Dear St Mary’s, 

On Trinity Sunday – 15th June – Revd Vanessa Conant will preside and preach as we celebrate Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am. A Baby Lounge will be available for parents to come and go as needed, and we’ll have supervised children’s groups at 10.30. 

On Trinity Sunday, we’ll contemplate the mystery of God in three persons – a uniquely Christian concept and one difficult to comprehend. Yet the Trinity is central to Christian theology and identity, teaching us something of who God is and how we encounter God. 

For those unable to join us in person this Sunday, we’ll livestream the 9am service to our Facebook page (facebook.com/StMarysE17). There will also be a prayer meeting hosted by the St Luke’s community at 6pm. We hope to see you this Sunday at St Mary’s! 

Mitigating the Impacts of Extreme Heat: Join our Meeting Tonight, 12th June, at 8pm
As the first yellow heat-health alerts are issued for the UK this year, we’ll meet in church tonight (Thursday 12th June) at 8pm to discuss how we can work with people across Walthamstow to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat, something affecting increasing numbers of people due to human-caused climate change. It was brilliant to hear our very own Tom Greenhill recently speak about his Heatwave Toolkit project, which aims to share information about low-cost, low-carbon ways to cool dangerously warm flats, homes and buildings, and tonight we’ll discuss how we might share and implement Tom’s findings. For more information, contact Revd Vanessa Conant at . 

Nicene Creed Course to Begin on Tuesday 1st July 
This year is the 1700th anniversary of the writing of the Nicene Creed, one of the great statements of the Christian faith, and we will explore its deep theology and significance over four Tuesdays in July, starting 1st July and meeting in the church at 7.30pm. The Nicene Creed is Christianity’s most widely-accepted creed and is used by many denominations, including the Anglican Communion. If you are interested in joining us, you can sign up here or by emailing Revd Jacintha Danaswamy () or Revd Vanessa Conant (). 

10 Years at St Mary’s: Celebration Lunch for Revd Vanessa Conant on 13th July
On Sunday 13th July after the 10.30am service, we will have a bring-and-share lunch in the church to celebrate Revd Vanessa Conant’s ten-year anniversary as Rector of St Mary’s Walthamstow and the Parish of Walthamstow. Vanessa is the first female Rector in St Mary’s 900-year history and helped lead our church through a transformational building project which was completed in December 2022. Join us as we celebrate Vanessa, mark her 10-year anniversary and give thanks for her ongoing ministry at St Mary’s and in the Parish! 

Open Mic Night on Thursday 17th July 
On 17th July at 7.30pm, St Mary’s is hosting its first ever Open Mic Worship Night. This will be an evening of open and reflective worship incorporating spoken word poetry, music and more. We are currently accepting submissions from anyone who would like to take part. Please complete the form here to tell us more about your piece or email Revd Vanessa Conant at . Save the date and join us on 17th July. 

Sponsor a Bible for St Mary’s Primary School Leavers
Every year, we give a Bible to Year 6 leavers of St Mary’s Primary School. This is a gift from the church that we hope will bless them throughout their lives, and for many children, it will be the only Bible they have ever received. If you would like to sponsor a Bible for £10, you can give via stmaryswalthamstow.org/donate (please write in the notes section that your donation is for a St Mary’s School Leavers’ Bible) or via the tap-and-go system at the back of church. You can also put a cheque or cash in a marked envelope and leave it in the white box at the back of church, or if you would prefer, you can make a direct bank transfer (please note the reason for your donation). Our bank details are: Co-operative Bank, St Mary’s Church, Parish of Walthamstow; Account Number: 65579372, Sort Code: 08-92-99.

Help Ollie Elgie Fundraise for Worth Unlimited 
Our very own Ollie Elgie – a member of our congregation and PCC – is cycling an incredible 957 miles in 5 days, from London to Edinburgh, to raise money for Worth Unlimited, a local youth charity we have regularly partnered with as a parish. Worth Unlimited works alongside young people to offer youth clubs, mentoring, counselling, family support and structured programmes. You can help Ollie reach his fundraising goals by sponsoring him here or by going to worthunlimited.enthuse.com where you can find Ollie’s fundraising page. 

EcoTip: Latest Church of England Net Zero Carbon Impact Report
In 2020, the Church of England made an ambitious commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and has just released its latest Net Zero Carbon Impact Report. You can read the new report – which includes case studies of individual churches making significant environmental improvements to their buildings – and also watch a video on the CofE’s progress here or by going to churchofengland.org and searching ‘net zero carbon impact report’. At St Mary’s, we have recently had an environmental consultancy assess our ancient building for its suitability for solar panels, an electric heating system and other environmental improvements, and we are now looking to explore how we can make these a reality. 

Please pray this week for:

• Christian leaders locally and around the world that they would exercise wise and inclusive leadership, extending Christ’s love to all 
• Ongoing global conflicts, including war in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan – for a just peace and for help/ aid to reach those who are suffering 
• LGBTQ+ people – for the gift they are to the church and wider society, and for the violence and prejudice many face around the world for being who they are  
• All those in need of medical care or treatment of any kind: for hope and support 
• The growth of St Mary’s and of the worldwide church, and for people at St Mary’s who are currently exploring faith and considering baptism or confirmation 
• Those struggling to make ends meet in our community 
• Violence in Northern Ireland – for communities living in fear, and for racially-motivated violence to be rejected and challenged by the wider community
• The UN Ocean Conference in France – for tangible action from countries to protect and preserve the world’s oceans, which are critical in addressing climate change 
• Doctors and medical professionals in Waltham Forest and around the world, praying especially for those working in war zones or in places of great difficulty 
• More positive opportunities and programmes for at-risk young people in our area  
• Refugees and asylum seekers – that they would be treated with compassion 
• The work of our Walthamstow Welcomes Cafe, which helps people with confusing paperwork and offers a welcoming space for all
  

Next Week in St Mary’s Church and Welcome Centre (16th-21st June)

Monday 16th June
Morning Prayer, St Mary’s Church, 8.30am
Ninja School, Welcome Centre, 6pm
PCC Meeting, St Mary’s Church, 6pm
Waltham Forest Community Choir, Welcome Centre, 7.30-9.30pm 

Tuesday 17th June
Morning Prayer, St Mary’s Church, 8.30am 
HulaFit, Welcome Centre, 6.30pm 
Tai Chi, Welcome Centre, 7.30pm 

Wednesday 18th June 
Morning Prayer, St Mary’s Church, 8.30am 
Walthamstow Welcomes Cafe (free help with confusing paperwork), Welcome Centre, 10am-Noon (stmaryswalthamstow.org/WalthamstowWelcomes) 
Ninja School, Welcome Centre, 4-7pm 

Thursday 19th June
Morning Prayer, St Mary’s Church, 8.30am 
Baby Massage, Welcome Centre, 10.30am
Welcome Garden Community Session, 3.30pm-7pm 
FoodCycle (free community meal), Welcome Centre, 6.30pm 
Singing Room, Welcome Centre, 7.30pm 

Friday 20th June
Sing and Sign, Welcome Centre, 10am 
Ninja School, Welcome Centre, 6pm

Saturday 21st June
Crochet and Knitting Group, St Mary’s Church, 10am-12pm 

Reflection: ‘Let The Right Words In’
Natalie Burwell, our churchwarden, writes: 

I am reading a very beautiful book by poet Garth Greenwell called Small Rain — eking it out because I don’t want it to end. In it he recounts a sudden and very serious illness that saw him hospitalised during the first Lockdown. 

Not everyone welcomes the level of medical detail in this book — for example his description of a PICC line being inserted or the sensation of contrast dye moving through his body. But after more than a year of difficult medical events in my own household, I found the book a deeply comforting meditation on bodies, human kindness, attention and inattention, exhaustion, expertise and care. And Art.

Even as he describes raw bodily experiences, Greenwell writes about love of music and poetry from the inside, just as viscerally. At some of his worst moments in the ICU, far from being able to read poetry, he clings to just two words from a poem he knows by heart. They save him.  

He writes, ‘Whole strata of reality are lost to us at the speed at which we live, our ability to perceive them is lost, and maybe that’s the value of poetry, there are aspects of the world that are only visible at the frequency of certain poems.’

He says that when he was teaching poetry, the whole of his pedagogy was this: ‘Read it again, read it more slowly.’

And that is very like Lectio Divina, the monastic contemplative practice we sometimes do in Vespers. It’s about reading portions of the Bible — or other meaningful texts like poems — very slowly, tasting each word, while holding heart and mind open to the Holy Spirit’s prompting.

Trinity Sunday and the season that follows is a wonderful time to tune into the frequencies the Holy Spirit communicates on. The gentle words of a friend. Our own wordless groans and the sense that somehow God understands them. The times in a congregation when our voices are so unified that a hymn sings us. The poetry of action and the small things we do to make life better, because if we don’t, who will? Our bodies and the bodies of others, in joy, distress, peace. Jesus, the Living Word, close by us on days so hard we can barely string two words together. 

As we move through this season, may God’s poetry of love sink deep into us until we know it by heart. And if we forget the word of love, may we find it and read it again, read it more slowly. Amen.