This weekend we celebrate a Baptism. The second at St Catherine’s this year, the third for this particular family, my first in Germany.
The furniture!! In any ‘proper’ church the font is next to the door, be that at the west end or often the north side porch. More modern re-ordering has moved fonts all over the place for all sorts of good and silly reasons. Some have mobile fonts – as does St Catherine’s, though here moving the font to the door would mean barring our disabled access, which is a No.
Furniture and where it is placed has theological significance, and theology is as subject to fashion as anything else in our world. So I’m winding the clock back for the purposes of these musings……
The font near the door, marking the entrance into the Christian faith. The aisle from the font (at the door) to the Altar, is in some churches very long and includes steps – the longer the better and the more steps the better in my view (as I don’t yet have mobility issues).
That aisle and its steps are a symbol of our pilgrimage, which is often long, and even more often an uphill struggle. It is for some of the time made alone, other times walked with others, we follow others and others follow us in their turn and when we get frail someone will hold us by the arm. We might look sideways or down, but eventually the altar and often very ornate or elaborate or striking altar windows and / or richly woven altar frontals will draw our eyes back to our goal. Such a rich metaphor for life, and for the life of faith.
Every baptism service invites all of us to reflect where we are on that pilgrimage and how we are accompanying others and helping others on theirs. We look backwards (literally) to where it all began and forward to where we are headed, and we give thanks, for the journey, for those who accompany us, and for the abiding presence and guiding of God.
– A reminder to parents that the children are invited to bring their baptism candle to church with them, if they have one, this Sunday so they can share in the action. There will be a Sunday School class for pre-school children, but school children are invited to take part in the whole service.
Data Protection Update
On Sunday the Church Council approved our updated Data & Privacy Statement Over the coming weeks we will be asking you to complete updated consent forms to allow us to use your contact details and photos for church purposes. You can download a Consent_Form form and complete it at home or collect one in church. Please return forms to Frances or Kara. You can include all your families data on one form, but each family member over 16 years of age should sign the bottom of the form themselves.
Reminder: To conform with the new Data Protection legislation, please ensure that you have destroyed any old copies of the Church Directory that may still be lurking somewhere in your possession.
Our Annual Book Sale will take place on Saturday, June 16th, 10:00 to 16:00 at the church and Anglican Centre.
As always, we need lots of helpers to make it all run smoothly: we need people to help set out the books attractively on Friday evening (approx. 18:00 to 21:00), and on Saturday, we need friendly sales assistants and cashiers to turn St. Catherine’s into an amazing book store! We’ll try to organize shifts, starting at about 09:00… There will also be a baked goods sale, organized by Naomi, for which we need lots of luscious home-baked goodies – so if you’re a kitchen god or goddess, get busy! Naomi would also welcome some support in cutting cake and pouring tea on the day. Meanwhile, Gary will be organizing a flea market at the Anglican Centre. Finally, when all is over at 16:00, we will need a team to pack the left-overs away again, for next year… If you would like to be a part of this big fund-raising event, get in touch with Susanna Thielecke (booksale@st-catherines-stuttgart.de) or Naomi.
Even if you can’t help on the day, you can assist us in getting the word out – tell all your friends, or take some flyers from the back of church and distribute them! And finally – make sure you put a note in your diary to come and shop yourself!
St. Catherine’s Ladies’ Evening Group
Our June LEGS meeting will take place on Monday 11th June from 19:00 at Il Pomodoro on Wilhelmsplatz. New faces are always welcome.
Since the venue is often busy can you, if possible, please let Frances know if you are planning to join us by 4th June so we can be sure of booking enough seats. Yes/No/Maybe would be good 🙂 legs@stcatherines-stuttgart.de
