Author: MarkSanderson

This is your last chance (before Wednesday 18th October) to buy tickets for Jill Crossland’s Piano Recital at St Mary’s Church, Ross-on-Wye. Tickets available here https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/fosmross/t-dvllyry

There is a tale, that the Tudor composer and organist of Chichester Cathedral, Thomas Weelkes was fined for urinating on the Dean, from the organ loft, during evensong. Sadly it’s not documented, but many only slightly less serious incidents, are very well recorded.

We celebrate his music, in his 400th anniversary year, with a special service of Choral Evensong (one of the Church of England’s greatest jewels). It will be sung by the newly established occasional choir, “Round Byrd” in St Mary’s. The service will last about 45 minutes. Come along and judge for yourself!

This week is Baby Loss Awareness Week and we’re holding a very short service in St Mary’s at 6.30 pm on Friday. If you’ve lost a bay or know people who have please come along. There will be an opportunity to light a candle as part of the national campaign.

More on Baby Loss Awareness at https://babyloss-awareness.org.

The coach is now full, but please register below if you’d like to join the waiting list, in case of cancellations – We’ll let you know.

We’ll be leaving from Wilton Road carpark at 5.45pm, Tuesday 7th November (the coach will then take us to the refreshments after the service, retuning to Ross around 10pm). Cost is £10 – please bring cash on the day.

We celebrate our patron saint (St Michael) on Friday 29th September with Evening Prayer at 6 pm, followed by drinks.

And Harvest Festival on Sunday 8th October at 11am, followed by harvest lunch.

St Mary’s very own, Adrian Taylor is giving a recital in Linton Church tomorrow (Saturday 9th September). And it’s FREE!

ORGAN ODYSSEY: SATURDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 7pm
In what is becoming an annual Organ Concert we are delighted to welcome Adrian Taylor
from St Mary’s Ross.  The evening will include a demonstration of the Hauptwerk software
which can electronically change the sound of the organ so it can sound like some of the greatest organs from across the world.  This software is currently being used in Gloucester Cathedral whilst its organ is restored so that the temporary electronic organ sounds like Hereford Cathedral.  Admission is free with a retiring collection and refreshments in the interval.

The great music keeps coming at St Mary’s! On Saturday, 19th August, we welcome Laurence John (St Davids Cathedral) to St Mary’s once more for an organ recital.

Tickets / Details of this and many other events hosted by the Friends of St Mary’s at https://fosmross.org.uk/blog

Trumpet Tune in D major – Daniel Bishop (b 1981)                       

Sonata No 3 in A major – Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)            

A sad pavane for these distracted times – Thomas Tomkins (1572–1656)           

Coronation March: Orb and Sceptre – William Walton (1902–83)                 

Prelude and Fugue in D major bwv 532 – J. S. Bach (1685–1750)                         

Three Preludes founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)

Sortie in E flat major – L.–J. A. Lefébure-Wély (1817–69)

SUMMER TEA PARTY – Thursday  27th  July, 2.30 to 4pm

Hosted by Sarah, Penny & Viv at  Arthur’s Barn, Wilton, HR9 6BH  (opposite Castle Lodge Hotel)          All in aid of St Mary’s church Funds Tickets £5. Numbers are limited and booking is essential. We’ll be indoors if rains.

Contact Sarah for details and tickets sarahmcgillveray@gmail.com or 07775 942410

We want to improve the facilities in St Mary’s by adding a more accessible means of displaying visuals with a large drop-down screen and a projector. For some time now we’ve been using two TVs which are not big enough. This will be a discrete installation, professionally fitted, that will allow us more effectively to host a greater range of events, and from time-to-time enhance worship (though there is no plan to make use of it all the time in services).

We have already raised about half of the £20,000 cost through grants. The Friends of St Mary’s have agreed to donate £5,000 which leaves another £5,000 to be found and we wondered if we might be able to raise this with private donations.

Might you consider helping us? If so, you can use or crowdfunder page: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/projector-and-screen or better still just let us know and we’ll arrange something to suite you that doesn’t involve pay commission.

If you’d like to know more please be in touch.

A new bench has been installed in St Mary’s open churchyard this morning in memory of our much loved and lost member of St Mary’s congregation, Celia Glover.

The bench has been given by Derek and sited close to a place where most recently she loved to sit and rest on her way to church and to the town. We are grateful to Alan Sonn for his work on installing it.

A great deal has been going on in and around St Mary’s churchyards over the last few weeks, and a lot has been achieved. You can find out how we’re developing the maintenance of the space at https://rossparishes.uk/churchyard. There’s more to come.

It’s a busy time, with a lot of long grass to cut back, now that the height of the growing season is past. You can help by joining the next session of the Churchyard Angels on the first Saturday of the month from 9.30 am

St Mary’s Choir is now Out & About for Evensong during the summer. Catch us as follows:

• Sunday 9th July – Llanwarne – 6.30 pm
• Sunday 23rd July – Upton Bishop – 6.00 pm
• Friday 1st September – Chichester Cathedral – 5.30 pm
• Saturday 2nd September – Chichester Cathedral – 5.30 pm
• Sunday 3rd September – Chichester Cathedral – 3.00 pm
• Sunday 10th September – Goodrich – 6.00 pm
• Sunday 24th September – St Mary’s – 6.00 pm
• Sunday 8th October – Come & Sing & Sup – St Mary’s – 4 for 6.00 pm

If you’re a member of a local church and you’d like us to come and sing choral evensong for you between April and October in 2024 please let us know. Several dates are already gone.

This is a fun way to spend a Saturday evening, dining at the best restaurants around the town! The good news is, there’s still time to register your interest, as a host or as a guest (it’s assumed that hosts are also guests). Details are below but be quick, we need to know by Sunday 25th June as there’s planning to do!

We have assembled a choir of over 40 singers from a wide area, to sing this special service of Choral Evensong in St Mary’s, with very special music. Please come along and hear some of the most complex and beautiful Tudor church music to be performed there for many years. The service starts at 5 pm and will last about 45 minutes. We will be rehearsing from 2pm and you are welcome to drop in on that too. More at https://rossparishes.uk/great-round-byrd

The Safari Supper on 8th July is edging ever-closer and we now need to start working out who will host courses and who their surprise guests will be. We still need volunteers to offer to host starters (at your home), main course (at home) and desert in St Mary’s Church. We will then need to work out a master plan to identify who will go where.

If you would like to participate do please pass your details to Rachel, Mark, Freda or Janet Nelson or send an email to Paul. The booking deadline is 25th June after which we will write to everyone to confirm details.

On the night we meet in the Church for ’sundowners’ and then head off to our first hosts. We are not looking for fine-dining but some fun and an opportunity to share fellowship with one another. Further details can be found on the St Mary’s website: https://rossparishes.uk/safari-supper/.

Heather Hurley gave a very popular local history talk last year; she’s back for part 2. Come along and hear the stories from the lives of some of the people buried in St Mary’s Churchyard. Join us for a glass of wine and Heather’s talk. After that bring your glass out into the churchyard as we search for the graves of the people featured in the talk.

Wednesday 28th June – 7.30 pm – St Mary’s Church – A Friends of St Mary’s event.