St.Mark's Church, Talbot Village is a lively and exciting community - with lots going on for all ages and throughout the year. Keep up-to-date with all our latest church family news under this heading.
Keep scrolling down to see all the stories!
**Services to resume in St Mark's Church building on March 28th. Click here for details**
LATEST 2021: SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO: All being well we are very much looking forward to revisiting Chichester Harbour, this summer, for our Church Family Weekend Away (
this is different to the FUSION Youth Weekend Away which is going the week before: 2nd-4th July).
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Ringing in the new year sadly sees the start of another national lockdown. Happily though it also sees the return of our online services. Please join us on Sunday mornings for our Sofa Service and SMC Online (
you can catch up on previous SMC shows below).
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We held two Christingle Services attended by over 60 families. You can watch the Service on the Online Service page (click here). Here is a picture of some of the lights we used!
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SUNDAY MORNING FUN FOR ALL THE FAMILY: St.Mark's Children Online (SMC!)
Alex, our Children and Youth Minister, has produced some fun stuff for our younger members of St Mark's but they are for everyone!
SEASON TWO:
SEASON ONE:
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To celebrate 'Halloween', we celebrated that Jesus is the Light of the World. Over a dozen homes around the Parish were decorated with a light display and a trail map was given to different family groups to go around and visit them. A big thank you to Alex, our Children and Youth Minister, for her wonderfully creative idea and for organising the event.
A special thank you also to the children at St.Mark's School who took part in this event by making beautiful stained glass windows and pictures which were used to decorate the church link.
Here are some photos:
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A wonderful harvest festival 2020 - flowers and service - all the food went to St.Andrews Church Foodbank in Kinson.
Toddlers Restarted - with a difference
St Mark's Toddlers has restarted and has temporarily changed how it operates due to the present restrictions. 'Families' book in and then have fun doing outdoor activities in groups of 6 (under a gazebo if wet). This has included a scavenger hunt and outdoor games. Also the Toddler toys are used with the mandatory cleaning put in place.
Here are some photos (with parents permission)
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WEDDING BELLS FOR KELLY AND JOHN
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(PHOTOS USED WITH PARENTAL PERMISSION)
SUMMER 2020
There continue to be many restrictions in place due to the virus really limiting what we can and cannot do in the Youth, Children and Families Ministry - things change at the drop of a hat making it difficult to plan, presenting many challenges but also great opportunities which need to be celebrated. In particular we have had to continue to be creative with how we connect with our families and young people.
As lockdown measures eased over the summer we have been delighted to welcome back to church some of our young families and even had a picnic with them after the service on the main church lawn.
Due to Government restrictions we are only allowed 30 at each picnic gathering (whilst also sticking to family/ school bubble groups and maintaining social distancing) so we have organised 3 picnics and the first was held on Sunday 30th August with the sun shining, a family kite making competition, fish and butterfly wands to make and chalk drawing fun.
Here are some photos:
We are blessed to have some really beautiful young families as part of our church family - please be praying for them.
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SUMMER CHALLENGE
Over August the children were set a challenge to do a series of activities each week including: Joining in with the New Wine festival, which this year was online, buying a bag of jelly beans and using each colour to pray for something different, reading a new story from the Bible, taking a photo outside of church, finding the Vicarage and taking a photo there, taking food to the local foodbank, choosing a Bible verse and putting actions to it.
Here are some photos from those who got involved - they did BRILLIANTLY, well done:
(PHOTOS USED WITH PARENTAL PERMISSION)
Joining in with New Wine Kids Club Online Praying
Learning to pray with the different colours of Jelly Baby sweets
Photo taken outside Church Photo taken outside the Vicarage
Discovering a new Bible Story & taking some goodies to the local foodbank drop off point
Can you find the cheeky puppets?
Outside the church and at the Vicarage
All children involved were suitably rewarded for their fantastic efforts!
For fab photos of the Youth Weekend Away Click Here
Photos from our Summer Fete June 22nd 2019