Author: MarkSanderson

Dear God,

We come before you today, humbled and heavy-hearted after three years of war, to pray for peace in Ukraine. We pray for the people caught in this terrible war, for those who have lost their homes, their loved ones, and their sense of safety. We pray for the courage of those fighting for their country, and for the wisdom of world leaders to find a path to peace.

We pray for peace, not just in Ukraine, but in the whole world. May conflict and hatred be replaced by understanding and love.

In your name, we pray. Amen.

St Mary’s will be dark tonight, we’re taking part in the Dark Skies Herefordshire project with CPRE Herefordshire (https://www.cpreherefordshire.org.uk/our-focus-and-campaigns/dark-skies-herefordshire/)

We are delighted to welcome the author Tom Bullough to St Mary’s on Saturday 3rd May.

Tom is going to discuss his book Sarn Helen, which won the best book of the year in Wales 2024, and show us some excerpts from his film Tarddle / Source about the River Wye. This film follows the River Wye from the Wales / England border to its source in the Cambrian Mountains recording the stories, hopes and concerns of the people living in the Wye Valley affected by the impact of climate change.

Tom’s writing focusses on Wales, churches, climate emergency and the relationship between people and the natural world shifting over time.

This is part of a series of events linked to our commitment to St Mary’s as an Eco Church. 

We’re excited that it’s Choral Evensong again, today (Sunday 16th February, 6.00pm)

It’s the third Sunday of the month, which means there’s another wonderful service of Choral Evensong at 6pm in St Mary’s – the service that reaches the parts other services can’t!

This time the choir is singing a modern setting of the Magnificat 7 Nunc Dimittis (written for King’s College Cambridge) by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and a wonderful big Edwardian anthem, Evening Hymn by Henry Balfour Gardiner.

Join us for a glass of sherry after the service. A perfect way to end your week and home in time for “Call the Midwife!”

Hope to see you there.

The gable cross, behind this scaffolding has become somewhat wobbly, so Alec Curtis, one of the team of stonemasons at the Cathedral, is taking it down, creating a new base stone (which has cracked) and then putting it back up with some stainless steel pins to make it more secure.

When he’s done that, he’ll be moving into the church to begin work on stabilising the 1895 marble floor in the sanctuary, around the high altar.

We’re back up and running with phone and broadband intact in The Ross Parishes office, thank you for your patience.

We’ve switched the office to BeFibre (we had a free year from them the church and the hall). The switch went smoothly and we’ve more than halved our bill.

Did you know that if you use our referral link to sign up for BeFibre broadband St Mary’s will receive £100 from BeFibre, at no cost to you. https://aklam.io/yvW2uH

Every six years we have to write off the electoral roll and build it again from scratch. We’re in one of those years.

If you’d like to be on the electoral roll please tell us here (it’s very straightforward):

We need this to be complete by 21st February (for Ross). The Annual Church Meeting (APCM) is earlier this yer than previously on Tuesday 18th March.

More on that, and the Electoral Roll at https://rossparishes.uk/apcms

This week is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. There is a short service in St Mary’s Church today (Monday, 20th January) at Noon. All are welcome.

Similar services are taking place all week in other churches in Ross, with a lunch at The Venue at the weekend.

Whoopee!

It’s the third Sunday of the month (19th January) which means there’s another wonderful service of Choral Evensong at 6pm in St Mary’s – the service that reaches the parts other services can’t! This time the choir is singing music by two greats of the Edwardian era, Charles Wood and Charles Villiers Stanford. And now … join us for a glass of sherry after the service – how very English (well not the sherry, the concept!)

Hope to see you there.

Join us for a superb celebration of Epiphany at Choral Evensong in St Mary’s, this evening (Sunday 5th January) at 6.00pm.

Wise men and great music. The perfect 12th night event and the final bit of Christmas (unless you cout Candlemas, 2nd February, – as we do, and will).

#12BigThankYous – 11th Day – To all who help us maintain our digital presence

Thanks to our streaming team, Simon, Roy, Hugh and Martin who week by week take our main services into the homes of those who cannot be with us in church, including a large regular congregation at West Bank Care Home.

And to all who help us maintain our website, our team of social posters and all who follow us on the website, Facebook or Instagram, who like us, repost and share our news more widely. If you’re one of those, please show your solidarity by liking this post right now!

Celebrate Epiphany at our All Age Eucharist at 

St Mary’s this Sunday (5th January) at 9.30am. Parts for all – wise men, women, children …, and if you don’t consider yourself “wise” others will and there’s no test! A service for the whole family.

Afterwards, Caroline would love you to join her and three camels outside Hereford Cathedral 

for a memorable All Age Epiphany procession: arrive 12.30ish for 1pm start. 

If you’d like to meet up, bring sandwiches and meet on the grass (or inside the cathedral if raining). Caroline will be there to greet you with warming cups of hot chocolate and marshmallows! 

#12BigThankYous – Tenth Day – For all who provide a welcome and support

Members of the Church Welcome team are around throughout the week to welcome visitors. We thank Rachel Lewis for organising this, and her team: Averil, Barbara, Derek, Hilary, Jane, Janet, Jean, Jenny, Helen, Margaret C, Margaret G, Mary, Nick N, Nick O, Pat, Paul, Teresa J, Teresa N, Toni and Trish. They are, to those who visit our church, very effective ambassadors for Ross, borne out by comments in the visitors book and posts on social media.

A large team of sidemen welcome people to services, thanks to Janet and Nick Nelson for organising them and to each of them.

The Tuesday Tea & Toast team, the people who work in the Community Larder, Wednesday’s Toast & Toddle team and all our catering team. And on Wednesdays, our Toast and Toddle team (already mentioned) welcomes young families.

Finally, to our brilliant administrator Rachael Daniel who has provided daily support from the powerhouse that is the church office. Rachael has the most amazing knack of spotting the small things everyone else has overlooked.

#12BigThankYous – 9th Day – To our musicians

9 – Our musicians

We are proud of our musical tradition at St Mary’s; a large number of people work hard throughout the year to continue it. We particularly thank our organist Adrian Taylor and Mark Sanderson, Director of Music. Our 30 strong adult choir sings for all our main services, supported by the 15 members of our wonderful Youth Choir.

We also need to say a big thank you to all the parents for their support in getting their children to rehearsals, and often sitting through them.

Thanks to those who support our occasional choir Round Byrd and our programme of Come, Sing & Sup events and to all who provide and attend our concert and events programme.

Our First Wednesday @ One programme of free lunchtime concerts was new this year. Thanks to all the performing artists: Chase Baroque, Northwick Baroque, Northwick Consort, Ruth Cartledge, James MacDowell-Scott & Jill Crossland. And those, already mentioned, who generously funded these events.

#12BigThankYous – 7th Day – To all fundraisers and the finance team

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Roy Milnes, or amazing treasurer, also to Paul Cummings our Benefice treasurer.

Cameron Hill has taken over from Paul Eward RIP and now diligently and quietly reclaims Gift Aid on as many donations as possible so that our giving brings in 25% more than it otherwise would. We acknowledge Paul’s many years of service and thank Cameron for taking over this job.

Our Fun, Food and Funds group organises all the main fundraising events. Sincere thanks to Rachel Lewis who chairs that group and to Paul, Jane, Janet, Roy, Pat, Fiona, Jean and Sarah. Their work has brought in over £13,000 this year but this has only happened because many have supported their events.

And then there is the whole army of people who make and serve refreshments throughout at special events, monthly for Coffee @ St Mary’s, which has raised about £3000 this year, and Sunday by Sunday after services. We thank them all.

#12BigThankYous – 12th Day – To our Ministry Team

We are so lucky to have such a strong and capable ministry team to carry us through the vacancy. Many parishes in such situations have no one; we have a team of six. Thank you to Caroline, Colin, David, Derek, Freda and John.

We thank also our Lay Ministry team: Melanie, Paul, Paul, Janet, Anne, Sue, Helen and Ann. They help to lead worship in church and to visit those who can’t get to church.

During the vacancy our churches are being managed by our Vacancy Management Group (VMG). That is Gay, Murray, Matthew, Bryan and Mark. With the support and help of our Rural Dean, Sheila and Archdeacon, Derek. Thank you.

Thanks to our last Rector, Sean Semple – yes, he was here for the first quarter of the year!  We continue to wish him well in his new role as Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf.

We greatly look forward to welcoming our new Rector, Kelvin, with his family, at the very end of April. Then an exciting new chapter begins.

Here’s to 2025!