2025 Chichester Diocesan Rural ConferenceThe Conference this year is being held on Tuesday 14th October 2025 at  Ashburnham Place, near Battle. The theme this year is Celebrating Faith in the Countryside.  As well as a Keynote Address, they are planning presentations / workshops / discussion groups on the following (subject to change):
1. Celebrating Agricultural/Seasonal Services2. Celebrating Forest Church
3. Celebrating Education/ Local Schools
4. Celebrating our Church Buildings/Heritage
5. Celebrating Children & Young Families
6. Celebrating VocationsTo book tickets, please click here.

Fr John Celebrates 35 yearsOn 29th June we celebrated with Fr John as he marked his 35th anniversary as an ordained priest.  We raised a glass of Fizz in The Belmont Centre and enjoyed a piece of home made coffee and walnut cake.  Here's to more years to come.

Authorised Lay Ministry
The Authorised Lay Ministry (ALM) training program in the Diocese of Chichester provides flexible, skills-based training for lay people called to serve in their local church. ALMs play a vital role in the public ministry of the Church, supporting parish life through various ministries. The program offers a range of electives, including pastoral care, mission, chaplaincy, worship & liturgy, preaching, and more.

To see the Diocese of Chichester Authorised Lay Ministry training prospectus for 2025/26, please click here.

What’s in our hands? Rural mission learning review
This report was commissioned by the Church of England’s Vision and Strategy Team, and compiled by Dr Richard Tiplady from Brendan Research. A review of six completed evaluation reports and interviews with four ongoing projects were used to achieve this.
Key learning from these reports was identified in the following areas:

• Thematic areas of focus for a learning community
• The strategic design of projects that focus on making disciples in rural areas
• Revitalisation or growth in rural parishes and fresh expressions of church

Choral Evensong
It was a pleasure to see some 40 come and be part of the Festival Choral Evensong on Sunday 22nd June at Christ Church, Fairwarp where our Choir led the service with the Archdeacon of Brighton & Lewes. It was a beautiful service with some lovely music from our Choir. 
If you haven't had a chance to attend our Evensong service we encourage you to come.  It's a lovely service to reflect in prayer and sing or listen to the music.  Our next Choral Evensong will be on Sunday 13th July will take place at Holy Cross Church at 5.30pm where our Choir from Holy Cross will lead the service.

Old Copies of The Link
Do you have any old copies of our Parish Magazine "The Link" that were printed before 1992?  If you do have any old copies we would love to borrow them so that we can scan a copy to include on our website.  If you can bring them to church and either pass to Simon Tuck or to Dee, they will be returned once scanned. Thank you.

Confirmation
Holy Cross will be having a Confirmation in the Deanery later this year (Sunday 5th October 2025 at 5 p.m.) We will have both adult and children’s preparation sessions which are great fun! Please let contact Fr John if you are interested and we will get some dates sorted. The adult sessions are open to everyone – come and have an introductory/refresher course!

Our Nappy & Supplies support for Ukraine
A big thank you to everyone who has continued to donate nappies and supplies for the orphanage in Ukraine.  Please watch the update video below that Andrew Wooler posted on YouTube recently.  We ask if you can continue to provide any packs of nappies, (large sizes please) as well as boxes of washing powder.  These can be given to Dee Johnson or left at the back of Holy Cross Church.

New GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) forms
We are inviting anyone who did not complete one earlier this year, along with fairly new people to fill one out (they are available at the back of the Church or on the website here).  Basically, this lets us know what we can contact you about, and how. Please return any forms to Gillian Youngman our Data Protection Officer or put in The Belmont Centre letterbox. Anyone we do not hear from who was on the old list will have their information deleted shortly. Thank you.

Electoral Roll
The 2025 electoral roll process for every parish in the country started in March this year, in preparation for our APCM which was held on Tuesday, 13th May 2025. You are still invited to complete the forms.  For further information on the Electoral  Roll, please click here.

Youth Pilgrimage in Walsingham
On Sunday 8th June, Poppy and Esther, two of our very loyal Junior Church and Youth Choir girls, held their annual cake sale after the Open Doors Service, to help raise funds to attend the Youth Pilgrimage in Walsingham this summer! A big thank you to everyone who bought cakes.  If you would like to donate to this great opportunity for Poppy and Esther, you can do so online.  Please click here.

170 Years of Holy Cross School
Holy Cross Church of England School, Uckfield, closed at the end of the Christmas term in 2023, having served the children in the town for c. 170 years.  To commemorate this event, Bridge Cottage and a group of former staff, parents and governors at the school put together an exhibition in early 2024 showing the life of the school. Following on from the exhibition, a new Booklet has been produced to Celebrate those 170 Years.  This was launched at the Holy Cross Spring Festival in May 2025 and can now be purchased for £3 from the Uckfield Heritage Charity Shop or from Bridge Cottage.