For a number of years, our four parishes have supported the work of African International Christian Ministry (AICM) in Uganda and the Congo.
News now comes that AICM’s Founder and Director, the Revd Canon Enoch Kayeeye, is to become the Assistant Bishop in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This post is equivalent to that of the Bishop of Huntingdon in the Ely Diocese and Enoch will be consecrated in Butembo in the near future.
His consecration was to have been on 30th July 2006 but was postponed due to elections in the Congo.
Enoch’s appointment will formalise the many links that AICM has already made in the Congo but it will also necessitate a re-organisation within AICM.
Bishop Enoch will become the Director-General, with Timothy Twikirize taking over as Director of AICM-Uganda. A further director appointment will be made as AICM-Congo develops.
Enoch has visited the Benefice of Fen Drayton with Conington and Lolworth and Swavesey and preached in our churches on many occasions. More about AICM can be learned from Gill and Mike Henderson on 01954 267349.
The Singers have been busy during the Spring and Summer with attendance at five weddings including one at Lolworth.
We shall be at Conington on 1st October for the Harvest Festival Evensong at 6.30pm.
Harvest at Swavesey this year is on Sunday 8th October and we expect to sing an anthem by John Rutter at the 11.00am service.
Festival Evensong at 6.30pm will include an Anthem by Peter Aston and settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by John Ireland. All these items are new to us this year.
K. M. Lofts
St Andrew’s Church in Swavesey is hosting two important concerts in the next few weeks. First, on Monday 16th October at 7.00pm, English Touring Opera’s Baroque Voice Consort will be performing Handel and Purcell as part of their Cambridge Baroque Festival.
Then on Thursday 16th November at 7.30pm is the final concert of the week-long Orchestra in a Village residency of the London Mozart Players. They will be performing with the Swavesey Community Choir and musicians of Swavesey Village College under conductor Dominic Wheeler. The programme includes the premiere of Fraser Trainer’s new Swavesy composition.
More from Gillian Hunter on 01954 234476.
Leaflets are available in St Andrew’s, Swavesey, explaining how you can offer a Christmas Gift in a shoe box to a child in a disadvantaged part of the world in a scheme organised by the relief charity Samaritan’s Purse.
The boxes will be collected during the 11.00am service on Sunday 19th November, designated ‘Shoe Box Sunday’.
On Sunday 12th November, Remembrance Sunday, the Swavesey & District Branch of the Royal British Legion are organising a parade from the Memorial Hall to the War Memorial in St Andrew‘s churchyard. The police are aware of this and have offered their support.
The parade will leave the Memorial Hall at 10.30am and proceed along High Street and Station Road to the War Memorial, where the Act of Remembrance will take place, led by the Vicar, the Reverend Dr John-David Yule, at 10.50am.
We will be supported by uniformed organisations from the village and surrounding areas. The Service for Remembrance Sunday with sermon then continues in the church.
In Fen Drayton, the Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial in Church Street also begins at 10.50am.
There will be a Christmas Card Tree in St Andrew’s, Swavesey, again this year.
The idea is that instead of sending cards to lots of different people in the congregation, you just put one card on the tree and then give the money you have saved to Roger Holland who will use it to buy really useful gifts through the ‘Present Aid’ scheme organised by Christian Aid.
This term St Andrew’s Sunday School meets on the first and third Sundays of each month during school term time. The time is 11.00am; the place is the low building behind the St Andrew’s Church. Children are welcomed from the age of 3 upwards. After a time for activities and stories, the children come into church to receive a blessing at the communion.
On other Sundays, children are welcome to use the facilities of the Children‘s Corner (by the north door) in church.
Parallel with the Sunday School a Youth Emmaus Course will run for those aged 12 and upwards. Although not formally part of Confirmation Preparation, Youth Emmaus does offer an excellent grounding for those considering this important step in their life of faith. The first five sessions are on What Christians believe.
The Church Fete in July raised £1,221 for church funds. Thanks to all who helped and attended.