Dear St Mary’s, 

It was lovely to worship with you last Sunday as Rob Duddridge preached and Revd Alan Moss led us. This Sunday (21st July), Revd Tim Scott will lead and preside and Revd Ola Franklin will preach as we celebrate Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am, with supervised children’s groups in the Welcome Centre at 10.30am. For those who are unable to join us in person, we will livestream this Sunday’s 9am service to our Facebook page (facebook.com/StMarysE17). We hope to see you this Sunday at St Mary’s! 

Invite your neighbours to attend St Mary’s Summer Festival + Ceilidh this Saturday
We’re excited about our Summer Festival which is happening this Saturday 20th July, 11am-5pm. The festival includes a craft market, food court, music, fete games, Children’s Zone, Social Justice Hub, churchyard tours, art workshops and Welcome Garden events. The day will end with an evening ceilidh at 7.30pm (booking required). We would love for you to help us promote the festival by inviting your friends and neighbours. Perhaps you could promote the festival in a local WhatsApp group, share festival details on social media or mention it in conversation? To get your ceilidh tickets, book in for one of our other ticketed events, volunteer, or see our full festival programme, visit stmaryswalthamstow.org/festival. 

Save the Date: Creation Saturday event in the Welcome Centre on 12th October 
Our EcoChurch team will hold a Creation Saturday event in the Welcome Centre from 10am-4pm on 12th October. This will be a day for us to reflect on climate change, thinking deeply about the hope the Spirit has given us and how we can make a difference. Led by pioneer priest and environmental campaigner Revd Vanessa Elston from the Diocese of Southwark, the day will include art activities, stories, and small group interaction. If you would like to help, contact Mike Forbes at . 

St Mary’s at Waltham Forest Pride on Saturday 27th July 
Waltham Forest Pride is on Saturday 27th July at Fellowship Square next to the Waltham Forest Town Hall from 3-8pm. It will be brought to life by the talent and contributions of the local LGBTQIA+ community and will feature a range of stalls, from crafts and face-painting to food and performances with plenty of activities for children and families. St Mary’s, along with several other local churches – including St Peter-in-the-Forest and St Barnabas – will host an inclusive space of Christian welcome, conversation, and prayer at Waltham Forest Pride. If you are around on the day, please come by our stall. Please also pray that all who visit our stall on 27th July will experience the inclusive love and welcome of Jesus Christ. For more details, contact Revd Jacintha Danaswamy at . 

No Morning Prayer on Friday 19th July 
There will be no Morning Prayer on Friday 19th July due to a lack of clergy availability. We usually say Morning Prayer in St Mary’s side chapel weekdays at 8.30am and all are welcome. We also livestream Morning Prayer to Facebook (facebook.com/StMarysE17). 

‘In good condition’ toys and books for St Mary’s Summer Festival Children’s Zone 
As part of St Mary’s Summer Festival, we are inviting you to bring your ‘in good condition’ but unwanted children’s toys, books, games and equipment to the Children’s Zone in the Welcome Centre hall this Saturday,11am-5pm, as we help the Walthamstow Toy Library fill up their Community Cupboard, where parents and carers can take what they need for free. 

St Mary’s Cafe and Play Space to Reopen on Monday 22nd July 
We’re excited to announce that our new cafe partners, Ruttle & Rowe, will begin trading at St Mary’s on Monday 22nd July. Mat and Grace Ruttle are members of our congregation and run a coffee shop and specialty coffee roaster in Chapel End. Having Ruttle & Rowe at St Mary’s will mean we can reopen our children’s Play Area and get our ancient building back open to the public during the week, Monday-Friday, 8.30am-4pm, and Saturday, 9am-4pm. We’re looking forward to having church back open in the week, which has been a brilliant way of connecting with the wider community. However, due to a St Mary’s School assembly on Tuesday 23rd July, our Play Area will be closed that day with the cafe remaining open. 

Summer Sundays to begin on Sunday 28th July 
Our children’s ministry team will take a break during the summer, which means that from Sunday 28th July we will not have supervised groups at 10.30am. Instead, we will have activity packs each Sunday for children to work on during the service. We are so thankful for our children’s ministry team which runs groups for the first three Sundays of the month, most of the year, at 10.30am. Supervised children’s groups will return on Sunday 8th September. 

EcoTip: Season of Creation 2024 
Backed by the World Council of Churches and running from 1st September to 4th October, the Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and with all of creation through celebration, conversion, action and commitment. During the Season of Creation, the world’s two billion Christians are encouraged to hold environmentally-themed services and events as we come together in prayer and action to care for our common home. Learn more at www.seasonofcreation.org. If you would like to be involved in helping us plan something for the Season of Creation, email . 

Please pray this week for: 

• St Mary’s community outreach, from our Summer Festival to Waltham Forest Pride
• Children and young people in need of positive summer activities and opportunities 
• Those in need of secure and affordable housing in Walthamstow and beyond 
• Places of conflict around the world, especially Ukraine and Gaza/ Israel 
• Elections around the world and the ongoing threat of political violence 
• Churches working for full inclusion, that more people might experience God’s love 
• Those in government, Church and civil society working to stop fossil fuel expansion 
• Summer rest for St Mary’s congregation, staff and clergy 
• Those struggling with the cost of living and finding it difficult to make ends meet 

Next week in the Welcome Centre (22-26 July):

Monday (22/7)
Daphne & Friends Baby Loss Group, 10am-11am

Tuesday (23/7)
There are no events on Tuesday; if you’re interested in hiring space in the Welcome Centre, or know someone who is, contact us at . 

Wednesday (24/7)
Walthamstow Welcomes Cafe (help with confusing paperwork), 10am-Noon 

Thursday (25/7) 
Baby Massage, 10.15am-12.45pm 
Boggle Beats, 10.30am-11.15am 
Food Cycle (Free Community Meal), 6.30pm 

Friday (26/7)
There are no events on Friday; if you’re interested in hiring space in the Welcome Centre, or know someone who is, contact us at . 

Reflection: Humility 
Natalie Burwell, our churchwarden, writes: 

Every Thursday evening I join an online contemplative service for LGBTQ+ Christians called Rhythm. It started in Lockdown and it’s like a tiny Vespers, with beautiful liturgy led by the Chaplain to the group, Fr Lee.

Recently, because of other good and joyful commitments, my own Thursday rhythm was interrupted for about ten weeks. When I rejoined Rhythm last week, it was on the Feast of St Benedict of Nursia. Fr Lee’s prompt to guide us into a time of contemplative silence was simply: Listen. 

‘Listen’ is the first word of that ancient guide for living in monastic community, the Rule of Benedict: ‘Listen carefully, my child, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.’

Do you ever have those times in prayer — or maybe in the very moment of thinking about spending time with God — where your whole self cries out: ‘I need this’? In the contemplative silence I felt something in my chest opening up. I felt like a plant that was parched at a cellular level but didn’t even know it until gentle rains came.

And I think this experience of myself as a dehydrated plant has brought to mind another very Benedictine practice: humility.

‘Humility’ comes from the root word ‘humus’, meaning soil or ground. ‘Humble’ and ‘humour’ come from the same root. In the Biblical creation story, God bent down to the fruitful ground — to adamah in Hebrew — and took red dust and shaped it. Then God breathed into Adam’s nostrils, filling this creature with life, spirit. Origen of Alexandria wrote that God made everything else with a word, but humans were made by hand. 

We are lovingly shaped – wonderfully made!

Psychologist and researcher June Price Tangney finds humility to be a rich and multi-faceted concept. Part of it is the ability to assess yourself accurately, including both strengths and weaknesses. Humble people are neither overly favourable to nor overly hard on themselves. They are open to new information, including ideas that contradict the opinions they already hold. They can keep their own place in the world in perspective. They have an ability to ‘forget themselves’, to move out of the middle of the frame sometimes.

Stopping and really listening — to our own hearts, to our neighbours, to the natural world, and to God — is a humble practice, and humility is not unrelated to laughter! This Saturday finds St Mary’s, rooted and grounded in our community, throwing a party and inviting everyone to take part. And the following Saturday, St Mary’s volunteers will set out our stall at Waltham Forest Pride, the summer festival celebrating LGBTQ+ lives. Along with four other inclusive churches in Waltham Forest, we will be present, as an invitation, a chance to listen, and, we hope, as a reminder that in God’s eyes we are all ‘wonderfully made’. 

May we each find rhythms of replenishment this week. And may laughter and listening ground and refresh all our relationships. Amen.