The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts
Inspiring faith, hope and love in each generation.
Another great service of Choral Evensong this evening at 6pm (Sunday 6th April) at St Mary’s.
As Lent begins to reach its climax in Passiontide, on “Passion Sunday” the music become more meditative using more ancient plainsong and music by two Tudor composers, Morley and Gibbons. Possibly a bit of 21st Century, James MacMillan (especially for today) too as an added bonus.
We hope to see you there.
St Mary’s offering of FREE lunchtime concerts is back and starts tomorrow (Wednesday 2nd April) with a performance by Forest Baroque.
Join us, perhaps with your lunch, whenever you like, the concert begins at 1. For this month only homemade soup and a bread roll will be up for grabs in church from 12. It’s all very informal.
We hope to see you soon, if not this month.
You might also like to come along to our series of FREE lunchtime talks – Conversations over Lunch, on the third Wednesdays of the month.
Come and celebrate Mothering Sunday (or Mother’s Day – which do you prefer?) tomorrow at St Mary’s. Plenty on offer!
Drop in to church for a choice of two delicious homemade soups and bread and butter, on Wednesday at any time between 12 noon and 1.30pm. No set charge, but donations welcome for the MU Overseas Fund.
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The next in our Lenten series of events focussing on our custody of the environment is a special service which will be sung by our Come & Sing choir on Sunday 16th March at 6.00pm.
Join us in St Mary’s for a special service with music by Rutter, Karl Jenkins and Haydn as we pray for peace and for our world.
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There’s another splendid service of CHORAL EVENSONG at St Mary’s at 6. This time all the music is by Welsh composers and some of the service will be in Welsh too.
Join us after for a glass of sherry.
We look forward to seeing you.
Saturday 8th March, 7.30pm at St Mary’s, Ross
Love letter to the Wye was written by local composer Fiona Taylor in response to concerns about the state of the Wye. The first half celebrates it’s history and importance to the area, and the second half is about the pollution and deterioration of the river. Local children, a community choir and musicians and wonderful soloists will be performing this moving and memorable work. Tickets £10, online or at the door.
Dear God,
We come before you today, humbled and heavy-hearted after three years of war, to pray for peace in Ukraine. We pray for the people caught in this terrible war, for those who have lost their homes, their loved ones, and their sense of safety. We pray for the courage of those fighting for their country, and for the wisdom of world leaders to find a path to peace.
We pray for peace, not just in Ukraine, but in the whole world. May conflict and hatred be replaced by understanding and love.
In your name, we pray. Amen.
St Mary’s will be dark tonight, we’re taking part in the Dark Skies Herefordshire project with CPRE Herefordshire (https://www.cpreherefordshire.org.uk/our-focus-and-campaigns/dark-skies-herefordshire/)
We are delighted to welcome the author Tom Bullough to St Mary’s on Saturday 3rd May.
Tom is going to discuss his book Sarn Helen, which won the best book of the year in Wales 2024, and show us some excerpts from his film Tarddle / Source about the River Wye. This film follows the River Wye from the Wales / England border to its source in the Cambrian Mountains recording the stories, hopes and concerns of the people living in the Wye Valley affected by the impact of climate change.
Tom’s writing focusses on Wales, churches, climate emergency and the relationship between people and the natural world shifting over time.
This is part of a series of events linked to our commitment to St Mary’s as an Eco Church.
We’re excited that it’s Choral Evensong again, today (Sunday 16th February, 6.00pm)
It’s the third Sunday of the month, which means there’s another wonderful service of Choral Evensong at 6pm in St Mary’s – the service that reaches the parts other services can’t!
This time the choir is singing a modern setting of the Magnificat 7 Nunc Dimittis (written for King’s College Cambridge) by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and a wonderful big Edwardian anthem, Evening Hymn by Henry Balfour Gardiner.
Join us for a glass of sherry after the service. A perfect way to end your week and home in time for “Call the Midwife!”
Hope to see you there.
Join us in St Mary’s for this concert by folk duo “Hedgehog” in St Mary’s Church on Saturday 22nd February at 7.00pm. Please book tickets at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/fosmross/t-kragvyr where you will also find full details.
The gable cross, behind this scaffolding has become somewhat wobbly, so Alec Curtis, one of the team of stonemasons at the Cathedral, is taking it down, creating a new base stone (which has cracked) and then putting it back up with some stainless steel pins to make it more secure.
When he’s done that, he’ll be moving into the church to begin work on stabilising the 1895 marble floor in the sanctuary, around the high altar.
We’re back up and running with phone and broadband intact in The Ross Parishes office, thank you for your patience.
We’ve switched the office to BeFibre (we had a free year from them the church and the hall). The switch went smoothly and we’ve more than halved our bill.
Did you know that if you use our referral link to sign up for BeFibre broadband St Mary’s will receive £100 from BeFibre, at no cost to you. https://aklam.io/yvW2uH
As part of a month focussing on our custody of the environment we welcome local composer Fiona Taylor with her band of musicians, and contributions from local Primary Schools to perform her series of pieces about the plight of the River Wye.
Saturday 8th March – 7.30pm at St Mary’s Church
The Wye has inspired artists and writers through the ages. Drawing on sources from Wordsworth to contemporary local poet Jane Spray, Fiona Taylor has created a sequence of vocal and instrumental music that reflects the many faces of the Wye past and present.
Love Letter to The Wye was first performed in February last year and was an immediate hit with audience members (see below). For tonight’s performance Fiona is joined by singer and musician friends including Tracey Dixon, Nataley Freeman, Jules De Bharra, Mike Taylor and children from local schools where Fiona has worked in the week of the performance.
Tickets, £10 per person bookable online.
Audience reaction to the first performance of Love Letter to The Wye:
“Loved what I saw and heard.”
“It was amazing.”
“So many people were so moved.”
“Beautiful evening of song and music.”
“Amazing music and lyrics in an incredible range of different styles!”
Every six years we have to write off the electoral roll and build it again from scratch. We’re in one of those years.
If you’d like to be on the electoral roll please tell us here (it’s very straightforward):
We need this to be complete by 21st February (for Ross). The Annual Church Meeting (APCM) is earlier this yer than previously on Tuesday 18th March.
More on that, and the Electoral Roll at https://rossparishes.uk/apcms
This week is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. There is a short service in St Mary’s Church today (Monday, 20th January) at Noon. All are welcome.
Similar services are taking place all week in other churches in Ross, with a lunch at The Venue at the weekend.
Whoopee!
It’s the third Sunday of the month (19th January) which means there’s another wonderful service of Choral Evensong at 6pm in St Mary’s – the service that reaches the parts other services can’t! This time the choir is singing music by two greats of the Edwardian era, Charles Wood and Charles Villiers Stanford. And now … join us for a glass of sherry after the service – how very English (well not the sherry, the concept!)
Hope to see you there.
The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts 