Dear St Mary’s,
On Sunday 6th July, we’ll celebrate Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am with Revd Ola Franklin leading and presiding, and Revd Vanessa Conant preaching. At 9am, there will be a baptism, while at 10.30am, there will be supervised children’s groups.
For those unable to join us in person this Sunday, we’ll livestream our 9am service to Facebook (facebook.com/StMarysE17).
We are still in Ordinary Time and our lectionary readings are from 2 Kings 5:1-14 – the healing of Naaman – and Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, a reading which recounts Jesus’ sending of the 70 as well as his statement that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
5th July Vestry Junior Children’s Music Event Cancelled
Our music partners had hoped to run a free children’s music event on Saturday 5th July in St Mary’s, but due to scheduling conflicts, the event has now been cancelled. Ideal for younger children, Vestry Junior is typically held on the first Saturday of the month in St Mary’s at 11am and 11.30am; the team will take a break over the summer but return in September.
London Forest Choir to Perform at St Mary’s on Sunday 6th July at 6pm
London Forest Choir will perform ‘A Day at the Fair’ – music written and conducted by St Mary’s Jonathan Rathbone – on Sunday 6th July at St Mary’s with refreshments at 5pm and the performance at 6pm. Tickets are available on the door for £15, or £12 if purchased in advance, with half-price tickets for under 16s. For details, visit londonforestchoir.org.
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’ll 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: Free Tickets Now Available
On 17th July at 7.30pm, St Mary’s will host 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 . Click here to reserve your free ticket, or visit stmaryswalthamstow.eventbrite.com which lists our upcoming ticketed events.
St Mary’s at Waltham Forest Pride on Saturday 19th July
Waltham Forest Pride is on Saturday 19th July in Lloyd Park, an event which will be brought to life by the talent and contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community and will feature a range of stalls, with activities for children and families. St Mary’s, along with other inclusive churches, will host a space of Christian welcome, conversation, and prayer at Waltham Forest Pride, and if you are available to serve on the stall that day, we would love to hear from you. You may also simply wish to stop by and say hello! We’ll end the weekend with an Inclusive Eucharist at 6pm on Sunday evening in St Mary’s. As with previous years, Waltham Forest Pride is free but ticketed and you will need a ticket if you plan to attend and are not volunteering. You can book your ticket here – please note that you do not need to answer all of the questions on the form – or Google ‘Waltham Forest Pride Tickets’.
St Mary’s to Run Free Events for Children at the End of August: Can You Help?
For a variety of reasons, we have decided not to go ahead with a Summer Festival this year but to instead focus on putting on a series of free events for local children in the final week of August – a time when many other free activities for children have stopped for the summer but the new school term has yet to start. From 26th-29th August, we will aim to put on two free sessions per day for children – a two-hour session in the morning for younger children, and a two-hour session in the afternoon for older children. If you would like to help us develop our programme and/or volunteer, we would love to hear from you. Please email Louise Wallis at .
Thanking Premises Manager John Chambers
St Mary’s would like to thank John Chambers who was hired as our Premises Manager in the autumn of 2023 but last month left for Scotland where he’s recently purchased a home. In his time working for St Mary’s and the parish, John has helped to transform our buildings, including making the Welcome Centre watertight, performing much-needed regular maintenance on St Mary’s Church and making many significant repairs and improvements to our parish buildings. We want to wish John well and to thank him for his many contributions.
EcoTip: Email Stella Creasy About the Pension Schemes Bill
The Pension Schemes Bill is a core aspect of the UK government’s ongoing pensions reform which could help improve pensions for everyone. However, the Bill does not currently tackle the biggest threat to our security and prosperity in retirement: the impacts of climate change. UK pensions invest £88 billion in fossil fuels, putting both our planet and pension savings at risk while making life harder for everyone by funding the leading cause of global heating and climate breakdown. UK Divest is encouraging people to ask MPs to call on the government to address fossil fuel investments in its Pension Schemes Bill. You can write to our MP using the template here or email Stella Creasy directly at .
Please pray this week for:
- A more hopeful politics in the UK and around the world, and for politicians to work closely with local communities to solve the many problems we face as a country
- Victims of crime in our community, for healing and justice – specifically praying for the woman who was attacked near Walthamstow High Street this past weekend
- The safety of all young people, and for police, politicians, schools and community leaders to work together to address the root causes of knife crime and gang activity
- People in Europe and around the world experiencing extreme heat – for a fair and fast transition away from fossil fuels, which are the driving cause of global heating
- For Christians in Syria after a devastating attack on a church in Damascus
- The people of Gaza – for the safe distribution of aid and for an end to the violence
- Our plans to put on free activities for children in the last week of August
- People on low incomes in our community – that they would get the support they need
- All who are unwell in body, mind or spirit – for hope, support and healing
- Anyone experiencing anxiety: for a peace that passes all understanding
- Leaders of churches and other civil society groups working for the Common Good
- For all who visit our church, churchyard, buildings or attend any of our services: that they would experience the love and welcome of Christ
Next Week in St Mary’s Church and Welcome Centre (7th July – 12th July)
Monday 7th July
Morning Prayer, St Mary’s Church (North Vestry), 8.30am
Ninja School, Welcome Centre, 6pm
Waltham Forest Community Choir, Welcome Centre, 7.30-9.30pm
Tuesday 8th July
Morning Prayer, St Mary’s Church, 8.30am
Nicene Creed Course, St Mary’s Church, 7.30pm
Wednesday 9th July
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 10th July
Morning Prayer, St Mary’s Church, 8.30am
Baby Massage, Welcome Centre, 10.30am
FoodCycle (free community meal), Welcome Centre, 6.30pm
Singing Room, Welcome Centre, 7.30pm
Walthamstow Singers Concert, St Mary’s Church, 8pm
Friday 11th July
Sing and Sign, Welcome Centre, 10am
Family Portrait Studios, Welcome Centre, 10.30am-6pm
Ninja School, Welcome Centre, 6pm
Saturday 12th July
Crochet and Knitting Group, St Mary’s Church, 10am-12pm
Family Portrait Studios, Welcome Centre, 10.30am-6pm
Reflection: ‘All Things New’
Revd Andrew Stewart, vicar of St Gabriel’s Church, Walthamstow, writes:
We are living in a moment of deep unease. In recent weeks, months, even years, many in our local community have felt a rising sense of fear and frustration. Thefts, break-ins, knife crime, intimidation. There is a growing recognition that things are unravelling – that the basic bonds of trust in our public spaces, even our own neighbourhoods, are wearing dangerously thin.
More than that, many feel that the systems and institutions meant to uphold safety and justice are failing us. Confidence in the police is low. Confidence in politics is lower still. What once seemed rare or shocking now disturbingly routine – and perhaps the deeper truth is that it was never as rare as we liked to believe.
The recent Netflix series Adolescence captured this bleak reality with painful clarity: the sense that our institutions – schools, police, mental health services, even families – often find themselves powerless in the face of the darkness that lies within the human heart.
And now, this past week, news of a violent sexual attack in Walthamstow town centre has brought all of this to a sharp and harrowing point. It leaves many people – women especially – feeling not just angry and appalled, but exhausted. We wonder not only what kind of world we live in, but whether a better one is even possible.
Into the mess of our present chaos and confusion, a voice rings out from 2,000 years ago. Jesus of Nazareth proposed a revolution deep and wide enough to heal this broken world – a vision more radical than any other manifesto or protest placard.
Jesus saw that the cycle of violence doesn’t just stop with tougher laws or better CCTV. It stops in the heart. ‘You have heard it said, Do not murder,’ he taught. ‘But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgement.’ And: ‘You have heard it said, Do not commit adultery. But I say, anyone who looks at a woman to have her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’
Long before TfL warned us about staring, Jesus exposed the look that seeks to possess. The moment of danger begins not with an attack, but with a gaze of possession, of entitlement, of objectification.
For Jesus, the problem is not just crime – it’s contempt. Not just assault – but the eye that objectifies, the word that degrades, the selfish desire that would use another human being.
In the Way of Jesus, the solution isn’t ‘Try harder,’ but actually, ‘You must be born again.’ He spoke of a kind of resurrection – a new beginning that replaces the old, selfish ways of being. He spoke of an entirely new kind of life – one that thinks differently, sees others through new eyes, and lives from a heart that no longer uses others, but serves and honours them.
The Church is the community where that new life is to be learned and lived. And while there have been grievous failures – moments when churches have betrayed that calling and made people less safe – recent signs, even in the UK, suggest that people are searching again.
The so-called ‘Quiet Revival’, with thousands returning to churches, hints at a deeper hunger: not for nostalgia, but for the real Jesus – and the renewed humanity he offers. As our institutions fracture and trust erodes, many are beginning to long for the deeper truth we might have cast aside – the truth that once shaped civilisations, reckons with the full cost of human evil, and can still transform lives and heal broken hearts.
Perhaps this is our moment to listen again – to rediscover the living voice of Jesus, who confronts the old, destructive ways of human life not with compromise, but with a decisive break and a call to something radically new. A voice that sees our brokenness, bears it, and still speaks hope. Not a naïve optimism, but the fierce, clear-eyed hope of a crucified and risen Saviour – one who can truly make all things new.