News & Events

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Services on Sunday 21st December, in the Ross Parishes are:

• 8.00am – said communion @ St Mary’s, Ross
• 9.30am – Sung Eucharist bringing the season of Advent to a splendid conclusion – St Mary’s, Ross
• 12.00 Noon – A carol service at Brampton Abbotts Church
• 4.00pm – Nine Lessons & Carols with St Mary’s Choir, by candlelight – St Mary’s Ross
• 4.00pm – Candlelit Carols – Walford Church

For many, this is where Christmas begins. Join us at 4pm on Sunday 21st December in St Mary’s for our most popular Christmas service, all by candlelight.

You can download the order of service to your phone at rossparishes.uk/oos

Before we get too deep into Christmas, here’s a bit of forward planning for you with an opportunity to think of Epiphany and Candlemas in The Ross Parishes. Perhaps you’d like to Come, Sing & Sup with us on Sunday 11th January?

Save the dates!

Please be aware that the office at the Rectory is closed this week on Tuesday and Friday. It is open as usual on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9.00am to 2.00pm

Have you lost your glasses? They were found in the churchyard and you can retrieve them from the welcome desk in church.

Michael Lunts will be performing at the Christmas Tree Festival today.

It’s really two for the price of one: a great concert and the tree festival. The concert begins at 1.30. There are tickets to be had on the door (just £10). We look forward to seeing you.

It is with deep sadness that we have to report the death of Gerald Altree. Gerald has been in our thoughts and prayers for some time and died yesterday, following a heart attack (Sunday 16th November). We continue to pray for Gerald and for Pam, Kate and Glen and their families at this sad time.

Gerald has been a very active member of the community at St Mary’s and around the town for many decades. He has served on the Deanery Synod for some time and was churchwarden in the 1990s. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to him and to Pam.

Details of Gerald’s funeral will be shared here in due course.

Tracey Jane Bell, a member of our congregation, is collecting teddy bears and soft toys to send to children with special needs in Zimbabwe (Community Action Trust UK reg charity no. 1183951). She needs them by next Sunday, 23rd November to be shipped on 24th. If you have any new teddies or soft toys you would like to donate, please bring them to St Mary’s on Sunday or leave them at the Welcome Desk. Thank you. www.communact.org.

The Four Last Things – Heaven, Hell, Death and Judgement – Advent is a time of waiting. We wait for Jesus the infant, coming to live a human life, but we also wait for Christ the Judge, 

coming to reward and punish. On the Sundays in and around Advent, Kelvin Price, Emily Goy and John Davies will help us to explore these ancient beliefs in our modern world. Come to listen, ponder, ask questions if you wish. All meetings take place in St Mary’s Church Hall from 4.00 pm to 5.30 pm – tea from 3.30 pm. 

• Sunday 23 November: Old beliefs in a new world 
• Sunday 30 November: Hell and Purgatory, a traveller’s guide 
• Sunday 7 December: Heaven and how to get there 
• Sunday 14 December: Is death the end? 

More information from David.

One of the highlights of St Mary’s Christmas Tree Festival will be a Friday evening concert by the professional Orchestra of the Swan. All in the magical setting of St Mary’s illuminated by the light of many trees. It will also be your first chance to see the festival.

Friday 28th November, 7.00pm

Tickets are just £15 (£5 for those under 18) the price rises to £18 on the door, on the night.

The Orchestra of the Swan perform over 45 concerts per year in collaboration with distinguished guest conductors and solo artists, bringing the music of the world’s most celebrated composers to our loyal and evolving audiences.

Midwinter’s musical pendulum swings between the ancient and the contemporary, the religious and the secular, the familiar and the unknown. This is a tapestry of music woven from works spanning the 12th century to the present day, illustrating the richness and enduring allure of midwinter’s musical traditions.

Programme:
Corelli Christmas Concerto
Anon arr. Le Page Nowell Tydings Trew
Anon arr. Le Page Coventry Carol
Purcell arr. Le Page Now Winter Comes Slowly
Anon arr. Le Page Noel 1
The Pogues arr. Le Page Fairytale of New York
Vivaldi L’inverno ‘Winter’ RV 297 i. Allegro non molto
Holst/Le Page Midwinter
Anon arr. Le Page Ríu Ríu Chíu
Goss/Le Page See Amid the Winter’s Snow
Anon arr. Le Page The Snow Melts the Soonest
Liszt arr. Le Page The Shepherds in the Manger
Vivaldi L’inverno ‘Winter’ RV 297 iii. Allegro
Anon arr. Le Page O Little Town of Bethlehem

Join us on Saturday, 1st November for a service sung by St Mary’s occasional choir, Round Byrd. Music by 20th century composers and including William Harris’s masterpiece, Faire is the Heaven.

The service starts at 5pm and will last about 45 minutes.

There are many services on offer for you over the course of the Remembrance season in The Ross Parishes. They are:

What will happen on Remembrance Sunday in Ross?

The parade steps off from Old Maid’s Walk Police Station – all Serving Personnel and Veterans are invited to form up at the Police Station by 10.00. To be followed by Act of Commemoration and Wreath Laying at the War Memorial on The Prospect at 10.50 am and ecumenical Remembrance Day Service at St Mary’s at 11.15 am. Refreshments will be served following the Service. 

We look forward to seeing you.

Booking (free) is now available for this.

Please book in to help us with arrangements.

Join us this Saturday 18th October for a fun evening with The Dancing Mister. Step back in time as Tim Walker shows us dances of Medieval Europe. You don’t need to be fit, you can have two left feet or you can be waiting for your invitation to dance on “Strictly”. Everyone can enjoy this evening which also includes a Medieval style cold buffet.
Tickets are just £10 (£2 for children) in advance (£12 on the night). A bargain!
All proceeds to St Mary’s.

Book here.

Nathaniel Morgan was an important figure in Ross in the first half of the 19th Century. 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of his birth. To mark that, Ross Civic Society and Virginia Morgan (no relation) have created a small exhibition that you’ll find at the back of Ross Church until 6th November.

You can learn even more by downloading Virginia’s Pink Publication (number 7) from the Ross Civic Society website. https://rosscivic.org.uk/publications