Reflections Blog

NATIVITY CRIB FESTIVAL

Thank you to everyone who “engaged” with our Virtual Nativity Crib Festival.  (If you didn't you can still see all the cribs at https://www.facebook.com/nativitycribfestival).  The posts reached at least 20,000 people from as far away as Wellington in New Zealand, Vietnam and India.  We were also on Instagram.  We posted 51 times and had 67 followers in the three weeks.  Many thanks to Tracey Pastor for this - and for being my Facebook guru!

We posted over 100 cribs 3-4 a day during Advent!  Next year we (hopefully) will be back in the real world and our Nativity Crib Festival will be held at St. Ippolyts Church on the first weekend of December with even more cribs to see (over 200 in 2019).  If you have a crib you could lend us send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Festival is a major fundraiser for our ancient church and thus far the Virtual Festival has raised over £700.

If you have enjoyed looking at all the beautiful cribs there is still time to donate:

https://givealittle.co/campaigns/39e3be7b-f996-4027-89da-30adba86d5af

Or Text STIPPSCHURCH 5 to 70085 to donate £5 or if you wish to donate a larger amount then substitute the 5 with the amount you would like to donate up to a maximum of £20.  Texts cost the amount you have donated plus one standard rate message and you’ll be opting in to hear more about our work and fundraising via telephone and SMS.

If you’d like to give but do not wish to receive marketing communications, text

STIPPSCHURCHNOINFO 5 to 70085. to donate £5 etc.

or send a cheque made payable to St. Ippolyts Church to Michael Hooper, Hillrise, Stevenage Rd. St Ippolyts SG4 7PE.  A gift aid form can be found on the St Ippolyts Church website.

If donations are given anonymously we will not be able to thank you personally but THANK YOU!

                                                                                                                                          Barbara Thomas

ST. IPPOLYTS CHURCH FLOODLIGHTING

This is a reminder that we are hoping to floodlight the church in 2021.  A good number of people have already signed up for the weekly sponsorship scheme and many thanks to those.  However, we still have a lot of weeks to fill.  With all the pandemic problems and with the church only open once per week for the Sunday morning service it has been difficult to remind our 'usual' congregation of this.  The sign-up board is usually at the Sunday service but otherwise held at my house.

The cost is still £15 per week.  I can be contacted at 6 Ransom Close, Hitchin, by telephone at 01462-432445 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  I can then let you know which weeks are available.  If you see other church members who do not take PAX please do not hesitate to remind them.  Let us hope that by continuing to floodlight the church we can bring a bit of extra cheer in these difficult times. 

Roger Cox

BIBLE STUDY GROUP

The Bible Study Group will be starting again on Zoom and we will be returning to The Acts of the Apostles.

Meetings will start at 2.20pm. with a cup of tea and we shall begin our studies at about 2.40pm.  The dates for February are Wednesday 10^th February and Wednesday 24^th February.

New members would be most welcome so if you would like to join us please telephone Margaret Edmonds (01462-452340) or Clare Larsen (01462-453541).

                                                                                                                                                Clare Larsen

Within the Benefice whilst we are in lockdown there will only be one service in church each week 

This service will be at St Ippolyts Church at 09:15 on Sunday and this service will also be live streamed on facebook. (St ippolyts Church with Great and Little Wymondley). Unfortunately St Marys Great Wymondley is unable to hold services either within church or within the village hall. St Marys Little Wymondley is just too cold this time of year.

Church heating has been set to automatically come on 3 hours before the service so the church should be reasonably warm. Various pews within St Ippolyts Church have been cordoned off so as to maintain social distancing within the congregation. Hand sanitisation facilties are available and everyone is encouraged to leave church immediately after the service and not to remain and chat which has always been the norm. 

The service will have organ music provided by John Edwards. Howell Davies will be supporting Ginni for each service. Paul Lanham will be  attending at various times.

St Ippolyts Church remains closed at all other times, so there is no need to carry out in depth cleaning before each service, coronavirus does not live longer than 72hours away from its host. No one is permitted to enter church without first consulting and receiving approval from Revd Ginni. If anyone should need to enter church then the church will be cleaned / disinfected as necessary by the one entering.

Remember that Revd Ginni will continue with morning and evening prayer in accordance with the schedule detailed elsewhere on this web site.

Stay safe and please conform the the Government guidelines.

Unfortunately it has been decided to cancel the Carol Services scheduled for the evening of 22nd December in St Ippolyts Churchyard, the service the following day at the Bucks Head in Little Wymondley and the service on the green at Great Wymondley on Thursday.