The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts
Inspiring faith, hope and love in each generation.
Ross Civic Society has a talk by Phil Downing, the excellent and engaging manager of Harvington Hall on the subject of priest holes (there are many at Harvington and he’s spent a few days in some of them).
The talk begins at 7.30 at the Larruperz Centre, on Wednesday 11th September. Non members can come along for £5, or join for even better value – £25 for the year.
Join us this evening (Sunday 8th September) for a special h.Art shaped Songs of Praise. The music has been chosen by the artists who will speak about them and about their work.
The service starts at 5.30, but come earlier to enjoy tea and cake.
We’re looking forward to Harvest. This year, our Harvest Service will be an all age service for all the churches in the Ross Parishes and will take place at Walford Church, at 9.30am on Sunday 29th September. (There will be no 9.30 service in Ross that day).
If you live in Ross or Brampton Abbotts and need transport to Walford, please let us know and we will organise it for you.
Then at 1.00am we’re having a bring and share Harvest Lunch in St Mary’s Church, Ross-on-Wye. Please book a free place so we can monitor (and if necessarily, limit) places. Please book early to avoid diappointment. Please bring along some food to share with others, there is no charge.
If you’d like to give a harvest gift, which will again be given to the community larder, please bring it along to the lunch in St Mary’s rather than the service in Walford.
This week we welcome back the Northwick Baroque for our First Wednesday @ 1 Free Lunchtime concert at St Mary’s.
Join us when you’re ready, with your lunch if you like, your laptop if you need to, tables and Wi-Fi provided.
This Sunday (1st September) is the Sunday before schools start back so at the All Age service at St Mary’s at 9.30am we will have a focus on Back to School! and we will be blessing our children and young people and everyone involved with schools as term starts again.
If you are going to nursery, school, college, uni, or work or volunteer in a school,
please bring…
A great back to school photo opportunity and a chance for us all to pray for them and wish all our young people and school staff/volunteers well.
If you have any queries or suggestions, please do contact Caroline on caroline@rossparishes.uk or Anne on anne@rossparishes.uk
Hope to see you there!
There’s still time to reserve your FREE place at the launch reception for John Kyrle 300 in St Mary’s Church, Ross-on-Wye on Saturday 31st August at 7.30pm.
The evening will include a short talk on the Poet Alexander Pope and John Kyrle as well as the premiere of Ian Lewis’s new film “Echoes of Kyrle”.
There is no charge for this event but we ask you to reserve tickets at https://rossparishes.uk/jk300
St Mary’s Choir is singing services this weekend (17th & 18th August) at Bath Abbey. It’s great to have a few supporters along with us once more. You can join us online for Sunday’s Eucharist (11.30am) or Evensong (3.30pm) here.
We’ve decided that Faith @ Five, due to be taking place in St Mary’s on Sunday (18th), would be better moved to another day. New date to be published soon.
It’s the first Wednesday of the month again which means the next FREE lunchtime concert is on at St Mary’s Church, starting at 1.00pm, but feel free to come along (with your lunch if you wish) when you’re ready.
Today (Wednesday 7th August) we welcome back Jill Crossland for a piano recital featuring Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. A concert lasting about 45 minutes.
If you can’t afford the time, why not bring your work along – tables and Wi-Fi provided.
Spread the word!
A reminder that there’s a special service for the Feast of the Transfiguration this evening (Tuesday 6th August), at 6pm in Walford Church. The service will be led by Dr John Davies and members of St Mary’s Choir. Wine and nibbles will follow the service.
It’s the first Wednesday of the month again which means the next FREE lunchtime concert is on at St Mary’s Church, starting at 1.00pm, but feel free to come along (with your lunch if you wish) when you’re ready. The concert will last about 45 minutes.
This month we welcome Jill Crossland – Jill has visited us before for an evening piano recital about 18 months ago. She will play music by Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.
If you can’t afford the time, why not bring your work along – tables and Wi-Fi provided.
Spread the word!
The focus for Faith@Five this afternoon is ‘What on earth is the Church for?’
Many across this benefice have a huge affection for the church and work so hard to maintain its life and ministry rather against the odds in a secular age. The seminar this afternoon will give John Davies a chance to refresh souls and imaginations as he outlines an encouraging and classic Church of England vision of God, the Church and ministry, adapted for modern times, with plenty of chance to test those ideas in discussion. The session will last an hour followed by a simple form of Evening Prayer. All are warmly invited.
This is number five of our Faith@Five series of talks.
Join us on Tuesday 6th August, at 6pm in Walford Church for a sung Eucharist to celebrate this feast day. The service will be led by Dr John Davies and members of St Mary’s Choir. Wine and nibbles will follow the service.
Join us tomorrow at St Mary’s (Sunday 28th July) to discuss My, faith, your faith, their faith: are all religions the same? with Professor David Thomas. This is number four of our Faith@Five series of talks.
Rishi Sunak is a Hindu, Suella Braverman is a Buddhist, Tony Blair is a Roman Catholic, the Radio 4 Today presenter Mishal Husain is a Muslim, and her fellow-presenter Emma Barnett is a Jew. Organised religion may be in decline, but religious faith is strong and varied. The United Kingdom is a country of many religious traditions all generally rubbing along together, though the world is racked by conflicts in which religions definitely play a part: Jews and Muslims in Gaza, Hindus and Muslims in India, Buddhists and Rohingyas in Myanmar. Must religious people always tend to accentuate the differences between themselves and others. What is the risk of recognising the things they hold in common?
The attitudes held by followers of one religious tradition towards followers of another can be roughly gathered under three headings. There are those who exclude others who do not follow their way because they are not right and will not be saved. There are those who include others who do not follow their way because they are right in part and may be saved. And there are those to accept the plurality of all believers as equally right and open to be saved. Are you an exclusivist, an inclusivist, or a pluralist? Explore what, why and how in St Mary’s at 5.00 pm on Sunday 28th July (moved from its original date by a week). Explorations last an hour, concluding with a short service.
Join us today at St Mary’s (Sunday 7th July) to explore the subject of growing up, with Colin Leggate. This is the third session of our Faith@Five series of talks.
Heather Hurley is once again leading a short illustrated talk, and walk around the church yard, about some forgotten (and some less forgotten) Ross residents, buried in St Mary’s churchyard. This time many have a connection with John Kyrle and she’ll be touching on a couple of more recent people, Noele Gordon and Dennis Potter.
Come along to church for 7.30pm (7.00pm if you’d like to come for the Friends of St Mary’s AGM) on Wednesday 3rd July.
Join us this afternoon (Sunday 30th June) for a splendid concert and a tasty tea.
Grieg, Handel, JC Bach, Tavener, Haydn.
The concert begins at 3.00pm. There will be tickets available on the door.
There’s an important meeting on Saturday 22nd June, with a repeat on Sunday 7th July. This is the first stage of the recruiting process for our next Rector. Theses meetings are open to anyone who would like to come along (you certainly don’t have to be a member of our regular congregations).
The Archdeacon of Hereford will be chairing the Saturday meeting. We’ll be considering where we are as a group of parishes, where we’d like to be, and most importantly, the sort of person we think we need to head up that process.
Just come along and join in the discussions.
Then later in the day (on Saturday 22nd) – come along and watch Bishop Sean Semple’s enthronement in Cyprus, on the large screen, at 3.00pm our time. Or watch at home: https://www.youtube.com/live/DMcnRVvp4MY
And finally, come and join in the fun of the big Quiz and puddings evening at 7pm.
More here: https://rossparishes.uk/charity-quiz/
Join us today at St Mary’s (Sunday 16th June) to explore the subject of prayer with Canon Freda Davies. This is the second session of our Fath@Five series of talks.
The Friends of St Mary’s are organising an evening for residents of Ross and beyond to come along and question all five candidates for the Hereford and South Herefordshire seat in the forthcoming election.
Wednesday 19th June, 7.00pm in St Mary’s Church. Tickets are free (but must be booked in advance). We expect this to be a popular event so book early!
Booking at https://fosmross.org.uk/hustings
There is an opportunity to submit questions at the point of booking (or later if you keep the booking link email). We’ll select questions from those submitted and invite the questioner to present it on the night. Questions need to be submitted by 3pm on Tuesday 18th June.
We look forward to an exciting night.
You may have detected a bit of a buzz about the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Well, you can come and join either or both the events that Ross is offering tomorrow (Thursday 6th June) at 8.15pm in St Mary’s, for “The D-Day Story” – a short presentation about the events of 1944, followed at 9.15pm by the lighting of the town beacon out on The Prospect.
We will be joined by His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire, Mr Edward Harley CBE and Mrs Harley and at least two D Day Veterans, Mr Stanley Wilson and Mr Peter Harkness. All of this is free of charge.
These events have been organised by St Mary’s Church and Ross Town Council.
The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts 