This morning’s service is starting now in St Mary’s. You can join in online on our YouTube Channel.
News & Events
Janet & Nick’s Walk
Janet and Nick have started day one of their walk at various sites from Swansea to Hereford. They’ve begun in a very wet Swansea.
Total raised so far is about £1500, there’s still plenty of time to give and you can do that online: https://rossparishes.uk/st-thomas-way/
Don’t forget, you can join them next Saturday for a walk around Usk. Details of that at the same link.
St Thomas’s Way – An invitation to join Nick & Janet on their pilgrimage.
On Saturday 14th August, Nick & Janet will have reached Usk on their pilgrimage following St Thomas’s Way. Meet them at 11am at St Mary’s Priory Church (nearby free car park) for a 2 hour walk (no stiles) through the Welsh countryside with open views, woodland paths, trickling streams, the River Usk and railway relics. Take a picnic to enjoy back at St Mary’s Priory. Have a look around the pretty town of Usk with its beautiful flowers – it regularly wins the Wales in Bloom award – before you go home. Alternatively, visit the museum of country life, enjoy a coffee or walk down to the river and join us for the picnic at approx. 1pm. Please note that the castle is closed.
St Mary’s is live now
This morning’s service is live now on YouTube. https://youtu.be/OT5jHCd2QGs
Ross Photo Club Exhibition
There’s a new exhibition in St Mary’s. Ross Photo Club have displayed photos from Ross and the Wye Valley, taken over the last three years. Most relate to recent events or tourist attractions.
“The 21st Century Wye Tourist” is a free exhibition. Pop in and see it sometime this month.
St Mary’s is live on YouTube
This morning’s service is about to start in St Mary’s. If you run you may get there! You can sing now – quite a novel idea! If you’re not up for that then you can join us online on YouTube
Join us for Evensong
Join us at St Mary’s tomorrow (Sunday) at 6 for the last choral evensong of the choir year (and the first this year where you’ll be able to join in with the hymns).
We’re celebrating the fisherman, St James, with Herbert Sumsion’s great anthem “They that go down to the sea in ships,” carrying “you up to the heavens and down again to the deeps” and all while we “stagger like a drunken man.” Come and join in the fun. Here it is sung by the choir of Hereford Cathedral.
Nick & Janet’s fund raising walk
Our two intrepid travellers on foot are at it again. This time, Janet and Nick are planning to walk the St Thomas Way, starting in Swansea and ending in Hereford. The walk follows a trail used by medieval pilgrims to the shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe. They will complete the walk in stages. The total distance is 56 miles and while this is a short walk for Janet and Nick, Nicks current health problems mean that it will be a substantial challenge for them both. You can learn more about their walk at https://thomasway.ac.uk/explore-the-way/
Nick and Janet plan to start on 7th August and to complete the walk on Sunday 22nd August. We ask you to sponsor their endeavour as they raise money for St Mary’s Church in an attempt to address the £43,000 deficit we built up last year. They are seeking donations and will be very happy if you’d sign their form, alternatively you can give here.
Please give as generously as Nick and Janet!
On Saturday 14th August Janet and Nick would like to invite anyone wishing to join them, to do so for an easy section of the walk. If you’d like more information please contact Nick & Janet
Eucharist for 18th July
This morning’s service is starting now in St Mary’s. You can join us on YouTube.
From next week we are removing the limit on the number of people at services. There is also no need to book to be present with us in the building. Please come along.
Some social distancing measures will remain: flexible, spaced seating, wear a face covering if you wish, Communion will still be given in “one kind” (no wine)…
Come for Coffee – 19th July
St Mary’s is looking for people to welcome visitors to St Mary’s Church during the week. All you need is a little bit of time and a willing smile. If you would like to find out more, do come to St Mary’s on Monday 19th July at 10.30am for a coffee and we will answer any questions you may have. Whether you can spare a couple of hours a week or just an hour a month, we will be delighted to welcome you as a welcomer!
There will also be an opportunity to look around the church as though you are a visitor and perhaps see the building in a new light. You do not have to be part of the congregation to join us but if you have an interest in history or like meeting people or would simply enjoy spending a little time in the peace and quiet of St Mary’s, this could be for you.
Toast continues through the summer break
Toast & Toddle at St Mary’s will continue through the summer break, just at the later time of 10am (until 11.30) from next week (21st July) onwards. Come up and see us.
The perfect summer holiday time-out slot!
This morning’s service
This morning’s service from St Mary’s is getting underway shortly. You can join it on YouTube.
Lex is streaming this morning, all music is prerecorded as our choir is away singing the services in Wells Cathedral this weekend. (Sadly no live stream from there to point you to.)
Today’s Service from St Mary’s
This morning’s service is starting now on YouTube. Please join us.
Two Exhibitions in St Mary’s for July
The July Exhibitions are now open, FREE OF CHARGE. One by Ross Civic Society looks at listed buildings in the town (as described by the Royal Commission in 1929 & 1930) that were around in 1770 and compares then and now. The second is a display of 18th / 19th Century sketches of the Wye Valley by James Wathen with accompanying photographs of the same scenes today taken by Ross Photo Club.
Both are FREE and open every day from 9 -5.
More exhibitions follow this for the rest of the year – right through to the Christmas Tree Festival. More details of those at https://rossparishes.uk/exhibitions
Please remember to leave us a review on Trip Adviser or Google
St Mary’s Service
This morning’s Eucharist is about to start in the building. Join us on now YouTube.
Choral Evensong is taking place at 6pm this evening join us in church or online.
Choral Evensong – 6 pm on Sunday
This week we’re “building it back better” at St Mary’s by reinstating Choral Evensong (2nd and 4th Sunday of the month at 6pm). Come and join us in a service that our choir will be singing in Wells Cathedral in a couple of week’s time.
“Every man and woman in England has a birth-right. Walk into any cathedral [some parish churches and college chapels] at about tea time, … and you will hear the most exquisite music beautifully sung. In the streets outside people are scrambling to get to the shops before they close, unaware perhaps that, behind the decorative medieval facade, a religious event of the most timeless beauty is about to take place. Choral Evensong is part of our cultural heritage … something extremely precious, to be jealously guarded by those who sometimes need to be still, to think upon their divine creator, and to discover the immense capacities of the human soul. – Joanna Trollope (1996)
Two Exhibitions in St Mary’s for July
The July Exhibitions are now open, FREE OF CHARGE. One by Ross Civic Society looks at listed buildings in the town (as described by the Royal Commission in 1929 & 1930) that were around in 1770 and compares then and now. The second is a display of 18th / 19th Century sketches of the Wye Valley by James Wathen with accompanying photographs of the same scenes today taken by Ross Photo Club.
Both are FREE and open every day from 9 -5.
More exhibitions follow this for the rest of the year – right through to the Christmas Tree Festival. More details of those at https://rossparishes.uk/exhibitions
Please remember to leave us a review on Trip Adviser or Google
Thanksgiving Service for the Life of John Taylor
John Taylor is well known by individuals and organisations all around Ross, not least, at St Mary’s as chairman of The Friends of St Mary’s for several years.
John’s life and gifts will be celebrated in a special service at St Mary’s Church on Saturday 26th June at 2 pm. Unfortunately, Covid restrictions mean that the service is by invitation only but it will be streamed on YouTube should you wish to join in.
If you’d like to make a donation in memory of John, Avril has asked that it be given to www.prostatecanceruk.org
St Mary’s Eco Church update
We’re working hard at St Mary’s to achieve Eco Church status, we’re well on our way; very confident about bronze and we might even make silver!
On Sunday we focussed on the environment in our 9.30 service, then went outside to see what species of plant and wildlife we could spot. AMAZING!
Morning has broken …
Our service from St Mary’s, this morning has a strong environmental feel, music, readings and prayers have been chosen with that in mind. After the service (from about 10.30) we’re going out into the churchyard to conduct a wildlife survey. Come up and join us – it’s out in the fresh air and Covid safe!
Our service is conducted by Sean and Colin is preaching. Music is by a small choir of upper voices. It’s all getting underway now.
The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts 