St Laurence Church Hawkhurst Kent

Mother's Union
Mothers' Union is an international Christian membership charity of 4 million members living in 83 countries, who share one heartfelt vision - to bring about a world where God's love is shown through loving, respectful and flourishing relationships. At St Laurence our local branch meets once a month and our meetings vary between afternoon bring and share lunch meetings, evening meetings which are open to non members and also Saturday morning breakfast meetings at a local pub.  We join in Corporate Communion on the 1st Friday of every month at the 9.30am Service at St Laurence Church.  Every Mothers' Union member is asked to stop wherever they are, once a day at mid-day to join in Midday Prayers. We are a small branch of 16 members.  More information can be obtained by emailing sandradreyermu@gmail.com  You can read more about the work of the Mothers' Union on the National Website http://www.themothersunion.org/ or the Diocesan Website http://www.canterburydiocesemu.org.uk/

Fellowship Groups

If the depths of relationships and our commitment to one another are so important to God, then small groups must also be important as it is only in small groups that close relationships can develop. During the first two centuries of the Christian era, church buildings did not exist, so it was necessary for people to meet in their homes. It is significant that the earliest church building discovered by archaeologists is one recently discovered in the ancient Roman port of Aila, now within the modern city of Aqaba. Its proposed dating is around AD 300, built during a period of relative toleration before the Great Persecution of 303-311. Eusebius, the "Father of Church History" (c. 260-340) tells us that many large churches were built in his day, but none have yet been discovered and it would only have been likely during the last half of the third century.

In the early "house churches", pictured vividly by Paul in Romans 16, fellowship would, no doubt, often be over a meal. There are few things more effective for building fellowship than sharing meals. It is no doubt partly due to this natural creating of close relationships that the early church grew so fast, even in times of persecution. We are seeing this today in the success of the Alpha programme worldwide, a programme that focuses on the building of relationships in small groups, in homes and over meals, as a means of sharing the gospel. In addition to running successful Alpha Courses, we here at St Laurence have a number of Fellowship Groups which meet in  church members' homes.

These are the various groups and their leaders:

Vicar’s Group (01580 754459) meets at the Vicarage every second Tuesday from 10.30am. to 12pm.

Maurice Cox’s Group (01580 753590) meets approximately once a month on a Thursday evening

Sandra Dreyer’s Group (01580 754459) meets once a month on a Tuesday evening.

Please get in touch with the leaders if you would like to join or know more about the groups.