Our 85th Jubilee celebration coming up in March!!

This year St Patrick on the Hill will be celebrating our 85th birthday jubilee. What an amazingly blessed occasion to look forward to!

To celebrate, we are having a very special guest come from afar to make the occasion one to remember. We will be joined by our former beloved priest, Reverend Margaret Fourie, who has played a very special role in our little chapel history over the years!

The celebrations will start off with a thanksgiving service at the Chapel at 10 am on Sunday the 15th of March where Margaret will be leading the service. 

On St Patrick's Day, Tuesday the 17th of March at 6 pm, we will be "getting our green on" and join in the jubilee fun which will be take place at the Edge. In the spirit of communion and sharing, we ask that everyone bring with a plate of finger food to share with each other. There will be a cash bar as well for the more thirsty village members! 

#savethedate 

Interesting things to know about the Chapel and its people

Over the next few weeks we will be posting little interesting tidbits about the chapel, its history and its people, so keep checking back!

We will start off with how the chapel got its name.....

Christmas Services

Christmas in Hogsback is always a very special occasion. Being so far from the hustle and bustle of of the commercial Christmas vibe in cities, provide for an amazingly blessed setting where we can focus on God's greatest love for us!

Christmas shopping is limited to locally produced labour of love and our version of jingle bells is the squawking of loeries in the trees and the occasional flash of red of their wings as they play from tree to tree. The focus here is family, friends and the soft embrace of God in nature as we wait for more rain blessings.

Most of us seem to have had a hard and busy 2019 and our serene little chapel is just the place to come and take a breather. We do have our usual, very festive Christmas eve carol service where the little ones gets to build the nativity scene and we all get to sing our favourite christ-mas songs in awe of little Jesus who came to save us. It will take place on Tuesday the 24th at  5:30pm. All is welcome and we advice you to come early as we have limited space.

Our Christmas day services will take place at 8am and 10am on Wednesday the 25th. The early service will be an Anglican mass and the later one will be a joyous family affair.

2019 St Patrick on the Hill Annual Retreat

This year we have made the decision to not have our retreat in and around Hogsback, but to take some time out to go and recharge our spiritual batteries at one of our favourite locations in Keiskammahoek, Cata Lodge. There is something really special in getting away from our normal grind and responsibilities, and spend some time out with God and fellow Christ followers in a really beautiful and inspiring setting.

This year we are really blessed to have Dr Bill Domeris leading our retreat. Our topic for the retreat is "Loving God" and Bill will deal with all the dimensions of loving God, with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. This is a time for us to renew our relationship with God. We will emerge ourselves in the topic over 4 sessions and there will also be time to go and stroll through the Afro-montana forests, while contemplating our closeness with our awesome God.

Venue:
Cata lodge is about an hour an a half from Hogsback and is situated very high up in the Keiskammahoek mountains overlooking the Cata dam. The facilities are outstanding and the beautiful setting lends itself to inspiring reflection! You will stay in an award winning, three-star self-catering accommodation which includes self-catering chalets, a communal retreat area consisting of a fully equipped kitchen, a central fireplace, a dining area where you can enjoy your meals and a lounge area where you can chill paging through wonderful coffee table books and magazines. There is also an outdoor braai lapa overlooking the mountains and Cata village.


Cost and logistics:
The cost per person is R500 for the 2 nights accommodation and includes the 4 guided sessions. It excludes food and Maggie will tell you what to bring with, just check with her when you book your place.

We will depart at 10am on Thursday the 14th of November from Hogsback Information Centre and share lifts. We will return to Hogsback after lunch on Saturday afternoon, the 16th.

How to book:

• Send Maggie a Whatsapp message (0835566962) to book your place, after which she will confirm your booking with you and provide you with banking details for payment.              
• Closer to the date Maggie will tell you what to bring  regarding food and drinks as well as travel arrangements. 

Praying for rain

As you all know our little village is currently experiencing a severe water crisis. We ask that you all pray with us for rain for Hogsback. We will be gathering at the Village Green opposite the arboretum (next to the Arminel) at 12 noon for 15 minutes of prayer. Let's ask God together for the blessing of rain as our dam is empty.

Wrapping up for winter!

This afternoon the senior residents of Boldpoint congregated at their community hall at 5 pm. An icy south-easterly wind was driving the message loud and clear: "Winter has arrived".It was an appropriate day and moment to distribute warm, fluffy blankets to elderly folk.

A good representation of the Boldpoint community forum members were present. Siya Madondile had negotiated with his committee and a list of 13 households' names were compiled. The criteria for this warm little blessing, were the most elderly, needy, frail and un-well residents.

The event started off with prayer, where Norma asked God's special blessing on each of these special members of our community. The blankets were presented to each household, with a photograph taken of each, to capture the joy and gratitude. They then blessed us and touch everybody deeply with hymnal songs of praise and thanksgiving.

Simon closed the event with a short speech where he expressed their sincere appreciation to the Council of St Patrick, for providing warmth and love in this manner. Thank you to Jan Delport, the board member for our local outreach organisation in Hogsback, Jikani, Norma Fivaz as well as Siya and his committee for helping to spread of a bit of warm for this winter. May they all feel the love of God enveloping them every time they wrap up!

 

Mothers day Service

This morning we celebrated all our village mothers, with treats and poems as well as an inspiring service by our resident priest, Liz.



Trevor, our warden, also did a beautiful poem to celebrate mothers.