Netherfield

Netherfield Church - Last Saturday was the St Nicholas Fair in the church. The Brunch with Santa certainly drew in the children and accompanying parents to enjoy their breakfast and meet Santa. Over thirty children made the visit, received their gift and then enjoyed the rest of the fair. The lucky dip was very popular with them while parents checked out all the stalls for possible gifts to give at Christmas. There were hand-made cards, both by locals and all the way from Rwanda – plus many other amazing craft items made by the people from a village regularly visited by David and Sally Chaplin, in Rwanda. The stall was to raise funds to enable this craft business to flourish and give these struggling people a purpose and thus, a better life. A stall of wooden crafted items, hand-made gifts, decorations and festive produce plus other locally produced goods, like apple juice from apples collected by Netherfield School and duly processed and bottled for sale by the PTA on their stall. The church was really busy and buzzing throughout the morning and it is absolutely delightful to see so many families enjoying themselves and so many excited children! There are always many thank you’s for an event like this as it takes a lot of work to get it together so to all who helped prepare the church, provided goods for all the stalls and then run them, do all the shopping, cook all the bacon and make all the teas and coffees – thank you. To those who rapidly returned the church to its normal state and cleaned up – thank you. To all those who came and supported us and to Emma Kersey for promoting it at Netherfield School so well, people came from Bexhill and Hastings – thank you. And of course to Father Christmas for turning up as the prize attraction. A brilliant morning achieving the festive cheer and togetherness we aim at. We don’t do this event as a fund raiser, however, it is great news when you do make a profit of over £300.

The Visitation by the Bishop of Chichester, the Right Reverend Dr. Martin Warner to our benefice went very well. He led the service at St. John the Baptist and preached on the multiple themes of safeguarding, growth and giving. A light lunch followed where the Bishop met with the congregation and no doubt got a flavour of our three parishes. He then had a brief meeting with the churchwardens before setting off to visit Mountfield and Brightling churches which concluded the Visitation. Again thanks are due to those who provided the lunch and looked after the social aspect of the visit.

Now an up-date on the services in the run up to Christmas. Today, Friday December 13 at 5 pm is the Licensing of our new Priest in Charge, the Reverend Ann-Marie Crosse. This is a Eucharist to include the Licensing and will be conducted by The Right Reverend Dr. Laurie Green. Refreshments will be provided following the service. Sunday December 15 at 10 am is a United Holy Communion at Mountfield and on Wednesday December 18 at 10 am is Netherfield School’s Carol Service at Netherfield. On Sunday December 22 there will be a Holy Communion at 8 am and a Carol Service at 3.30 pm both at Mountfield. On Christmas Eve, Tuesday December 24 at 5.30 pm we have our Crib Service at Netherfield, this being a service by the children of our village for the children. A superb start to the Christmas celebrations for families, in re-affirming the true meaning of Christmas. On Christmas Day at 10 am Holy Communion will be celebrated at Netherfield. The final Sunday of 2013 will be a service at Mountfield. Paul Smith, Churchwarden.

Netherfield Village Hall bookings - Marrissa Stepanek 01424 838106, or call in at the village shop.

WHITE HART - There are various groups meeting throughout the month including Boules, The Rover group, The Harley Davidson group, T.R.Cars and The Breakaway Club, if you would like to know more about any of the dates and times or the darts and football teams please give Sean a ring on 01424 838382. White Hart Boules Pitch. The pieste is free to use, any clubs please feel free to come and use the pieste, FOC any time except match days which are Saturday afternoons throughout the season. We have a group of ladies and Gents that play amongst themselves Monday Lunchtimes. Please all check our websites for updates of up coming events www.whitehartnetherfield.com. On Thursday January 16 there will be a Quiz Night in aid of Netherfield Parish Church, the charge is £2.50 per person with a maximum of 6 players per team. Please come along and help raise money for a worthy cause. Food is served from 6pm with the special being sausage, chips & peas or Scampi & chips for only £6.00

On Monday December 2 the ladies darts team played the first leg of the knock out this is the semi final and they beat White Hart Wadhurst 6-5.

On Thursday December 5 White Hart A played the White Hart B, this match was in the knock out and the A team won 9 - 4 this was great night and both teams enjoyed a lot of friendly banter!

THE MOBILE LIBRARY will be outside the shop from 11.50 – 12.10 on Friday December 20.

To include your event or local Netherfield news please e mail me [email protected]