How many books are there in the Old Testament?

Who wrote the Acts of the Apostles?

Why isn’t the Apocrypha included in most Bibles?

During the summer, the whole Church at St. George’s has been worshipping together on Sunday mornings at 10.00am. Children and leaders from the Sunday School have been in Church rather than having their own teaching in the Hall. The worship has followed a theme, this year being The Bible, and each week has seen a different section of The Bible being looked at in some detail. Over the five weeks St. George’s has studied:

The Gospels

The Epistles

The Acts of the Apostles

The Old Testament

The Apocrypha

When you go into the Church now you’ll see the names of all the books of the Bible written up around the walls together with some of the visual aids which were used. The reason for following this theme is that shortly the Bishop of Portsmouth is coming to St. George’s Church to preside at a Confirmation Service. Around ten children and adults from Waterlooville, and some from other local parishes too, will be Confirmed on Sunday October 25th and this summer’s theme has been an introduction to the Confirmation preparation course which starts at the end of September. If you are interested in being Confirmed but haven’t yet signed onto the course, please get in touch with me as soon as possible.

So, what are the answers to those questions at the top?  There are 39 books in the Old Testament and Acts was written by St. Luke as part 2 of his Gospel.  The Apocrypha isn’t in English Bibles as there is some doubt whether the books are genuine or not.  They have only been discovered in Greek whereas the Old Testament books have all been found in Hebrew. Roman Catholic and Orthodox bibles do include the books however, so we’re very much in the minority.  The Apocrypha can be bought separately and in a lot of modern translations the books are now included.

Harvest Thanksgiving on 4th October
8.00am Said Eucharist
10.00am THE PARISH EUCHARIST
2.30pm Harvest Evensong

On this Sunday St. George's Church will be collecting food, washing and cleaning materials for the Waterlooville Food Bank. Please bring your gifts to the Church on the Sunday morning. Food must be non-perishable and within sell-by dates please.
This is our new organist, Rod Starr's first Sunday and we will welcome him at a reception before the Harvest Lunch. Lunch is a "bring and share" meal, but please bring your own drink. There'll be games, quizzes and activities for the children too.

Fr Mike

Autumn 2015

From the Parish Priest