Come and help celebrate this Sunday as six of our young people, Monty, Bronte, Amelia, Isabelle, Paisley and Gabriella and two adults, Jerry and Kay are confirmed by Bishop Richard. Please keep them in your prayers.
They would love to have you present to support and celebrate this important step with them. And they invite you for delicious confirmation cakes after the service!
St Mary’s, 9.30am All Age Confirmation and Communion for all the Ross Parishes together.
Here is this week’s newsletter and more, from St Mary’s.
We’re looking forward to Harvest Festival tomorrow (Sunday 29th September). 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. Parking is available in the church field next to the church. (There’s no 9.30 service in Ross).
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 disappointment. 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.
Faith@Five – Faith and History in the Early Church
The documents that make up the New Testament are the results of an explosion. Appearing over a period of about fifty years between 70 and 120 CE, they contain within them traces of what that explosion was. But these traces are fragmentary, and the evidence they yield requires the most careful and painstaking work to reconstruct.
This sixth and final session of Faith@Five will seek to examine some of the evidence for Jesus that is contained in the New Testament writings. It will also look at the forms into which the story of Jesus was shaped by the early Christian authors who set down their individual reactions to the explosion Jesus caused. Do these Christian documents allow us actually to glimpse Jesus himself, who he was and what he did?
Come and find out in St Mary’s at 5.00pm next Sunday, 6 October. When David will spend an hour looking and learning, and end with Evening Prayer at 6.00pm.
We are delighted, though not surprised, that Wonderful Walford School has been judged as OUTSTANDING in their recent Ofsted report. They said, ‘The moment you step over the threshold at Walford Primary School, you know this is a school that values education.’
We offer Louise George, the pupils, staff and governors hearty congratulations from the Ross Parishes. We have a great relationship with you all and are proud of that.
We’re just worried that “Wonderful Walford” becoming “Outstanding Walford” will spoil the alliteration.
You can read Miss George’s letter to the parents here.
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 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…
School kit such as backpacks, lunch boxes, pencil cases etc
And… children and young people starting new schools might like to come in uniform to show it off to us all! Staff might like to come in your school clothes!!
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts 