This weekend’s Bible readings:
Matthew 21:1-11 (p 988)
Palm Sunday:
This Sunday at 6pm in St Mary's there will be a service of music and readings to mark the start of Holy Week. There will be music sung by our benefice choir from Bach's St John Passion and readers will take us through the passion narrative as recorded by John in his gospel. Please do come along as we begin our observance of the holiest of weeks.
Holy Week services
There has been a mix-up in the service list published in PS magazine in Standon & Puckeridge. Our services this week are as follows:
Thursday 28th March, 7.30pm Maundy Thursday communion, St Catherine's
Friday 29th March, 10.30am Service by the cross, All Saints
Friday 29th March, 2.00pm Reflective hour, St Mary's
All are welcome to any of our services, and particularly at this most significant time of the Church’s calendar.
Please remember that there is no All Saints@6 meeting next week, Easter Sunday.
Pop up shop & bookstall:
The pop up shop is back this Sunday at the 10.30 family service. There are still a few Easter cards available and some general cards. We have stocked up on Fairtrade chocolate and tea and coffee and there is a sale on some of the Christian gifts.
The bookstall will be there too, with a range of Christian books and resources. Please speak to Lizzy if there’s something specific you would like her to get for you.
Lent Appeal:
Before Lent, we focussed on our giving, to God and to our churches, through service and through financial support. Once again our Lent appeal is for our ministry and mission in this community. In this case, giving won’t be aggregated and shared between our three benefice churches, but will be allocated to the church in which it’s given. However, many of our costs are shared, so if you’d like to support the work of the benefice across the board, please let one of our treasurers know and we’ll make sure that happens.
Midweek Music at St Mary’s:
On Wednesday 27th March at St Mary’s we will be welcoming back Naomi Boot, a student at the Royal College of Music, who will be giving a concert at 12.30 with Michael Smith entitled ‘Songs for Reflection’. Please join us as we journey through Holy Week. Refreshments will be served as usual from 11.30.
All Saints@6:
After Easter, All Saints@6 will be considering the 10 commandments, using J John’s helpful book, ‘Ten’. Lizzy has a couple of copies on the benefice bookstall, and can order more if you would like to buy one.
Congratulations to our bell ringers:
Tracey writes about our Standon ringers’ performance in the Bishop's Stortford District Striking Competition on 16th March. ‘Seven teams competed at St Cecila's, Little Hadham for the Hayden Cup and the team representing Standon, which was made up of Ringers who regularly ring in Standon on Sunday mornings and for Evensong, came 2nd! This means we will be one of two teams to go on to represent the District at the Kimpton Cup (the Hertfordshire County Striking Competition) later in the year.’
Mothers’ Union:
The Mothers’ Union East Cluster Lady Day service will be held on Monday 8th April at 11am at St James the Great church, Thorley CM23 4BE. Refreshments will be served after the service. If you would like to go please let Diane know before 26th March.
Rebecca away:
Rebecca is away for the next three weeks. If you have any administrative queries, please direct them to someone else during that time!
Libury Hall – change of date:
Please note that April’s Libury Hall service will now be on 10th April rather than 3rd. If you would like to come along and support the residents at this service, please speak to John.
Website:
Our benefice website is on the www.achurchnearyou.com platform. The benefice page can be reached via this link: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice/32-240BF/. The forward from https://ubsms.org.uk should point to that page.
Services for the next few weeks
Midweek services each week:
Tuesdays, 9.30am Holy Communion (BCP) & Bible study, St Catherine's
Wednesdays, 9.30am Morning worship & Bible study, St Mary's
Sunday services:
24th March 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's
6.00pm Service of music and readings for the start of Holy Week, St Mary's
31st March 10.30am Easter communion, St Mary's
7th April 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's
10.30am Morning worship, All Saints
6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints
14th April 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's
6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints
21st April 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's
10.30am Holy communion, All Saints
6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints
28th April 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's
6.00pm Choral evensong, St Mary's