Dear St Marys,
On Sunday 16th March, the Second Sunday in Lent, we’ll share Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am with Revd Vanessa Conant leading and presiding, and David Dark, a theologian and professor at Belmont University, preaching.
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).
At 6pm, David Dark will speak again as part of a free but ticketed learning event, delivering a 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 the 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 free ticket here or visit www.eventbrite.co.uk and search ‘David Dark’.
Holy Week 2025 at St Mary’s and in the Parish
In Holy Week, join us on Wednesday 16th April at 7.30pm for our Tenebrae service – a retelling of the passion narrative, with the church growing progressively darker as the story progresses. On 17th April, Maundy Thursday, there will be a 7.30pm Holy Communion service at St Gabriel’s Church. And then on 18th April, Good Friday, we will begin the day at St Mary’s with Holy Communion at 8.30am; will later hold a ‘Messy Good Friday’ service for children and families at 10.30am; a ‘Quiet Easter’ service for neurodiverse children at 3.30pm; and a Good Friday service at 7.30pm. On Easter Sunday, 20th April, we will have a 6.30am Sunrise Service with an Easter Fire in St Mary’s Church courtyard followed by Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am. More: www.stmaryswalthamstow.org/HolyWeek.
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.
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 .
Christian Kitchen Needs Volunteers
For years, Christian Kitchen has provided hot food to anyone hungry in Walthamstow, with St Mary’s volunteers providing meals on the second Thursday of every month. Between 25 and 45 people line up for a cooked meal each evening in the Council car park opposite Mission Grove School, and we’ve been told that new volunteers are needed to cook or to serve hot food. Those who are able to cook will be asked to make a hot dish twice per year – anything from pasta bakes to curries – with tins provided to put the cooked food into and volunteers available to pick the food up from your house/ flat. Alternatively, for those who volunteer to serve food, it’s a commitment of two hours on a Thursday evening a couple of times per year. To volunteer, or for more information, 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).
Refugee Charity to Host 14th April Information Evening at King’s Cross Church
On Monday 14th April, 7pm to 8.30pm, UK charity Refugees at Home will host a free Information Evening at King’s Cross Church. Refugees at Home connects those with a spare room to refugees and people seeking asylum in need of a temporary home. To book a place at the Information Evening, click here, or email .
EcoTip: Hear Environmental Campaigner Tzeporah Berman Speak on 7th April
The amount of renewable energy coming on stream is setting new records around the world, but at the same time there’s a surge in new oil and gas exploration, particularly from the world’s wealthiest countries. At this critical moment, how do we break the grip of Big Oil? Canadian environmental activist and campaigner Tzeporah Berman, founder of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative – a global plan to halt the expansion of fossil fuels and manage an equitable phase-out – will speak about the treaty and what we can do to help on Monday 7th April, 6.30pm to 8.30pm, at Kennington Park Community Centre, SE11 5SY, a short walk from Vauxhall Station. Book a free ticket here or Google ‘Breaking Big Oil’s Grip’.
Please pray this week for:
- Global tensions, including violent conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa
- Those in our parish who are struggling with their physical or mental health
- Anyone in our parish who is isolated and longing for community and connection
- Christians and churches around the world as the season of Lent begins
- Peacemakers, medical professionals and aid workers in places of war/ violence
- A strengthening of interfaith connections and relationships around the world
- The health of Pope Francis, who is still in hospital
- Those considering baptism or confirmation as the next step in their faith journey
- Ethical political leadership in a time of global turmoil
- Local councils, including Waltham Forest Council, managing stretched finances
- Young people in our borough and around the UK, for safety, opportunity, wellbeing
- For a significant increase in green investment and decrease in funding for fossil fuels
Next Week in the Welcome Centre (17th-21st March)
Monday 17th March
Daphne & Friends (baby and child loss community), 10-11am
Waltham Forest Community Choir, 7.30-9.30pm
Tuesday 18th March
Hula Fit, 6.30pm
Tai Chi, 7.30pm
Wednesday 19th March
Walthamstow Welcomes Cafe (free help with confusing paperwork), 10am-Noon
Ninja School, 4-7pm
Thursday 20th March
Baby Massage, 10.30am
The Singing Room, 7.30pm
FoodCycle (free community meal), 6.30pm
Friday 21st March
Sing and Sign, 10.15am & 11.15am
Ninja School, 4-7pm
Reflection: ‘Bread of Life’
Revd Andrew Stewart, vicar of St Gabriel’s, writes:
‘Jesus said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.’ (Mark 6:31)
I love this little moment. The disciples have been so busy they haven’t even had time to eat. Jesus knows they’re hungry, but he doesn’t suggest going out to a restaurant or ordering a takeaway. He doesn’t offer any food at all – only himself. And yet, somehow, he knows that will be enough to refresh them.
This scene in Mark’s Gospel exposes a deeper truth: what we need most is not our next meal but Jesus himself. There is a hunger deeper than the one that gnaws at our stomachs. Jesus says, ‘Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life’ (John 6:27). He is that food – the true bread from heaven.
Fasting confronts us with this reality in a physical, visceral way. It forces us to reckon with our appetites, not just for food but for all the things we think will satisfy us – comfort, security, pleasure, entertainment. Human life is not about filling ourselves up with temporary nourishments. It is about feeding on nothing less than the eternal God.
As one theologian has expressed it, ‘Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by his saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.’
Do we feel it? Do we ache for Christ with the same urgency we feel when we miss a meal? Do we long for his presence, his voice, his life in us? Or have we tried to numb our spiritual hunger, filling ourselves with distractions, fleeting comforts, and lesser loves? This ‘wilderness time’ of Lent is a good time to confront ourselves with those questions.
During these forty days, let’s not miss out on the living bread. Let’s allow ourselves to experience and encounter Christ the Lord as the most intensely satisfying reality we can ever know, as so many have testified, across the world and down through history.
The bread of life is enough. Will you eat?
