This year Mothering Sunday will be celebrated on 10th March. It will be a short Mass followed by lunch so please note this in your diary.

On Sunday, 17th March at 19.00 hours there is to be a performance of the St Matthew Passion composed by J.S. Bach, in memory of the late Helena Mowat-Brown, who often played for us here at St Francis Church. Please put this in your diary.

For more details and an online book of remembrance please also visit:

http://helenabrown.wordpress.com/

A small selection of books is on the table at the back of the Church. If you wish to borrow a book to enrich your spiritual reflections during this important penitential season, please put your name against the appropriate title on the list and take and enjoy.

Street Child World Cup

This year we are encouraged to support the Diocese of London Lent Appeal for Street Child World Cup, a unique charity using football to campaign for street children, and founded in the belief that street children are made in God’s own image and that all children should have a future free from fear, neglect and abuse.

In 2014 sixteen teams of Street Children from countries as varied as Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Philippines, Ukraine, India and Mozambique, will come together in Rio to compete in a football tournament and take part in a unique street child conference.

Posters and envelopes are expected soon, so in the meantime, save your pennies in a jar!

Copies of the Lent Extra booklet are now available; suggested donation £1. Please take one and use it as we journey through Lent. Fun sheets are available for the children; free of charge.

During Lent we will walk the Stations of the Cross each Friday at 19.30 hours, beginning Friday, 15th February. This service lasts approximately 40 minutes. Please come if you can.

Joan Snell will be organising a simple lunch of soup, bread and cheese on Wednesdays during Lent, beginning on Wednesday, 20th February. Each Lent lunch begins with a short devotion at noon. If you are free please come and share a simple food and fellowship.

On Tuesday last week we enjoyed another ecumenical feast sharing with our friends from St Mary’s Church and St Vincent’s on the Eve of Lent. Special thanks to Jane, Eileen and Henry, Anne, Alan and Patric who did so much to make this a great success and to clear up afterwards.

The new Twitter address for St Francis is “@StFrancisIsle”!

St Francis now has its own twitter feed which will automatically send tweets when new Church events are posted on the website. Please note that Church events are usually added to the website no more than once a month!

A series of prayer meetings will be held in local Churches during the season of Advent. For further details please see the notice board.

We are again having a two-pronged appeal to support SPEAR and the Children’s Society.
SPEAR has invited us to donate tinned food, tea, coffee and dry goods for the residents of their hostel in Twickenham. If you would like to contribute to this, please put your contribution into the boxes in the Vestry. Donations of sheets, towels and new kettles will also be welcome. Thank you to all who have helped in this.

Please also consider taking one of the candle tubes from the back of the Church to fill  with your spare change. If you do so, please bring it back (full!) on Sunday, 16th December when we will celebrate Christingle within the Parish Mass.

Copies of “Advent Extra” are available at the back of the Church. A suggested donation is £1. Please take a copy and use it during the season of Advent as we prepare for Christmas.

This is the card. It contains all the church service times over Christmas for four local churches.

Thank you to all who have helped in this. A sterling effort!

On Tuesday, 4th December at 7.30 p.m, Syon Early Music Workshop will hold their Autumn Concert at St. Francis of Assisi Isleworth, featuring extracts from the music of Thomas Arne’s masque-opera COMUS, and settings of Milton by Thomas Arne and Händel. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served afterwards. There will be a retiring collection.
On Tuesday 11th December, at 7.30 p.m. Syon Early Music Workshop will perform at the annual Bereavement Carol Service.

Syon Early Music Workshop was formerly known as the Hounslow Baroque Ensemble.

The Remembrance Carol Service will be on Tuesday 11th December, at 1930 hours.
All welcome.

This year the SKY Television Choir carol service will be on Wednesday 5th of December, at 1830 hours. All welcome.

Change of date for the Lambeth Palace visit, since a number of people have found the 5th of October not convenient. It will now be on Friday, 12th of October. Rev Anne will confirm details in due course.

Next Sunday is “Back to Church Sunday”. Please bring a friend or neighbour to worship with us.

St. Francis celebrated Harvest Festival on September 9th, with donations to SPEAR homeless shelter in Twickenham, and a bring-and-share lunch featuring dishes from all over the world.

“St Francis of Assisi Isleworth Sunday School teacher, Anita Boateng, danced in the Closing Ceremony of the Paralympics on September 9th, dressed in black, with silver gel in her hair. As soon as she heard the Olympics were coming to London, Anita planned to take part in the ” once in a lifetime event”. Anita auditioned, performing a specially choreographed dance, and was delighted to be selected. After two weeks of rehearsals, she danced at the Ceremony to mark the end of a glorious event, with a television audience of millions across the globe. Anita is a law student, and works as a Court Clerk at Isleworth Crown Court.”

There will be a Jersey Gardens Summer Fair from 13.00 to 17.00 hours.

                                                                                 The exhibition is entitled “Royal Devotion – Monarchy and The Book of Common Prayer”. This exhibition, a celebration of the Diamond Jubilee and the 350th Anniversary of the Revised Book of Common Prayer, will be held in the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace from Tuesday, 1st May until Saturday, 14th July 2012. Revd Anne hopes to arrange to take a group to this on Saturday, 14th July. Please sign the list as soon as possible if you would like to attend.

We will be celebrating Sea Sunday when our guest preacher will be Commander Graham Shaw from the mission to Seafarers. Please put this in your diary.

There will be a concert in aid of the Mulberry Centre on Saturday 23rd June at 1930 hours. More details will be available later.

The next drop-in surgery will take place at the TESCO Osterley Extra store on Syon Lane, on 15th and 16th June from 17.00 to 18.00 hours, when members of the local police team will be available to give advice on local policing issues.

On Sunday we welcomed the Archdeacon of Middlesex, The Venerable Stephan Welch, to preach. We would like to thank him for his visit. Afterwards the Archdeacon spent a considerable amount of time talking to parishioners over tea.

are due to Jane and Patric, our Churchwardens, for their continuing hard work to insure the smooth running of the Church, and to Robert and Beatrice for producing the St Francis News. These are serious tasks and we are grateful to them for all their dedication and commitment.