Dear St Mary’s, 

On Sunday 4th October, we’ll hold our annual Harvest Festival at 9am and 10.30am and will also mark Climate Sunday, with Holy Communion celebrated at both services. Revd Vanessa Conant will preside and our churchwarden Natalie Burwell will preach. 

Our lectionary readings this Sunday are Deuteronomy 8:7-18 and Luke 12:16-30. 

As part of our Harvest Festival, we are also asking you to bring canned and other non-perishable food items to church this Sunday, with food going to Mill Grove Children’s Home in South Woodford as well as to other local food projects. 

Our youth group will also meet on Sunday in the Welcome Centre from 5pm-6.15pm – for details, contact Revd Jacintha Danaswamy at . 

Cafe Closing at 1pm on Saturday 3rd October 
Please be advised that due to a wedding in church, St Mary’s Ruttle & Rowe cafe and our Play Area will close at 1pm on Saturday 3rd October. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Reminder to Keep Personal Belongings Close in Church Building  
One of the lovely things about our congregation and church building is that we are an inclusive community, with our building open to the public throughout the week and on Sundays for worship. It is a real gift to have so many people able to access St Mary’s and it is a joy to be able to regularly welcome new people to church on Sundays. However, our accessibility also means that sometimes personal items can go missing, occasionally due to theft. While this is rare, it does sometimes happen, which is why we would like to encourage you to keep any personal items of value close to hand when in the church building.

Vespers Returns on Wednesday 7th October
Join us on Wednesday 7th October at 7.30pm for our monthly Vespers gathering – 40 minutes of stillness with Holy Communion celebrated afterwards in the side chapel. Vespers is held on the first Wednesday of every month – a beautiful candlelit space in our ancient building where many have gathered for 10 years to practise contemplative prayer, explore faith or simply sit in silence. Whether you’re looking to deepen your prayer life or just need a quiet place to sit, please come along to Vespers; it would be wonderful to have you.

‘Wave of Light’ Service on 11th October at 5pm 
St Mary’s is hosting a ‘Wave of Light’ service on Sunday 11th October at 5pm – a gentle, reflective space for those who have experienced miscarriage and baby loss, as well as for those who are supporting family members or friends. Baby Loss Awareness Week runs from 9th-15th October, and in addition to the ‘Wave of Light’ service, our friends at Daphne and Friends have a week of activities planned (www.daphneandfriends.org). For more information about our 11th October service, email .  

Slowing Down Wood Street Campaign: Meeting on 12th October at St Gabriel’s 
As part of our commitment to listening to each other and to our wider community, we are organising around a safer Wood Street and will meet again on Monday 12th October, 7.30pm-9pm, at St Gabriel’s Church located near the corner of Havant Road and Wood Street. Join us as we work out next steps for our campaign, which aims to create a safer environment for children, families and others who walk, cycle or travel along Wood Street. 

Two New Home Groups at St Mary’s: Walthamstow Village and St James Street Area 
We are delighted to have two new home groups at St Mary’s and would love to invite you to think about joining one. In addition to our Sunday Services, weekday services of Morning Prayer and monthly Vespers gatherings, home groups are a great way to build community and to deepen your faith alongside others. On fortnightly Tuesdays, 8-9.30pm, join Caitlin and Jon as they explore different approaches to prayer at their home in Walthamstow Village. At their next meeting on 6th October, the group will look at praying with the Anglican Rosary. For details, email or WhatsApp her on 07805466385. 

If you live in the Markhouse/St James Street area, join Louise on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, 7-9.30pm, with the next meeting on 14th October. This home group is a relaxed space where members eat a simple meal together, watch ‘The Chosen’ (a TV series retelling the life of Jesus and his disciples) and pray for each other. For more details on this group, email Vanessa at . 

Family ‘Bring-and-Share’ Lunch + Singing on Sunday 8th November
On Sunday 8th November after our 10.30am Service, we will have a family and children’s ‘bring-and-share’ lunch. Pack up your Sunday lunch or grab your favourite sandwiches as we eat together in the church around Noon. And after lunch, our worship band will lead us in some intergenerational action songs! It will be a lovely afternoon of friendship, food and worship. For more information, or if you or your child would find it helpful to know the songs in advance, contact or .

Congratulations to St Mary’s CofE Primary School 
In the recent Ofsted inspection of St Mary’s CofE Primary School, inspectors found St Mary’s to be exceptional in all seven graded areas of the inspection framework. Remarkably, St Mary’s is so far the only primary school in the country to have received this outcome. Under the new inspection framework, Ofsted defines exceptional as being ‘of the highest standard nationally’ and practice which ‘other schools can learn from’. This is an extraordinary achievement – many congratulations to the entire St Mary’s School community!

Revd Vanessa Conant Named Honorary Canon at Chelmsford Cathedral 
On Tuesday 22nd September during a service of Evening Prayer in Chelmsford, Revd Vanessa Conant was named an Honorary Canon of Chelmsford Cathedral. The honour, which does not include regular duties, is awarded to experienced parish priests or lay leaders in recognition of their service to a diocese. Congratulations Vanessa! 

Notice About School Forms: 1st December Deadline and Attendance Requirements 
If you have recently started attending services at St Mary’s with the intention of putting in a school form to St Mary’s CofE Primary – our church school – welcome! Please be aware that school forms must be handed into our Parish Office by 1st December 2026 if at all possible. 

School forms should not be handed to a member of the clergy on a Sunday morning but should instead be given or emailed to our administrator, Josie Wilson, during the week; Josie will then have your school form signed by a clergy member. Once your form has been signed, Josie will then contact you to come and pick up your signed form. Please note that selecting ‘at the heart of the church’ on your form reflects a longstanding commitment to our worshipping community and will need to be confirmed by a member of our clergy team. 

New Ballet Class in Welcome Centre for Young Children 
A new ballet class for children ages 1-3 will start in the Welcome Centre on Monday 5th October from 9.45am-10.45am. Called ‘First Steps Ballet’, the class is a fun introduction to the world of dance and supports key areas of early childhood development such as coordination and social interaction. You can book a spot here or by visiting www.lallet.co.uk. 

Vestry Meeting Rooms for Weekday Meetings: £75 for Half-Day, £150 for Full Day
We are keen to promote our North and South Vestry rooms as weekday meeting spaces in an effort to increase revenue to cover operating costs and help fund ministry – can you help? We have a new web page (stmaryswalthamstow.org/weekdaymeetings) dedicated to these spaces which can accommodate weekday meetings of 8-10 people (South Vestry) or 2-4 people (North Vestry). These are great meeting spaces for teams that want to get off-site, and both Vestry rooms are equipped with tea/ coffee-making facilities, TV screens for presentations and their own private toilets. Rates are £75 for a half-day or £150 for a full day. 

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:

• Rebecca and Tom, who are getting married this week 
• Preparation for our ‘Wave of Light’ service as part of Baby Loss Awareness Week  
• New home groups in our parish – for their leaders and for all considering attending 
• That the UK government would work with local communities to find solutions which advance the Common Good and create a more equal society 
• The witness of the Church in a violent and divisive world, praying specifically for the Archbishop of Canterbury, for Pope Leo and for all leaders of Christian communities 
• All who are unwell in our church and parish: for hope, help and healing 
• Movements and campaigns which are calling for the protection of our climate and natural world to be at the heart of all policy and decision making 

Reflection: ‘Good News in a World of Bad News’ 
Revd Vanessa Conant, Rector of St Mary’s and the Parish of Walthamstow, writes: 

I grew up in a household that was always attentive to the news. I remember my Dad sinking into our faded armchair at the end of his working day and crawling into his lap as pictures of the Falklands War played across the screen. The Sunday paper would be strewn across our living room and picked over through the week. The radio was a constant background murmur, the hours punctuated by the familiar beeps announcing the headlines. 

So perhaps it is no surprise that I have grown up similarly drawn to news coverage – from my first waking moments, through the day and often just before I close my eyes, I find myself checking and checking again. And now, of course, I can consume news across multiple platforms, in multiple forms. Headlines are selected for me by an algorithm and forced into my attention by systems that have learned my habits of thought – my loves, my concerns, my anxieties.  

There have been many gifts of this news-conscious life. From an early age, I was taught an awareness of a wider world, had both my horizons and my compassion expanded and learned to see my own life in a different perspective. I have found it helpful as a tool to pray, knowing the suffering of the world gives shape to my intercession and a sense of the world around me challenges and enlarges my faith. 

But it may come as no surprise to know that I have been finding the news increasingly problematic. Overwhelmed by dire headlines – AI will kill us all! A Godzilla El Niño is on its way! Prepare for war! – I am aware of a constant low-level anxiety humming in the background and sometimes a gripping existential fear that keeps me awake at night. 

Perhaps you have known glimpses of this too. 

A Reuters Digital News Report last year said that globally, 40% of respondents were so overwhelmed by bad news that they were avoiding it entirely. This is the highest number recorded. Some psychological researchers have also introduced a new term, ‘Problematic News Consumption’, a pattern of news engagement that results in preoccupation, dysregulation and disruption to daily functioning. 

With brains wired to scan for threat, humans can have strong physiological responses to the news even before being able to determine whether they themselves are in danger. For most of human history, the threats we processed were almost entirely local – news took time to travel. Today, our neurological systems can be overwhelmed by catastrophe around the world before we have even fully woken up. 

Neuroscience and psychology both offer helpful remedies for Problematic News Consumption: manage the window of time in which you read, limit the sources, select long form over short to allow deep awareness rather than nervous system alarms. And others suggest balancing bad news with good news: read the whole newspaper, read neutral, good, or gentle things. In this way, neuroscientists say that you are broadening the evidence that your brain is using to make sense of the world.

In St Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he writes, 

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” 

Written to a community experiencing persecution and surrounded by many real and present dangers, St Paul urges some good neuroscience and nourishment for the soul. Root yourself in a joy that does not depend on circumstances, but instead in an awareness of the presence of God, in the deep peace that guards us. 

Sometimes, in the watches of the night, when the temptation is to stare in terror at the apocalypses everywhere, I try to read the words of Night Prayer instead, or to find a story about profound goodness. Sometimes, I turn to accounts of regeneration, healing and restoration: of forests, rivers, people. Non-problematic news consumption.

The whole of the letter to the Philippians offers a remedy, too: treasure the life you share in Jesus Christ. The antidote to constant fear, anxiety and threat is a joyful peace which is to be found both in the presence of Jesus and in one another. Belonging to a church community means that our eyes and hearts are directed towards love in the midst of violence. 

As a worshipping community, we rewire our perception of threat through loving service, mutual support and by trusting in a larger story of hope. 

In the coming weeks, beginning with our Climate Sunday/Harvest service this Sunday, we will be thinking about what it looks like to build inner resilience to cultivate strong communities in times of crisis and to nurture a faith which endures in good times and in bad. 

I hope it will be soothing for our anxious nervous systems, gentle on our troubled hearts and inspiring for our hungry souls. I hope it will feel like good news in a world of bad. I hope it creates a background hum of peace. I hope you will join us.