Dear St Mary’s,

On 23rd March, the Third Sunday in Lent, Revd Jacintha Danawamy will lead and Revd Vanessa Conant will preach at our 9am Holy Communion service and again at our monthly 10.30am Intergenerational Service, with adults and children together and no supervised children’s groups. There will be a Baby Lounge in the South Vestry at both services. 

At both 9am and 10.30am, Christian Aid’s Jess Hall will interview Peter Nasir, director of the YMCA in East Jerusalem, who will speak about his work with Palestinian young people. 

For those unable to join us this Sunday in person, we will livestream the 9am service to our Facebook page. 

As this week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week – a worldwide initiative challenging misconceptions about neurological differences – we will also have sensory bags available, acknowledging and celebrating the different ways people think about and experience the world. 

At 6pm, there will be evening prayer in the church hosted by St Luke’s and all are welcome.

St Mary’s Children to Hold Community Litter Pick: Saturday 22nd March, 2pm 
Join us for a Litter Pick this Saturday 22nd March at 2pm which will be led by children from our congregation. We’ll pick litter for about an hour around St Mary’s; afterwards, we’ll gather for a short time of prayer and refreshments. By letting us know that you’re coming, we can ensure that we have enough litter pickers. Please email .

Mothering Sunday on 30th March 
Join us for Mothering Sunday on 30th March, with Holy Communion at 9am and an all-age Family Communion at 10.30am. In the Church of England, Mothering Sunday marks a day in which, historically, people would return to their ‘Mother Church’, reconnecting with the communities that nurtured their faith. We also recognise that Mothering Sunday/ Mother’s Day is not only a time of celebration but is, for many people, a difficult day; this is why our custom at St Mary’s is to distribute flowers to everyone at both of our Mothering Sunday services, acknowledging that there will be a range of feelings about the day and also acknowledging that we have each been mothered or have mothered others ourselves. 

Holy Week 2025 at St Mary’s and in the Parish 
During Holy Week, join us on Wednesday 16th April at 7.30pm for our Tenebrae service – a retelling of the passion narrative, with the church growing progressively darker as the story progresses. On 17th April, Maundy Thursday, there will be a 7.30pm Holy Communion service at St Gabriel’s Church. And then on 18th April, Good Friday, we will begin the day at St Mary’s with Holy Communion at 8.30am; will later hold a ‘Messy Good Friday’ service for children and families at 10.30am; a ‘Quiet Easter’ service for neurodiverse children at 3.30pm; and a Good Friday service at 7.30pm. On Easter Sunday, 20th April, we will have a 6.30am Sunrise Service with an Easter Fire in St Mary’s Church courtyard followed by Holy Communion at 9am and again at 10.30am. More: www.stmaryswalthamstow.org/HolyWeek. 

‘Ground Level’ Gardening Event at St Mary’s on 20th May  
Be inspired by some of the UK’s foremost wildlife gardeners at ‘Ground Level’ – a ticketed 20th May event at St Mary’s featuring talks by TV presenters Kate Bradbury and Errol Reuben Fernandes, with everything you need to know to garden better for wildlife. Wherever your plot is – balcony, ground or pot – you can help biodiversity. The 6.30pm talks will be followed by a panel discussion with gardener and writer Susanna Grant and Wild City Studio’s Jon Davis and Steve Williams, all chaired by our head gardener Tim Hewitt with a Q&A to follow. There will also be a paid bar and a chance to tour St Mary’s Churchyard. Tickets are £13.70 and available here.

‘Clean for Good’ to Start + Thanking Magda Mrozinska
Clean for Good is an ethical cleaning company which will begin regularly cleaning St Mary’s Church, St Mary’s Welcome Centre and St Gabriel’s Church and Family Centre from the end of March. We have been incredibly thankful for our cleaner Magda Mrozinska, however, due to the heavy use of our buildings and our growing need for daily cleaning at St Mary’s Church, we have had to transition to a commercial cleaning company. While St Mary’s Church and Welcome Centre are currently cleaned twice per week, Clean for Good will clean St Mary’s Church and Welcome Centre every morning, Monday to Saturday. 

Children’s Birthday Parties in the Welcome Centre 
A great source of revenue for our church has been weekend children’s birthday parties in the Welcome Centre, and we have a number of openings in the months ahead. If you’re looking to hold a child’s birthday party, you can hire the larger Welcome Centre hall or the Welcome Centre lounge on either a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon from 1pm-5pm. The hall (which can accommodate a bouncy castle) is £275 for four hours, whereas the lounge is £175 for four hours. To book or learn more, email Louise Wallis at . 

St Mary’s Clock Repairs 
Some will have noticed that we recently had a cherry-picker on site in order to reattach the minute hands to both sides of the clock on the church tower. The south-facing clock face is now showing the correct time, while the north-facing clock face is about 12 minutes fast, though we are working to correct this. Many thanks to parishioner David Christmas, who was integral in helping us get the minute hands reattached, and to our premises manager, John Chambers, for his contributions. Going forward, David has even agreed to take responsibility for maintaining the clock. Thanks David, John and all who have helped us fix the clock!

Christian Kitchen Needs Volunteers 
For years, Christian Kitchen has provided hot food to anyone hungry in Walthamstow, with St Mary’s volunteers providing meals on the second Thursday of the month. Those who are able to cook are asked to make a hot dish twice per year with tins provided to put the cooked food into and volunteers available to pick the food up from your house/ flat. Alternatively, for those who volunteer to serve food, it’s a commitment of two hours on a Thursday evening twice per year. To volunteer, or for more information, email . 

Please pray this week for:

• People around the world negatively impacted by cuts to foreign aid 
• All who are struggling with caring responsibilities 
• People who are neurodiverse: for greater understanding of their gifts/ talents/ needs 
• St Mary’s to be a place of love, care and welcome to all 
• New global coalitions to support democracy, human rights and climate action
• The elderly in our parish, that they would feel valued and included 
• St Mary’s and all churches around the world during the season of Lent 
• Pope Francis, who is still in hospital receiving treatment 
• Young people in our parish and around the world, for hope and positive role models
• More people to experience the love of Christ this Lent  
• All endangered and traumatised by war, including those in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza 
• All who are unwell in body, mind or spirit: for healing, support and hope 

Next Week in the Welcome Centre (24th-29th March)

Monday 24th March
Daphne & Friends (baby and child loss community), 10-11am 
Waltham Forest Community Choir, 7.30-9.30pm 

Tuesday 25th March 
Hula Fit, 6.30pm 

Wednesday 26th March     
Ninja School, 4-7pm 

Thursday 27th March  
Baby Massage, 10.30am
FoodCycle (free community meal), 6.30pm 
The Singing Room, 7.30pm 

Friday 28th March     
Sing and Sign, 10.15am & 11.15am 
Ninja School, 4-7pm
Daphne & Friends (baby and child loss community), 6.30pm  

Saturday 29th March 
Walthamstow Welcomes Cafe (free help with confusing paperwork), 10am-Noon 

Reflection: ‘Stability’ 
Revd Vanessa Conant writes: 

It is ten years this month since I came to interview for the role of Team Rector in this Parish. In my adult life, I have never lived anywhere for ten years. In fact, I have felt somewhat nomadic for many of my years – living in two, three and four year periods in different corners of the UK. Sometimes that constant movement felt exhausting and vulnerable, and at other times, it was energising and exciting, marked by a sense of adventure. 

This ten-year mark prompts me to notice the gifts of remaining, the blessing of staying put. Perhaps these are gifts that are already deeply familiar to you. 

I notice the teenager who I first met dressed in an oversized school uniform excitedly beginning their Reception year. 

I notice with gratitude the friendships and relationships which have sustained and challenged and encouraged me, the shared memories and struggles and the joy of serving alongside people through the different seasons of our lives. 

I treasure the way in which our buildings and churchyards have changed and developed, and the way in which our community has grown and developed too. I think about what it means to know and love a place not fleetingly or lightly. And what it means to, in the words of the Jesuit, Teilhard de Chardin, ‘trust in the slow work of God.’

The Rule of St Benedict, the 6th century foundation of Western monastic life, calls members to vows of obedience, stability and conversion of life. For Benedictines, the vow of stability requires them to commit to the same monastic house for the entirety of their lives. In this way, the writer Esther De Waal explains, they accept this particular community, this place and these people, this and no other, as the way to God and reject the bewildering and exhausting rushing from one thing to another that is so easy in a world full of endless choices like ours. Stability is not in and of itself the goal; rather it is how the individual may have space and time to enter into his or her personal dialogue with God.

In Jesus, we see a stability of a different sort, not marked by a commitment to a geographical place, but by a patient endurance and a standing firm, a rootedness in doing the will of God. In the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he is taken away to be crucified, we see Christ wrestle with approaching suffering and sorrow – ‘overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’ – and yet he does not flee; he remains, he stays. 

In this way, stability is both a gift and an invitation for us all. 

We may not be able to physically ‘stay put’ – housing or work or life may intervene – but each one of us can find in Jesus, the gifts of rooting our hearts and minds in the unchanging love of God. 

With love, 

Vanessa