Dear St Mary’s, 

On Sunday 18th October, we’ll share Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am with Revd Vanessa Conant leading and presiding and Revd Tim Scott preaching. 

Our readings for this Sunday are Philippians 4:4-9 and John 14: 23-27.  

This Sunday is the second in a series of four sermons reflecting on resilient spirituality and helpful Christian practices in a time of ecological, geopolitical and technological change; this week, we will focus on practices that help you remain peaceful and calm in turbulent times. 

Later on Sunday, at 5pm, our youth group will meet in the Welcome Centre – please email Revd Jacintha Danaswamy at for more details. 

Expanded Play Area in St Mary’s Church  
We are trialling an expanded Play Area for babies and toddlers during cafe hours, with new mats, bouncers, and a play pen along the south side of the church in addition to our existing soft play space. We suggest a £3 donation for the use of our Play Area for those who are able to donate, but these play spaces are always open to all, regardless of the ability to pay.  

Night Shelter AGM This Evening  
St Mary’s will host Forest Churches Emergency Night Shelter’s Annual General Meeting this evening – Thursday 15th October – at 7.30pm, and all are invited. The AGM is a chance to hear about what the Night Shelter has been doing over the past year, ask questions, and find out about plans for next year. For more details, email . 

Tickets Still Available: ‘Ground Level’ Workshop on Friday 16th October 
On Friday 16th October, 10am-3.30pm, explore trees, soil and water as part of a workshop held in St Mary’s Churchyard. This ‘Ground Level’ workshop will teach you how to create resilient, nature-friendly gardens and will be led by our Head Gardener Tim Hewitt and three other experts. Tea, snacks and lunch are included in the price of your ticket for this practical, day-long workshop. To book, click here, or visit eventbrite.co.uk and search ‘ground level’. 

Youth Worship Band Rehearsal on Friday 16th October 
There will be a youth worship band rehearsal this Friday 16th October from 6-7pm in the church. For more information, email Matt Begg at . 

Monday 19th October: St Mary’s School Harvest Assemblies, Cafe in Exhibition Space 
Please be aware that we are hosting St Mary’s School’s Harvest Assemblies in the church on Monday 19th October; this means our Play Area will be closed for much of the day, however the cafe will remain open, with cafe seating moved to the Exhibition Space. 

Slow Down Wood Street Campaign Update 
Nearly two dozen people joined us at our first meeting on Monday 12th October at St Gabriel’s Church near Wood Street to discuss our campaign to create a safer Wood Street for all who walk, cycle or travel along the road. If you would like to find out more or would like to be part of the campaign, email Revd Vanessa Conant at who can also add you to the campaign mailing list. 

Family Lunch + Singing on Sunday 8th November
On Sunday 8th November after our 10.30am Service, we will have a family and children’s lunch. Pack up your Sunday lunch or grab your favourite sandwiches as we eat together in the church at noon. And after lunch, our worship band will lead us in some intergenerational action songs! It will be a lovely time of friendship, food and worship. For details, email or .

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, please email Louise Wallis at . The festival – which includes a makers’ market in the church and 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. 

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. 

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. 

Yoga Class Starting on Tuesday Evenings in the Welcome Centre  
Weekly ‘Never2LateYoga’ classes will start on Tuesday 20th October at 6pm in the Welcome Centre lounge. This is a gentle yoga class suitable for older people, beginners and those with mobility issues. Some mats, straps and blocks will be provided, but bring your own if you can. Lessons are taught by Katja Heber, an experienced teacher and sports massage therapist. Lessons are £13 with £10 places available for those on fixed or lower incomes. Email for details, or contact Katja at 07852254549. 

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:

• Ongoing violence around the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine: for a de-escalation of violence and for all diplomatic and peacemaking efforts 
• Members of our church who are currently in hospital or receiving treatment, as well as for all in our parish who are unwell in any way or worried: for hope, help, healing 
• Pope Leo who is recovering from surgery, and for the wellbeing of all Church leaders, including our Rector Vanessa, our Bishops Lynne and Guil and our Archbishop Sarah 
• Faith and community leaders to work together to oppose racism, to bring communities together and to build bridges across cultural and religious divides 
• Elections around the world – for accountability for corrupt leaders and parties, and for democracy, transparency, environmental protection and the Common Good to prevail 
• All in our Parish who are struggling financially: for policies which ease the cost of living for those most in need, provide opportunity and promote wellbeing  
• Our ministries and partners, and for all they serve, praying specifically for our Walthamstow Welcomes cafe (help with confusing paperwork), Kindwell Foodshare, Waltham Forest Migrant Action, FoodCycle (community meal on Thursdays), Worth Unlimited, Christian Kitchen and the Forest Churches Emergency Night Shelter 

Reflection: ‘Project Kindness’ 
Revd Vanessa Conant, Rector of St Mary’s and the Parish of Walthamstow, writes: 

In the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell fire, priest and writer Azariah France-Williams, went to help with the relief effort. He writes, ‘we went the day after it caught fire, and it was still smouldering when we got there. There were a number of people who had had to evacuate the apartment block and they were sat dejected at the side of the road, just huddled together, a thousand-yard stare. But then behind them was a young man playing the violin, just playing the most beautiful classical music. You could still see the smoke, you could see the smouldering of the flats behind him. Later, I bumped into him, and I said, ‘Why did you do that?’. He said, ‘When I saw it on the news, I thought I can’t organize some big relief effort or whatever, but I can play the violin. So I thought I’d just come and play the violin.’ 

I read this story in a new book, ‘Project Kindness’, a collection of conversations about what kindness is and what it looks like to be kind in hostile times. The author and editor, Ellen Loudon, reflected on this story, saying, ‘There is such beauty and such worth in the offering of that gift. This is all any of us can do, offer the little fire of kindness and hope it grows into a positive furnace of something that can change the world for the better.’

I was privileged to attend the launch of ‘Project Kindness’ last week. For an hour, panellists ranging from a forensic psychiatrist, to a Bishop, to the Church of England’s Director for Racial Justice talked about kindness, what it is and what it isn’t. It was a robust and thought-provoking discussion, and I thought of how often kindness is reduced to something slightly anodyne, or how kindness – particularly in public discourse – has been so eroded.

I remembered, too, a member of one of my congregations telling me that they had been told to ‘be kind’ when they had finally spoken out about being bullied in their workplace. Their anger and sense of injustice had been stifled by this injunction. In this case, kindness was weaponised. Was it unkind to be hurt? Was it unkind to express frustration or disappointment? Is kindness about accommodation no matter what the circumstances? 

In the Bible, the word most often used for kindness is the Hebrew word, Hesed. It’s a powerful word meaning a combination of love, generosity and faithfulness. It describes an act of promise-keeping loyalty that is motivated by deep care. 

In the Hebrew Bible, God is most often the one demonstrating loyal loving-kindness, often to people who are undeserving and have betrayed their covenant. God’s greatest demonstration of this is in the self-giving sacrifice of Jesus for the redemption of humanity. 

In turn, human hesed is expressed by acting justly and living out what it means to bear the image of God on earth. It is characterized by mercy. Kindness seeks out truth and believes in the transformation of all people, it is consistent and patient, trusting in the possibilities of redemption. 

In another part of Project Kindness, Jon Swales, a mission priest at a church in West Yorkshire (described as ‘a place for those battered and bruised by the storms of life’), talks about the fact that kindness can look like ‘the slow burn miracle of love’ and describes how, through loving-kindness, some members of his church have been able to lay down lives of addiction as they step into faith. But, Ellen writes, ‘mostly this is hard, truth-telling loving kindness that is vulnerable and can be heart-breaking.’ 

Being kind, hesed, is very different from being nice. 

In St Mary’s, I receive a great deal of kindness, and I pray that is true for everyone who joins us. I pray that they are able to know and experience kindness. But I hope our experience is much more of hesed – of faithful promise-keeping to one another, of merciful justice-seeking, of truth-telling loving-kindness that help us all to become who God has called us to be. 

And in a hostile world, where sometimes unkindness abounds, I pray we will be people who offer the little fire of kindness, discerning enough to know when God needs us to simply play the violin among the embers. 

With love 

Vanessa