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On Sunday 14th August 2011, St Mary's St Vincent de Paul Societey (SVP), Crowborough organised its annual summer outing for senior parishioners to Hawkhurst Fish Farm. The event was well attended on a beautiful sunny day, although the wind was cold. Staff at the farm were very helpful and served huge scones with lashings of cream. Not very healthy but we enjoyed them! Gervase
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On Sunday 1st August 2010, St Mary's St Vincent de Paul Societey (SVP), Crowborough organised its summer outing for senior parishioners to The Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare. The event was well attended and I think the photos clearly show what a great time was had by everybody.
 A slide show of the event can be seen below
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 After mass Father Kevin, Bishop Kieran and most of the congregation retired to St Mary's School Hall to continue the celebrations with a hog roast, barbecue, liquid refreshments, fresh strawberries and a very short speech from Father Kevin prior to the cutting of his cake. With people having travelled from far and wide (including members of previous parishes, ex Crowborough folks returning and friends from his Northern homeland) the celebrations went on well into the evening before Father Kevin was able to slip away and sit down with his house guests and reminisce about the last 50 years - where had the time gone?
More photo's from the evening's celebrations can be found here. |
 Come along meet new people (or bring old ones with you) and have a laugh in the church hall. We will have simple fun games that you may never have heard of but are ideal whatever your age, old or young. All are welcome even if you just want to sit with a coffee and watch. If you would like to find out more call Kevin O’Sullivan 0787 656 4474 or check out the last meeting in February on his blog http://bit.ly/kcK2K6 |
Saturday 18th June at 6pm The evening mass at St Mary's Crowborough will be said in celebration of Father Kevin's 50 years as a priest. This will be followed by a social gathering down at St Mary's Primary school where rumour has it there will be a hog roast as well as BBQ and other food and refreshments. If you would like to record your felicitations then there are postcards at the back of the church. Everybody is welcome (so please spread the word) and if you would like to find out a little more about his time as a priest then click here. |
The first session for 2011 is set for Tuesday 15th February when Fr. Stephen Hardaker will lead the discussion with a talk entitled: ‘'Called to holiness, me?' As usual the forum will gather over refreshments at 6 p.m. in the Lourdes Hall, Uckfield, and the talk will begin at 6.30 p.m. followed by discussion from 7.15 p.m. We end punctually at 8 p.m. Participants are most welcome to suggest topics or speakers to Esme Howard 01825 712994. |
Following the bad weather of last year and the need to postpone our first weekend we have added an additional weekend to the programme. This will be the weekend of 2nd & 3rd April 2011. The complete list of dates can be found in the attached file. |
A number of people, including the Flower Arrangement Group spent a lot of time and effort cleaning and preparing the church for Christmas. This slide show tries to capture the atmosphere this effort helped create. |
St Mary's Christmas Market, due to be held in St Mary's school on Saturday 4th December has had to be postponed until the New Year due to adverse weather conditions. |
In light of the current adverse weather conditions it has been decided to postpone the first weekend (4th & 5th December 2010) of this year's confirmation program. Details of new dates will be advised as soon as we have identified an available venue, however the new dates will be in the new year. |
On Wednesday, 17th November after the 9.30am Mass at St John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, Heron's Ghyll a film will be shown about Bishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated in 1980 in Salvador and given the title Servant of God by Pope John Paul ll.
No charge will be made but donations will be accepted for Casa Alianza to combat child trafficking in Central America. Home-made cake and coffee will be served plus Christmas cards and craft goods will also be on sale.
Please call Jean McCarthy for more information on 01892 664605. |
A Present For The Poorest Of God’s Children. Pick Up A Leaflet From The Church For Ideas From Pencils To A Health Clinic. Order by freephone 0808 14 000 14 or on line at www.cafod.org.uk/worldgifts |
Following the success of the summer program of Social Afternoons with Games another event will be run on the 26th October between 2pm and 5pm in St Mary's Church Hall. The afternoon’s will appeal to you if you are aged 8 to 88, looking for a little FUN and laughter, with an opportunity to meet new people and have a coffee. You will note I didn’t say people who like playing games! Many of people say they don’t like playing games, however most of the games played at these afternoons are unlike any they have encountered before.Typically they are simple to pick up, emphasise skill not luck, have a lot of social interaction, a short playing time and are constructive not destructive. No previous experience or technical ability is required so the games work with both young & old and if English isn't your first language don't worry. It may also be worth emphasising that people don’t have to play the games they can just come along and watch. To find out what one attendee thought of the summer events click here or to have a look at the photo's and read reviews of the summer events then click here. |
Do you shop on-line? DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN GIVE TO CAFOD WITHOUT PUTTING YOUR HAND IN YOUR POCKET! There is a website called The Giving Machine that will arrange for a percentage of the cost of your on-line purchases to go to your favourite charity. Many well known brands including, M&S, Tesco, Argos etc. participate. It will cost you nothing, but helps to fund your named charity with much needed cash. Please log on to The Giving Machine (www.thegivingmachine.co.uk) and follow the easy instructions to register. CAFOD will be most grateful. You will not receive any unsolicited material. Thank you on behalf of CAFOD Angela Donovan, Parish contact for CAFOD |
 The remaining afternoons will be 2pm till 5pm in St Mary's Parish Hall on the following dates:
This week we saw 7 news faces and an increase in the numbers attending over the those in week 1, again both young and older(er) with one game having players ranging from 14 through to over 80! There are not many events where you can see teenagers mixing willingly with older people, or should that be the other way round!! They all said how much they had enjoyed themselves.
The remaining afternoon’s will appeal to you if you are aged 8 to 88, looking for a little FUN and laughter, with an opportunity to meet new people, catch up with friends and stimulate the brain.
You will note I didn’t say people who like playing games! Lots of people say they don’t like playing games, however most of the games played at these afternoons are unlike any they have encountered before.
No previous experience or technical ability is required so the games work with both young & old and if English isn't your first language don't worry. It may also be worth repeating that people don’t have to play the games they can just come along and watch.
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 We wish Maria all the best and every success in her new role at St.Mary’s.
More photo's of the event can be seen here |
Bored with those long hot summer days? Why not come along to the first St Mary’s social afternoon? Have a laugh meet new people and maybe even play some games. With the start of the summer holidays we are going to try running a pilot starting on Monday 2nd August from 2pm till 5pm in the parish hall. We will provide over 20 games (both card and board) for you to try on the first meeting and have many more beyond that. If you are nervous of playing these then why not bring along your favourite game, crib, Mah-jong etc and teach some others to play it and because it is primarily a social event you could always just come along and watch. So if you are aged from 8 to 88, male or female we look forward to seeing you for a FUN afternoon. No previous experience or technical knowledge is required and if English isn’t your first language don’t worry you can still have lots of fun. The only games banned are Monopoly and Games Workshop; curious then come along and we will explain why. If you have any queries then please contact Kevin O’Sullivan. More background information about some of the games can be found on my blog: http://kevinandgames.blogspot.com |
On Sunday 25th April Deacon Mike Thoms will once again be leading a Communion Service |
Please be advised that on Sunday 18th April there will be a communion service and not a full Mass |
Passion (Palm) Sunday 28th March Both masses will include the Blessing of the Palms & St Luke's Passion Reading. The Sunday mass will also include an outdoor procession (weather permitting) Vigil Mass - Saturday 6pm Sunday Mass 9:30am Monday 29th March Morning Prayer 8:45am Mass 9:00am Celebration of Forgiveness with Confessions 7:30pm Tuesday 30th March Morning Prayer 8:45am Mass 9:00am Wednesday 31st March Morning Prayer 8:45am Mass 9:00am |  | Holy Thursday 1st April Children's Mass 4:00pm Mass of the Lord's Supper 7:30pm Watching of the Gethsemane Altar after Mass until 10:30pm Night Prayer 10:15pm A day of fast & abstinence Office of Reading & Morning Prayers 9:00am Liturgy of the Passion 3:00pm With separate Children's Liturgy Stations of the Cross 7:30pm Holy Saturday 3rd April Office of Reading & Morning Prayers 10:00am Solemn Easter Vigil with 1st Mass of Easter 8pm Easter Sunday 4th April Mass 9:30am Mass at Heron's Ghyll 11:30am |
 If enough interest is obtained it is hoped that Street Pastors Crowborough could start in the spring of 2011. |
In the last weekend of June 2010 (Friday 25th to Sunday 27th June 2010), Saint Mary’s Parish will be having a residential retreat at Worth
 better and to experience the spiritual life of Worth’s Benedictine monastic community. Worth Abbey was featured in the BBC series The Monastery. The complete series can still be viewed on You Tube by searching “Monastery 2005”. Like the participants in the series, we will have a taste of Monastic and Parish life at Worth. We will join the monks for their sung offices starting with evening prayer on Friday and Vigils at 6.20am on Saturday.  |
At the beginging of the summer holidays a small group of 16 years olds from the parish got together and decided to build a new web site that would:
This is the site that resulted from that teams efforts. As part of the work they conducted a survey of the parishes use of the internet a summary of which can be found in the attached document, they conducted interviews of key parishioners, they reviewed other sites, arranged for letters to be sent to leaders of the various parish groups, built the site (helped by a very techie 12 year old and her friend), loaded their responses into the pages that make up the site, worked with a photographer to take the photos that can be found throughout the site. They did good.
They hope you like their work and if you had any suggestions or feedback this could be conveyed using the Contact Us page. |
