The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts
Inspiring faith, hope and love in each generation.
There is a choice of services today in The Ross Parishes.
9.30 – Live Streamed Eucharist from St Mary’s
11.00 – Live Family Service via Zoom (Walford)
3.30 – Popup Picnic Service at St Mary’s
Whether live, in person, or later on “catch-up” today or during the week; we look forward to welcoming you to our churches.
We’re carrying out a bit of an audit of our online worship offering and would love to hear from you if you’ve joined us for a service, or part of a service, any time over the last few months; or even if you haven’t and have thoughts to share.
Please take a minute or so to answer a few questions.
Here’s an additional treat to follow on from yesterday’s service, from Elaine Loe, Centre Manager for the Wye Valley branch of Christians Against Poverty.
If you missed the service yesterday the live stream is here.
And details of what’s happening in The Ross Parishes accessible from the home page of our website: https://rossparishes.uk
Walford Church is holding an outdoor service on Sunday morning. At St Mary’s in Ross there is Picnic Church in the afternoon.
Or if you fancy something more conventional, come along to the 9.30 Eucharist at St Mary’s or join in at home with the live streamed service – https://rossparishes.uk/digital-services
If you’d like to come along to our ever evolving service on Sunday at St Mary’s at 9.30 am, bookings are now live.
If not you may like to drop in on the live stream at home. https://rossparishes.uk/digital-services
We look forward to seeing you in either place.
If you missed Laurence’s recital yesterday evening, or if you just thought it was so amazing that you’d like to relive the experience, you can see it at 7.30 this evening (Sunday 26th July) when it premieres on YouTube in a specially edited version. It will, of course, be available any time after that.
Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back and relax – and no false starts this time!
There is no charge for this recital but it is a fundraising event. A great deal of hard work has gone into make it what we hope will be an enjoyable experience. We hope you’ll consider donating to the maintenance and development of the fabric of St Mary’s.
This is Laurence’s third summer recital at St Mary’s. His two previous concerts were near sell outs and attracted 300 music lovers from all over Herefordshire and surrounding counties.
Laurence said: “Though churches are now open for public worship, social distancing restrictions are still quite severe and effectively mean that holding a recital in the church itself is not a realistic possibility. So the concert is being streamed live on the internet and will still be available for viewing at home for some time afterwards.”
Laurence is also breaking with tradition in another way. “Organists generally tend to compile their own recital programmes. But this time I wanted to give audience members a relatively rare opportunity to select their own favourite pieces of music. We’ve had many requests and I’m afraid I’ve not been able to include them all, so please accept my apologies if your piece has not made it.”
Five years ago, Laurence, who was then a sixth form pupil at Hereford Cathedral School, became possibly St Mary’s youngest ever organist in the church’s 700-year history.
He subsequently went on to become organ scholar at Hereford Cathedral where, on occasions, he also conducted the cathedral choir and once played a fanfare for the arrival of the Duke of Kent.
For the past three years he has been an organ scholar and music student at The Queen’s College Oxford. During this time he has accompanied the college’s world famous choir on BBC Radio Three’s Choral Evensong, played at a Westminster Abbey Eucharist, with a congregation from all over the world, and toured with the choir in the United States, Spain and Portugal.
Litanies — Jehan Alain (1911–40)
Noël Variations — Louis-Claude Daquin (1694–1772)
Hornpipe from Water Music — G.F. Handel (1685–1759)
Three pieces based on hymn tunes
Rhosymedre — Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Ar Hyd y Nos — Welsh traditional (arr. Laurence John)
Nun danket alle Gott — Siegfried Karg-Elert (1877–1933)
Carol from Five Bagatelles — Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
Postlude in D minor — C.V. Stanford (1852–1924)
Nimrod from Enigma Variations — Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Toccata from Symphonie V — Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937)
Sunday’s service, at 9.30 am at St Mary’s is for churches in The Ross and Archenfield Deanery. You will be most welcome to attend in person but you’ll need to book a seat – we’re limiting the congregation to 40.
Alternatively you will be able to watch the service as a live stream.
https://www.facebook.com/StMarysRoss/live/
There will be a live streamed said Communion service at 10.00 on Thursday. Again that can be viewed on our Facebook page.
It was a delight to welcome Year 6 from Brampton Abbotts Primary School to St Mary’s yesterday evening for the premiere of their film “Zoom School the Musical”
Brampton Abbotts have been something of a beacon school for the county over recent months, making excellent use of learning platforms and Zoom for learning on a daily basis. They’ve become so proficient that the final icing on the cake was to make a 40 minute film, all remotely with clever scripting. direction and editing from their teacher and deputy head teacher Sara Herriott, assisted by teaching assistant Jemma Jones.
Two screenings took place in order to accommodate half of the class at a time, with their parents, in family bubbles, 40 people per screening.
With an introduction and endorsement by Frank Cottrell Boyce, they’ve already been featured on Radio Hereford & Worcester and this morning will appear on Radio 5 Live.
You can watch the long awaited film here.
We’re celebrating the easing of Coronavirus lockdown measures in many ways and not least with a gala organ recital by one of Britain’s finest young classical musicians.
Laurence John, 22 and a Ross resident, will perform an hour-long internet programme of requests from St Mary’s on Saturday 25 July at 7.30.
This will be Laurence’s third summer recital at the church. His two previous concerts were near sell outs and attracted 300 music lovers from all over Herefordshire and surrounding counties.
Laurence said: “Though churches are now open for public worship, social distancing restrictions are still quite severe and effectively mean that holding a recital in the church itself is not a realistic possibility. So the concert will be streamed live on the internet and will still be available for viewing at home for some time afterwards.”
Laurence is also breaking with tradition in another way. “Organists generally tend to compile their own recital programmes. But this time I want to give audience members a relatively rare opportunity to select their own favourite pieces of music. I can’t guarantee to play them all. It all depends on the response. But I shall do my best and think I can promise a varied, interesting, and enjoyable evening.”
Five years ago, Laurence, who was then a sixth form pupil at Hereford Cathedral School, became possibly St Mary’s youngest ever organist in the church’s 700-year history.
He subsequently went on to become organ scholar at Hereford Cathedral where, on occasions, he also conducted the cathedral choir and once played a fanfare for the arrival of the Duke of Kent.
For the past three years he has been an organ scholar and music student at The Queen’s College Oxford. During this time he has accompanied the college’s world famous choir on BBC Radio Three’s Choral Evensong, played at a Westminster Abbey Eucharist, with a congregation from all over the world, and toured with the choir in the United States, Spain and Portugal.
Requests for virtual seats (and pieces) can be made at https://fosmross.org.uk/laurence.
Voluntary donations to the Friends of St Mary’s can also be made on the website. They will go directly to St Mary’s on this occasion and be used in accordance with the Friends aims and objectives.
If you missed this morning’s streamed service you can watch it here:
We’re back in church in Ross and the service starts at 9.30. Almost all the tickets have been taken now but it’s still possible to join the service streamed live on our Facebook Page from 9.30.
We’re back in church again and there will be a service at 9.30 am. You are welcome to attend but you’ll need to book a place
The full order of service will be available here later in the week for you to download and bring with you (digitally on your device or printed).
The service will be live streamed to our Facebook page (you don’t need a Facebook account to view that – only to interact with it). It will also be recorded and available here and on Facebook when the service has finished.
Virtual Coffee will take place in Zoom immediately after the service. Feel free to bring your flask of coffee to church or to join in at home. We’ll have a live link to Zoom from the church and a screen to connect with folks at home.
There will also be a live stream from St Mary’s at 10.00 am on Thursday of a said Eucharist. Again, this will be on our Facebook page
A Eucharist will be streaming on the website at 9.30 am
https://rawchurch.org.uk/digital-services
There will be a family service at Walford at 11.00 am. Details of how to join that are on the website too.
Ross Remembers is a new website (https://rossremembers.org) where you can remember a loved one who has died.
All you need to do that, is a photograph (or more) and a short piece of text about the person. There is the option to add prayers and poetry, anything really that you think is relevant. All is explained on the site.
The site is free to use and you can include anyone there who has died for any reason. It is open to people of any faith and none.
We will also be holding a streamed service from St Mary’s on Monday 13th July at 8.30 pm at which we will remember by name all those who have died in Ross, Walford and Brampton Abbotts this year as well as all those who have been added to the site by that time. If there is anyone you’d particularly like us to remember in the service please let us know.
We’re delighted that Laurence has offered another recital at St Mary’s.
This one will be at a distance though. He’ll be playing in Church but the audience will be in their home watching online. The advantages are:
What’s not to like!
Though not essential you can book your seat here, you can also request a piece. We’ll send you details of where you can find it in due course.
Live Family Service for the Ross Parishes – 10.45 on Zoom – All are welcome to join us for family worship. Please email Chris Blanchard in advance if you would like to attend, to receive an email link to the service with info about how to prepare and what to bring.
We will be imagining and exploring Jesus’ parable “The kingdom of God is like a party…” through songs and actions, story telling and prayers. Exploring the Bible and praying using imagination is an approach that Christians of all ages and backgrounds have used for centuries. You can also listen to a guided meditation on the same passage here: https://taketime.org.uk/themed-meditations/103-the-great-banquet/ You might like to try it. Do ask Caroline Pascoe or Chris Blanchard if you’d like to know more.
This morning’s service is now on the website. It’s a Deanery service this week from Little Birch led by the Rural Dean, The Revd Mark Johnson. https://rawchurch.org.uk/digital-services
Today is Music Sunday. A Eucharist combining music and nature will premiere on the website at 9.30 am. You’ll also find details of the national celebration of music in worship taking place this evening at 6.00 pm on the same page. https://rawchurch.org.uk/digital-services
Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, the day when the Church gives thanks for the institution of the Eucharist.
There will be a Eucharist from Walford Church at 10.00 on the Website: https://rawchurch.org.uk/digital-services
Looking forward to Toast and Toddle on Wed at 10.00am for an hour of fun, stories and songs, everybody welcome!
This week the story will be read by Anne, children – please make sure you bring your toothbrush! last week’s story is on the Facebook group page:
Gill and Geoff will be arranging a scavenger hunt and Helen will provide the music.
With Father’s Day on the horizon, Gill has suggested a very personal gift that you can make for the big day.
You will need:-
To join the Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83608422213…
Password: 402806
The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts 