Dear St Mary’s, 

On Sunday 16th November – the Second Sunday Before Advent – we will celebrate Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am with Revd Ola Franklin presiding and Revd Vanessa Conant preaching. There will be supervised children’s groups at 10.30am, with a Baby Lounge in the South Vestry at both services. 

Our lectionary readings this week are Malachi 4:1-2a and Luke 21:5-19 – two apocalyptic passages which prepare us for the apocalypse (‘revelation’) of Advent and Christmas. 

This Sunday, we will also invite you to sign up to do ‘just one thing’ to help us welcome thousands of people to St Mary’s for our Advent and Christmas services in December. Volunteer roles include serving refreshments at one of our carol services, helping to run a buggy park at a Christingle service, welcoming people to Midnight Mass and much more. 

For those unable to join us in person this week, we will livestream the 9am service to our Facebook page. On Sunday evening, at 6pm, the St Luke’s Community will say evening prayer in the church and all are welcome. We hope to see you this Sunday at St Mary’s! 

St Mary’s Advent and Christmas Services 2025 
We are still in the process of designing and printing our Advent and Christmas publicity, but our 2025 schedule of special services and events is as follows:

• Sunday 14th December, Orchestral Carols, 6pm 
• Wednesday 17th December, Carols on The Drive, 6pm 
• Sunday 21st December, Carols by Candlelight, 6pm 
• Monday 22nd December, Messy Christmas, 10am 
• Tuesday 23rd December, Christingle-making, 10am
• Tuesday 23rd December, Quiet Christmas, 2pm 
• Wednesday 24th December, Christingle Services, 10.30am + 2pm + 4pm 
• Wednesday 24th December, Midnight Mass, 11.15pm 
• Thursday 25th December, Christmas Day Family Communion, 10.30am 

Vestry Sessions Presents Christmas Revue and Singalong on 27th November 
Our music partners are back at St Mary’s on Thursday 27th November with a Christmas revue and singalong; there will be mulled wine and ‘a festive musical tasting menu’. Tickets are £11 and available here or by visiting wegottickets.com and searching ‘Vestry Sessions’. 

BBC Radio 4’s ‘Any Questions’ on 28th November: Waiting List + Volunteering  
St Mary’s is excited to host BBC Radio 4’s ‘Any Questions’ political panel show on Friday 28th November. Producers gave us an initial 200 tickets to distribute to the entire community, all of which were claimed within 24 hours. While we may be able to release an additional block of tickets nearer the time (we currently have a waiting list which you can sign up to via our eventbrite page – find the link here or at stmaryswalthamstow.org/AnyQuestions), you can also watch the live broadcast by joining our volunteer team. Our volunteer team will serve tea and coffee on the night and will also help put chairs away after the broadcast finishes around 9pm in preparation for our Christmas Festival the next day. To volunteer to help, please email Dan Copperwheat at . 

St Mary’s Christmas Festival on Saturday 29th November + Bottle Donations 
St Mary’s Christmas Festival will take place on Saturday 29th November, 10am-5pm, with a Christmas craft market in the church and a Santa’s grotto and kids’ zone in the Welcome Centre. There will be games, food vendors, mince pies, a brass band, wreath-making workshops (booking required) and some very special surprise visitors! We are also raising money for St Mary’s at the festival and are collecting bottles – everything from wine to ketchup to shower gel – for a bottle tombola. If you would like to help us raise funds by donating a bottle or two, please bring your bottle(s) to church this Sunday 16th November. 

Fresh Food Share on Sunday Evenings in the Welcome Centre 
This winter, we are partnering with a local Fresh Food Share initiative on Sunday evenings. The aim of the food share is to eliminate food waste and tackle food poverty. In the spring, the food share will move outdoors to the green space at the corner of The Drive and Church Hill, but until then, it will be held in the Welcome Centre. The organisers are still establishing the exact times the Sunday evening food share will run, but if anyone comes to the Welcome Centre this Sunday 16th November at 8pm, they should be able to take food away.

St Mary’s Advent Book Group: ‘Listening to the Music of the Soul’ 
Our 2025 Advent Book Group will discuss ‘Listening to the Music of the Soul’ by Rt Revd Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Bishop of Chelmsford. We will be reading and discussing Bishop Guli’s new book over four Thursdays, beginning on 27th November, 7.30pm. If you would like to join us, please sign up here or email Revd Jacintha Danaswamy at . 

Join St Mary’s Community Christmas Choir 
Join our Community Christmas Choir which will perform at our Carols by Candlelight service on Sunday 21st December at 6pm. There are two main rehearsals for the choir – one at 7pm on 12th December in St Mary’s Welcome Centre, and one at 7pm on 19th December in the church. There will also be an additional rehearsal on the day of the service. Sign up for the choir here or by visiting stmaryswalthamstow.org/ChristmasChoir2025 – and please feel free to invite neighbours and friends to join you in the choir! You can also listen to the choir pieces and learn the parts prepared by Jonathan and Helen Rathbone here. 

Giving Monthly to St Mary’s 
Your financial support is crucial as we work to keep St Mary’s ancient building open to the whole community throughout the week, to support Walthamstow and to share the love of Christ with all. Your donations make this possible as we receive no direct, ongoing support for the day-to-day running of St Mary’s from the Church of England or from the government. Monthly giving is particularly transformative as it allows us to plan, budget, and even expand our work in the community. If you would like to become a monthly giver, we would encourage you to sign up via the Parish Giving Scheme which you can find here or by going to stmaryswalthamstow.org/donate and clicking on the Parish Giving Scheme link. 

Safeguarding 
St Mary’s takes safeguarding seriously and works hard to ensure that our church is a safe place for everyone. If you see anything that concerns you at St Mary’s, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Safeguarding Officer Emma Clements at . You can also contact the Diocese of Chelmsford at or Waltham Forest Council at 020 8496 2310. 

EcoTip: Tell the UK Government to Stop Rosebank on 20th November at 8am 
Rosebank – a proposed North Sea oil field which is currently waiting on a decision from the UK government – would not only contribute more greenhouse gases to an already overheated planet, but, as analysis has shown, will not lower our energy bills or improve UK energy security. For the last few weeks, campaigners at Fossil Free London have been picketing outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in Whitehall every weekday morning Parliament is in session to increase political pressure on our government to reject Rosebank. A picket is also planned for 8am on Thursday 20th November, which is the last day of the public consultation on Rosebank, with a decision from the government expected imminently. RSVP to attend next Thursday’s 8am picket in Whitehall here (3-8 Whitehall Place, SW1A 2AW) or Google ‘mega picket to stop Rosebank’ to find the link. 

Please pray this week for:

• Improved safeguarding across the Church of England, and for all victims of abuse  
• Those in our parish who are unwell in body, mind or spirit: for hope and healing 
• For COP30, the UN Climate Change Conference: for a spirit of cooperation, and that fossil fuel lobbyists and interests would be sidelined in favour of the Common Good 
• The work of our Walthamstow Welcomes cafe – which helps people with confusing paperwork – and for all services in our borough which seek to help those in need 
• Stressful and difficult situations our clergy and staff members are dealing with 
• Many in our parish to come to faith this Advent and Christmas, and for many others to deepen their commitment to Christ in this coming season 
• Efforts to bring communities together across difference, including in Walthamstow  
• People in our church to take on volunteer/ ministry roles for the first time this Advent 
• Those who are in food poverty or without a home this winter – for help, and that those of us at St Mary’s find ways to help alleviate their suffering 
• As some individuals acquire more wealth than entire countries, a rebalancing of national and international priorities as relates to distributing resources more fairly 
• The many people around the world impacted by war, including those in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine – for a just peace and for international diplomatic efforts 
• All who are anxious or troubled: for a peace that passes all understanding 

Reflection: ‘Rainbows’ 
Revd Vanessa Conant, Rector of St Mary’s and the Parish of Walthamstow, writes:  

Travelling back from Liverpool Street to Walthamstow on Monday, I found myself in a particularly bleak frame of mind. I had been soaked to the skin by the afternoon’s deluges and I was heavy of heart, mindful of the sorrow of others and worried about a number of things. And to make matters worse, my phone had died so there was no distraction from my mood by mindlessly scrolling. There was only the grey skyline and the ominous clouds. Around me, people stared at their devices. No one spoke. The man next to me, smartly dressed and in a high-vis, drummed frenetically along to whatever soundtrack was playing in his ears. 

And then I saw it. A bright, brilliant flash of colour. As the train pulled into Bethnal Green, it was easier to see – a radiant, vivid swoop: a rainbow bursting through the gloom. I confess that I do not attend to every rainbow I see. I might give the occasional one a passing smile of appreciation every now and then but this rainbow was so intense in brightness and colour that it was impossible not to look at it. My drumming neighbour looked at me. ‘It’s beautiful isn’t it?’ I exclaimed. Some beautiful things need to be shared. 

The train pulled out of the station and I remained transfixed. After a moment, my neighbour tapped me on the shoulder. ‘Look!’ he said. ‘Look behind you!’. And I turned to see the way the rainbow arced across the whole sky, a perfect bow – glorious and mesmerising. I looked around the carriage to see that people had looked up from their phones; they were taking pictures, sharing brief words with one another. The silent gloom of the train was gently lifted and a ripple of shared delight moved through it. 

In Scripture, the best known story of a rainbow comes, of course, at the end of the flood narrative in the story of Noah in Genesis 9. Here, God makes a divine and eternal covenant with all creatures to withhold any future destruction, and the sign in the sky is set to assure humanity that we need not fear another cataclysm such as that depicted in Genesis 6-8. As one commentator on this text writes, ‘One of the reasons that we hold onto the biblical flood story so tightly is because it reminds us to hope for the rainbow after the storm, and to believe that, even in the midst of a tempest, a new tomorrow awaits us.’ 

In the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, rainbows appear again in Chapters 4 and 10. Here, the imagery of the rainbow reminds readers of God’s faithfulness to his promises, even in the midst of judgment. The rainbow signals that God’s mercy and His commitment to redemption are as central to his nature as his holiness and justice. 

On the train, I thought about these passages and of my four-year-old daughter’s love for all things rainbow. I remembered how, during Covid, rainbows suddenly appeared in our windows. Sweet, hand-drawn rainbows with words of gratitude for the NHS or care for neighbours touched me deeply in those strange, traumatic days which now seem so remote in our memory. And I thought about how the rainbow flag is so precious to so many people I love – a sign of belonging, and safety, of celebration of LGBTQ+ identity as well as an expression of longing for a more inclusive world. 

I got soaked again on the walk home from the station. And the weight of sadness didn’t magically disappear. But my hope was renewed, and I remembered God’s mercy long enough to lift my spirits and to feel somehow strengthened. 

There is a lot of rain forecast for the coming days. I’m going to keep looking for the rainbow and praying for each of you – that you might receive a sign of God’s promised friendship and love, be assured of his covenant of mercy and reminded of eternal hope. 

With love,

Vanessa