Welcome to our weekly newsletter for the benefice. If you would like to be notified by email each week, please sign up using the form at the bottom of this page.
If you have any items for next week’s notices, please send them to manager@StGilesStMargarets.org by Wednesday.
Worship & Prayer
Sunday 5 October
Harvest Thanksgiving / Trinity 16
8.00am – Holy Communion at St Giles’ (said, 1662 BCP)
10.30am – Harvest Thanksgiving with Baptism at St Margaret’s (sung, Common Worship)
10.30am – Holy Communion at St Giles’ (sung, Common Worship)
6.30pm – Choral Evensong at St Giles’ (sung, 1662 BCP)
O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Pew sheets
The pew sheets for our services on 5 October including the readings, prayers and music details, are available to download below:
Coming up this week
Morning Prayer: 8.30am Tuesday-Friday at the Vicarage, Church Walk
Evening Prayer: 5.30pm Monday-Saturday at St Giles’
St Giles’ open for quiet prayer: 12pm – 2pm, Monday-Friday
Next Sunday (12 October):
Trinity 17
8.00am – Holy Communion at St Giles’ (said, 1662 BCP)
10.30am – Holy Communion St Margaret’s (sung, Common Worship)
10.30am – Holy Communion at St Giles’ (sung, Common Worship)
6.00pm – Child Loss Service at St Giles’ (sung, 1662 BCP)
Last Week’s Sermon
From the Vicar
We have a new Archbishop! What now?
Parish News
Harvest Thanksgiving
It’s Harvest Thanksgiving tomorrow (5 October) at St Margaret’s. Find out more details in our dedicated post:
Child Loss service
This year’s Child Loss service will take place at St Giles’ Church on Sunday 12 October at 6pm. Please do share it with any parents you know who may be affected – whether they want to be there in person, or would like their child to be remembered.
For more information, please email Eva (eva@stmargaretsoxford.org)
St Giles’ Worship and Faith meeting
If you are part of St Giles’ and would like to be involved in planning our worship and faith-related activities between January and March next year, now’s your opportunity! (St Margaret’s had ours last week).
On Tuesday 7 October we’ll be starting our planning for the period which encompasses Epiphanytide and Lent.
However, please note some important changes – the meeting will now be at 8pm (not 7.30pm as previously advertised), and will now take place online as a video call. Still open to all members of St Giles’ electoral roll – please email Daniel (vicar@stgilesstmargarets.org) for more information and the meeting link.
Memory Café
The next Memory Café will take place on Wednesday 8 October. If you know of anyone who might benefit, or you would like more information, please contact St Margaret’s Parish Community Worker, Tricia Brant, on 07776 595456 or email her on triciabrant@stmargaretsoxford.org
Future dates are listed below:
Jazz at St Giles’: Jacqui Dankworth and Trio
The next Jazz at St Giles’ concert is Saturday 11 October at 7:30pm: Jacqui Dankworth and Trio. Come and see the JASG favourite return to St Giles’.
Other Jazz events in the Autumn / Winter season include the Claire Jones Ensemble (25 October), the Ewan Bleach Sextet (8 November), and the The Velvet Tones (6 December).
Exploring faith and spirituality group
The new group on faith and spirituality continues on Tuesday 14 October at St Anne’s College from 5:15-6:45pm. This group is for anyone in the benefice who is interested in exploring faith and different approaches to spirituality. The only pre-requisite is an open mind and an interest in different points of view. This meeting will be about these passages from Julian of Norwich. If you are interested in attending, please contact Siân Grønlie.
First Communion classes
St Giles’ EPCM
The St Giles’ Extraordinary Parochial Church Meeting to receive the accounts (as approved by the PCC) will be held on Sunday 19 October at St Giles’ Church, directly after the 10:30am service. This is open to all members of the Electoral Roll.
Christmas Fair Volunteers
We are going to be repeating the Christmas Fair this year – it will be a wonderful opportunity to encourage people into the building and be able to invite them to join us for worship over Christmas. We are therefore looking for volunteers who would be willing to help with planning and running stalls. Nearer the time we’ll be asking too for donations of books, cakes etc.
The Fair will be at St Margaret’s Church on the afternoon of 6th December. If you would be up for helping please speak to Claire (associate@stgilesstmargarets.org)
Call for Marbles
Call to borrow marbles for a “Guess How Many Marbles in the Jar” competition to raise £60 for St Giles’ toilet twinning. These would only be on loan until the competition has raised enough. A fun prize to be won for the person closest to the correct number!
Toilet Twinning is a charity which invites people to “twin” their own toilet with latrines in poor communities. This is a way of raising funds to enable people in the poorest nations to have clean water and a proper toilet. Toilet Twinners receive a certificate, containing a photo of the twinned latrine, its location and GPS coordinates.
Please contact Helen at hedodd@gmail.com if you can loan some marbles.
Benefice book group
The next meeting of the Benefice Book Group will be on Wednesday 12 November at 7.15pm, where we’ll be discussing Night Waking by Sarah Moss.
For more information, contact Siân Grønlie (curate@stgilesstmargarets.org)
Coming up in October…
Monthly “What’s On” leaflet
Download October’s issue below:
Online events calendar
Thanks to our ChurchSuite system, you can now see all of the events that we have coming up in the next few months online, and get more information where relevant. You can view them as a list or in a calendar view:
Join St Margaret’s choir!
If you, or someone you know, might be interested in joining St Margaret’s choir we would love to hear from you! Please get in touch with George: choir@stmargarets.org
Browser Extension to Raise Money for St Margaret’s
Raise a free donation for St Margaret’s Church, Oxford when you shop online via #easyfundraising. Add the extension to your browser and whenever you shop online with one of 7,500+ easyfundraising’s partners they will make a donation to us! This includes Tesco, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, Argos, Trainline and more! If you’re not supporting us on easyfundraising yet, now’s the perfect time to get involved.
Diocesan News
New issue of Pathways has arrived
Copies of the Summer 2025 issue of Pathways, the Diocesan magazine, will be available from church this Sunday – or you can download it from the Diocesan website below:
Community News
Tea & Talks at St Margaret’s Institute
A new season of Tea & Talks at St Margaret’s Institute continues on Wed 5 November at 1:45-3:30pm with a talk titled The Thames and its Tributaries from Richard Mayon-White. Entry is £2, including tea and cake. All welcome.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is a major priority in our Benefice as we work together to keep everyone in our community safe. It is often said safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, thank you for the part you play. If you are concerned about a person’s or activity’s safety in our community, please contact our Parish Safeguarding Officers (details below) or the Diocesan Safeguarding Team (details below). We are greatly helped by many volunteers, thank you for your time, including for completing required DBS checks, safeguarding training and safer recruitment forms.
St Margaret’s Church PSO Becca Rose: safeguarding@stmargaretsoxford.org
St Giles Church PSO Lorraine Desai: safeguarding@st-giles-church.org
Diocesan Team 01865 208 295 safeguardingreferrals@oxford.anglican.org
Out-of-hours: Thirtyone:eight on 0303 003 1111 for confidential advice, guidance and support.