Dear St Mary’s, 

On Sunday 15th November, we’ll share Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am with Revd Vanessa Conant leading and presiding, and Revd Tim Scott preaching. At our 10.30am service, there will be a baptism as well as supervised children’s groups. 

Our lectionary readings this Sunday are 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 – St Paul’s teaching on the return of Christ – and Matthew 25:14-30, the Parable of the Talents. 

Later on Sunday, at 5pm, our youth group, which is open to all secondary school students, will meet in the Welcome Centre – email for details.  

Free ‘Food & Friendship’ Event in Church this Evening as Part of Interfaith Week
The Women’s Interfaith Network of Waltham Forest will host a 6pm ‘Food & Friendship’ event this evening – Thursday 12th November – in the church. The event is free and open to everyone, not just women, and will include a free meal as well as the opportunity to share stories and build friendships across differences. Tonight’s event coincides with Interfaith Week which aims to bring faith communities together across the UK, with an emphasis on shared values, compassion for others and cultivating a vision of a positive, shared future. 

Worth Unlimited Quiz on Saturday 14th November at 7.30pm in the Welcome Centre 
Support the amazing work of our partners, Worth Unlimited – a local youth charity – at their annual fundraising quiz this Saturday 14th November at 7.30pm in the St Mary’s Welcome Centre. Tickets are £10 and can be purchased in advance via this link or on the door. 

Board Game Evening in Church on 21st November
Join us at 7:30pm on Saturday 21st November in the church for a board game evening for adults. Around fifteen games will be provided but feel free to bring your favourites. Drinks and nibbles will be available from our bar, but also feel free to bring your own. This is a great chance to socialise and get to know people at St Mary’s who you may not have had the chance to speak to before. For details, email Matt Begg . 

Contributing to St Mary’s Christmas Festival
St Mary’s Christmas Festival is happening on Saturday 28th November, 10am-5pm, and we could use your help. Are you able to donate a prize, make a cake, or volunteer on the day? If so, let us know via this quick online form. The festival – which includes a craft market in the church and a Children’s Zone with Santa’s Grotto in the Welcome Centre – is a great opportunity for us to welcome the local community into our buildings, raise funds for St Mary’s, and invite people to our Advent and Christmas services. 

Make a Wreath at St Mary’s Christmas Festival
There will be outdoor wreath-making workshops using natural materials – including willow, ivy and holly – on 28th November as part of our Christmas Festival, with participants taking home a festive wreath that they make, all materials provided. There will be three separate hour-long wreath-making sessions held in the Welcome Garden (located behind the Welcome Centre) on 28th November: one at 11am, one at 12.15pm, and one at 1.30pm, with tickets starting at £12 (concession) and standard tickets available for £17. To book a place or for more details, click here or visit ticketlab.app/events and search ‘natural wreath-making’. 

Advent Book Group: ‘Sabbath as Resistance’ by Walter Brueggeman 
Every Advent we take time to reflect and study a book together and starting on Thursday 26th November at 7.30pm, and for the following three Thursdays, you are warmly invited to join us as we study the book, ‘Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now’ by the theologian Walter Brueggemann. In this powerful book, Brueggemann speaks to a society of consumption in which we are encouraged to want more, own more and use more. Keeping the Sabbath allows us to break this restless cycle and focus on what is truly important. Together, we will think a little more about what it means to live a more fulfilling, simpler life amidst the consumerism of the Christmas season. Register here or email or for more details. 

Join St Mary’s Community Christmas Choir
We are once again forming a St Mary’s Community Christmas Choir which this year will sing on Sunday 20th December, 6pm, at our Carols by Candlelight service and we’d love to have you join the choir by registering here. Whether you have experience singing in a choir or not, all are welcome, including your friends or neighbours who would like to sing in a choir. There will be three rehearsals – Friday 11th December at 7pm in the Welcome Centre; Friday 18th December at 7pm in the Welcome Centre; and Sunday 20th December at 3.30pm in the church on the day of the carol service. All of the choral pieces can be found online here. 

Admission to Communion on Sunday 31st January 2027  
Throughout the year, there are a number of services during which we welcome children to receive Holy Communion for the first time, and our next one will be on Sunday 31st January 2027 at 10.30am. Your child must be over 8 and baptised in order to take this next step of faith. There is also a compulsory preparation session. If your child would be interested in exploring this, please email Revd Vanessa Conant at or Revd Jacintha Danaswamy at . 

St Gabriel’s Christmas Fayre on 21st November 
St Gabriel’s Church – located near the corner of Havant Road and Wood Street – is hosting a Christmas Fayre on Saturday 21st November from 11am to 4pm. There will be stalls selling crafts and other Christmas gifts, as well as food, hot drinks and more. For children, there will be a visit from Father Christmas. Admission is free and all are welcome.  

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. 

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:

• The PCC (church and parish trustees) meeting on Monday 16th November 
• Interfaith Week, which encourages dialogue and friendship between those of different faith backgrounds across the UK, including here in Walthamstow 
• The UK government to reject the proposed Rosebank oil development, which, if developed, would neither lower energy bills nor enhance the UK’s energy security
• Delegates of good-faith at the COP31 climate change conference in Turkey who are working to deliver emissions reductions rather than protect the fossil fuel industry 
• All good-faith efforts to end wars and conflicts around the world, and for all efforts to provide humanitarian assistance, praying for those who continue to suffer in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, Iran and elsewhere
• All in our church/ parish who are unwell in body, mind or spirit: for hope and healing 
• Those in our parish who are struggling with the high cost of food, energy and housing

Reflection: ‘Small Ideas Initiative’ 
Revd Vanessa Conant, Rector of St Mary’s and the Parish of Walthamstow, writes:  

There’s an online joke about Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City that everyone wants to claim him as their mayor, no matter how far from NYC they might be. His term of office seems to have brought an injection of positive hopefulness and practical action, combined with a joyful pride in what makes New York City great. In some polls, Mamdani’s approval ratings are as high as 69% among the city’s residents – almost unheard of for a politician. 

Mamdani’s ambitions for New York City are high. He is bringing in sweeping changes to childcare provision, huge and transformative affordable housing projects and free bus fares across large parts of the city. If successful, some of these projects will take years to realise, but perhaps it is the small things – the quick actions that make a genuine difference to people’s everyday lives – which are winning the affection and approval of his constituents. 

Over 200,000 potholes have been fixed and repairs to broken park equipment now happen just days after reporting; every parent is offered 4 hours of free after-school care to go on a date, to run an errand, or to rest; there are new bins to reduce a rat problem; and free tickets for residents are being made available to the opera, to the theatre, to the New York Knicks. 

These are not major systemic changes – the reality is that the ambitious, large-scale plans face many funding and process obstacles – but these small things are making a tangible difference to the well-being of the city’s residents and are restoring a sense of hope. 

Along these same lines, I recently read that Martin Lewis (the money saving expert) was setting up something called the Small Ideas Initiative, where members of the UK public could suggest small policy or practical changes for the government to consider writing into law. 

Already thousands of suggestions have been made, ranging from simplifying care-home costs to universal allergy symbols on menus and standardizing council forms. Anyone can submit an idea which will be scrutinized, researched, and then, if deemed to be viable, presented to a cross-party board of MPs with the potential to be made into public policy. 

The initiative seeks ideas which are low-cost, non-partisan, have widespread appeal, and are hard to disagree with. Small wins. 

Nestled within one of the most challenging and complicated parables in the Gospels – the Parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16 – are Jesus’ words: ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.’ 

Rather than being insignificant or a distraction, the management and care of small matters reflects a heart of dedication and faithfulness. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the world’s needs and challenges, and to feel inadequate in our response. How are my actions mitigating or reducing the impact of climate change, we might ask, or how am I making a difference to people who are homeless? How am I preventing or responding to war? Our smallness, our powerlessness, can sometimes feel debilitating and depressing. 

In these moments, it is helpful to me to think of the value that small actions can have in restoring hope and in making a small, tangible difference to the people around me. These small actions can be a sign of my faithfulness, an offering of my devotion. 

I think about the time someone offers on a Saturday night, serving guests at the Night Shelter, or helping at the Kindwell Food Share on Sunday evenings. I think of the people who volunteer to help deliver a children’s ministry session or make a youth group evening possible. I think about the companionship a person offers to a stranger struggling with paperwork at the Walthamstow Welcomes cafe. I think about the word of welcome and friendship someone offers to those who are newly arrived at our church. Or the way someone cares for a corner of our churchyard, the choice someone makes in their daily life to protect the planet, or the ways in which people put others before themselves. 

These countless, small, faithful actions, when we really reflect on them – when we see them all together – inject hope, and are bigger than they might at first seem. 

I pray that we, at St Mary’s, are always a Small Ideas Initiative – a community which keeps thinking about how to make our church and wider world a better place to belong to and live in – a community which is always wondering about those things which can make a tangible difference to our neighbours. 

To that end, I would love to hear your ideas for small changes that we could implement at St Mary’s and across our parish – so please don’t hesitate to share them. 

And I pray we are faithful in the small things – that we are people who are daily growing in integrity and wisdom – while also working for the big vision of the Kingdom, too. 

With love 

Vanessa