Author: rcl53

The Friends of St Mary’s welcomed Ross Macmillan who introduced an audience of nearly a hundred to the music of Ludovico Einaudi. The church, lit with candles and coloured lights looked spectacular, creating the perfect atmosphere for this lovely evening.

St Mary’s was packed for the Crib Service this afternoon.

A big thank you to everyone who came to our monthly Saturday morning Coffee & Cake @ St Mary’s, hosted this month by Messy Church. It was great!

Congratulations to Mark Sanderson who has been awarded a Medallist of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours List “For services to the community in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire”. Thank you for all you have done, and all you continue to do.

Each year we have two meetings, one to elect our churchwardens and one to elect PCC members.  While different groups of people are entitled to vote as these meetings, all are welcome to attend and if you are on the Church Electoral Roll, you can vote for your PCC representatives.

The meetings also looks back at the previous year.  For us it has been a challenging year with Covid 19 still affecting both what we do and how we do it.  There have been other challenges too but also good things to celebrate.  Come to the meeting and find out more!

Once the “business” is over, (last year both meetings were finished in less than 45 minutes), you are invited to join us for a glass of wine or juice and nibbles and enjoy an informal time together.

Come and join us on Wednesday 4th May at 7pm in St Mary’s Church

Items needed

Dried foods: rice, pasta, lentils, fruit and packet soups

Porridge, ground coffee

Tinned foods: meat, soups, beans, spag, tomatoes, veg and fruit

Energy bars to be eaten on the go, sweets for children

Dog and cat food

Baby food (not jars), Baby milk powder, nappies, wet wipes

Toiletries: dry shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste,
roll-on deodorants, toilet rolls

Torches, batteries, battery power banks for mobile phones

Colouring books, pencils, crayons

Medical items: Children and adult Ibuprofen and Paracetamol

Burn dressings, insoles and foot care for blisters, first aid kits

Money (for additional food and fuel) can also be given directly via https://gofund.me/6da55a0b.                               

The churches in our parishes are helping Katie Fowler of KTs Craft Warehouse in Edde Cross Street in her fantastic efforts to help the people of Ukraine.  Already lorry loads of aid from people in and around Ross has been sent across to the border and next week, Katie herself is leaving to help with the humanitarian effort.

Katie will leave to travel to Romania on Tuesday 12th April and will be staying at a university in Suceava. She will then be ferrying refugees from the border with Ukraine to Suceava. Translators, Diana and Vilius will be helping with the form filling required for the refugees and with the cooking for the many refugees arriving.  There are many families of children and even the little things like a packet of sweets can help to bring a smile to their faces in such appalling ties.

The Mayor of Vinnytsia will take Katie to the hospital in the city where Ross has sent aid on a previous trip. This hospital is being used as a military hospital and Katie hopes to be able to supply generators as when the power goes off as it regularly does, it is difficult to keep patients on machine alive without power.  In addition, aid collected this week will be sent to Valkiv Central District Hospital in Kharkiv where there is a massive shortage of food and equipment for the many new born babies.

No donation is too small.  If you can help Ross support these projects, please do. Thank you.

This morning the Rector, Sean, admitted six new choristers to St Mary’s Choir. In a service which took justice as its theme, the new choristers led the congregation singing the Kyrie (Lord have mercy), joined other children in prayers for the people of Ukraine and sang during the Communion.

One of our young church members, Willow, has taken it upon herself to organise a tea dance with her dancing partner, Joel, at St Mary’s Church in Ross to raise money for their imminent competitions in Blackpool! The tea dance will be held on March 26th from 1pm-4pm, and they would love to see you there. Tickets are £5 and include a free cuppa and a cake! There will also be a raffle, dance demonstrations, opportunities to learn a new dance as taught by Joel and Willow and generally lots of good fun! Get in touch with Charlotte Taylor or Katy Marsh via facebook messenger if you would like to purchase tickets, and we can put them in named envelopes on the door for you once payment has been received. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you there!