St Margaret’s Church Underriver
We want our beautiful and much loved Church to be at the heart of our village community, the focus of our worship and good-neighbourliness.
Carter’s Hill, Underriver, Sevenoaks TN15 0RY
St Margaret’s Harvest Lunch
St Margaret’s celebrated the harvest with joy, imagination and style. The
church was full of people and flowers, fruits and berries (gorgeous little
sunflowers at east and west end). Donations for the food bank were piled round the altar. The choir beautifully sang a Rutter anthem. Harvest Bingo was played and the prizes (every one got one!) were packets of mystery seeds. What will they be?
Then we crossed to the hall, where everything was ready. There was wine, red or white. There were posies on the tables. There were jacket potatoes with a choice of fillings and a delicious red cabbage salad. And to crown it all we created our own dream desserts. We piled meringues, fruit compotes, toppings and aerosol cream, which was quite exciting to use, into glasses and enjoyed.
So much work and thought had gone into the celebration. We
acknowledged God’s generosity and passed it round to each other. So
thank you team, especially CJ, Kay, Jan, Julie and God. Thank you to your generosity, we have raised in the region of £1200 for Christian Aid.
At the heart of Underriver village
St Margaret’s Church enjoys a close relationship with Underriver Village and is central to village life.
The Church was built in 1867. Much of the cost was met by John R Davison of Underriver House. The dedication was in memory of his mother Margaret Davison. The parish was created in 1866. The construction of the church was by Henry Constable (price £1,931), a Penshurst builder and the church was opened on 8 June 1867.
Our usual pattern of Church services is as follows:
First Sunday in the month - 9.45am Morning Worship ( no communion)
Second Sunday - 8am Holy Communion ( Book of Common Prayer)
Third Sunday - 11.15am Matins or 6pm Evensong (summer months)
Fourth Sunday - 11.15am Holy Communion
Occasional Fifth Sunday - an opportunity for a different kind of service, advertised on home page.
The Church is open during the day at the weekends for private prayer and quiet. We have a number of events including concerts during the year which will be listed on our Events page.
Underriver is a small village, just south of Sevenoaks in Kent. However, despite its size, the village has an active and lively community.
The Village Association website details local news and events, as well as general information about local businesses, societies, clubs and organisations active in the area.
REGULAR GIVING
Charity of the Year
Each year, we choose a specific charity that we support practically and prayerfully as well as financially.
Special Collections
Throughout the year we have a number of special collections for specific charities. Details of these are announced at the services at which the collections are made.
Other Charities
Sustain which is run by the Tonbridge Baptist Church. This hands out food parcels three times a week to those in need who have been referred to them. Anyone interested can look up Sustain on the Tonbridge Baptist Church website.
If you would like to consider setting up a Standing Order, the process would work as follows:
Contact the Vicar or Church treasurer to provide you with the Church’s bank account number and sort code.
You decide what amount you would like to donate, and what the frequency would be. We have donors who contribute monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually, so it’s really a matter of what’s most convenient for you.
Once you have made the decision, you can contact your bank to set up the standing order (or do so yourselves via online banking). You can obviously amend or cancel at any time, since it’s all done directly with your own bank. If you could include your names as a reference on the payments, that would help us immensely.
It’s not a requirement from our side, but if you could let us know how much you intend to donate on an annual basis (in other words, the amount and frequency) it will help us to budget. We can, of course, always work this out for ourselves by monitoring the bank statement over the course of the year.
Regarding Gift Aid, if you are a tax payer and your donations are thus eligible for Gift Aid top-up payments, we’d ask if you could kindly complete a declaration which will allow us to claim an additional 25% over and above your donation. You can download the declaration form here and hand it to one of the Wardens next time you’re in church.
