C.E. Children's Society

In spite of "the freeze" hearts are still warm in Hartlip and I am pleased to say that the subscriptions collected from the boxes for the Society amounted to £13 8s. 6d. Thank you.

E.M.W.

Churchyard Fund

Envelopes will be left at your home in the next few weeks to give you an opportunity to contribute to the upkeep of the churchyard. Please be generous, as last year the grass grew very quickly, so we had to spend £3 more than we collected. We do get considerable help from former residents and relatives of those buried here, but need - just once a year - help from you.

A.G.W.

Easter Offering

The churchwardens would like to draw the attention of all parishioners to the custom of giving the offerings on Easter Day to the Vicar. It is possible that some members of the Church will be out of the parish on that day but would like to make some contribution. If so, would they please hand it in an envelope to one of the churchwardens before Easter Day. Collections will be taken during the services on that day.

W.C.M., A.L.

THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH

Are you a Four-Wheeler? Four-Wheelers are people who go to church in a pram to be christened, in a car to be married, and in a hearse to be buried. Three visits in a lifetime! What good do you think can come from treating God like that? To go to church at all is a recognition of his existence; but to acknowledge God three times in a possible seventy years - and on two occasions out of the three to have no credit for attendance - seems almost worse than ignoring him altogether. Lent and Holy Week ought to give a jolt to such misguided complacency, for in the light which flows from the Cross of Calvary, our sinfulness, unworthiness and need are exposed for all to see. And Christ's death on that Cross is the measure of God's love towards mankind. Inestimable, unchanging, eternal love. So, if you think three - or even thirty-three - visits to church in a life-time is an adequate response to this wondrous love of God, I urge you to think again. One man who thought this matter through exclaimed

" Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."

B.A.