This weekend’s Bible readings: Exodus 2:1-10 (p 58) and Luke 2:33-35 (p 1028)The Promises of Jesus: Our Lent course this year, at All Saints@6, is on the subject of the “Promises of Jesus”. Everyone is very welcome, whether you usually come to All Saints @6 or not!Please note that there will be no meeting this weekend, as many regulars will be away. We’ll be back next week.Lent Appeal: Before Lent, we focussed on our giving, to God and to our churches, through service and through financial support. Once again our Lent appeal is for our ministry and mission in this community. In this case, giving won’t be aggregated and shared between our three benefice churches, but will be allocated to the church in which it’s given. However, many of our costs are shared, so if you’d like to support the work of the benefice across the board, please let one of our treasurers know and we’ll make sure that happens.Palm Sunday: On Sunday 24th March at 6pm in St Mary's there will be a service of music and readings to mark the start of Holy Week. There will be music sung by our benefice choir from Bach's St John Passion and readers will take us through the passion narrative as recorded by John in his gospel. Please do come along as we begin our observance of the holiest of weeks.Be more informed about Palestine: Basma will be re-running her talk about the Palestinian people on 16th March at 3.00 pm in Dane End Memorial Hall. For tickets, please contact Sue on 01920 318674.Knit & Natter group: If you like knitting or crocheting, come and join us for a couple of hours in Standon village hall at 2pm usually on the 2nd Thursday of each month. Tea & cakes will be available. Our next meeting will be on Thursday 14th March. For more information please contact Diane on 01950 821130 or Marion on 01920 745683.FOSM Afternoon tea & talk 23rd March: This will take place the Standon Lordship and Jim Nicolson will speak about ‘My uncle, the Battle of Britain VC’. Tickets, at £25, are available from Diana on 07718 734897.Issues with the contactless donation point in St Mary’s: The PCC resolved on Tuesday to replace the temporary contactless station with a more permanent one. The original one was installed to see if it would be worth the investment, and it has proved to be so, with many preferring this method of donating. We are awaiting delivery of the new one, but meanwhile, the QR code available in church works for contactless giving. The QR code in this sheet can be used for giving to costs shared across the benefice.The Future of World Day of Prayer in our area: Margaret, who has been organising World Day of Prayer for the past 12 years, is retiring from the committee. We are looking for people to take World Day of Prayer forward in our area beyond 2025. For many, many years our local churches have been involved in (Women’s) World Day of Prayer. Will you help to continue this tradition? It’s not hard work and is very worthwhile. If you feel called to help please speak to Margaret.This year’s service was attended by 46 people from 6 different Churches (Anglican, Roman Catholic and Congregational) and raised £247.45. All who attended were moved by the service.Sunday lunch at the Star: Our next Sunday lunch at the Star will be on Sunday 24th March at 12.15pm. If you would like to join us please contact Heather before Monday 18th March. We would love to see some new faces so if you haven’t joined us before and you are on your own, we have a very happy time together and you would receive a very warm welcome. Phone Heather on 07909 065560 for more information.Pre-orders for the Real Easter Egg - £5 each: Marion is taking orders now for the Fairtrade Real Easter Eggs, with a new story booklet to celebrate the real meaning of Easter. The last order date to get them in time for Easter is Sunday 10th March. Payment with order is preferred. Profits go to the food bank. You can email Marion on marionsmith1456@gmail.com.Benefice Bookstall: Lizzy’s Christian bookstall has been well received and she has received orders from several people. She will have more stock over the coming months, but if there’s a book that you would like her to get for you, please speak to her.St Albans Easter Monday Pilgrimage, 1st April: Hundreds of people will journey to the Cathedral from across the diocese and beyond for an Easter celebration. The informal service of Holy Communion will start at 3pm, but the procession into the Cathedral will start from 2.30pm. The service, led by Bishop Jane, will include singing and some short Easter reflections. Dogs are welcome and most sit on the floor, although chairs are available if you’d prefer that. People are invited to bring along a picnic to have in front of the Cathedral beforehand.Website: Our benefice website is on the www.achurchnearyou.com platform. The benefice page can be reached via this link: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice/32-240BF/. The forward from https://ubsms.org.uk should point to that page.Services for the next few weeksMidweek services each week:Tuesdays, 9.30am Holy Communion (BCP) & Bible study, St Catherine'sWednesdays, 9.30am Morning worship & Bible study, St Mary'sSunday services:10th March 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's17th March 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Holy communion, All Saints6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints24th March 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's6.00pm Service of music and readings for the start of Holy Week, St Mary's31st March 10.30am Easter communion, St Mary's7th April 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Morning worship, All Saints6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints10th April 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints
This weekend’s Bible readings: Psalm 88 (p 597) and Luke 22:39-45 (p 1058)The Promises of Jesus: Our Lent course this year is taking place at All Saints@6, in Little Munden. The subject is the “Promises of Jesus”. The remaining sessions are:10th March The Holy Spirit17th March Jesus with usEveryone is very welcome, whether you usually come to All Saints @6 or not!Lent Appeal: Before Lent, we focussed on our giving, to God and to our churches, through service and through financial support. Once again our Lent appeal is for our ministry and mission in this community. In this case, giving won’t be aggregated and shared between our three benefice churches, but will be allocated to the church in which it’s given. However, many of our costs are shared, so if you’d like to support the work of the benefice across the board, please let one of our treasurers know and we’ll make sure that happens.Midweek services: How well do you know the book of Lamentations? This week, our Tuesday and Wednesday morning services will start a short series using Lamentations to help us look at Christian lament. After Easter, we will be exploring what Jesus meant by the phrase ‘the Kingdom of God’ and what it means for us today. All are welcome to these services, where worship is followed by discussion and refreshments.Pre-orders for the Real Easter Egg - £5 each: Marion is taking orders now for the Fairtrade Real Easter Eggs, with a new story booklet to celebrate the real meaning of Easter. The last order date to get them in time for Easter is Sunday 10th March. Payment with order is preferred. Profits go to the food bank. You can email Marion on marionsmith1456@gmail.com.Benefice Bookstall: Lizzy’s Christian bookstall was well received last weekend. She will have more stock over the coming months, but if there’s a book that you would like her to get for you, please speak to her.Issues with the contactless donation point in St Mary’s: We are still having trouble with our permanently set up contactless device. It’s an issue with the app, and we are in contact with the platform that facilitates it to get it resolved. Meanwhile, the QR code will still work for contactless giving, and we will try to have an alternative contactless device available at services and events. We apologise that it’s taking a little while to get this sorted out.Palm Sunday: On Sunday 24th March at 6pm in St Mary's there will be a service of music and readings to mark the start of Holy Week. There will be music sung by our benefice choir from Bach's St John Passion and readers will take us through the passion narrative as recorded by John in his gospel. Please do come along as we begin our observance of the holiest of weeks.Lent course Wednesday evenings 6th to 20th March, 7.30 pm at Bishop’s Stortford College: Entitled ‘Reality: Is yours authentic or augmented?’ this year’s Lent Lectures at Bishop’s Stortford College will seek to explore the reality of three areas of human existence: Faith, the Environment, and Spiritual Experiences. Long before the advent of Artificial Intelligence humans have been curious to comprehend nature of reality. New technologies only enrich debates within philosophy, politics, religion and science about the reality of the human existence. Tickets are free but must be booked through the college website. For more details, please speak to Isabel.Be more informed about Palestine: Basma will be re-running her talk about the Palestinian people on 16th March at 3.00 pm in Dane End Memorial Hall. For tickets, please contact Sue on 01920 318674.FOSM Afternoon tea & talk: This will take place the Standon Lordship and Jim Nicolson will speak about ‘My uncle, the Battle of Britain VC’. Tickets, at £25, are available from Diana on 07718 734897.Hospital transport looking for volunteer drivers: The dedicated hospital transport team offers lifts to local people who need them. It could be simply picking up someone in the village and taking him or her to the surgery, or it might involve a trip to an outpatients appointment at hospital. If you think you can offer some of your time (however little or large an amount), please speak to Wendy. Volunteers receive reimbursement for their petrol costs.Website: Our benefice website is on the www.achurchnearyou.com platform. The benefice page can be reached via this link: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice/32-240BF/. The forward from https://ubsms.org.uk should point to that page.Services for the next few weeksMidweek services each week:Tuesdays, 9.30am Holy Communion (BCP) & Bible study, St Catherine'sWednesdays, 9.30am Morning worship & Bible study, St Mary'sSunday services:3rd March 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Morning worship, All Saints6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints10th March 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints17th March 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Holy communion, All Saints6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints24th March 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's6.00pm Service of music and readings for the start of Holy Week, St Mary's31st March 10.30am Easter communion, St Mary's6.00pm Easter All Saints@6, All Saints7th April 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Morning worship, All Saints6.00pm All Saints@6, All Saints
This weekend’s Bible readings: Psalm 62 (p 579)Choral evensong this weekend: The benefice choir will lead our monthly service of choral evensong at 6.00 this Sunday in St Mary’s. Please come along and join us for this contemplative service where we worship God in words and music.The Promises of Jesus: Our Lent course this year is taking place at All Saints@6, in Little Munden.. The subject is the “Promises of Jesus”. The remaining sessions are:3rd March Peace10th March The Holy Spirit17th March Jesus with usEveryone is very welcome, whether you usually come to All Saints @6 or not!Pre-orders for the Real Easter Egg - £5 each: Marion is taking orders now for the Fairtrade Real Easter Eggs, with a new story booklet to celebrate the real meaning of Easter. The last order date to get them in time for Easter is Sunday 10th March. Payment with order is preferred. Profits go to the food bank. You can email Marion on marionsmith1456@gmail.com.Pop Up Shop...: The next pop up shop is this Sunday. There will be some Easter cards and the Real Easter Egg for sale/ to order along with fairly traded and responsibly sourced items and Christian gifts. All profits go to the local food bank. Thank you for your support.... and a Benefice Bookstall: Lizzy is adding a bookstall to what’s on offer at our Fourth Sunday services. She will have a selection of Bibles (including the currently very popular Action Bible!), Christian books, study materials, and can order pretty much any Christian book which is in print! There will be more stock over the coming months, but she has a selection to start with, available after the service this weekend.Issues with the contactless donation point in St Mary’s: We are having trouble with our permanently set up contactless device. It’s an issue with the app, and we are in contact with the platform that facilitates it to get it resolved. Meanwhile, the QR code will still work for contactless giving, and we will try to have an alternative contactless device available at services and events. We apologise that it’s taking a little while to get this sorted out.Midweek Music at St Mary's: This coming Wednesday, 28th February, our concert in St Mary's will be given by David Ranford. David will be singing a variety of different music genres so there will be something for everyone to enjoy. Refreshments will be served from 11.30 and the concert starts at 12.30. Entry is free and all are welcome.World Day of Prayer: This year’s service is on Friday 1st March at St Mary’s Church, Standon at the earlier time of 2.30 in the afternoon, with refreshments afterwards. This is an ecumenical service open to all. The service is prepared years in advance and this year’s service has been prepared by the Christian Women of Palestine!If you would like to help in any way or would like to know more about World Day of Prayer please speak to Margaret.Soup ‘n’ Snowdrops – thank you: Thank you to all who supported Sacombe’s Soup ‘n’ Snowdrops event last weekend. £1,155 was raised.Advent appeal: Thank you to all who supported our Advent appeal. The total raised for the foodbank is an amazing £6,275.Palm Sunday: On Sunday 24th March at 6pm in St Mary's there will be a service of music and readings to mark the start of Holy Week. There will be music sung by our benefice choir from Bach's St John Passion and readers will take us through the passion narrative as recorded by John in his gospel. Please do come along as we begin our observance of the holiest of weeks.Hope for Rural Churches 16th March, 9.30 – 4.30: The Diocese is running this day conference at Putteridge Bury Conference Centre, LU2 8DL. The Venerable Stewart Fyfe, Archdeacon of West Cumberland will be the keynote speaker. The event is open to ministry teams and any others who would benefit from the day. There is no charge and refreshments are included. Please book before 29th February, as catering numbers need to be finalised two weeks before the day. Rebecca will be collecting names and will make a block booking for our benefice; please let her know if you would like to go.Be more informed about Palestine: Basma will be re-running her talk about the Palestinian people on 16th March at 3.00 pm in Dane End Memorial Hall. For tickets, please contact Sue on 01920 318674.Hospital transport looking for volunteer drivers: The dedicated hospital transport team offers lifts to local people who need them. It could be simply picking up someone in the village and taking him or her to the surgery, or it might involve a trip to an outpatients appointment at hospital. If you think you can offer some of your time (however little or large an amount), please speak to Wendy. Volunteers receive reimbursement for their petrol costs.Website: Our benefice website is on the www.achurchnearyou.com platform. The benefice page can be reached via this link: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice/32-240BF/. The forward from https://ubsms.org.uk should point to that page.Services for the next few weeksMidweek services each week:Tuesdays, 9.30am Holy Communion (BCP), St Catherine'sWednesdays, 9.30am Morning worship & Bible study, St Mary'sSunday services:25th February 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's6.00pm Choral evensong, St Mary's3rd March 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Morning worship, All Saints6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints10th March 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints17th March 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Holy communion, All Saints6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints24th March 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's6.00pm Service of music and readings for the start of the Holy Week, St Mary's
This weekend’s Bible readings: Psalm 32 (p 560) and John 3:14-21 (p 1066)The Promises of Jesus: Our Lent course this year will take place at All Saints@6, in Little Munden, on 18th February and 3rd, 10th and 17th March. The subject is the “Promises of Jesus”. Each time we will look at the following promises:18th February Eternal life3rd March Peace10th March The Holy Spirit17th March Jesus with usEveryone is very welcome, whether you usually come to All Saints @6 or not!Pre-orders for the Real Easter Egg - £5 each: Marion is taking orders now for the Fairtrade Real Easter Eggs, with a new story booklet to celebrate the real meaning of Easter. The last order date to get them in time for Easter is Sunday 10th March. Payment with order is preferred. Profits go to the food bank. You can email Marion on marionsmith1456@gmail.com.Pop Up Shop: The next pop up shop is on Sunday 25th February. There will be some Easter cards and the Real Easter Egg for sale/ to order along with fairly traded and responsibly sourced items and Christian gifts. All profits go to the local food bank. Thank you for your support.Sunday lunch at the Star: Heather’s next Sunday lunch at the Star will be on Sunday 25th February at 12.15pm. If you would like to join us please phone on 07909 065550 by Monday 19th February.World Day of Prayer: This year’s service is on Friday 1st March at St Mary’s Church, Standon at the earlier time of 2.30 in the afternoon, with refreshments afterwards. This is an ecumenical service open to all. The service is prepared years in advance and this year’s service has been prepared by the Christian Women of Palestine!If you would like to help in any way or would like to know more about World Day of Prayer please speak to Margaret.Palm Sunday: On Sunday 24th March at 6pm in St Mary's there will be a service of music and readings to mark the start of Holy Week. There will be music sung by our benefice choir from Bach's St John Passion and readers will take us through the passion narrative as recorded by John in his gospel. Please do come along as we begin our observance of the holiest of weeks.Thank you from the Food Bank: A copy of the thank you card from Gemma has been put in each of our churches. A Sainsbury’s order worth £1,325 was delivered directly to the foodbank this week, funded by our donations.Hope for Rural Churches 16th March, 9.30 – 4.30: The Diocese is running this day conference at Putteridge Bury Conference Centre, LU2 8DL. The Venerable Stewart Fyfe, Archdeacon of West Cumberland will be the keynote speaker. The event is open to ministry teams and any others who would benefit from the day. There is no charge and refreshments are included. Please book before 29th February, as catering numbers need to be finalised two weeks before the day. Rebecca will be collecting names and will make a block booking for our benefice; please let her know if you would like to go.St Mary’s hassocks need some TLC: Several of the hassocks in St Mary’s have lost their D rings, which we use to hang them on the cup hooks on the back of the pews. If you would be willing to help sew on new tapes to re-secure the D rings, please speak to Marion.Hospital transport looking for volunteer drivers: The dedicated hospital transport team offers lifts to local people who need them. It could be simply picking up someone in the village and taking him or her to the surgery, or it might involve a trip to an outpatients appointment at hospital. If you think you can offer some of your time (however little or large an amount), please speak to Wendy. Volunteers receive reimbursement for their petrol costs.Website: Our benefice website is on the www.achurchnearyou.com platform. The benefice page can be reached via this link: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice/32-240BF/. The forward from https://ubsms.org.uk should point to that page.Services for the next few weeksMidweek services each week:Tuesdays, 9.30am Holy Communion (BCP), St Catherine'sWednesdays, 9.30am Morning worship & Bible study, St Mary'sSunday services:18th February 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Holy communion, All Saints6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints25th February 10.30am All age worship, St Mary's6.00pm Choral evensong, St Mary's3rd March 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Morning worship, All Saints6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints10th March 10.30am Holy communion, St Mary's6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints17th March 8.00am Holy communion, St Mary's10.30am Holy communion, All Saints6.00pm Lent course at All Saints@6, All Saints
