Dear AllWell after a wonderful retreat – I hit the ground running but what a lovely weekend we had last weekend.The Jo Cox creative morning was a huge success – lots was achieved and it was such a joyful atmosphere in High Wych Memorial Hall. Many thanks to all who got involved and made it such a fun morning.The wedding of Kieran and Hannah at St Botolph’s was beautiful with such lovely weather, and the first I have done in that church since I arrived.I quickly moved on to the ‘Paintings and Prosecco’ event at St Mary’s, Gilston – gosh, what a lot of work went into that to get all the paintings displayed and the art materials made available so people ‘could have a go’ for themselves. Not to mention the sausage rolls and homemade scones and cream and jam that we offered. Great fun and we raised some much needed funds for St Mary’s church. It was received so well we are already planning to do this again next summer – so watch out for the ‘save the date’.On this one day all our church communities and buildings were working hard to meet the needs of the community, creating lovely opportunities for us all to come together.This weekend, feels a little calmer and as it is a fifth Sunday we only have one service at St James, High Wych at 9.30 am.Many of us are then off to attend Sarah’s Ordination at St Albans Cathedral, which will be a lovely service full of joy and hope.For those of us who are going – the minibus will pick up at 12.45 pm in the High Wych Memorial Hall car park. May I suggest you bring with you a packed lunch and a bottle of water as it is promising to be a hot day and there will be very little time to grab anything when we arrive in St Albans and it will be very busy.I hope to see you on Sunday.Every blessingAlison
Dear AllIt feels like a really short week this week because of the bank holiday and we have some lovely things to look forward to over this next few days.We have decided to join forces with St Mary’s for the Ascension Day service at St Mary’s, Sawbridgeworth. The service starts at 8.00 pm and both Janet Bellingham and I are able to offer lifts if that would be helpful. (contact details on Welcome sheet).As you may know this means that we begin our ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ from that date – Thursday 29th May – 8th June 2025. This gives us an opportunity to select 5 people we want to pray for over this 10 day period to come to know Jesus. There are books at the back of church to help you with this and we will have Holy Spirit doves in church this Sunday to give you an opportunity to write your prayers and put onto the prayer tree this weekend. You may not want to write the names of the people you are praying for onto this prayer dove but you could use initials or pray a more general prayer for discretion’s sake.As we move onto Saturday 31st May we see that we have the Christian Aid – Big Breakfast from 9.00 – 12 noon at Sawbridgeworth Memorial Hall, there is a minimum donation required of £5.00 per head and they are hoping to raise over £1,000 this year.Later that afternoon we have our community dog walk starting from St Mary’s, Gilston on Saturday 31st May at 2.30 pm – dogs not essential if you just want a good walk and a chat with friends, old and new. Then we follow this with a cream tea at St Mary’s from 4.00 pm (we will be charging £3 a head for this to cover our costs). You may want to do both or one or the other, whichever works out best for your day.And after all that fun we then have on Sunday 1st June our:-8.00 am Holy Communion (said) service at St James, High Wych, and our9.30 am (for breakfast) and a 10.00 am start for our short, family friendly, Family service.Next week we will be starting the Alpha follow on group and also the new confirmation group, see Welcome sheet for details.There are lots of opportunities for us to meet over the next few days and I hope to see you all again soon.Every blessingAlison
Dear FriendsThe continuation of the Alpha course sessions did not take place this week, due to most of the people who were coming were ill. Please pray for them that they will be recovered by 2nd June, as this next lot of talks looks really interesting. If you are thinking of joining you can come on 2nd June to start as you have missed nothing.As the weather improves – the weekends seem to be full of lovely things.This weekend we have George and Figen’s wedding at St Mary’s, Gilston at 12 noon and then Michael and Toni’s Wedding blessing at 3.00 pm at St James, High Wych. Two wonderful, joyful events to look forward to.Next weekend on 31st May we have another community dog walk from 2.30 pm leaving from St Mary’s, Gilston with a cream tea from 4.00 pm at the church. Let us pray that the weather stays as nice as it has been over the last few days. Please invite your friends to join in the fun, you are most welcome on the dog walk with or without a dog. There is a small charge for the cream tea to cover our costs.Our services this weekend are:-· 9.30 am Communion service at St James, High Wych· 11.15 am Family service at St Botolph’s, EastwickLooking forward to seeing you this weekend.Every blessing Alison
Dear FriendsCan I please ask you all to pray for all the many children and young people who have started exams this week:-- SAT’s at primary school- GCSE’s, mocks and A levels at secondary school- End of year exams at colleges and Universities.I know many of you will have family members doing these exams at the moment and my prayer is that all will be able to be calm, and be able to show what they have learnt and get some enjoyment from being able to show what they have learnt. May they be aware that God will be with them each day as they take these exams. Please ask God to give them courage so they will not be afraid. Amen. Thank you.In my sermon last week we were talking about all of us being called to follow Jesus (as his sheep recognising his voice) and we were called to earnestly seek the gifts that the Holy Spirit can give us.The scriptures I highlighted for you to read were the following:1 Corinthians 12:1-11Spiritual Gifts12 Now concerning spiritual gifts,[a] brothers and sisters,[b] I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.Galatians 5:22-26The Fruit of the Spirit22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.At our online prayer session on Tuesday morning we explored the same theme through the following scripture:-Romans 12:3-8 NIV - JudithHumble Service in the Body of Christ3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.1 Peter 4:10-11From his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another – Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. A few scriptures to consider as you ponder on the gifts that God has given you and how you can best use them to serve and enable your church family to thrive and grow. If you would like to explore with someone else what gifts you are able to offer, if you would like a conversation about how best to use your gifts, or both, contact me, if you would like to start monthly giving or increasing your monthly giving please talk to Sam our Treasurer.A reminder that we have our communion service at 9.30 am this Sunday at St James’sFollowed by our APCM at 11.00 am at St James’sOur Messy Church will be from 4.00 – 6.00 pm at St James’s which will include; craft activities; celebration and singing and eating togetherI hope you can join us for one (or all three) of these and I look forward to meeting you soon.Every blessingAlison
Dear All<br>We are now in Holy Week with our Maundy Thursday service tonight at 7.30 pm.There are so many different occasions where we can meet this week.<br>Tomorrow, Good Friday gives us two opportunities to meet up either with our Messy Church at 10.00 am to 12 noon at St James or our Last Hour service of reflection at St Botolph's from 2.00 pm to 3.00 pm<br>If you are thinking of coming to the Easter Vigil at St Mary's, Gilston on Saturday at 7.00 pm please bring your own chair with you to sit outside, you might like a blanket and you will definitely need a torch as we lose the light.<br>On Easter Sunday we will have a service of Celebration as we gather together to worship with communion for the whole Church Family at 9.30 am at St James.<br>On Easter Sunday our collection will be to support the Myanmar earthquake Appeal that is running via Christian Aid, if you are able to, please support our brothers and sisters in Myanmar as they deal with the after affects of this catastrophic earthquake, thank you.<br>At a very impromptu last minute we will be taking Easter to Terlings Park development with an Easter Egg Hunt and hot cross buns from 11.30 am, with some give away Easter books and stickers for the children, if you would care to be involved.<br>Every blessing for this Easter.Your Priest, Alison
Dear AllI am looking forward to a very enjoyable but busy Sunday this week.At 8.00 am we have our BCP said communion at St JamesAt 9.30 am we start with breakfast followed by our Family service at St JamesAt 11.00 am Following on from this service we will have the retirement gathering and presentation to Ian Brown who has been our community postman for many years.Following on from that we will have a short Messy Church meeting to sort out all things ‘Messy’ for our Good Friday session, which I anticipate to be very busy, as usual.At 3.00 pm we will have our Alpha afternoon tea at the Rectory – all are invited who have taken part in one of our Alpha courses.I attach again for you the flyer for all our Easter services. These are shaping up nicely – a couple of highlights for your diary. Our service of Reflection at St Botolph’s, Eastwick on Good Friday from 2.00 – 3.00 pm is following on from our Holy Habits Lent study and we will be thinking of that first Good Friday, through art, through music, through reading the bible, through reflection and discussion. I hope you will be able to join us for this significant time.Also moving on to Holy Saturday we have our evening service of New Fire and Easter Vigil at St Mary’s, Gilston – this was a wonderful service last year – starting out last year around a firepit, sharing readings, poetry, food and drink before going into the church to bless the new Easter candles. I hope you will be able to join us for this, again a significant time during the celebration of Easter. This will start at 7.00pm.Easter is the most significant time in the Christian calendar – the attached flyer will show you all the information you need to join us.Every blessingAlison