A busy weekend for St Mary our Lady, with a bring and sing performance on the Saturday and the Palm Sunday service followed by the Annual Parish Meeting.

On Saturday afternoon at 3 pm a group of singers, including the church choir and a number of visiting singers convened in Church to rehearse 'The Crucifixion' by John Stainer. We were joined by soloists John Palmer (Tenor) and Jake Stevenson (Bass) . Joanna Chivers Gibb, directed the rehearsal and played the Organ. At 5 pm we stopped singing and walked down to the Church Hall to partake of a splendid tea provided by Anne Wade and team. We reconvened in Church and at  6 pm a performance of the work was enjoyed by a sizable audience. The Choir and both Soloists gave a wonderful performance which was much enjoyed. A very fitting start to Holy Week

On a blustery damp Sunday morning we gathered for the Palm Sunday service which included a procession with palms, and a reading of the passion gospel. We managed to conduct our procession in the dry, and returned to church to the dramatic reading of the Gospel in which many parishioners took part, the whole narrated by Mike Fowler, crowd parts by the choir. During Communion the Choir sang 'Here Oh Lord I see the Face to Face' setting by Percy Whitlock. Father Stephen announced that the church had received a grant of £15000 towards the works required to be done on the roof, a marvelous piece of news!

The Procession with Palms 'Hosanna'!!

Reading the Passion Gospel

After the Service and a quick cup of Coffee we started the Annual Meeting. Father Stephen opened the meeting with a summary of the 'best of 14' for us. The meeting received reports from the Churchwardens, and the Treasurer, and discussed the contents. The Church Wardens were re elected for another year, and the PPC re-elected two members.  The Mission Action Plan was preseented with its current updates, and many thanks were given to the Church Wardens, Gill Cook the minutes secretary, Joanna Chivers Gibb for the Music and everyone who works so hard all through the year to keep our beautiful lively happy musical, loving, church moving forwards and growing in faith!!

Father Stephen opened the Annual Parish Meeting

Services for Holy Week include Stations of the Cross on Wednesday, Maundy Thursday Service on Thursday evening. On Good Friday our services are at 11:30 and 2pm, On Holy Saturday the evening service and of course Sunday Morning Easter Day. You might like to follow the journey to the cross and to resurrection by attending all these services, but you will be welcome at any one that you can come to!!!

May the message of the Cross and the empty Tomb strengthen your faith this Easter.

We finish Lent and enter Passion tide this week. Our final Service of this years Lenten Period was Mattins. We sang the Benedicite and the Jubilate Deo as set for Lent. Father Stephen explained that as Anglicans we celebrate the next two weeks to include Pam Sunday and Holy Week as Passion tide, where we reflect particularly of the journey to the cross.

The Choir sand 'O Savior of the World' Setting by John Gross as the Anthem.



Next Sunday.Palm Sunday, will be celebrated with a procession of Palms, and a reading of the passion gospel. The service will be followed by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, do come along and take part!

This Sunday  we had a family Eucharist for Mothering Sunday with distribution of posies of flowers by the chidren to their Mothers. We also admitted  Amy to the Junior Choir. here are some pictures of the service.

We met for our 10:00 am Eucharist on a grey and wintry day. We are now well into Lent and the church is  decked in purple and bare of any flowers, the mood matched the weather!
Non the less we continue our joyful and penitent celebration of the Eucharist. In his sermon Father Stephen discussed how we deal with anger, an emotion that can be useful if controlled as is shown in the Gospel account of Jesus clearing the moneylenders from the Temple. It can also be toxic if not controlled and lead to extreme views which are dangerous in any faith.
The Choir sang 'Teach me oh Lord the way of thy statures' words from Psalm 119, setting by Thomas Attwood  as the anthem. There was coffee after the service.

There was also some BIG NEWS on Friday last week we heard that we had been granted Planning Permission for the New Parish Rooms!!!!! there are still a few administrative hurdles to jump but this is a great piece of news and means we have moved closer to actually building by quite a long way. Many  congratulations to the committee, and especially to Church Warden Chris Field and our Architect Jane Jones Warner who has been fantastic!!

Next Sunday will be a family Eucharist to celebrate Mothering Sunday, but if you are a regular at Mattins, please note this will take place the following Sunday!

The first Sunday of March, our Family Service  bought us together on St David's day. The Sunday school team gave us a presentation, not about St David, of whom we spoke last year but St Non, the mother of St David. She lived in Pembroke shire and was a nun who having being ravished by a local prince became pregnant with St David. She gave birth during a great storm which prevented anyone from going outside including those who wished to kill her baby. He labour pains were so bad her hands gripping the stones made impressions, these stones are incorporated in the foundations of a chapel built on the site of the birth of David. She ended her days in Cornwall in a convent.
We had several Welsh hymns to mark the Saint's day.The Choir sang 'Ave verum corpus' Setting by W A Mozart.
There was coffee after the service.

Do come to sing or listen to The Crucifixion by John Stainer, on 28th March. Singers are invited to join in the rehearsal between 3 and 5, the performance will be at 6:00 pm.
the following day the 29th of March is Palm Sunday, and also will be the day of the  Annual Parochial  Church Meeting. This is your opportunity to vote in new PCC members and to read and discuss the annual report of all our activities in 2014. All are welcome!!

Happy St David's Day!!