A huge thank you – To everyone who helped to make our Christingle at St Cat’s Lite so enjoyable and successful. £123.60 was collected to support the work of the Children’s Society with vulnerable children and young people.
Friday Friends meets from 2.00 – 4.00pm every Friday, price £3.50 (carers free), offering a mix of talks, light exercise, singing together, table top games or craft activities in a safe, warm and friendly environment – with tea and cakes.
Friday Friends will not meet over Christmas and New Year – i.e. it doesn’t meet on December 26th and January 2nd. Be aware that Café Siena is also closed on December 18th.
See below for details of the program for December ’25 & January ’26.
Celebrate Christingle at our next ‘St Cat’s Lite’ service on Saturday 6th December, starting at 3:30pm.
St Cat’s Lite is a fun, informal, all-age service. While open to anyone of any age, it’s especially popular with children & families.
Children will be given a Christingle (which is an orange, red ribbon, 4 sticks with sweets and fruit and a candle) and we use it to explain the Christmas message.
We’re also raising money for the Children’s Society to help disadvantaged children.
We finish with refreshments.
St. Cat’s Lite usually takes place at St Catherine’s on the first Saturday of the month, starting at 3:30pm.
Everyone is very welcome at this or any of our activities.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to Operation Christmas Child collection this year. On ‘Shoebox Sunday’, we collected Shoeboxes filled with Christmas Gifts for children around the world who may not get anything else at Christmas.
At the service we learnt more about Operation Christmas Child and what happens to your shoeboxes as they are sent off.
We collected over 50 Shoeboxes, two large bags of knitted hats, and we know some of you also donated ‘virtual’ shoeboxes on-line.
Here’s some images of what happened to those Shoeboxes after the service …
Shoeboxes stacked ready for collectionShoeboxes being loaded into the carShoeboxes at the local collection depotShoeboxes at the Sunday Service
If you didn’t manage to pack a physical shoebox, you can ‘pack’ a virtual Shoebox online at: https://shoeboxonline.samaritans-purse.org.uk/ . We know that some of you have already done that !
Our Manager Jo will be having further surgery mid November and will be unable to work for a few weeks.
Café Siena will remain open but there will be a reduced menu and we may close at 1.30pm. As we are staffed by lovely volunteers the service we can offer will depend on staffing availability both in the kitchen and as servers.
Café Siena will close for it’s Christmas break on Friday 12th December and reopen on Thursday 8th January 2026.
As always we appreciate your understanding and support while Jo is away.