Ramsgate: St. George, Parish Giving page, click the button: “Give now”
  • You need to register by filling in your name, address, phone number and email, then click ‘Submit’ at the bottom of the page.
  • You will be sent an activation email. Click “Activate Account” in the email and you will be taken to the next step on the website.
  • You will be asked to create a password that is at least 10 characters long. You will need this to log in in the future, so that you can edit your details or change your giving.
  • The next step is to fill in the amount you want to give, the start date for your first donation (donations are taken from your account on the first of the month) and how regularly you want to give (monthly / quarterly / annually). Most people would give monthly. Please take note of the month your donations through the Parish Giving Scheme will start. If you already give to St. George’s by Standing Order and are replacing that with giving by the Parish Giving Scheme, you will need to cancel any Standing Order with St. George’s in the month before this date, but preferably after that month’s gift to St. George’s.
  • You will then be asked to fill in the details of the account that the direct debit will be paid from and confirm that this is a U.K. account and that you can authorise payment from the account by yourself.
  • There are then some options. You can opt to have the amount you give increased by the rate of inflation each year. This helps to automatically increase your giving annually. After all the costs of the ministry and mission of the church increase by inflation each year! If you choose this option, you will still be given the option to opt out with an email sent to you a few weeks before the annual increase comes in.
  • You can opt for them to claim gift aid. You can only do this if you are a taxpayer. Doing so, increases the value of your gift by 25%.
  • You can opt for your giving to be anonymous. We recommend you do not tick this. Ticking it means that the treasurer cannot see who is giving through the scheme, which means he cannot make any allocations of your giving that you request. Only the treasurer will see who is giving through the Parish Giving Scheme, the information will not be shared with the vicar or anyone else.
  • You can also opt to receive emails from St. George’s through the Parish Giving Scheme. We recommend that you do tick this – any emails are likely to be fairly rare, probably only once or twice a year.
  • Once you have selected all these options, please ensure you scroll down and click “I confirm the details I have entered are correct.”
  • You should then receive confirmation that your giving to St. George’s is set-up with the Parish Giving Scheme.

Tunes of Merry England

Join us for this wonderful concert with Thanet Light Orchestra at St. Luke’s, Ramsgate on Saturday 26th November at 3pm. Tickets are £5 in advance or £10 on the door.

Buy Tickets

Music Includes:

Tomlinson, Suite of English Folk Dances.
Coleridge-Taylor, Hiawatha Ballet Suite.
Binge, Sailing By.
Coates, Northwards and Southwards.
Ketelby, Pictures in Melody.
Nicolai, Merry Wives of Windsor.
Fletcher, Folk Tune and Fiddle Dance, Spirit of Pageantry.

Remembrance Sunday Talk

Remembrance Day

On Remembrance Sunday, it is a time to reflect on the wars that have been fought in our recent history, but perhaps also about the wars going on in the world now. As we do so we hold in tension a desire to honour, even celebrate the courage and sacrifice of those who have given or risked their lives for our freedoms with a need to remember the horror of war, so that we seek peace. Today, I want to focus on the horror of war.

The Horror of War

It’s horror

The poem that the mayor chose and read a little while ago, brings out some of the horror of war. It is a horror that was especially expressed by the poets after the great and tragic loss of life in the First World War.

Yet, it is also a horror that we see so clearly in Ukraine now. This week, one expert estimated that around 100,000 Russian soldiers and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the war so far. In addition to that 1,000s of civilians have also been killed and millions have fled as refugees. It’s hard to grasp what those numbers mean, but they are more than numbers, they are countless stories of individual tragedy.

Before the war, Irina and Ivan were a married couple living happily in Mariupol in Ukraine. Ivan was an engineer at the steelworks and Irina was a manager of a clothes shop. They had been trying for a baby for many years and were overjoyed when finally Irina fell pregnant. It was going to be a boy and they were going to call him Miron.

By the time Miron was due, the war had begun and Russian troops had surrounded Mariupol and were bombarding the city as they sought to capture this important strategic point on the South East coast of Ukraine.

One of the most notorious moments in the war so far was the bombing of the maternity hospital in Mariupol. Irina was in the maternity hospital when it happened. It was a devastating attack in which Irina about to give birth was seriously injured. She was carried across the rubble on a stretcher an image that was photographed and used in the news media around the world. They tried to deliver the baby by Caesarean Section, but Miron was already dead. Irina learning of the death of her long hoped for child lost the will to live herself and soon also died of her injuries. Ivan had to bury his wife and his newborn child together.

Their story is just one among thousands from Ukraine over the last year. War is horrible.

It’s root: Sin – James 4:1-2

But why is there war at all?

John Lennon in his song, Imagine, sang:

“Imagine there’s no countries,

It isn’t hard to do,

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people living life in peace…”

The implication is that wars are caused by countries and religions. If you could get rid of countries and religions then we could all just live together in peace.

But is that really true? Yes, countries and religions are often the excuse for wars, but are they really the cause.

James, who was Jesus’s brother, suggests another reason for war. In your service sheets look at the quote from James 4:1-2:

“Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.” (James 4:1-2)

In other words he says the real root of war is within the heart of every human being – our own selfish desires that lead us to exploit, bully and kill others to get our own way. The Bible calls this inner attitude, ‘Sin!’

Nations when they work well control and limit sin, by putting in place and enforcing laws to stop people hurting each other. Yet sadly, wars come about when nations allow these inner selfish attitudes to determine their policy. Just as Russia has invaded Ukraine  in order to achieve its own selfish goals. It’s because of such threats that we need a nation with strong armed forces as a deterrent against the sin of other nations threatening us.

So, nations can control and limit sin, but they cannot change the hearts of people, its ultimate cause. That is where religion comes in.

It’s opposite: Peace  – Isaiah 2:4

The second quote comes from Isaiah, a prophet in the Old Testament that lived during a time when his nation, Judah was invaded a number of times by other nations. He would have known and seen the horror of war. Yet, 2,700 years before John Lennon he also imagined a better future.

“The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)

It was a vision of a future with no war not brought about by the abolition of nations and religion, but brought about by God himself bringing peace between nations!

Yet, is this just a dream? How can peace become a reality?

Jesus, the Prince of Peace

This is where Jesus comes in. Jesus did not experience the horror of battle, but he did die an horrific death at the hand of Roman soldiers. He was crucified, because of the selfish desires and jealousies of the religious leaders of his own nation. He came to us as the Son of God, the Prince of Peace and what did we do to him? We murdered him. Here is the horror of sin writ large!

Yet, Jesus’s death was also a moment of supreme courage and sacrifice. He gave his life willingly, because somehow through his death the power of sin is neutralised as he took God’s anger at our sin on himself and went on to conquer death in his resurrection.

And he did this because he loves us. He himself said in the second reading:

“Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

And so he calls those who accept and trust in this great act of love and choose to follow him, to love in return. Love is the opposite of sin. It is the desire to treat the other as important and as valuable as yourself, so that you don’t exploit them to get what you want, but like Jesus, you are willing to make sacrifices for their good. As the world is transformed by this love of Jesus, so peace grows and wars cease.

Of course this is still a work in progress, even those who have claimed to be followers of Jesus, often fail to live this out as Jesus wants. But ultimately, as Christians today, our hope, like Isiaiah’s is not in what we might achieve, but in the promised future God will bring about, when Jesus returns. We look with hope to a life beyond this life, where there will be no more wars or suffering or pain or peace. A life not without God, but where we see him face to face. That may feel like a far off dream, but when like Isaiah we have confidence in God’s ultimate plan for the future, we will want to help to bring it about as much as is possible now.

We need nations and our armed forces to control the worst effects of human sin and evil. But, will you come to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to help transform your heart and have hope for a better future?

Christmas Tree Festival

Would you like to decorate a tree for the Christmas Tree festival at St. George’s this year?

We invite friends, families, schools, organisations, Church Hall users, businesses in the town and those who are in sympathy with the restoration of this beautiful church to exhibit a small decorated tree in the FIFTEENTH CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL and make it the best ever.

We feel that a real tree of 3 to 4 feet in height would be suitable.  We are able to supply stands and if you would like us to order a tree for you please indicate on your response, the price is £23.  In previous years visitors have commented on the lovely scent as well as the magical sight which greeted them as they entered the church.

Suggestions for decoration include Christmas Carol or song, a colour theme or something specifically connected with the exhibitor.  We have an electrical supply.  For businesses this is an inexpensive way to advertise and also to support the church.

Setting up will take place on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th December between 2 – 5pm and the Festival will be open to visitors from 9th – 18th December.  Opening times are 2 – 5pm on each day.

Trees remain the property of the exhibitor but most people are happy to leave them in the church throughout the Christmas period.  If you want to remove your tree would you tell us so that we can arrange a time.

There will be a small prize for the favourite tree chosen by visitors.

To apply to have a tree in the festival, please download complete and return the form below with a cheque for £23 by Saturday 26th November.

st-georges-christmas-tree-application-flierDownload

Youth Initiative (YI) , Sundays 5:00-7:30pm

The rest of this term YI are trialling a new pattern for their get togethers. The youth have said that they want to take more opportunities to invite friends along.  So, we are relocating to the church hall, where we start the evening at 5:00pm with bible study and worship, have food together and then open our doors from 6:30-7:30pm for games and activities.

It would be great to build up a team of volunteers to enable growth in our work with the youth. Please talk to Claire if interested.

Something new that we will now attend as part of our YI program is ‘The Event.’ The Event is a Churches together in Thanet youth meeting that happens the 4th Sunday of each month. It is a great opportunity to meet young people from other churches and youth groups.

So, this month’s YI meets as follows:

  • Sunday 13th November – YI in church hall 5-7:30
  • Sunday 20th November – YI in church hall 5-7:30
  • Sunday 27th November – YI joining The Event 6-8 venue tbc.

Remembrance Sunday

This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday and St. George’s will once again be hosting Ramsgate’s Civic Remembrance Day service. There will be an act of remembrance around the memorial in front of the church leading up to 11am, then we will enter the church for the service itself. We welcome all the cadets, veterans, armed service members and town councillors and members of the mayor’s team.