Dear St Mary’s, 

On 8th March, the Third Sunday of Lent, Revd Vanessa Conant will lead and Louise Wallis will preach at 9am (Holy Communion) and again at 10.30am (Morning Worship), with supervised children’s groups at 10.30am and a Baby Lounge at both services. 

Our lectionary readings are Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4:5-42, which is the story of the woman at the well – a story in which we see Jesus breaking multiple social conventions of his time and culture by not only speaking alone with a woman, but also in speaking with a woman who was a Samaritan. As she speaks with Jesus, the woman is recorded as saying, “‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’’’ (John 4:25-26).

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

After the 10.30am service, we invite you to join us for ‘Weaving Trust’ – an opportunity to have guided conversations with different people in the church, allowing you to meet and make meaningful connections with more people at St Mary’s. Our hope is that all who attend will make new friends and feel a greater sense of belonging. A free sandwich lunch will be provided, however we have only two spaces left; if you are interested in joining us after church, please register your interest here, or email . 

Correction: St Mary’s Play Area Closed on 6th March, Cafe to Serve Outdoors with Seating in Exhibition Space 
Our NHS partners are again using St Mary’s Church for blood donations on Friday 6th March which means our play area will be closed, however, our Ruttle & Rowe cafe will stay open for outdoor orders, with seating available both outside and in our Exhibition Space. 

Mothering Sunday on 15th March 
On the Fourth Sunday of Lent we will mark Mothering Sunday and invite you to join us as we share Holy Communion at 9am and 10.30am. In the Church of England, Mothering Sunday has a more wide-ranging meaning than ‘Mother’s Day’ does, as, historically speaking, people returned to their ‘mother church’. As we mark Mothering Sunday this year, we will reflect on the Christian community or communities that have nurtured us and also give thanks for all mothers, including those who have offered us mothering care, calling to mind Jesus’ reference to being like a mother hen who longs to gather her chicks (Matthew 23:37). 

Join Other Christians on 28th March in Celebrating Love, Hope and Unity 
On Saturday 28th March, a coalition of civil society organisations – including churches and Christian charities – are gathering in Central London to walk for hope, love and compassion in the face of rising movements of division and hostility. Called ‘Together’, this march will be a family-friendly day of welcome, unity and prayer, with activities for children as part of the day and a Christian Bloc which will march together. We are hoping to take a group from St Mary’s. Find out more about the march here or at togetheralliance.org.uk. To join us, register your interest here or email Revd Vanessa Conant at . 

Bishop Guli to Visit St Mary’s 
During Lent, our Diocesan Bishop, Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Deqhani, is making a pilgrimage around the local area, visiting particular art works in churches and taking time to pray. On Monday 23rd March, Bishop Guli will be visiting St Mary’s to look at our stained glass window and to stop briefly for prayer. We will share more details soon as to the timings of her visit, but you are welcome to join her for this moment, and for the rest of her pilgrimage walk around Waltham Forest, which, after her stop at St Mary’s, will continue on to St Barnabas Church, Walthamstow, and will end at St Andrew’s, Leytonstone, around 5pm. 

Holy Week and Easter 2026 
Join us for Holy Week and Easter 2026 at St Mary’s and in the Parish. Holy Week will begin with Palm Sunday on 29th March, which will include a reading of the Passion Story and a procession with palms around the church. On Tuesday 31st March, we will offer Stations of the Cross at St Mary’s at 7.30pm. On Wednesday 1st April, St Mary’s will host a Tenebrae service at 7.30pm, which will feature a reading of the Passion story along with music and poetry. On Thursday 2nd April at 7.30pm, there will be a Maundy Thursday Holy Communion at St Gabriel’s. And then on Good Friday 3rd April, there will be Morning Prayer with Hymns at St Mary’s at 9am; a 10.30am Messy Good Friday service at St Mary’s for children and families with crafts; a 12-3pm Watch at the Cross at St Gabriel’s; and a Quiet Easter service for neurodiverse children at 2pm at St Mary’s (booking required – signup link coming soon). In the evening, there will be a 7.30pm Good Friday Service at St Mary’s. There will be no services on Holy Saturday. On Easter Sunday, we will have an Easter Sunday Dawn Service with an Easter Fire outside St Mary’s at 6am; a 9am Easter Holy Communion at St Mary’s, and a 10.30am Easter Family Communion at St Mary’s. 

Save the Date: Waltham Forest Citizens’ Assembly on 22nd April at 6.30pm
For nearly 15 years, St Mary’s has been a member of the Waltham Forest Citizens’ Alliance. This is a group of local schools, colleges, community groups and faith communities working together on issues which promote the Common Good. Over the years, we have organised around affordable housing, climate and youth safety. On Wednesday 22nd April, St Mary’s is hosting a borough-wide assembly in advance of the local council elections on 7th May, meeting with candidates for the election and bringing before them the stories of local people and the issues which matter most to us. This is positive politics where we demonstrate the power of local institutions and their members and show the possibilities for working across difference. Assemblies are dynamic, fun and inspiring. Save the date and join us! 

New PCC Secretary Needed 
Our wonderful PCC Secretary, Liz Davies, is standing down after nearly a decade of service. We are thankful to Liz for all she has done to support the parish and are now beginning to look for a new PCC Secretary. This voluntary position plays a key role in the leadership of the parish and we are keen to find the right person to join the team. Taking on the role would involve being elected or co-opted onto our Parochial Church Council, which meets six times per year. To learn more, email Revd Vanessa Conant at . 

Follow St Mary’s on WhatsApp 
In addition to our social media channels, we are now on WhatsApp. For the latest updates about St Mary’s services, events and ministries, follow our public channel here or find us by searching WhatsApp. However, we understand that we may not immediately appear in WhatsApp searches until our channel has been established for a certain period of time. 

Joining the Electoral Roll 
If you consider St Mary’s to be your church home and would like to make a commitment to our church, you can join the electoral roll (different to the roll which allows you to vote in local elections). To join, you must be over 16 and baptised. Joining means that you are eligible to serve on our parish trustee board (PCC) and vote at our annual meeting (APCM), but more importantly, it means that you feel a part of St Mary’s and want to affirm that sense of belonging. You can sign up for the electoral roll here or by visiting stmaryswalthamstow.org/electoralroll. If you signed up last year, you do not need to sign up again as your name will remain on the roll until 2031 unless you ask to be removed. Please speak to Vanessa or email if you have any questions.

New Openings for Regular Classes in the Welcome Centre 
We have space for new regular bookings in the Welcome Centre – our church hall located across the churchyard from St Mary’s – and invite anyone looking for space to get in touch. Alongside monthly giving from our congregation (which is our largest source of income), a significant source of income is from regular hires of our Welcome Centre lounge and hall – money which helps us keep the church open in the week. The Welcome Centre is a great space for after-school activities, choir rehearsals, fitness classes and baby and toddler groups. To get in touch, visit welcomecentreE17.org and fill out our enquiry form. 

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:

• Contributions of women around the world as International Women’s Day approaches 
• The war in Iran and its wider impact in the Middle East and globally 
• All who work in the NHS and for all who are receiving care 
• Those in our church and parish who are unwell in any way: for hope and healing 
• Political leaders in our country to make decisions in the interest of the Common Good 
• Banks and insurance companies to stop funding fossil fuel extraction and expansion 
• Christian communities around the world as they journey through Lent 
• All of us at St Mary’s and around our Parish – that any practices or sacrifices we make in Lent would be spiritually transformative and life-giving to those around us 
• All in leadership in our Church and in Churches around the world, including Vanessa, our Rector; Mike, our Archdeacon; Lynn and Guli, our Bishops; Sarah and Stephen, our Archbishops; Pope Leo; and for leaders of other Christian communities 
• Efforts around the UK to bring people together across difference and to address the real problems people are facing rather than scapegoating others or creating fear 
• All who lack a safe home, including those sleeping rough or in temporary accommodation as well as refugees fleeing war, persecution or instability 
• Those who are looking for work or are in low-paid work – for help and opportunities 

Reflection: ‘Making Space’ 
Revd Tim Scott, Associate Priest at St Mary’s and Area Dean, Waltham Forest, writes:

Because of the way the rota for writing the newsletter has fallen, I am writing this reflection about a week before it is sent out, which is a very good but slightly different discipline to usual! There is always the possibility that in that week things will happen which it might have been good to include in a newsletter reflection.

This has made me consider how we navigate a world that is fast changing and how, as we do that, we find the unchanging and lasting anchors which somehow transcend the ‘changes and chances of this fleeting world that we may rest upon God’s eternal changelessness’ (as words in one of the prayers in the service of Compline put it). It is sometimes said that in our life of prayer we should hold the Bible in one hand and a newspaper (or maybe online news) in the other. This is helpful because it is really important to make connections between those two. But there is also a right and proper time for making some space to realise we do not have to be on top of everything, nor can we be in touch with all the news all of the time.

I recently saw a wonderful card which said, ‘it may appear that I am doing nothing, but there is a lot going on in my head’. Each of us will process and reflect on things differently and that card is an indication of that. But I wonder if there is also a moment when we need genuinely to have nothing going on in our head – or to put it another way, to give enough space for God to find us when we are less mentally or physically busy than we often are. 

Time and again in the gospels we find Jesus retreating into a quiet place. I’m sure that whilst he was in those quiet places, things were happening of which he was either unaware or which he had discerned did not require an immediate response or were situations that others could deal with. Maybe as he emerged from times of refreshment and prayer, he was enabled more clearly to engage in things, possibly even seeing them in a new light.

So if there are events that have happened between my writing this reflection and it being sent out, so be it. I’m sure there are others who will be able to reflect on them. For me, one of the lessons during the time of Lent is that we can’t be on top of everything or know every news story. I come back to the words I have used before in a prayer attributed to, but possibly not said by, Archbishop Oscar Romero:

‘We cannot do everything – and there is a sense of liberation in realising that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest’.

I hope and pray in this season of Lent that we can draw strength from these words.

With my love and prayers,

Tim