WARDEN’S BRIEF I know that many people find much to worry about in the world today. Whether it is family, work, money, the world or health; Jesus said (Matt 6 vs 25) “Do not worry about your life” and (Matt 11 vs 28) “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. In Lent we should all be preparing for Easter when we remember that Christ took our sins and paid with his life instead of us, so we don’t need to worry about these. Mothering Sunday is on March 15th Rev Fiona Haskett will be taking this service and will bring envelopes containing sunflower seeds and an Easter message for all children attending this service and from the wider community. The idea being to have a competition to show our successes by bringing the flowers to the Harvest Service later in the year. There will be posters around the village to remind you to plant and water your little seeds. Do please come and take part. As we are gathering together for Mothers Day, Forest Church moves to Sunday 22nd March. Do come along a join us for fun, faith and crafts. Looking onwards to Easter, there are a number of events and services planned... • Palm Sunday falls on the 29th of March and we are joining together for a family communion. Children are welcome throughout with space for movement, curiosity and gentle participation. • Tenebrae takes place on Thursday 2nd April - join us for a simple meal and gentle fellowship (please see page 19 for a full description) • On Good Friday (3rd April), we gather for our Walk of Witness (10am on the Green) - a quite prayerful walk as mark the journey of Christ to the cross. We will walk together, pause together, sing together and reflect together. On Easter Saturday (4th April), Rev. Fiona Haskett is organising an Easter Egg Hunt on the Green and everyone under 11 is invited to come along whether you regularly come to church or not. Collect your entry form on the Green between 10:30 and 11:30am. Please bring a Parent!! We look forward to welcoming you at any or all of these events. You will be pleased to know that the leaks in the church roof were fixed early February. We decided not to hold a formal Standing Committee meeting in February and instead spend the time on tasks in hand. These include planning for services, getting repairs done and preparation for the APCM. There is a notice elsewhere with APCM details and how to join the PCC or stand for Churchwarden. With spring approaching we are planning churchyard working parties on the last Saturday of each month from March to October, weather permitting. Please put these dates in your diary and look out for more information. The Church has a part time paid vacancy as I go to print: PCC secretary – duties include attending PCC/SC in the evening on the 2nd Monday of each month and preparing agenda and minutes. If you are interested in this, please contact the Churchwardens for more information. We have had several memorial services celebrating the lives of villagers recently and are looking forward to 3 weddings already booked, and an enquiry for a Baptism so far this year. If you would like to arrange a baptism, wedding or memorial service please contact Gill in the Church office. A blessing for the Easter period to you all. Richard and Linda
WARDEN’S BRIEF Shrove Tuesday (pancake day) on 17th February marks the beginning of Lent and preparation for Easter. So Isaiah 40 v3 comes to mind A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord”. What will you be doing in Lent to prepare? As Churchwardens, we have been leading both the Forest Church and Worship services for the past six months. Since the autumn we have been taking part in Diocesan training courses starting with Leading Worship. A few others have joined us and we have our final sessions at the end of January. This will be followed by both Hearing and Speaking God’s Word courses. These courses are designed to equip members of the Church explore their belief and gain confidence to start leading our services. Easter day will be early this year on Sunday 5th April. With this in mind we are planning for the Lent season, Ash Wednesday, Tenebrae, the Walk of Witness and, most importantly the Easter Day service. More details will be given at our regular services and in the March magazine so please come and join us at St. Mary’s for these events to mark the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. Time seems to compress and expand wildly; in the last few days we have been planning for activities and services this week and at the same time looking far ahead booking people to lead the Christmas 2026 services! The January PCC reflected the frustrations on slow progress to have a Vicar appointed, which awaits the outcome of reorganisation of neighbouring parishes. We also discussed the problems of the audio-visual system, for most of this we know what needs doing but there is not enough time in the day. The churchwardens also reported progress on building repairs and APCM planning. We welcome anyone willing to serve as a PCC member, Churchwarden or Deputy Churchwarden please contact Lisa Syrota for nomination forms. More positively the PCC agreed to donations to The Children’s Society (following Christingle), RBL (following Remembrance) and Scripture Union (following training & materials for Forest Church). We are delighted that several members of our congregation are joining the Gambia Projects Overseas working party in January. Richard and Linda
