Dear St Mary’s, 

On 1st March – the Second Sunday of Lent – we will celebrate Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am. Revd Vanessa Conant will preside and Revd Ola Franklin will preach. There will be supervised children’s groups at 10.30am, with a Baby Lounge at both services. 

Our lectionary readings this week are Genesis 12:1-14 and John 3:1-17, which contains the story of Nicodemus – a Pharisee and teacher – visiting Jesus, and includes the well-known words of Jesus, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only son’. 

On Sunday evening at 6pm, join us for a special service, ‘A Lament for Our Habitat’, led by the Eco Church Team and members of our congregation. 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. 

Vespers Returns on Wednesday 4th March 
Join us on Wednesday 4th March 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 nearly 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. 

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 make meaningful connections 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 join us. Please register your interest here, or email for more information. 

Join Other Christians on 28th March in Celebrating Love, Hope and Unity 
On Saturday 28th March, a coalition of civil society organisations, environmental and faith groups – including many Christians – are gathering in Central London to walk for hope, love and compassion in the face of rising movements of division and hostility. Called ‘Together’, this march will be a family-friendly day of welcome, unity and prayer, with activities for children as part of the day. We are hoping to take a group from St Mary’s. Find out more about the march here or at togetheralliance.org.uk. If you are planning to join us, register your interest here or email Revd Vanessa Conant at . 

Save the Date: Waltham Forest Citizens’ Assembly on 22nd April at 6.30pm
For nearly 15 years, St Mary’s has been a member of the Waltham Forest Citizens’ Alliance. This is a group of local schools, colleges, community groups and faith communities working together on issues which promote the Common Good. Over the years, we have organised around affordable housing, climate and youth safety. On Wednesday 22nd April, St Mary’s is hosting a borough-wide assembly in advance of the local council elections on 7th May, meeting with candidates for the election and bringing before them the stories of local people and the issues which matter most to us. This is positive politics where we demonstrate the power of local institutions and their members and show the possibilities for working across difference. Assemblies are dynamic, fun and inspiring. Save the date and join us! 

Welcome Baby Eleanor 
Congratulations to Natalie, Steve and Teddy as they welcome new baby Eleanor to the family. We send them every blessing and our prayers as they adapt to being a family of four. 

New PCC Secretary Needed 
Our wonderful PCC Secretary, Liz Davies, is standing down after nearly a decade of service. We are thankful to Liz for all she has done to support the parish and are now beginning to look for a new PCC Secretary. This voluntary position plays a key role in the leadership of the parish and we are keen to find the right person to join the team. Taking on the role would involve being elected or co-opted onto our Parochial Church Council, which meets six times per year. To learn more, email Revd Vanessa Conant at . 

Joining the Electoral Roll 
If you consider St Mary’s to be your church home and would like to make a commitment to our church, you can join the electoral roll (different to the roll which allows you to vote in local elections). To join, you must be over 16 and baptised. Joining means that you are eligible to serve on our parish trustee board (PCC) and vote at our annual meeting (APCM), but more importantly, it means that you feel a part of St Mary’s and want to affirm that sense of belonging. You can sign up for the electoral roll here or by visiting stmaryswalthamstow.org/electoralroll. If you signed up last year, you do not need to sign up again as your name will remain on the roll until 2031 unless you ask to be removed. Please speak to Vanessa or email if you have any questions.

New Openings for Regular Classes in the Welcome Centre 
We have space for new regular bookings in the Welcome Centre – our church hall located across the churchyard from St Mary’s – and invite anyone looking for space to get in touch. Alongside monthly giving from our congregation (which is our largest source of income), a significant source of income is from regular hires of our Welcome Centre lounge and hall – money which helps us keep the church open in the week. The Welcome Centre is a great space for after-school activities, choir rehearsals, fitness classes and baby and toddler groups. To get in touch, visit welcomecentreE17.org and fill out our enquiry form. 

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:

• Members of our congregation undergoing surgery or receiving difficult treatment 
• Those who are weighed down with grief or sorrow 
• The family and friends of the person recently killed in Westbury Road 
• Those who are worried about housing or accommodation 
• Those who are caring for family members – for strength and encouragement 
• Our congregation during Lent, including those attending the Lent Book Club and those undertaking a Spiritual MOT, that all may be drawn closer to the heart of Christ
• More inclusive, solutions-based politics as an alternative to the politics of division 
• Christ to be near to those who feel lonely or hopeless 
• Christians and churches around the world marking the season of Lent, especially churches ministering in places of conflict, such as in the Middle East  
• Places of conflict and war, including Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza – for a just peace 
• Decarbonisation and climate mitigation efforts in the UK and around the world 
• All who serve in public office as well as for a strengthening of civil society, which has the power to provide civic accountability and to build trust across society 

Reflection: ‘Messiah’ 
Revd Jacintha Danaswamy, Curate at St Mary’s, writes: 

Last week, I visited one of my favourite London museums – the Foundling Museum. The Foundling Museum celebrates people who have been in care, and all those who care for them. It stands on the original site of the Foundling Hospital, a children’s home from 1741 to 1954, and the UK’s first children’s charity. It’s quite a special place, with a long and sometimes painful history. As you explore the building, you step into the stories of the children who lived and grew up there over the centuries. 

If you have visited the museum, you will be familiar with the rows of small tokens that were left, wrapped in the children’s admission paper, to act as an identifier if a loved one ever returned. These small tokens from Georgian life – often everyday items (coins, fabric, jewellery, medals) and personalised with messages – speak of heartbreak and separation. 

They are extremely moving to see and read. 

Alongside these stories of profound loss is an encouraging story of care and love, interwoven with art and music. From the 1740s, the Foundling Hospital was the site of the first public art gallery. Artist William Hogarth initiated the art collection, and composer George Frideric Handel conducted benefit concerts of his great work Messiah in the chapel. 

As you walk around the museum you see that creativity is beautifully embedded in its very fabric – images of Foundling choirs, choristers singing, children learning musical instruments, adults sharing those first musical memories, are all a great reminder of how music and art can shape and enrich us. 

The museum’s current exhibition is a testimony to that. A Grand Chorus The Power of Music invites us to discover the enduring impact of Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ as a joyful expression of unity, hope, and belonging. Handel’s Messiah, which the Hallelujah Chorus is part of, is a stunning piece of work that celebrates Jesus, the Messiah, from his birth to his death, resurrection and ascension. First played during Lent in Dublin in 1742, it has since become well-known and much loved. 

As I moved through the museum, from floor to floor, from contemporary soundscapes of birdsong and a dawn chorus created by care-experienced young people to a children’s choir echoing the spirit of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus in their sound-making piece We Are Together Because…, I was reminded what it was Handel was trying to capture and express in this great chorus: the hallelujah and celebration of Easter morning, the joy and love encountered in the Resurrection of Christ, the togetherness we experience when all voices are included and heard, the mystery and wonder of God: this is our invitation as we move through Lent and journey towards Easter.

As we take time to redirect our lives towards God, remove distractions and make space to listen, I offer these words from this Sunday’s gospel reading to encourage us in this Lenten season – familiar words which are a reminder of God’s transformative and redemptive love as we prepare ourselves over the coming weeks for the celebration of Easter.

‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’ (John 3:16-17)

With love,

Jacintha