Church letter

April 2025

Click for the church letter from March 2025

A time for reflection, thanks and celebration.

Here we are, once again, in Lent and looking forward to the approaching season of Easter, and there is so much happening in your church. Right at the end of the month, on 30 March, as well as the clocks going forwards, it is Mothering Sunday. We have a service of celebration at 10am that day to remember not only our mothers, but ‘our mother church’. That is what the celebration is founded upon: ‘Mothering Sunday’ rather than ‘Mother’s Day’. If you value your parish church, if you want your parish church to be here, then come along and use it, and celebrate it being here for you now, but also it being here for past and future generations.

Then, two weeks later, we begin Holy Week with a celebration on Palm Sunday on 13 April. There will be an 8am and a 10am service, with breakfast between the two services in the Memorial Hall. After breakfast we’ll process up to church for the Palm Sunday service, remembering Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Come along. Join in.

Following that is the passionate, emotive, and thoughtful time through Holy Week. There are reflective services on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings (see the church calendar for times and places.) On Maundy Thursday, we remember the events of ‘the Last Supper’ and the start of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. We gather for a service on Good Friday and remember Jesus’ crucifixion and death. On Easter Eve, on the Saturday evening, we wait, with a quiet, reflective service. Then on Easter Sunday we awake early and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. To begin the day there is a sunrise service at St Nicholas Church, which starts at 5.40am, followed by a breakfast of bacon butties in the Mission Church. We then gather once again for communion – our Eucharist, our thanksgiving meal together – celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. It is quite a 40-day journey through Lent, but it ends with a joyous celebration on Easter Sunday. I really encourage you to engage with this period of reflection and celebration.

Then, a week later, we will be celebrating our patron saint, St George, for the first time in many years. There is a special Choral Evensong service at 5pm on Sunday 27 April. Giving thanks for the past members of our parish church, celebrating its time now and praying for the future of our parish church. This will be followed by a social time together at the back of church with refreshments, nibbles, wine, tea/coffee. There will be an opportunity to learn more about the project to bring St George’s Church into the 21st century and prepare it for the 22nd.

Your parish church has been an important and central part of village life down through the centuries. As current custodians, users and worshippers, it is our duty to ensure that continues. So please come along, make use of it and celebrate having this wonderful place.

Revd David Commander, Rector and Area Dean