The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts
Inspiring faith, hope and love in each generation.
As 2020 ends we invite you to commemorate anyone you have lost during 2020 on the Ross Remembers site. We set up this online book of remembrance in March, during the first lockdown to remember anyone who has died for any reason. There’s a simple form on the site for you to enter details (including photographs, poems etc). There is no charge and the site is available to anyone in or around Ross-on-Wye. https://rossremembers.org
We’d like to wish you a very peaceful and joyous Christmas.
Details of remaining services for Christmas are at https://rossparishes.uk/christmas All services require pre-booked places.
Or join us live on YouTube (not Facebook): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q5Hx_UyH3o&list=PLjHmbsCmLi21n-0C4EF8CJ3TXBKLjnLQ8
We have taken the difficult decision to cancel a number of our planned Christmas services. This is largely due to concerns over the rise in Covid infections but also influenced by weather conditions. The following will not now take place:
You’ll find details of the services that are still going ahead at https://rossparishes.uk/christmas. We ask everyone who comes along to observe good social distancing and to bring a face mask. All services require pre-booking and if you don’t make it, most will be live streamed on Facebook.
In the light of increasing concern over the progress of Coronavirus we have been reviewing some of our remaining Christmas programme today and have, with a heavy heart, decided to cancel the proposed outside carol singing in the churchyard that was to have taken place on Wednesday and Thursday.
We apologise to all who had planned to come. The Bap Shack, who were to have been providing refreshments will instead be in the churchyard at the time of the Crib Service on Christmas Eve (4 pm service). There are only 5 places remaining at that service so book soon
Details of all our Christmas services will be found at https://rossparishes.uk/christmas.
We are sorry that the Carol Service live stream had streaming errors and we’re still trying to work out what the problem was. However, here is an uninterrupted recording of the repeat one at 6pm.
There are still a few tickets left for tomorrow’s carol services at St Mary’s. Sunday 20th December @ 4pm (2 tickets left) and 6pm (5 tickets left). If you don’t mange to get there you could watch the live stream on Facebook at 4pm (or any time after that).
Also there’s a Messy Church drop-in service from 2 to 3.15 pm.
Next week: Carols on the Green (you can sing) in the churchyard at 5.30 pm on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th (no booking required – just come along).
Details and booking for all Christmas services at https://rossparishes.uk/christmas
Why not come along to a Christingle service on Sunday 13th December at St Mary’s in Ross (4 pm) or at Walford (11.00 am).
The Christingle is an ancient tradition that in more modern times has been adopted by the Children’s Society. Christingle Services are taking place throughout the world this month, and our two services are a part of that.
You’ll need to book a place though and seats are going fast. If you can’t come you could watch the service from St Mary’s live on Facebook.
You’ll find all the links to booking and the live stream (and information about everything else that’s happening in the Ross Parishes this Christmas) at https://rossparishes.uk/christmas.
The Christingle is a beautiful and fairly ancient service and a great Christmasy experience. We’ve not held one in Ross for a very long time. But this year we are! You’ll need to book a place. Christingles are provided. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/copy-of-christingle-st-marys-church-ross-on-wye-sunday-13-december-tickets-131077144267
Or join us live on Facebook at 4pm on Sunday, 13th December.
If you’d prefer the morning then a similar service is taking place at 11am at Walford Church.
More links and information about all our Christmas events at https://rossparishes.uk/christmas
All seats have gone for the 4 pm Carol Service at St Mary’s. We have decided to repeat the service at 6 pm. Booking is on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/copy-of-carols-by-candlelight-1800-tickets-131705650145
The 4 pm service will be live streamed on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StMarysRoss/live/
We’ve published the events for Advent and Christmas. More is happening in the Ross Parishes than ever before at Christmas. Booking is required for all of the more popular events and seats are nearly gone for the carol service in particular.
Details and booking at https://rossparishes.uk/christmas
This morning’s virtual coffee morning is in full swing on Zoom. It continues until 12 noon and it’s the virtual place to be seen in Ross!
Join with this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82346692719
Come and join us in real life from 3.30 using the event rite link to book your places or pick up a bag and join us on line as we celebrate Advent and Christingle together.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/messy-church-st-marys-tickets-130324577319
Here’s this week’s story from the Toast team. It’s for all young people, of all ages, everywhere. Enjoy it! Oh, and get your hat ready!
While we are in Lockdown our toddler group, Toast, is still unable to meet in person.
The toast makers started a story-time for our young toast eaters to bring a bit of fun to this gloomy season and to keep in touch until we can see one another again.
This week Anne reads A Walk in The Woods. “Are you sitting comfortably …”
Enjoy!
If you enjoyed that there are more on the Toast page of our website.
Join us on Sunday from St Mary’s for a part live, part prerecorded service for a somewhat unusual Remembrance Tide. The service will be live on our Facebook page (https://facebook.com/stmarysross/live) at 11.05 on Sunday 8th November.
If you’re in Walford, a prerecorded service is already on our website (https://rossparishes.uk/digital-services).
As we enter the second lockdown this year Sean is resuming his pastoral messages. Here is the latest.
St Mary’s is open during the lockdown for private prayer and services will continue to be live streamed. All are assured of our prayers at this time.
In 1637, some 315 people died of plague here in Ross-on-Wye. A stone cross was erected in their memory in the corner of St Mary’s churchyard. It is hard for us in 2020 to imagine what life was like in 1637, but no doubt the people then were trying to carry out their daily tasks despite the horror of the sickness around them. And just as it is for us today, facing the threat of infection from Covid 19, communities affected would have been isolated in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease.
Government restrictions imposed on us in recent months have controlled travel and limited the number of people who are able to attend a funeral, so the friends and families of those who have died – whether of Covid 19 or some other cause – have not always been able to come and say their final farewells in the way they would have wanted. This has made it harder for us as a parish, and as a ministry team, to support the bereaved as we would normally do.
Traditionally, November has been the month when we remember those we have loved but see no longer. Our annual All Souls Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving will be held on Sunday 1st November at 6pm, and all are welcome to attend either in person (please let us know if you intend to come).
In addition, we have decided, in association with the Town Council, to try to provide some other way for people to remember those who have died. We are inviting anyone who would like to mark the loss of someone they knew who has died during this year to place a small stone or pebble, marked if they would like with the name or initials of the person they are remembering, on the stone steps at the base of the Plague Cross during the period from 26th October to 11th November. The first stone will be placed there by the Mayor on Monday 26th October. Each day during this period, a member of the Ross Parishes Ministry Team will spend a short time at the cross in prayer. After 11th November, the stones will be moved near to the crosses in the Garden of Remembrance in the churchyard. We hope that this small symbolic act of remembrance will be a comfort to people in their time of grief.
After several years of work, St Mary’s Church in Ross is celebrating the completion of major works to the building. The re-ordering of the church has included the addition of toilets and a kitchen area, a soundproof children’s room, the removal of the Victorian pews and new oak flooring, transforming the interior into a beautiful light open space. Another major phase has been completed this week – new glass entrance doors and the elimination of the steps allowing wheelchairs easy access through the north porch.
Alongside this work, the Friends of St Mary’s, in partnership with Ross-on-Wye Town Council, has funded the renewal of the church floodlights so that our iconic spire will again be seen as a beacon at night.
A special service of choral evensong will take place on Sunday 25th October at 6.00 pm to give thanks for the work and rededicate the north porch. The service will begin outside, when the floodlights will be switched on and move through the new porch into the church.
If you’d like to come and join in the celebration please join us in the churchyard at 6 pm for the switch-on of the lights. We’ll move quickly into church.
Places are limited in church please book a seat here.
Will things get better? Will things get worse? We have no answers, but we can be grateful that we have survived so far.
Please join us for our harvest weekend events.
10am – 5pm The church will be open with prayers hourly and displays representing groups from around the community. Come say a prayer, light a candle, or spend some time thanking God during this harvest season.
7pm – Virtual Harvest Supper
Prepare a meal at home that reminds you of harvest and then join us on Zoom to eat and drink together as we give thanks for good health and prosperity.
9:30 St. Mary’s Harvest Eucharist
A harvest service packed with favourite harvest hymns. Join us in church or watch online at rossparishes.uk/digital-services
6:00 – Choral Evensong
This will be the fist service our choir has sung live since March. Come and join us for this conclusion to our harvest celebration.
Harvest nowadays is not just about flowers, fruit and vegetables though there will be plenty of those in church. We want to celebrate all the fruits of the labour in the workplace: manufacturing, retailing, insuring, advising, training and volunteering. Please help us to display this by lending us something to put on show; or take a photograph of your establishment so that our visitors can see that Ross-on-Wye is very much surviving, is “open for business” and is thankful.
This Sunday Walford is celebrating their Harvest Festival at 11 am while in Ross there is the usual live streamed Eucharist at 9.30. Come along to church or watch live on Facebook.
At noon, Tiffany our curate will be ordained Deacon in Hereford Cathedral. You can’t attend in person but the service will be live streamed on the Diocesan Facebook page and we’ll be screening it live in St Mary’s at 12 should you want to come along and feel a bit more a part of the service. Or if you prefer something a bit quieter there’s an 8 am said service at St Mary’s.
