A New Day

connections A FAMILY ON MISSION TOGETHER www.occ.org.uk

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A new MARCH 2011

STEVE THOMAS [PAGE 02]

CHURCH YOUTH& UPDATES CHILDREN [PAGE 10]

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A new Steve Thomas Oxfordshire Community Churches

“All change, all change!” We used to hear that cry on railway stations in the past, when one train had reached its destination, and it was time to change to another. Some of the leaders heard this prophesied at our recent European Leadership Conference. There is nothing wrong with the first train at all, but it has reached its terminus. It’s now time to take another train, so that we can get further in our journey.

Individual Christians have their journey, and need to keep moving with God. Equally, churches have their spiritual journey of faith, and also need to keep moving with God in order that each generation may lay hold of God’s purposes for their generation.

And what is needed to keep moving with God? First, there needs to be a renewal of vision. Some vision takes us part of the way on our journey, and God wants to give us fresh vision – or renewed vision.

Sometimes our vision fades, and we need a fresh focus. Ultimately, we need

a vision of God’s Kingdom filling all the nations of the world. Only that will keep us pressing on forward, through weariness or disappointment or simple hardwork!

Second, there needs to be a renewal of hope and promise. God’s prophetic word was what kept Old Testament people looking forward to the coming of the Messiah.

Equally, God’s prophetic word keeps us straining forward in hope and expectancy for better things. It releases faith in us for us to keep fighting, and ministers joy to us even in the midst of hardship Third, we need to see God’s grace and provision along the way. This tells us that God is with us, caring for us, interested in the journey. Often God’s reassurance to his people is simply this: “I will be with you,” says the Lord. And that’s all that counts! We’re not on our own, we’re not abandoned, and we don’t have to struggle in our own strength and energy! God is there to help us.

The expansion of our facilities at New Yatt Road marks an end of one journey, and the beginning of another.

“I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind, and straining towards what is ahead, I press on to the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.”

(Philippians 3.12-14)

schoolchurchcommunity We now have much better facilities that we can put at the disposal of our local community. We need to pray that God will give us creativity as to how they can be used, and bring our facilities to the attention of the community around us.

This is a facility provided by God, where God is present as prayer and praise is offered to him at least six days a week, and where he wants to bless people.

We now have a much better springboard for the church in North Witney and the regional churches of West Oxfordshire to gather and reach out from. The principle of God’s people gathering to be fed and blessed, and scattering to sow into and bless the community is still an important pattern. Let us pray that the church uses to the full this fresh opportunity, becoming even more missional than ever before.

We now have The King’s School on one site; one family, together, for the good and blessing of the whole family. The peace, joy and presence of God that

fills everything in the school is absolutely marvellous, and everyone who visits the school witnesses to it.

Our overall vision, whether we are thinking about the local community, the church or the school, is for the Kingdom of God to come in greater measure where we are. We believe that God in his power and healing presence wants to visit people all around Witney and West Oxfordshire, and we want to be carriers of that to all around us. We want people to know King Jesus personally for themselves, and be members of God’s family, which is our great privilege. We want, as they used to say in Wilberforce’s time, goodness to become fashionable, the name of God to become widely known, and the fame of God to be blazed abroad everywhere.

May God help us, in this new day, to be willing to change all we need to change, and to surge forward with zeal to fresh destiny with Jesus. For the King and His Kingdom!

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A new

school ONE FAMILY THREE SCHOOLS Steve Beegoo, Chair of TKS Governors

“For this reason, seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ, I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”

Eph 3 v 14-15 (Amplified Version) The King’s School, Secondary and Primary, and Stepping Stones Foundation Stage Unit, have now combined together as one family on one site. Over many years we have continually prayed for vision and strategy for how the school should grow and develop. Five years ago we were still looking at a variety of sites around the county and asking God if he wanted us to move the school. As we’ve prayed, the ‘greatness of his plan through which we are built together’ has truly been seen!

And now we have One Family, Three Schools, on one site, together! We are in awe and worship for all that our wonderful heavenly Father has done for us.

Having all the family together on one site gives us both opportunities and challenges! As John Elwood, Principal of The King’s School has said, “This is about creating a new sense of Family, of all ages 04

learning to mix well together, of the celebration of a wide range of talents, personalities and experience as we seek to live and work together within a framework of a Christian worldview”. But in any family home with a wide range of ages, also come more opportunities to learn grace, consideration, patience, sharing, self-sacrifice and forgiveness. It is wonderful to see how God helps us day by day, through the power of His spirit to bow the knee before the King and before the Father as we learn together. This is Family life!

Schools can so easily become ‘institutions’; places where you are sent to have something done to you. In the life of the school, the level of involvement and service of parents and church, helps us grow as a family, learning together.

We don’t want to be a place where ‘Christian Education’ is another product to be consumed, where children have something done ‘to’ them, but where the school family is supporting parents in their family discipleship under our Heavenly Father.

The family is seeking to grow too! There are spaces to fill. Over the last two years a steady decline in numbers has been replaced by a steady stream of new families, often from beyond OCC, wanting to join. Stepping Stones is successfully drawing in young children from church and non-church backgrounds, and through improved marketing and through now having excellent facilities many more families have been visiting and then deciding to move their children to The King’s School. Some children are now coming from almost an hour’s drive away.

If you have never been to see the school, you would be very welcome to visit. One way to do this would be to come to one of our two open days each year, which are on Saturday mornings when you can see the school in action. Alternatively telephone the office and ask when you could come and look around. We have often seen the Holy Spirit touch people just by them coming into the building. This last month during the open day a man was moved to tears as he experienced the atmosphere and spirit of the family of God being expressed through the school.

As we have substantially invested in education as a group of churches over many years, literally millions of pounds, we have seen and will see wonderful fruit in the lives of our children. Not only is this fruit benefitting us, but many schools nationally and internationally have begun and have developed through the inspiration our faith story has been to them. Many young men and women, trained with a Christian worldview, are now playing their part in God’s kingdom as teachers, nurses, designers, pastors, academics, mothers, fathers, medics, missionaries, in media, law, local government, IT, and many other spheres of life.

This new facility, and the drawing together of the schools, marks the beginning of the next stage in our faith journey together. As a speaker at our recent leaders’ conference said, “the ceiling of the previous generation, should be the floor for the next”. May this family and vision increase! May we have more locations where such a family can be a witness for God! Out of gratitude for the past in the present, may we find faith in the present for God’s future.

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SCHOOL | CHURCH | COMMUNITY

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A new

church NORTH WITNEY COMMUNITY CHURCH Gary Pizzey, North Witney

It started in prayer and the prophetic, moved on to an artist’s impression and architects plans but for many it needed to be seen in order to come to life. And this was what it was like for us in N. Witney.

It was a thrill to see the building going up week by week but an even greater delight when we first used the new building on 16 September 2010. “Cathedral like” was one response to seeing the new hall. For a while it had become clear that for N. Witney to move forward into God’s plans and purposes we needed to break out of the limited space of our previous hall into a bigger facility and what a facility we now have.

A new hall we can grow into (we can even put out spare chairs for late comers to sit on instead of having to stand on the balcony). Space for the children/adults to dance, wave the flags and worship in a freer way. Additional rooms to be used on Sundays by the kids clubs & youth groups.

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We have even had a “prayer tunnel” and didn’t have to move the chairs to do it. It is fantastic!

God has laid on our hearts that we need to be a church where church & community mix, a marquee with the tent sides up.

A church without walls. The new hall & rooms brings us new opportunities for this to happen.

Now the new building is beginning to “settle down”, yes we did have a few frustrations at the beginning, we can now begin to look at creative ways to use the new facilities in order to reach out into the community. We are already seeing the hall being used for outreach by the church via our Cheerleading Club, After School Basketball club and also by contacts we have made within the community (Witney Rugby Club, Roller Skating Club) but there is so much more we can do.

But these new facilities are not just for the local church, we also see it as a “Castle” (as one prophet called it) in West Oxfordshire, a new base for equipping, releasing and planting churches.

In October the seven churches in the West met in Witney for a Regional Celebration.

It was an exciting to see family gathering for purpose. A real buzz as many people could see for the first time what being a new region “looked like”. Further celebrations are planned, with the July Regional Celebration being the launch of the vision for the Western Region.

The new facilities have also been used by Western Region for a leadership meeting and prayer time, for our bible teaching initiative School of the Word where people can go deeper ino the Word of God and of course for education, Stepping Stones.

The new purpose built early years foundation unit, or Stepping Stones to you and me, is governed by the Western Regional Leaders but works closely with The King’s School. We are already seeing people inviting their non church friends to come and see the facility. Our prayers now are that they are so caught up with the atmosphere in the setting, how well their children are developing and the cared they receive they will want them stay on for Y1.

The new facilities provide a great base for N. Witney to grow and to reach out into the community. Although this has started we believe there is so much more God is asking of us to do. Watch this space as local & regional initiatives take shape and we humble ourselves before God. After all it was His idea to build the new development in the first place.

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SCHOOL | CHURCH | COMMUNITY

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A new

commu SERVING THE COMMUNITY Rachael Laird, Outreach Worker

Since opening the building has seen hundreds, maybe even thousands of people come through the doors. Apart from the regular school activities and N. Witney the building is also used by the surrounding community.

The building is a fantastic resource both buildings can be adapted and used for different groups with different use and equipment needs.

Regular bookings at the site now include Witney Rugby Club, Ballet Lessons, Buttercross Quilters and Art Society and more recently a local Roller Hockey Club.

Engage is a sports outreach project run

by North Witney seeking to provide fun sports events for the local community.

We ran some basketball sessions last term which had a small but committed group of children attending who loved the chance to be coached and have fun.

The largest part of the Engage project is Witney Wolves Cheerleading Club. This has grown over the last 2 years into a regular club with around 50 5-16 year olds accessing the sessions.

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The spiritual aspect of the club has proved challenging since it started, but we are very keen that it remains a big part of the club and are looking at how we can be distinctive and different as a club and within the sport as a whole. We are the only Cheerleading Club within West Oxfordshire so we are in a unique and privileged position to be able to offer something that is not available anywhere locally.

This term we were asked by West Oxfordshire School Sports Partnership to run 10 introduction sessions for children and young people to come and try a session to see if they like the sport. This has proved reasonably successful and will be inviting all of them to join the club.

We have 1 qualified coach another 2 adults attending coaching courses in the next 2 months. We are already planning and advertising our Easter Cheerleading Camp for our current club members and for complete beginners as well.

Watch this space as we will be looking at competing at national competitions in 2012.

We are currently going for our Club mark status, which is a national seal of approval awarded to community sports clubs, it proves we have reached a very high standard in our paperwork, policies and procedures and is recognised by schools, parents and grant giving bodies.

We are continuously seeking funding and filling out funding forms to be able to get money to pay for equipment and are looking to get uniforms for our squad.

We are currently taking bookings to do displays and performances at local fetes, and summer fayres later this year, and have also been asked to visit a local elderly care home and show them some moves, and to cheer lead for a rugby and basketball club.

We are also taking part in a national scheme run by Hula Hoops crisps to allow children and young people to try a session for free on production of a voucher and a packet of crisps.

There are also discussions happening between local youth workers and church leaders about how we can provide events

or opportunities to get involved with the More than Gold weekend in July 2011 to celebrate the 1 year countdown to the 2012 Olympics and also how best to use the building and to cater for the needs of the local community during the Olympics themselves.

Having said all of this you might be thinking that there is no time or space left during the week when the building is left empty.

However you would be wrong as there are still lots of opportunities and space available in the diary.

So there is no reason why the building can’t be used more and there are a number of different options which could be explored and offered to the local community including silver surfers or badminton lessons, suggestions would be gratefully received as to how best to utilise the building for the local community.

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SCHOOL | CHURCH | COMMUNITY

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[WESTWITNEYwww.occ.or Now the fun begins!

Over the last 2 years we have been on quite a journey at West Witney Community Church (WWCC). God has slowly but surely been turning us inside out, he has been reordering us to take territory for him. Two years ago God spoke to us clearly about 3 things.

Firstly, that our relationship with him has to be our top priority – this led us to recommit and set in place foundational principles for the church family.

Secondly, that everything we do must flow out of our relationship with him – our church review in 2008 highlighted our calling to ‘bring more mission to Witney’.

[KIDLINGTONwww.occ.org We believe God has said 2011 is a year of faith for Lifehouse Community Church. In January we moved to a larger building for our Sunday meetings, still in the centre of Kidlington. We believe that it is a year of faith that we will grow and see people start a relationship with Jesus Christ for the first time.

A year of faith for doubling in size, alpha courses, more mid week groups, personal growth for everyone and new ways of reaching and transforming the community.

One of the things we have had to have faith for is an event we run each month called Sunday Night Live. We have been running Sunday Night Live for 6 months at our local Costa

THE KING’S CENTRE REV 10

Thirdly, that God wanted to change and simplify the way we meet together. Subsequently he has also spoken about us having a greater presence in the community and taking territory for him.

it will be both a catalyst and a hub from which to see our community transformed by the love of God. The plan to move to Burwell hall has also helped us to sharpen and concentrate the way we meet together.

This past 16 months we have been guided to look for a new venue – a home for WWCC in the community. After much prayer, consideration, hard work, stepping out in faith and number crunching, we are very excited to be just 2 months away from taking on the lease for our local community hall.

Please pray with us, as in the next 2 months there is a lot more work to do - setting up a not-for-profit company, finalising the details of the lease, appointing staff and company directors … And then the fun begins – seeing people’s lives changed by meeting and falling in love with Jesus.

‘Burwell Hall’ will become our new home in the community.

We believe it will be a place for WWCC and many others to encounter God (building relationship with him). We believe

Please pray that God’s presence will truly make a difference in the surrounding area.

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g.uk/kidlington Coffee. It’s an entertainment evening with live music and a twist of faith. It’s an evening where we have live music from people in the church or local artists and every month we have some one share their story of how their life has been transformed and changed through having relationship with Jesus Christ. I remember the first month we did it I needed a lot of faith that evening for just one person to turn up. The last few months we have had a good 40 or 50 people with 20 of those being guests.

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to go deeper. People are building relationships with new mums, through ladies craft afternoons, through neighbours and friends and meeting people at the school gate.

Jesus says the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Lifehouse Community Church is full of great people who are stepping out in faith and the harvest is ripe.

Please pray for us all and for more workers to come and join us!

People in Lifehouse Church are having faith to step out and make new relationships or for existing relationships

VIEW

There will be a web-based survey to supplement the consultation evenings about the future of TKC. We intend to email the link to everyone in OCC for whom we have an email address. If anyone does not receive it by the end of March and would like to have the information, they should email stuartw@kingscentre.co.uk

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CHURCH UPDATES

rg.uk/westwitney

YOUTH

ONE BIG PLAN - WAS IT BIG? WAS IT A PLAN?

OBP was a lot of fun... quality footy lads and still got that bump on my head. fantastic time at OBP, great place, great activities, great food inc a midnight feast!

One Big Plan was amazing! Activities, awesome people, worship and lots of other stuff!!!!!

OBP was amazing! loved the worship, speakers and seeing everyone again!

KIDS CAMP 12

G’Day mate! Are you ready to visit the Outback and go sheep shearing?!

Join us for a fun-filled, action-packed weekend. If you are in Year 2 - Year 6 come for two nights, and if you are in Year 1, you are invited for the Saturday, open to all OCC children. We will be learning about God and sheep and the Bible and err more sheep and how they are related. There will be lots going on: crafts, messy games, Mamma Annetta’s bush tucker, sheep, campfire, woodland shelters and much more (sheep).

The time away consisted of fun and laughter, team games, good food and little sleep.

The organised activities provided by the centre ranged from caving, rock climbing and abseiling to low ropes and crate stacking.

During the evenings we had live worship, visiting speakers and dynamic encounters with God. There has been a lot of positive feedback from the youth who shared a real sense of family together and are still in contact with each other and the leaders laughing about the time they had away and looking forward to getting together again at ‘Monster Turkey Lays An Egg’ on the 9th April.

NEW DATE! 9th APRIL

OLD TICKETS STILL VALID - FIND OUT

YOUTH AND CHILDREN

We had a wonderful time away on the Gloucestershire and Welsh border at Viney Hill Christian Activity Centre. The youth ranged from school years 8-13 and came from 7 OCC Churches and outreach groups .The team consisted of 6 adults from Abingdon and the Leys and having worked together before there was a real sense of team which set the tone for the whole time away.

MONSTER TURKEY LAYS AN EGG

MORE AT www.occ.org. uk/youth or contact NIKKIG@OCC.ORG. UK 07841404535

For more information look on the OCC Youth website or contact Nikki Gibbins nikkig@occ.org.uk

Kids Camp 2011 will run from Friday evening 26 August to Sunday lunch 28 August 2011 at the Court Hill Centre on the Ridgeway near Wantage. Kids Camp is run by The King’s Church, Didcot (part of OCC) and is open to all children from Year 1 – Year 6 from OCC churches. Weekend Campers: £53.00. There is an early bird discount (£47.00) if you pay by 15 July 2011. Day Campers: £18.00 (Early bird discount is £17.00). Contact Richard and Tessa Case from The King’s Church on 01235 821276 or email richard@casebase.net for more details and an application form.

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DEVELOPMENT CHARACTER FAITH THEOLOGY SALT & LIGHT UK TRAINING COMPETENCY equipping all of God’s people for all of God’s work SKILLS COMMUNITY FLEXIBLE IDENTIFYING INVESTING PARTNERING KING’S KING’S BUILDING LEARNING LEADERSHIP EQUIPPING PRACTICAL MENTORING LIFE LONG DEVELOPMENT

These last few years have been very exciting in Salt and Light as God has shown us his 2020vision> for our UK family of churches.

But as we all know, stating the vision is the easy bit, we must also ‘put our money where our mouth is’! For 2020vision> that means allowing God to reshape us, our churches and our priorities. A big part of this is training. As well as a new King’s School of Leadership there are now 4 routes to getting to a level of maturity in theological training.

Read more about Salt and Light training in their new brochure or online at www.saltlight.org/europe

04 KST

PART TIME Part time weekend-event course over 3 years The pace allows students to participate in other 2020vision training courses during the 3 years of KST

03 KTC

02 KTC

PART TIME 10-month course, 3 days per week Enables students to maintain some existing commitments, e.g. leadership

SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

HOME AND AWAY Full time 10-month course, weekly placements Same core teaching as KTC college-based, plus weekly 3-day placements in a UK training region

01 KTC

COLLEGE BASED Full time 10-month validated course Space for in-depth theological reflection & engagement with Scripture and the world

THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

MOVING FORWARD WITH THE 2020VISION>

THE EARLY BOOKING DEADLINE IS EASTER SO BOOK SOON! www.saltlight.org

4-bedroomed furnished house in Witney available for rent from September 2011 - short or long term.

Contact Cedric & Audrey Hobbs on cedrich@occ.org.uk or call 0049 30 6331 3985

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Cost £35 per person.

Bookings can be made through contacting Lifeline: 07766 709405 or Mercy Ministries: 01535 642042 or book online at www.occ.org. uk/events/wantage Limited availability so book soon.

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EVENTS

MPower Training Day at The King’s Centre Saturday 25th June 9.30am to 4.30pm. A one-day training event for Pastors, leaders, pastoral workers, carers and relatives of those with eating disorders and self-harm issues or those needing equipping in this area.

OUR NEXT CELEBRATION 15 MAY AT THE KING’S CENTRE

T R H Y Y S Y E G G G G G P G L G G T

contacts

CONNECTIONS is published by Oxfordshire Community Churches – an apostolic family of churches with a vision for the region. It includes a number of churches that operate as part of the OCC charity and a few others...

churches

ABINGDON COMMUNITY CHURCH Ed & Kate Evans | 01235 521622 | ede@occ.org.uk PATHWAYS CHURCH BANBURY Barrie & Mary Wood | 01295 279268 | barriew@occ.org.uk BICESTER COMMUNITY CHURCH Steve & Tammi Beegoo | 01869 240651 | steveb@occ.org.uk CARTERTON COMMUNITY CHURCH Matt & Anna Biddlecombe | 01993 846510 | mattb@occ.org.uk CHIPPING NORTON COMMUNITY CHURCH Paul & Lottie Meathrel | 01608 646127 | paulm@occ.org.uk CIRENCESTER COMMUNITY CHURCH Keith & Wendy Hasler | 01285 651572 | keith.hasler@gmail.com COTE BAPTIST CHURCH Graham & Shirley Sparrowhawk | 01993 850713 | grahams@occ.org.uk THE KING’S CHURCH, DIDCOT Robin & Lisa Howard | 01235 848422 | robinh@occ.org.uk FAIRFORD Paul & Carrie Boden | 01285 712043 | paulboden@perrybishop.co.uk HENLEY BAPTIST CHURCH Roger & Di Cole | 01491 576883 | rogerc@dtwo.co.uk LIFEHOUSE COMMUNITY CHURCH, KIDLINGTON Mark & Katherine Eley | 01865848659 | markeley84@gmail.com COMMUNITY CHURCH, MORTON-IN-MARSH Dan & Kerstin Campsall | 01608 812445 | danc@occ.org.uk OXFORD COMMUNITY CHURCH Stephen & Beverley Jones | 01865 402141 | stephenj@occ.org.uk OXFORD CHURCH OFFICE 01865 297420 | oxford@occ.org.uk SWINDON COMMUNITY CHURCH John & Gail Reeve | 01793 870916 | johnreeveuk@hotmail.com THE LEYS COMMUNITY CHURCH Richard & Kate Colbrook | 01865 714153 | richardc@occ.org.uk COMMUNITY CHURCH, THAME Andy & Ruth O’Connell | 01844 215331 | andyo@occ.org.uk WANTAGE COMMUNITY CHURCH Neil & Denise Townsend | 01235 771152 | neilt@occ.org.uk NORTH WITNEY COMMUNITY CHURCH Gary & Jackie Pizzey | 01993 702615 | garyp@occ.org.uk WEST WITNEY COMMUNITY CHURCH Jason & Jennifer Huffadine | 01993 702979 | jasonh@occ.org.uk WYCHWOOD HOUSE CHURCHES Tony & Charlotte Osborn | 01993 878169 | tony_osborn99@yahoo.co.uk

amt

[apostolic ministry team]

STEVE & LORRAINE THOMAS 01993 850990 | SteveT@occ.org.uk MIKE & LIZ BEAUMONT 01865 864253 | MikeB@occ..uk ROGER & DI COLE 01491 576883 | rogerc@dtwo.co.uk BRYN & DOROTHY FRANKLIN BrynF@occ.org.uk DAVID & ROSIE FREEMAN 01865 751474 | DavidF@occ.org.uk CEDRIC & AUDREY HOBBS 01993 700295 | CedricH@occ.org.uk GEOFF & MARY NORRIDGE 01993 772375 | GeoffN@occ.org.uk

also...

THE KING’S SCHOOL New Yatt Road, Witney, OX29 6TA 01993 778463 | www.occ.org.uk/tks STEPPING STONES FOUNDATION UNIT www.occ.org.uk/steppingstones THE KING’S PRESCHOOL, BICESTER www.occ.org.uk/bicester THE KING’S CENTRE Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0ES 01865 297400 | office@occ.org.uk Oxfordshire Community Churches A Family On Mission Together Registered Charity 1056921 www.occ.org.uk