Last updated
Thursday 26 January 2012
A very warm welcome to our website which has been created to encompass the whole of our parish community and we truly hope that you will find what you are looking for here but above all we are here to facilitate your encounter with God's grace.
Jesus is the bread of life, not the cake for special occasions
Our next services are:
| January 29th | Conversion of St Paul | |
| 10.00 am | Octagon Eucharist | Stoughton |
| February 5th | 3rd Sunday before Lent | |
| 8.00 am | Holy Communion | Compton |
| 10.00 am | Eucharist | Stoughton |
| 11.00 am | Family Service | Forestside |
| 3.30 pm | Evensong | Racton |
| February 12th | 2nd Sunday before Lent | |
| 8.00 am | Holy Communion | Forestside |
| 9.30 am | Eucharist | East Marden |
| 11.00 am | Matins | Racton |
| 11.00 am | Family Service | Compton |
| February 19th | Sunday before Lent | |
| 10.00 am | Morning Service | Stoughton |
| 10.00 am | TOPYG | Compton |
| 10.30 am | Eucharist | Compton |
| 5.30 pm | Healing Service | Forestside |
| February 22nd | Ash Wednesday | |
| 7.00 pm | Eucharist with ashes | Forestside |
| February 23rd | ||
| 7.00 pm | Compline | East Marden |
| February 26th | 1st Sunday of Lent | |
| 8.00 am | Holy Communion | Stoughton |
| 9.30 am | Holy Communion | Racton |
| 11.00 am | Family Communion | Forestside |
| 5.30 pm | Evening Service | East Marden |
When you feel prompted to, pray:
A missionary on leave told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan.....
While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I travelled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.
Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord. I then travelled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.
Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, “Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.â€Â
At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, “No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone."
At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told him this story:
"On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?"
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were, he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26......
About us......
The Octagon is a group of five parishes, containing eight churches, at the western end of the Chichester Diocese. Most of the churches were there seven hundred years ago and are gems of early church architecture. Please take some time to look through this site and learn about our churches, community and the people that play such an important role in keeping everything ship shape! (Pun most definitely intended as our Parish Priest Dr John Strain was in fact an Officer in the Royal Navy until a few years ago!)
Take a look around the site to get a feel for what goes on and and keep up to date with news and events. In everything we do, we desire to teach God’s Word faithfully, and to build up the church to help reach out into the world locally and globally.
Please use the links below or navigate via our individual pages and tabs which we hope will help to embrace you fully into our community.
The Octagon Parish Youth Group