Larkfield and East Malling
Methodist Church

Called to Love and Praise

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Updated 16/10/21

Welcome Back!

Naomi’s maternity leave finished on 12th October. Welcome back Naomi! We look forward to your ministry once again. Thank You Bonnie-Bell for stepping into the hot seat.

Expressions Worship Dance

Expressions continues to be on Zoom on a Monday afternoon please contact Sylvia for precise details and times.

The next Expressions Dance in Person will be on Monday 1st November 1.30 – 3.30 pm

See Activities>Expressions page for latest, full details.

Knitting and Craft Group

Tuesday 2.00 – 3.30 in the church sanctuary as a trial. See Activities/Craft

Chuckles Fellowship Group

Chuckles recommenced on Thursday, 14th October from 2-3.30pm in the church hall. Please let me know if you are planning to join us. cvmalins@gmail.com

Welcome

We are a friendly, welcoming Church, of all ages with a membership of around 80, and many more in our wider Church family.

Our Church family comes mainly from the villages of Larkfield, East and West Malling, Kings Hill, Addington, Leybourne, Ditton and Aylesford, all of which are just west of the County town of Maidstone in Kent.

We enjoy worship in a variety of styles from traditional to modern, and our congregations usually include a wide variety of ages, from toddlers to octogenarians.

See our Services page for full details of in-person and on-line services and opportunities for worship.

There are a large number of regular groups and activities meeting on Zoom during lockdown (see activities page).

Girls Brigade and Boys Brigade are term-time only.

Letter from Bonnie-Belle

11 October 2021

Dear Tonbridge Road, Larkfield, Eccles, and Burham congregations,

Tomorrow marks the day when Naomi returns from her maternity leave and I hand back the files and calendars and responsibilities I’ve tried to cover for the past 10 months. It’s been quite an adventure – especially as none of us had quite imagined we’d still be dealing with the repercussions of the COVID pandemic towards the end of 2021!

Thank you for your patience with me over these past 10 months. Though our in-person meetings and services have been extremely rare, our zoom meetings have got us through quite a bit, and I feel I know many of you and the situations in your congregations better now than I did before. It’s been interesting to see how each church has individually handled its ‘virtual’ decision-making: we have carried out countless Risk Assessments (all different!), pondered how to do Sunday worship in new ways, elected/appointed new officers, and three of the four churches have had Quinquenniels – while the fourth continues to seek a solution to a leaning boundary wall. With regard to pastoral care, I am indeed grateful to so many of you for going the extra mile to care for each other when I simply couldn’t, due to the workload and travel/ visitation restrictions.

Now that Naomi is returning, there will be more opportunities for you to discuss with her various new connexional guidance about ‘small churches’ and same-sex marriage registration and matters of equality and diversity – and consultations about the circuit Mission Strategy questionnaire and getting new internet connections installed. Each church will be thinking again about its outreach, some particularly with children and young people and others with new housing developments. You will also be enjoying having Naomi with you in her new status as Ordained Presbyter – authorized to administer Holy Communion!

Of course, during the next few months of Naomi’s return, we all know she’ll have additional responsibilities at home as Rachel’s mother and won’t be able to shower all her considerable energy just on her churches. The Circuit is also potentially facing an even greater shortage of ministerial staff from September 2022, so Naomi, along with all the other ministers, may be asked to take on additional circuit responsibilities. Perhaps the lessons of the past 10 months will serve us well as we continue to face staffing challenges.

Thank you again for welcoming me into your congregations and for your patience with me as I sometimes did things differently than what you’d come to expect. I will continue to uphold you and your congregations in prayer and look forward to the opportunities to work and worship and fellowship with you again in the future.

Yours in the Spirit, Bonni-Belle

Who are you?

In 2020 we had 544 visits from 326 visitors, spending an average of 7 minutes and 5 seconds.

One hundred and eighty-eight people found us by by entering the web address directly, 130 came via Google.com with another 109 from google's uk site, 43 came from our previous website and 26 came from North Kent Methodist website.

Eighty-eight percent are new visitors and 12% are returning visitors.

One-hundred and eighty visitors used desktop computers, 125 used mobiles and 22 used tablets.

Welcome to visitors from around the world! In 2020 visitors to our website came from Canada, USA, Barbados, Australia, China, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Hungary, Luxembourg, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and many parts of England from Newcastle and Manchester down to Bath and Southampton

- Welcome everyone.