4  February  United service at St Blaise 11.00am, no service at Milton Methodist

11 February   Rev Frances Blood

18 February   Rev Bruce Thompson

25 February   Dr Barbara Sexton

 Services start at 10.30am and we would be pleased to welcome you to any of our services

 Christmas activities

We pack up shoeboxes as Christmas presents for the poorest elderly people in Eastern Europe, including the Ukraine. The boxes include essential things like warm socks, gloves and scarves, toothpaste and then treats such as sweets and chocolate. It is surprising how many things fit into a fairly standard shoebox! We were pleased to send 15 shoe boxes via Link to Hope.

We had a Christmas coffee morning to raise funds for 'Ray of Vision' the charity for blind women and their children that we support in Zimbabwe and were pleased to send £500 to cheer on their Christmas.

Just after Christmas we held a celebration tea, laying up the tables with our best embroidered table cloths and bone china tea sets. On that occasion we were pleased to collect donations for Langley House Trust, a charity that supports people coming out of prison, and we were pleased to send them £500.

 Lunch club, next lunch Tuesday 6 February, 12.15 for 12.30

We will prepare and serve a home prepared meal, with meat from Bob the Butcher in Harwell. The lunch with two courses and cups of tea or coffee, costs £4/person. If you would like to join us, please book a lunch through Geoff Caudle ( 01235 531409) or Mary Hancock (01235 848336)  

 Knit and natter, Tuesday 27 February, 10-12 noon

Bring your knitting and come for a chat, session £2 including refreshments.

 Bible Study, alternate Thursdays, next one 1 February, 11-12.30.

This term we are following a Methodist publication 'Come as you are' Sessions are organised by Rev Frances Blood. If you would like to join us please contact Geoff Caudle or Mary Hancock ( phone nos above)  

1                                 Rev Bruce Thompson, Harvest celebration

8                                 Rev Keith Underhill

15                             Mrs Tabitha Griffiths

22                             Rev Bruce Thompson, United service with St Blaise, Communion

29                             Rev Frances Blood

 Our services start at 10.30am. We are always pleased to welcome visitors.

 Church Anniversary 17 September, 70 years in the present building.

It was lovely to welcome Rev Katherine Pickering back to lead our 70th Anniversary celebration. We enjoyed a happy afternoon with a full church and a tea, served up emulating the 1950s style on long tables. We've started putting together an information sheet about the chapel history and its effects; if you remember any stories about the chapel we'd be very pleased if you were able to make a written record which we can put in our folder of memories. Some of our lunch club customers have family who worked on the building of the chapel and a number of the people attending the event had been at the opening in 1953

 Harvest Festival 1 October

We will be decorating the church on Saturday morning, 30 September. Gifts of flowers, fruit or vegetables to decorate the church would be very welcome; it's lovely to have an abundance of things on display, a favourite time for many people with the lovely smells of onions and all manner of vegetables mingling with the normal church smell. We will serve a lunch on Sunday, ham and salads with a choice of puddings, no need to book, and no charge but a collection will be made for Langley House Trust. After the harvest services we plan to take the food gifts to Matilda House in Cowley, a shelter for homeless women.  

 Harvest Lunch Club, Tuesday 3 October, 12.15 for 12.30pm

We'll serve a Harvest lunch on Tuesday, Gammon and cauliflower cheese, followed by blackberry and apple crumble and we would be pleased to welcome you to eat with us. Lunches cost £4/person ( 2 courses and cups of tea or coffee) payable on the day. The lunches need to be prebooked so that we get the number of meals prepared about right, so please ring Geoff Caudle ( 01235 531409) or Mary Hancock (01235 848336) a few days before the lunch if you would like to join us. After the lunch, at 2.00pm, we will have a short harvest service, led by Rev Bruce Thompson, and will sing a few harvest hymns. Even if you cannot get to the lunch, you would be most welcome to join us for the Harvest celebration at 2.00pm.

 Shoe box appeal

We are getting the shoe boxes organised to go to Romania and other eastern bloc countries through the charity 'LInk'. As ever we plan to send nice full shoeboxes, intended for elderly people, with useful things (socks, gloves, scarves, soap, toothpaste, wind up torches etc) made more exciting by the inclusion of sweets and chocolate. We will need to pack them in the first few days of November for despatch via Newbury around 3/4 November so October is our main month for collecting things we can send.

 Bible study, alternate Thursdays starting Thursday 28 September from 11.00am

Rev Frances Blood leads a bible study on alternate weeks in term time. Over the next few weeks we will be considering the Parables. A group of about 9-10 people gather in the Sunday school room and we enjoy exploring aspects of the bible stories together.

 Knit and natter, fourth Tuesday, Silk painting workshop in October

 Mary Day is returning on 24 October to lead another silk painting workshop at Milton. We are delighted that she is returning as we have had many happy sessions with her. Tea and coffee will be served from 9.30am, with a start on the silk painting at 10.00am. The course fee of £9 includes all materials and a light soup lunch at the end of the workshop. A few spaces are available so if you would like to join us please ring Mary Hancock ( 01235 848336) to book a place.

 Felting workshop Tuesday 21 November with Jane from Oxfordshire art and felting.

This is a new venture for us and we are looking forward to making a flock of sheep in time for Christmas! We will serve tea and coffee from 9.30am with the workshop starting from 10.00am. Following our usual pattern, we will serve a light soup lunch at the end of the workshop session. Cost of workshop £17/person to include all materials and refreshments and there are a few spaces available. Please ring Mary Hancock (01235 848336) if you would like to join us.

3  September Rev Bruce Thompson, Celebration of Holy Communion

10 September Rev Frances Blood  

17 September Rev Katherine Pickering, Chapel anniversary, 3.00pm, 4.30pm tea

24 September Dr Barbara Sexton, United with St Blaise

1 October       Rev Bruce Thompson, Harvest Festival

 Our services start at 10.30am, except the Chapel anniversary service which will start at 3.00pm. We'd be delighted to see you at any of the services, but particularly at the Chapel Anniversary celebrating 70 years in our current building. The 3 pm service will be followed at 4.30pm by a tea to which everyone with any links to the chapel is invited. We are hoping to build up a record of memories of the chapel and the chapel people, so if you have any memories of activities at the chapel we would be very pleased to get you to fill in one of our memory sheets.

 Rev Bruce Thompson is arriving in Didcot this September and is our newly appointed minister. We are very pleased to welcome him and his wife Karen.

 Lunch Club, next lunch Tuesday 5 September 12.15 for 12.30pm.  As usual we plan to serve a two-course home prepared lunch for £4/person. If you would like to book a lunch please phone Geoff Caudle ( 01235 531409) or Mary Hanocck ( 01235 848336)

 Knit and Natter  Tuesday 26 September 10- 12 noon.  Come along for a chat and bring a bit of knitting. Refreshments included in the Charge of £2/person.

 Our New Community Garden   Have you seen our garden at the back of the chapel? We are starting to convert the area that was a tangle of brambles to a garden, and hope to plan trees this Autumn, and perhaps grow soft fruit, as part of an effort to live more sustainability. Would you like to be involved in the development of the garden? We plan to invite anyone interested to come and get involved in how we might best move it forward.

 Searching for Milton History Society!  Does anyone remember any sort of history society in Milton? We are finding it very difficult to trace records of the old tin tabernacle, the previous Methodist church that sat on the site immediately north of our Chapel; we'd like to find out exactly when and how it started if we can. If anyone remembers any stories about the building, we'd be pleased to hear from you.

 Silk Painting with Mary Day Tuesday 24 October 10.00am start.  We have invited Mary Day back for another session of silk painting as we have so much enjoyed her. We'll serve cups of tea and coffee before we start at 10.00am and will serve a light lunch when we finish. The charge for this workshop and refreshments will be £9/person and we will have space to welcome a few extra people from round the village- please contact Mary Hancock (01235 848336) if you would like to join us

July       

 2             Mrs Barbara Kershaw

9             Mrs Daphne Savage

16           Rev Frances Blood, service of Holy Communion

23          United service at St Blaise, no service at Milton Methodist

30         Mr Pater Hemmings

August

6             Miss Elizabeth Wood

13         Dr Barara Sexton

20         Rev Frances Blood, service of Holy Communion

27         United service at St Blaise, no service at Milton Methodist

 Our services start at 10.30 am, and continue for about an hour. We like to welcome visitors. We are pleased to be sharing services with St Blaise services; those services start at 11.00am.

In September we shall be celebrating 70 years since the brick built chapel we now use was opened. It replaced the tin tabernacle which was next door (there is now a house on the site) A special service and tea for the afternoon of Sunday 17 September is planned, invited guest preacher Rev Katherine Pickering, and we will be particularly pleased to see anyone who has attended the church down the years.

 Cream teas for Christian Aid, Sunday 2 July

Enjoy one of our home made teas, either at the church or delivered to your house. All takings for Christian Aid, teas £5 to include scones, homemade jam, cream, and a generous piece of cake.

Please see our poster below describing the event in detail. 3-5 pm

 Lunch club, Tuesdays 4 July and 1 August, 12 noon for 12.30

Come and enjoy a home prepared lunch, two courses and cups of tea or coffee, £4. Lunches must be booked a few days in advance: ring Mary Hancock (01235 848336) or Geoff Caudle ( 01235 531409)

 Knit and Natter, Tuesdays 25 July and 22 August, 10-12 noon

Enjoy a chat and some knitting on a Tuesday morning. £2 to include refreshments.

 Mary Hancock

Services in May

7 May  Mrs Tabitha Griffiths

14 May Rev John Anderson, Holy Communion

21 May Mrs Daphne Savage

28 May Dr Barbara Sexton

Services start at 10.30am and generally are of about an hour duration. We would be pleased to welcome you to any of our services.

On Palm Sunday we tried a new expression of worship, a cafe church with hot cross buns and coffee and craft activities as well as a dramatised reading of Palm Sunday story.

This seemed to work very well, except for the fact that more people attended than we had expected ( a good problem!) so we had to spend a few minutes at the beginning rearranging the furniture.

We plan to repeat this style of worship on the 25 June, holding the service outside with a band playing the music.

On Easter Sunday Rev Jocelyn Bennett led her last service with us. We were pleased to present her with a present from our congregation, and hope life goes well for her over the coming months as she enjoys her sabbatical and then settles into her new position at Bicester.

Lunch club Tuesday 2 May, 12.00 for 12.30 meal

The lunch club will be celebrating the coronation in May- we are providing everyone with crowns to get into the spirit of the celebration! We'll serve meringues decorated like union jack flags for pudding! All lunches (£4/person) must be booked in advance by ringing Geoff Caudle ( Abingdon 530409) of Mary Hancock ( Abingdon 848336)

Knit and natter, Tuesday 23 May, 10 -12 noon

Join us for a chat, perhaps manage a bit of knitting, enjoy some of our home made refreshments, £2 for the morning

Community garden

You may have noticed that we are working hard to convert the area to the south of our site to a garden- we hope to plant trees, traditional fruit trees and bushes. The canes indicate the tree locations in our design prepared by Steve Blood. Tree planting will take place next autumn but we hope to start one or two beds this spring.

Delivered Cream Teas for Christian Aid, Sunday 18 June, from 2.00pm

We plan to deliver Cream Teas for Christian AId on Sunday 18 June, delivering from 2.00pm. Teas, which cost £5 each, will comprise two homemade scones, jam, cream and a piece of homemade cake. Teas must be booked by Sunday 11 June, and can be paid in advance, or the cash handed over when the tea is delivered. Please book your tea by contacting Geoff Caudle ( 01235 531409) or Mary Hancock ( imhancock@gamil.com)