Dear FriendsWhat a week of contrasts.Wednesday saw 10 people taking part in an away day – The Alpha Holy Spirit Day. What an amazing day, so enjoyable, it was a joy to be with people talking about the Holy Spirit and praying for the Holy Spirit to be with us, it was wonderful. The place we went to was truly beautiful with lovely gardens to walk in and a lake to sit beside. I am hoping we can find other occasions to use this venue.Today has been the funeral and thanksgiving service for Audrey Collins, a church member for over 70 years. Although funerals can be very sad occasions, Audrey herself chose the hymns and readings that were very uplifting for her thanksgiving service and John and the choir finished it beautifully, it was very moving.As we move into the weekend, we have our said BCP Communion service on Sunday at St James for early risers at 8.00 am, followed by breakfast at 9.30 am followed by our Family service starting at 10.00 am.I hope you may be enjoying a more relaxed pace as we are now in the summer holidays, I hope you have time to enjoy your days, I am loving the lighter evenings and being able to walk Bean later too.My hope is that I see you over this weekend if you are not away on holiday.Every blessingAlison
Dear AllLast Thursday I was invited to celebrate the official opening of Julie’s Woodland shelter and 10 years of the Woodland garden at Jacobs and Gardens Neuro Centres on the site of the Rivers Hospital.It was a lovely event and a truly lovely garden has been created for the residents of the Neuro centre to sit in and enjoy.I have been in conversation Sheila Henderson since and they have requested help with:-1. They have several residents who never have visitors – a friendly face for an hour or so once a week or even every few weeks would be so welcome.2. They have a wonderful music and movement therapist who does a session in each centre (Thursday and Friday pm). Many of the residents need one-to-one help to participate in anything. Ella would love some assistance – could be one day only and doesn’t need to be every week.3. They always need help in the garden/woodland – even a one off session would be helpful.I know you are all busy – but if you had some time available it would be gratefully received.Last night I was invited to the Installation of the Reverend Dr Sara Batts-Neale as the new Vicar of St Mary’s the Great in Sawbridgeworth, please say ‘Hello’ to her if you see in and around Sawbridgeworth.Moving on to this Sunday, the services are as follows:-9.30 am St James (Communion service).11.15 am – St Botolph’s, Eastwick, Family service.We also have a baptism of Madison Ivy Fletcher at 2.30 pm – please pray for her and her family that they will continue to grow closer to God and become regular attendees of our Family Service.Hope to see you over this weekend.Every blessingAlison
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
