Dear Friends, It was wonderful to gather at St Mary Magdalene in Outwood on last month for Rev Diane’s licensing to serve here in the Benefice. It has been a long journey since Fr Jonathan left in January 2023 with a lot of extra work to cover, and therefore we are very appreciative of the many people in the four churches who have helped in many ways during this time.
We are all pilgrims on a journey, and as we look to future, it will be lovely to share with Diane our hopes and vision for the future of our benefice. To get us started, you are invited to join us on Saturday 19th October at St Anne’s in Wrenthorpe. There will be refreshments from 9.30am, then worship at 10am, with the session finishing at 12pm at the latest. The meeting will allow us the time to pray, share, discuss and plan the next stage in the life of the benefice. At harvest time we give thanks for God’s bounty, and this meeting will allow us to give thanks for the many gifts and talents we can offer to God in his service in our benefice.
This year, we have celebrated the 200th anniversary of St Peter’s and the 150th anniversary of St Anne’s. It has been good to look back and reflect on the journey of these churches, but we know the baton has been passed to us to continue ‘being the church’ in these villages at this time. Therefore, please do join us on the 19th October and in the meantime pray for our time together that our plans and discus-sions will be in line with God’s will for the benefice.
From Monday 7th October 2024 we will be celebrating Morning Prayer on a different day each week in each of our four churches. Anyone is welcome to join any of the services. It will give us an opportunity to pray for what’s happening in each church and the mission of the wider benefice as well as the world and community in which we live. The times and locations are as follows:

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• Mondays 9.30am St Peter’s church, Stanley
• Tuesdays 9am St Paul’s church, Alverthorpe
• Wednesdays 9am St Anne’s church, Wrenthorpe
• Thursdays 9.15am St Mary Magdalene, Outwood

If you would be interested in having a regular zoom prayer meeting on a Saturday morning, please contact Rev Diane (revddianek@gmail.com). If there is sufficient interest we will organise one from November. If anyone is unable to join any of the prayer meetings but would like to pray with us from homes there will be prayer sheets available in each church from October that you can take home to pray alongside us. Take care and God Bless, Glenn
Rev Glenn Coggins, Vicar of the United Benefice of North Wakefield