Dear St Mary’s, 

On 25th January, the Third Sunday of Epiphany, we will mark the Conversion of St Paul at 9am (Holy Communion) and 10.30am (Intergenerational Service). At 9am, Revd Vanessa Conant will lead and preside and Ian Drury will preach, while at 10.30am, Revd Jacintha Danaswamy will lead and give a short reflection at our monthly Integenerational Service. 

The Conversion of St Paul is one of the most dramatic stories in Church history, as Paul – or Saul as he was known before his conversion – was infamous for his violent persecution of Christians. Yet on the road to Damascus, Saul had an encounter with the risen Christ – one which completely tranformed his life and ultimately led him to travel throughout much of the known world, proclaiming the gospel despite constant danger and hardship.

For those unable to join us in person this Sunday, we will livestream our 9am service to Facebook. Also, at 12pm this Sunday, shortly after the 10.30am service ends, there will be a free 25-minute concert given by London Forest Choir, conducted by Jonathan Rathbone. The short concert will be in aid of the St Mary’s Organ Fund, which hopes to raise money for a new electric organ to replace our current organ, which sadly no longer works. You’re invited to grab a coffee and join us for this concert, then to make a donation if you feel able. 

We hope to see you this Sunday at St Mary’s!

Free Churchyard-Inspired Creative Writing Workshop on Friday 23rd January, 1.30pm 
Students from Goldsmiths University are running a creative writing workshop this Friday 23rd January, 1.30pm-4pm, meeting outside St Mary’s Welcome Centre near the garages. All are welcome to attend this free workshop which will draw on our churchyards for inspiration. There is no booking required, just turn up! For details, email . 

Crochet and Knitting Group to Meet on Saturday 24th January, 10am-Noon 
Our Crochet and Knitting Group met last week for the first time since December and will meet again this Saturday, 10am-Noon. The group, which meets in our Exhibition Space, is intended to be a drop-in for people of all ages and levels of ability, including beginners, and is a great way to connect with others. For details, email . 

St Mary’s Youth Group Returns on 25th January at 5pm 
Our youth group will meet for the first time this year on Sunday 25th January at 5pm in the Welcome Centre. For more details, please email Revd Jacintha Danaswamy at . Registering your child for our youth group is essential before attending; to do so, please visit: stmaryse17.churchcenter.com/people/forms/709818. 

Open Mic Worship on 12th February 
After the success of our last Open Mic Worship evening, we are excited to announce our next event on Thursday 12th February. We are looking for poets, musicians, writers and more. If you are interested in participating or would like to learn more, please email . You can also book your free ticket here. 

Ash Wednesday at St Mary’s on 18th February 
The season of Lent – forty days of preparation and reflection leading up to Holy Week and Easter – begins on Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on 18th February. Our Ash Wednesday services will be at 7.30am (for morning commuters and early risers), and later in the day at 7.30pm, with Holy Communion and the imposition of ashes at both services. These services are always moving and are beautiful ways to begin the season. Throughout Lent, we will also be offering opportunities to explore and deepen your faith through book groups and one-to-one meetings with clergy. We will soon share more information about our Lent programme and hope you will join us as we journey through this meaningful season. 

Embers Returns on Sunday 22nd February, 6pm 
Embers is our semi-regular evening service – an hour of sung worship led by our brilliant team of musicians and singers. The service, which will begin at 6pm, offers a beautiful space for prayer and worship and you are warmly invited to join us. 

2026 Lent Book Group ‘Dancing at the Still Point’ Begins on 26th February
Our Lent Book this year is ‘Dancing at the Still Point: Retreat Practices for a Busy Life’ by the Jesuit sister, theologian and writer Gemma Simmonds. Accessible and engaging, the book explores how we can find spaces of retreat in the busyness of life. Each week, we’ll be discussing the book and offering time to practise and to ‘retreat’ at the end of the session. Our first meeting will be on Thursday 26th February at 7.30pm with subsequent meetings the following three Thursdays. Sign up here or email . 

Sign up for a Spiritual MOT during Lent 
Lent is a time of self-examination and reflection and this year we are offering another opportunity to speak to a member of our clergy team about your life of faith and areas of struggle, hope or joy. Prior to meeting, we will give you questions to reflect on, but the idea is that the time is to be used as you need or would find helpful. We have 16 spaces to offer, so please book early to avoid disappointment. Timings are flexible and appointments can be booked by completing this form. 

Taize Service of Lamentation and Hope on Sunday 1st March at 6pm 
Join us for a special service, ‘A Lament for Our Habitat’, led by the Eco Church Team and members of our congregation on Sunday 1st March at 6pm. Taizé worship is a contemplative prayer style developed by the Taizé community in France. Using simple chants, periods of silence, readings, poetry and candlelight, the service invites you to join us as we lament the ecological crisis we face and as we seek hope, forgiveness and healing for the future. If you play a musical instrument and would like to join our small ensemble, please email our Music Director, Jonathan Rathbone, at . 

Building connections at St Mary’s: Join us for ‘Weaving Trust’ on Sunday 8th March 
St Mary’s is a large congregation and it can be challenging to get to know people through Sunday mornings alone. ‘Weaving Trust’ is an opportunity to have guided conversations with different people in the church, allowing you to meet and have meaningful connection with more people in our community. Our hope is that all who attend will make new friends and feel a greater sense of belonging. The event will take place after the 10.30am service on 8th March with a sandwich lunch provided for those who would like to attend. Please register your interest here, or email for more information. 

Small Groups at St Mary’s
Part of our commitment to discipleship and learning in St Mary’s is regular small groups which meet in someone’s house or flat either weekly or fortnightly for discussion, food and prayer. Small groups are great opportunities to get to know others in church and to deepen your faith. We have a number of groups meeting across the parish and are always keen to discuss new groups starting. If you would be interested in finding out more about small groups, or if you would like to host or lead a group yourself, please email: or . 

Serving on Sundays at St Mary’s 
Over the course of a month, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 350-400 people join us for worship on Sundays. It is a real gift to have such a vibrant, growing community. However, to make church happen each week, we rely on teams of committed volunteers to serve in many different areas of our church life to enable us to worship, welcome and minister. Beginning on 1st February, we will begin talking each week about the different ways you can serve as well as inviting you to think about how you might like to join in. After each service, there will be a chance to meet members of the spotlighted team, ask questions and learn more. 

Can You Help? Money Counters Needed 
Over Christmas, we raised funds for a number of charities alongside fundraising for the church. We are now looking for two people who can help us count the cash collected so that we can direct the money to the charities we support. If you are able to offer some time to assist us with this, please email . 

St Mary’s Register 
As our church grows, we are introducing some new systems. If you are considering a 2027 application for your child to attend St Mary’s School, or you are attending St Mary’s to qualify for marriage in our church, we kindly ask you to sign the register at the back of church each week that you join us for worship. This enables clergy to keep track of attendance and ensure, in the case of marriage, that legal requirements are met, and, in the case of school, that we have all the necessary information when school forms are signed this time next year. If you have any questions, contact the Parish Office at .

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. 

Please pray this week for:

• Chaotic geopolitical situations, including the hostile rhetoric over Greenland as well as for desperate humanitarian situations in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere 
• Smaller and middle-sized countries to work more closely together to uphold human rights, the rule of law and international cooperation 
• Global climate progress and for countries to decarbonise more quickly 
• St Mary’s clergy, staff, churchwardens and lay leaders 
• Our bishops Lynne and Guli, our Archbishops Stephen and Sarah, and for Pope Leo – that they may speak and act prophetically on behalf of the most vulnerable 
• The safety of all children and young people in our parish and borough  
• All in our parish who are in low paid work or are struggling to make ends meet 
• Fresh political thinking and solutions to improve people’s quality of life and to create a more equitable society where all people can flourish 
• Our local and national political leadership – for wisdom in difficult times 
• All who are unwell in our congregation and parish: for hope, help and healing 
• Churches around the world as they prepare for the season of Lent
• Refugees and all who have been displaced and are in search of safety – that Christ would be near to them, and that churches would be places of welcome and help 

Reflection: ‘Life Redirected’ 
Revd Andrew Stewart, vicar of St Gabriel’s, Walthamstow, writes: 

One of the striking things about the conversion of St Paul – which the Church of England will mark this Sunday – is how surprising it is both to Paul himself, and to everyone else. When Paul (aka Saul) of Tarsus set out at the beginning of that fateful year, he could not have imagined where he would end up. He was serious about religion and utterly convinced that he was on God’s side. He believed the Jesus movement was dangerous, blasphemous, and corrosive – something to be stamped out for the good of God’s people. Yet by the end of the year, everything had changed: his certainties were dismantled, and his entire life redirected.

The surprise was just as great for the Church. The last person anyone expected to become a follower of Jesus was one of his fiercest persecutors – yet he would devote his life to helping others find their way to Jesus. However, this is precisely how God works, overturning our expectations rather than confirming them.

At the heart of Paul’s conversion is a radical, life-changing shift in perception. On the Damascus road, he encounters God – and discovers, to his astonishment and horror, that this God turns out to be Jesus. The God he thought he was serving was, in fact, the God he was attacking. The God he believed would approve of his anti-Jesus zeal speaks to him and says, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 

In that moment, Paul’s entire understanding of God is re-written. 

I had a very small taste of this kind of reversal when I watched the two Wicked films recently and found myself quietly re-evaluating characters I thought I had understood since childhood. If even that was surprisingly disorienting, how much more so is the reversal Paul experiences in his encounter with Jesus, where the entire story of God is turned inside out!

Paul is on a road – not a yellow-brick one, in this case, but still – travelling with complete confidence in a story that turns out not to be true. One encounter with Jesus brings the shock of discovering that he has profoundly misunderstood who God is, and who the real hero of the story truly is. From that day on, Paul comes to believe that Jesus is not a disreputable influence to be erased, but the fullness of God himself – and that through him, human beings can be set on a new road, a journey of genuine new life and transformation.

Perhaps you, too, would never have imagined, even a few years ago, that you would find yourself in church, curious about Christianity, or reading – of all things – a parish newsletter. Paul reminds us that God delights in surprises – and that encountering Jesus often leads us somewhere we never planned to go.

The God who met Paul on the road is still in the business of turning our expectations upside down, setting us on new journeys, and refreshing our perspective along the way.