8:30am (Holy Communion).

10:00am (All Age service).

6:30pm (Evening worship).

• Give thanks for Peter and Ness Kay and pray for them as they seek their curate post
• Give thanks for those that God has called to ordained and licensed ministry and pray for others from the congregation to be prompted by God to serve in this way.
• Pray for the Horlock family, that they would settle quickly into their new home, church and schools.
• Pray for the Alpha Course, starting Wednesday 15th September and for those that you can invite to this course.
• Pray for teachers you know as they start the long autumn term, and for children of your neighbours as they start a new school year.
• Pray for Castle Lower School and Newnham Middle School, and for improving relations with them and Christ Church.
• Pray for any you know who are seeking employment, that it would come speedily
• Pray for those you know whose marriages are under stress, that they will seek the Lord's strength to sort out their problems.
• Pray for the men in the San Jose mine, Chile, that God would encourage them and that a speedy rescue is effected promptly.
• Pray for Dave Hodgson, Mayor of Bedford, and the Revd Charles Royden, Deputy Mayor of Bedford, that they would make wise decisions for the benefit of all the people of the Borough Council.
• Pray for the Christian witness at the Borough Council to be enriched and fruitful for God's Kingdom amongst us.
• Pray for God's healing touch on Margaret Archer (Christine Snape's mother), Stanley and Dorothy Pullinger, Kathleen Wylde (Fiona Betteley's mother) and others personally known to you who are in need at this time.

Click here for a list of the events happening at Christ Church over the coming months.

Revd Richard Hibbert - Vicar.

Alex Mnatzaganian - Associate Minister of Young Peoples Work

Verity Townsend - Youth work assistant

Sherilyn Leck - Secretary.

John Betteley - Parish Manager.

Richard comes from Northwood (NW London) and began working life as a shipbroker in the City of London. He started as office boy and then moved into the chartering department, being responsible for negotiating with shipowners on behalf of overseas clients. In his late 20s, he felt God calling him to the ordained ministry, and after 2 years of saying no to God, finally agreed. He trained at Trinity College, Bristol, and served his first curacy at St. Mary's, Luton. He has been Vicar of Christ Church since July, 2000, Assistant Rural Dean of Bedford since 2005 and a member of General Synod since 2005. He is married to Sarah and they have one daughter.

I'm Alex. My wife Nadine and I love being here with our children Jack(12) and Chloe (16). (Jade, Phoebe and Velvet extend the family in the animal direction - dog and two cats!). We've lived in many places through working with churches in London, Nigeria and Bristol, but as the one place we've lived longest Bedford feels like home. Christ Church has also become family for us, and I'm so excited to be joining the team working with our wonderful young people. By training I'm an Electrical Engineer, but while I do like technical things (fave magazine: "New Scientist") my deeper leanings are a bit more artsy!  I've always loved music, and I really enjoy playing and writing and being part of the worship team at Christ Church.

I'm Verity, I'm originally from Silsoe just outside Luton so not far from Bedford, but have spent 3 years in Birmingham while at University there.  While I was there I studied Sport, P.E and Community Studies which is where most of my interests lie. I play most sports but my main one is hockey, and for a while I went out to Ghana to coach football. Since then I have been away travelling a chunk of the world before coming back to Bedford and doing youth work for church and sports coaching in some local schools.

Sherilyn is a farmer's daughter from the Cambridgeshire village of Spaldwick.  Educated in Bedford, she later trained as a secretary and worked for the Nature Conservancy Council before her marriage.  She and her husband Colin moved to Bedford where she worked for a firm of accountants (in spite of a dislike for figures) before giving up work to raise her now grown up family.  Sherilyn was PCC secretary for 3 years and has been the church secretary since 1996.  Leisure interests include reading, cinema, walking and gardening.  Rumours of being partial to chocolate have not been denied.

John was born in Staffordshire, but brought up in Kent.  He originally trained as an analytical chemist having worked for three major companies over a period of 25 years.  He has been involved in safety testing of many pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals and has worked on measuring pesicide residues in crops.  Then after a further 3 years working in the Environment Agency he joined the team at Christ Church in April 2007.  His main claim to fame is being the South Midlands Short Course Orienteering Champion in 1996 and his current main leisure interest is family history research.

Services (Sunday at 8:30am, 10:00am and 6:30pm with crèche and young people's groups at the 10:00am service)

"Messy" Church

Alpha courses (new course to start on 15th September 2010 at Russell Park Baptist Church)

Home study groups (day or evening)

Young people's groups for various age ranges up to 18+

Morning Out (mum's and toddler group on Friday mornings)

Lunch Club (2^nd and 4^th Tuesday each month)

Men's social night (4^th Thursday each month)

Various social events as advertised through the year

A number of other groups make use of the church halls for meetings etc.  These include:-

Pre School           Monday - Wednesday mornings and Thursday till 3:00pm

Ballet and dance classes         Monday evenings

Line dancing            Monday afternoon and Tuesday evenings

Brownies                 Tuesday evenings

Country dancing    Wednesday afternoons

Knitting group        Wednesday afternoons

Juggling group        Thursday evening

Further details about all the above groups and events can be obtained from the church office (telephone 01234 327150 or e-mail parish.manager[at]christchurchbedford.org.uk)

www.christchurchbedford.org.uk

Supper - We start by eating a light meal together which helps people to get to know each other.

Talk - This is an opportunity to hear someone speak on a different aspect of the Christian faith each week.

Coffee & Small groups - After each talk, we have coffee and the group breaks into smaller groups.

This provides an opportunity to:

• listen to and learn from others, and
• ask questions - no question is too simple or too hostile.

The Alpha Course is low key, friendly and fun. It's supported by all the main Christian denominations and more than 2 million people worldwide have found it a worthwhile experience. To find out what others say about the course visit http://alphacourse.org/welcome/whatotherssay/index.htm

The next Alpha course will commence on 15th September 2010 at 7:30pm at Russell Park Baptist Church.

Telephone 01234 327150 or e-mail  parish.manager[at]christchurchbedford.org.uk for further information.