Dear St Mary’s, 

On 9th March, the First Sunday in Lent, we’ll share Holy Communion at 9am followed by Morning Worship at 10.30am. Revd Ola Franklin will lead and Rob Duddridge will preach. 

At both services we’ll have an interview with members of our Walthamstow Welcomes team – a weekly pop-up cafe which meets in the Welcome Centre and provides free help with confusing paperwork, including assistance in accessing benefits or essential services. 

There will be supervised children’s groups this Sunday at 10.30am, with a Baby Lounge in the South Vestry at both services. For those unable to join us in person, we’ll livestream this Sunday’s 9am service to our Facebook page (facebook.com/StMarysE17). 

Our lectionary readings this week are Deuteronomy 26:1-11 as well as Luke 4:1-13 – the story of Jesus tempted in the wilderness. There will be evening prayer in the church hosted by St Luke’s at 6pm and all are welcome. 

Book a Spiritual MOT During Lent 
Lent is a time of self-examination and reflection, and this year we are offering the 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. Timings are flexible and appointments can be booked by emailing or by completing this short form. 

Marriage Preparation Course to Begin 9th March 
Are you considering getting married or are you currently planning a wedding? St Mary’s will run a free Marriage Preparation Course for couples on three consecutive Sunday afternoons beginning 9th March, 3pm-4.30pm. The course is a great opportunity for couples to consider and discuss the building blocks of a lasting relationship. St Mary’s is an inclusive church and our course is open to all couples, including those getting married elsewhere. To register or to learn more, please email Revd Vanessa Conant at . 

Tickets Going Fast: Book to Hear David Dark Speak on 16th March at 6pm 
On Sunday 16th March, professor and cultural commentator David Dark will preach at St Mary’s Sunday Services and also speak that evening as part of a free but ticketed learning event. David will give a 6pm lecture on ‘Art, Empire and the End of the World: Taking up the Human Assignment One Day at a Time’, followed by a discussion and Q&A. David is a Greenbelt Festival favourite and author of The Gospel According to America, Everyday Apocalypse, Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious and We Become What We Normalize. Book your ticket here or visit www.eventbrite.co.uk and search ‘David Dark’.

Waltham Forest Citizens’ Borough Assembly on Tuesday 18th March at 6pm 
Join us on Tuesday 18th March at Leyton Sixth Form College, 6pm-7.30pm, for a Waltham Forest Citizens’ Assembly as we gather with other member institutions in our area and decide on grassroots campaigns we want to take forward. St Mary’s is a founding member of Waltham Forest Citizens, which is our local chapter of Citizens UK, the largest community organising alliance in the country – a collection of faith groups, schools and other institutions working for the Common Good. Register here or email . 

St Mary’s Lent Book Group to Start 20th March 
Starting 20th March, St Mary’s will run a Lent book group which will meet for four consecutive Thursdays in the church from 7.30pm-9pm. We will be discussing How We Learn To Be Brave by Rt Revd Mariann Budde, Bishop of Washington in the US. Register interest here or email Revd Jacintha Danaswamy (). 

St Mary’s Children to Organise Community Litter Pick: Saturday 22nd March, 2pm 
Join us for a Litter Pick on Saturday 22nd March at 2pm which will be led by children from our congregation. We’ll pick litter for about an hour around St Mary’s; afterwards, we’ll gather for a short time of prayer and refreshments. By letting us know that you’re coming, we can ensure that we have enough litter pickers. Please email . 

Is St Mary’s Your Church? Join Our Parish Roll 
Every six years, dioceses from around the Church of England ask parish churches like St Mary’s to start from scratch and create an entirely new Parish Roll, which is a listing of everyone who considers a particular church to be their church home. If St Mary’s is your church, starting in late March and continuing into April, we will be asking you to fill out a short form during or after a Sunday service (or online, if you’re not able to join us in person). While being on our Parish Roll allows you to vote at our annual parish meeting as well as to stand for church leadership, it also helps us see how we are growing as a church. If you would like to fill out the forms online, it takes less than three minutes, but please note that you need to fill out both the Parish Electoral Roll form (link here) and GDPR form (link here).  

EcoTip: Thanking MP Stella Creasy for Supporting the Stop Rosebank Campaign 
We’re thankful that our MP Stella Creasy has spoken out about the proposed Rosebank oil field and has publicly called for Rosebank not to be developed – could you send Stella an email, thanking her for speaking out, and also asking her what else she plans to do to Stop Rosebank? You can email Stella Creasy at . 

Rosebank is a massive oil field which the Norwegian company Equinor is hoping to build in the North Sea – a development which would neither lower UK energy bills nor ensure UK energy security (90 percent of Rosebank’s oil is expected to be exported and sold on the international market). New oil and gas developments are also incompatible with limiting global heating to 1.5C, a goal of the Paris Agreement, and will cause incalculable harm to people around the world. Many Christian organisations – including Christian Aid – are backing the call for the UK government to stop all new oil and gas, including Rosebank. 

Please pray this week for:

• The ongoing attacks on Ukraine and for all those impacted and harmed 
• Wisdom for UK and EU leaders – for a unified response to the Ukraine crisis 
• The heightened tension in Gaza/ Israel – that the ceasefire would hold 
• Other places in the world where this is war and conflict, especially Sudan 
• The campaign to Stop Rosebank and all new oil and gas developments 
• Those in our community who are unwell in body, mind or spirit – for hope and healing 
• The ongoing treatment of Pope Francis, who is still in hospital 
• Young people in Waltham Forest and beyond who are not in education or work  
• Those struggling with low pay, expensive housing or other cost of living issues
• The many people who will be deeply impacted by UK and US cuts to foreign aid 
• Our bishops, Lynne and Guli, and our archdeacon, Mike 
• St Mary’s staff, lay leaders and clergy team, and all clergy and leaders in our Parish

Next Week in the Welcome Centre (10th-15th March)

Monday 10th March
Daphne & Friends (baby and child loss community), 10-11am 
Waltham Forest Community Choir, 7.30-9.30pm 

Tuesday 11th March 
Hula Fit, 6.30pm 
Tai Chi, 7.30pm 

Wednesday 12th March     
Ninja School, 4-7pm 

Thursday 13th March  
Baby Massage, 10.30am
The Singing Room, 7.30pm 
FoodCycle (free community meal), 6.30pm 

Friday 14th March     
Sing and Sign, 10.15am & 11.15am 
Ninja School, 4-7pm 

Saturday 15th March 
Walthamstow Welcomes Cafe (free help with confusing paperwork), 10am-Noon
Free Drop-in Crochet/ Knitting Group (in St Mary’s Church, Exhibition Space), 10am-Noon

Reflection: ‘No One Shall Make Them Afraid’ 
Revd Jacintha Danaswamy writes:

This week I went to the Bishop’s Study Day at Chelmsford Cathedral. It was a lovely gathering of clergy and lay leaders from across our diocese where we had the privilege of listening to The Very Revd Dr Shelly-Ann Tenia, the first female Dean and Rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago. She spoke powerfully about her experience of growing up in Trinidad, and she reminded us of the need to be faithful, to be creative, and to be courageous in our relationship with God and with each other.

Speaking of living in community, and our diocesan approach of Travelling Well Together, she read from Micah 4:3-4: 

‘…they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid;
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.’

I was particularly struck by the words, ‘no one shall make them afraid’. Although I am always deeply moved by the verses describing weapons of war being reshaped into tools that help us grow and be nourished, on Tuesday, it was hearing Dean Shelly-Ann read that no one should ever be made to feel afraid which resonated with me most. 

When we look at the world around us, there is a current atmosphere of people being made to feel afraid: made to feel afraid by those in positions of power, by war, by violence, by poverty and by the climate crisis. How as Christians do we tackle this fear? How do we create, in our world, places and communities where people are not made to feel afraid? 

Dean Shelly-Ann, when reflecting on living well together, encouraged us to be creative – to make space in ourselves and in our communities for a creative response to the reality we face and to be courageous in that response. What acts of courage are we being called to in our communities? We may find this question helpful when thinking of this verse from Micah – ‘no one shall make them afraid’ – especially as we move into the season of Lent. 

This week we marked Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent – a season of prayer and reflection when we seek to draw closer to God, to listen to him and to listen to our communities: a time when we reflect on our faith and examine how to live as Christians. 

During Lent, on Tuesday 18th March, as part of Waltham Forest Citizens’ Borough Assembly, St Mary’s will gather with other local faith institutions, schools and colleges at Leyton Sixth Form College. It will be a time of making space in our community to listen to the challenges we collectively face, to reflect on how we might creatively respond to these challenges, to celebrate the courage of local people and to share stories of unexpected surprises. It will be a joyful evening of hope, action, and community. 

When I think about how we create places in our world where people are not made to feel afraid, it is in places like our Borough Assembly – places where fear is tackled through loving acts of community and hope, and where we collectively organise for positive change. 

As I am reminded of Dean Shelly-Ann’s words, I pray that this week, as we move into the season of Lent, you will be encouraged and challenged, and that you will consider how you can be faithful, courageous and creative in responding to God and to the needs of the world. 

Amen.