Dear St Mary’s, 

Please note that over the next several weeks, we will have ‘Summer Sunday’ services at 9am and 10.30am; our 9am Holy Communion service will look much as it normally does, however, we will have activity packs for children to work on in both services as our children’s ministry team takes a break until September. Our 10.30am services will be approximately one hour long in August and we will focus on a particular person from the Old Testament in our sermons and scripture readings.

Summer Sundays at St Mary’s: August Service Times and Details

• Sunday 10th August: 9am Holy Communion, 10.30am Holy Communion: Revd Tim Scott presiding/ leading; Revd Ola Franklin preaching (Reading: 1 Samuel 17:32-49)
  
• Sunday 17th August: 9am Holy Communion, 10.30am Holy Communion: Revd Ola Franklin presiding/ leading; Rob Duddridge preaching (Reading: Ruth 1:1-18)
  
• Sunday 24th August: 9am Holy Communion, 10.30am Holy Communion: Revd Vanessa Conant presiding/ leading; Revd Jacintha Danaswamy preaching (Reading: Daniel 6:6-23)
  
• Sunday 31st August: 9am Holy Communion, 10.30am Holy Communion: Revd Vanessa Conant presiding/ leading; Jo Talbott preaching (Reading: Esther 4) 

August Morning Prayer Schedule 
We will have a slightly irregular Morning Prayer schedule in August as clergy take time away. Morning Prayer will be on as usual (Monday-Thursday at 8.30am in St Mary’s side chapel and livestreamed to facebook.com/StMarysE17) until the week of 11th August when there will be no Morning Prayer that entire week. Morning Prayer will resume on Monday 18th August but will not be held on Thursday 21st August or Monday 25th August (Bank Holiday). 

Vespers Returns on Wednesday 6th August 
Join us on Wednesday 6th August at 7.30pm for our monthly Vespers gathering (40 minutes long), with Holy Communion celebrated afterwards in St Mary’s side chapel. Vespers is held on the first Wednesday of every month – a beautiful candlelit space in our ancient building where many have gathered over eight 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, do come along to Vespers – it would be wonderful to have you. 

Summer Hours at St Mary’s Ruttle & Rowe Cafe
Our cafe partners Ruttle & Rowe will open their St Mary’s cafe at 9am (instead of the normal weekday time of 8.30am), Monday-Saturday, throughout August. Please make note of the change and support the cafe if you can during this slightly slower time of the year! 

Two Opportunities to Give Blood at St Mary’s in August 
There will be two opportunities to give blood at St Mary’s in August: on Thursday 7th August and again on Tuesday 26th August. For those who would like to give blood, the best way to do this is to book in advance through the Give Blood app or via www.blood.co.uk. If there is a slot available at St Mary’s, that will be noted when you book. Please note the booking process is not managed by us but by the NHS. Our Ruttle & Rowe cafe will remain open, with indoor seating moved to the Exhibition Space and service through the outdoor hatch. 

Try St Mary’s New Churchyard Trail 
You may have noticed some new wooden posts throughout the churchyard with QR codes – this is our new churchyard trail and we’d love for you to try it. Our aim is to encourage people to explore more of our beautiful churchyards, and those with a smartphone can scan the QR code on each post to learn more about the natural or historical features of Walthamstow Village’s largest green space, which also contains the graves of some fascinating people. In the near future, we plan to have paper copies of the trail available for those who don’t use a smartphone. Many thanks to our head gardener Tim Hewitt and to churchyard volunteer David Christmas who were both integral in helping us make the trail a reality! 

St Mary’s to Run Free Events for Children from 26-29 August: Help Needed on 26th 
We will run a series of free events for local children in the final week of August – a time when many other free activities for children have stopped for the summer but the new school term has yet to start. From 26-29 August, we will be hosting two free sessions per day for children (10am-12pm and 1.30-3.30pm). Our plan is to run outdoor fete games on Tuesday; outdoor crafts and gardening activities on Wednesday; indoor retro video gaming with Revd Alan Moss on Thursday; and indoor children’s films on Friday. We will also have the group Petite Performers hosting a free 30-minute dance class (ballet and hip hop) for children ages 3+ in the Welcome Centre at 12pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (limited availability: first come, first served).  If you would like to volunteer to help – and we are particularly in need of help on Tuesday 26th August – email Louise Wallis at . 

Marriage Preparation Course to Begin in September  
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 7th September, 3pm-4.30pm. The course is a great opportunity for all 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 Josie Wilson at . 

New to Faith or Considering Baptism or Confirmation? Try ‘Discovering Christianity’ 
Explore faith with a four-week course starting 11th September and running for four consecutive Thursdays, 7.30pm-9pm, in the church. The course is ideal for anyone interested in learning more about the Christian faith or considering getting baptised or confirmed. We will be discussing the book, ‘Discovering Christianity: A Guide For The Curious’ by Rowan Williams. Sign up here or email . 

Save the Date:12th October Evening Confirmation Service with Bishop Lynne 
There will be a Deanery Confirmation service at St Edmund’s, Chingford, on Sunday 12th October. Confirmation is a special service in which a person confirms the promises that were made for them at baptism (also known as ‘Christening’). If you were baptised at a christening when you were a child, your parents and godparents made these promises on your behalf, however, as a young person or adult, you may now be ready to affirm these promises for yourself and publicly commit to following Jesus Christ, something which happens at a confirmation service. Your friends and family as well as the local Christian community are there to promise to support and pray for you. At the service, Bishop Lynne will also lay hands on the candidates’ heads and ask God’s Holy Spirit to help them follow Christ. Register your interest in being confirmed here, or speak to Revd Vanessa Conant to find out more.

BBC Radio 4’s ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’ Coming to St Mary’s on 3rd November 
We are excited to announce that on the evening of Monday 3rd November, St Mary’s will host two live tapings of ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’, the much-loved BBC Radio 4 programme. Ticket-holders will sit through back-to-back tapings of separate episodes of the iconic programme, which will take approximately two hours in total. Tickets will be released in early autumn for the recordings, and will be available from St Mary’s for £4.50 per ticket. We look forward to announcing more details, including how to get a ticket, in September!  

St Mary’s to Host BBC Radio 4’s ‘Any Questions’ Political Programme 28th November 
St Mary’s has just confirmed that, in addition to ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’, we will also be hosting BBC Radio 4’s ‘Any Questions’ political panel show in November, which is broadcast live on Friday evenings and re-broadcast on Saturday afternoon. We are currently scheduled to host on Friday 28th November and will begin distributing free tickets in the autumn to anyone interested in attending. We look forward to sharing more details about the event, including who will be on the panel and how to reserve your free ticket, in September. 

EcoTip: Join the 5th August Webinar on the Climate and Nature Bill
Despite the bumpy legislative road it has faced in the House of Commons, the campaign for the Climate and Nature (CAN) Bill continues. Get up to speed on where the campaign now stands and what campaigners plan to do next at a webinar on Tuesday 5th August from 7-8pm which is being sponsored by the Zero Hour campaign group. Written by scientists and campaigners, the Climate and Nature Bill is the only piece of proposed UK legislation to address the full extent of the climate and nature crisis with legally-binding targets. Register here for the webinar; to learn more about the Climate and Nature Bill, visit www.zerohour.uk. 

Please pray this month for:

• The safety of all in our church and parish who are travelling this summer, and for all of those who are staying in Walthamstow/ Waltham Forest during August
  
• An end to the fighting in the Middle East and for efforts to broker a lasting peace
  
• The health and wellbeing of the people of Gaza who are still in desperate need of food and aid, and for the release and safety of all hostages
  
• The political will to implement policies in the UK that reduce poverty
  
• Those who are unwell in any way, or are worried about their health: for peace, help, hope and healing
  
• Efforts to regulate AI and mitigate against the dangers that it poses to employment, to human flourishing and to democracy
  
• Local, diocesean and global Church leaders, including our Rector Vanessa, our bishops Lynne and Guli, our archdeacon Mike and for the leaders of other Churches, including Pope Leo, as well as for leaders of Christian communities in conflict zones
  
• Ukraine and its people – for an end to the attacks and for a just peace
  
• Efforts to stop new oil and gas developments around the world, and for campaigns that challenge banks and financial institutions which are still funding fossil fuels
  
• Community cohesion in the UK – for Christian communities and other community leaders to foster friendships across difference and promote mutual respect and love
  
• People of faith to challenge authoritarian movements around the world
  
• That more people would come to know the love of Christ in Walthamstow 

Upcoming Events at St Mary’s 

• Saturday 20th September
  
  • Mrs H and Singalong Band (children’s band), 10.30am. Tickets will be available from St Mary’s in early September. 
    
  • Walthamstow Film Lounge – a screening of the film ‘Metropolis’ with a live band, 7pm (tickets available here or by visiting www.stowfilmlounge.com)
    
  • Worth Unlimited (youth charity) Quiz Evening, 7.30pm: £10 tickets available on the door, here, or by visiting www.worthunlimited.co.uk/quiznight.
    
• Saturday 27th September
  
  • ‘Stories and Supper’: an evening of conversation and poetry. Tickets and more details coming in September 

• Thursday 2nd October
  
  • Blood donation at St Mary’s, 9am-5pm 

• Friday 3rd October
  
  • Salsatecha: an evening of salsa for beginners and advanced dancers. More details in September. 

• Saturday 18th October
  
  • St Mary’s Community Quiz night. Booking details will be announced in September. 

Reflection: ‘Intercession’ 
Revd Vanessa Conant writes: 

Whenever, in our services, we come to the prayers of intercession – sometimes called the Prayers of the People – I can often feel myself breathing a sigh of relief. When, as is so often the case, I cannot find the words to pray for the world, those in great need or even for myself, the words of the intercessors cut through the whirr of my anxious thoughts and give voice to sorrow, fear and hope and in that way gives both respite and strength. I find great solidarity in adding my ‘Amen’ to the prayers of those around me; how else to bear the suffering of so many? How else to commit afresh to living our baptismal promise to shine as a light in the world? 

I have always found other people’s prayers helpful. I carry in my memory a handful of prayers which, alongside snippets of the liturgies we say in church, rise up throughout the day or at given moments of need. I often pray the Orthodox Jesus prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner) or the prayer of Julian of Norwich (All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.) Many times I’ve reached for the prayer of Thomas Merton (My Lord, I have no idea where I am going…) and sometimes, exhaustedly, prayed the prayer of Pope John XXIII (It’s your church, God. I’m going to bed). 

This week, amidst the news and conversations with others, I stumbled across this Prayer for Gloomy Thinkers by Nadia Bolz Weber, the writer and public theologian. Much more informal than some of the other prayers I have mentioned, I found her words resonated deeply and I realised that my soul was also weary. The prayer made me smile and feel a little less alone in that exhaustion that comes when faced with the overwhelming troubles of the world. Just as on Sunday mornings, it named something of the pain of being human at this particular time in history, and that naming was helpful, freeing and somehow hopeful. 

Dear God,

I woke up today exhausted after a full night’s sleep.
My 90-minute walk did not revive me, and a nice breakfast with lots of protein didn’t seem to do the trick either.
And before you ask, yes I’m fully hydrated, Lord.
Hydrated and weary.
And it’s getting harder not to freak out.
All day long, when my thoughts get gloomy:
is this the end of days?
will AI take over everything just like in all those movies?
should I invest in a bunker?
did we already live through the most peaceful, prosperous time in history and we didn’t realize that’s what it was and now it’s over and we will never get it back again?
I try to redirect my thoughts to:
where is beauty happening in this very moment?
who might need some help today?
what are those show-offy red flowers in my neighbor’s yard called?
how can the sky look that beautiful?
but that amount of re-direction is taking a LOT of energy, Lord. And maybe that’s contributing to the exhaustion,
What I am trying to say, God, is that if you could help me pivot my restless brain from gloom to gladness even just like, 10% faster, that could make a huge difference.
Oh and thanks for this day.
And everything beautiful in my life that I did not earn or create.
And for dogs.
And flowers.
Amen.

The first disciples learned about prayer from Jesus. They watched him as he retreated to quiet places, prayed before daybreak, rejoiced with thanksgiving in prayer and endured horror and sorrow with prayer. When Jesus ascended into heaven the disciples had no doubt that he continued to pray for them – and so for us. The letter to the Hebrews says that Christ ‘always lives to make intercession for us’. 

Br. Geoffrey Tristram observes the following: ‘Interestingly, the verb we translate as “to make intercession for us,” in the original Greek is the verb entunchanein. This likely does not mean “to make petitions” nor to say any words at all. It means rather “to meet with” or “be with someone on behalf of another.” So when we talk of Jesus “making intercession” for us to the Father, as the Letter to the Hebrews puts it, we should not imagine Jesus talking to God about us. Rather, it is Jesus being intimately close to his Father and carrying us whom he loves on his heart and into the heart of God.’ 

Perhaps that’s what I love the most about intercessions in our Sunday service – that those who serve in this ministry allow us to carry others on our hearts into the heart of God, they make space for us to be with God and so help us to join in with the intercession of Jesus. As former Archbishop Ramsey put it: ‘When we pray, we are being with God, with the people we love on our hearts.’ 

I pray, in these summer weeks, that we will be drawn into intercession, praying for a world in deep need and trusting in a God who hears the cry of our hearts. I pray you will find solace and community in praying in church, that the prayers of the saints (living and departed) will help you and that you will be assured and encouraged in your own intercession, knowing that you do not have to find the perfect words, but simply offer those you love into the loving heart of God. 

I will be praying for you. 

With love,

Vanessa