Reflections Blog

ST IPPOLYTS STORES

Opening Hours

Monday – Friday 7.30am – 5.30pm

Weekends 8am – 2pm

Bank Holidays 8am – 4pm

Please support the store or lose it.

Copies of the magazine are available from the Stores and 

 the various churches.

COFFEE MORNING

We are holding our coffee morning on Wednesday 8^th May in St Ippolyts Parish Hall Committee Room from 10.30am until noon. All are welcome to join us where local friends come together sharing company and stories. We will also be celebrating our 'lovely crossing lady' Margaret Stokes who will be receiving a long service award at the end of April. This is for her loyalty to children and families helping us all cross the main road safely during the busy mornings and afternoons. If you would like a lift to the Hall, please 'phone Joan Pinkstone on 01462 457660.

Frances Williams Carol Scott Joan Pinkstone

We would like to thank all those who helped to decorate St Ippolyts Church and celebrate Easter with beautiful fresh arrangements. All these together with the lily arrangements at the altar and pulpit were most welcome after many weeks of Lent when there were no flowers in the church at all. The garden arrangements made by children of St Ippolyts School and placed in the Church porch were wonderful and, reminded us of the empty tomb announcing that Christ has risen.
Thank you to all who helped to spring clean St Ippolyts Church. The high up cleaning was manned by those who were happy to climb ladders and the following day others came to clean lower down.

Frances Williams Carol Scott Joan Pinkstone

Clare’s family gathered on Sunday 14^th April 2024 to lay her ashes in their final resting place at St Ippolyts Cemetery. Among those gathered was her sister Mary, who had flown over from America to be there and her brother, the Revd Canon Richard Leslie, who led prayers.

“God called you home to be with Him but you shall always be in our hearts”    

PLANT SALE: 19^th MAY  2-4 pm

At St Ippolyts Church

There will be a selection of house plants, garden plants, fruit and veg plants. 

Stay for a piece of cake and a cup of tea or coffee. 

Look forward to seeing you there.

Mary Hooper

On Sunday 9^th June, there will only be one service in the Benefice, at St Mary’s Church, Great Wymondley at 11.00am.  This is so we can welcome Bishop Alan, who will be presiding and preaching, and worship together in unity.  Refreshments will be served after the service

Dear Friends,

A hypothetical question. If Our Lord were to return in a physical form, what might the new composition of the Twelve Apostles be like? I'm not going to produce my suggestion (I wouldn't dare!), but you may like to attempt it yourself. The one thing that I can guarantee is that there would be no resemblance to the Twelve who walked with Christ two thousand years ago. The more I think of what those Twelve were like, the more amazing a collection of misfits they seem to have been.

Who really were they? Peter and Andrew, with James and John, ordinary fishermen in the most ordinary part of a very ordinary area. James and John were also the local hard men, known as the Sons of Thunder – men with fists and with tempers. Thomas the searcher, full of doubts but as brave as a lion. Nathaniel, possibly gifted but fiercely parochial, probably born and bred in the area. Then the real contradictions. Matthew the quisling, who made his living by collaborating with the hated Roman occupying forces. As total opposites the terrorists, Simon the Zealot and Judas from the Sicarii, the People of the Dagger. Why, oh why, did Jesus chose such a group of non-Establishment men as His disciples? Surely He should have chosen more conservative, more politically and religiously acceptable men with whom to share His earthly ministry? If I am fascinated by Jesus' human nature (parallel with His divine nature) then part of it lies in why He chose them when He must have known what they were like. I simply don't know the answer.

Perhaps apart from being young and very idealistic they represent a cross section of the man in the Galilean street in those days. They were all very different people except in these two respects, but from what we can deduce they were ordinary. Their humanness is for me what makes them so attracting; they could be like you or anyone you live and associate with. They are real people, with failings rather than being perfect.

It is in the light of this that we may get closer to the great festival this month that is Whitsunday, or if you prefer it, Pentecost. We need to see it in a symbolic way because it simply could not have happened physically in that way without structural damage and the deaths of many people. Two aspects stand out above everything. One is that the disciples were empowered with tremendous zeal and energy to continue Christ's work. The other is that the message they proclaimed was to people who represented the entire world. It was a reaching out to absolutely everyone; that is the real meaning of that list of nations that so many readers fear to read in public at this time of the year. The new faith was to all people, regardless of their race, creed, and colour. And it was too important for the disciples to keep to themselves. 

That is why Christianity has been the greatest civilizing force that the world has ever known. It is why in its very ordinary roots it has crossed all barriers and become a fundamental part of humanity as a whole. Pentecost reaches out to all people at all time and offers to anyone who will listen and accept its message. God is for all; His call is universal. Through His Spirit, God reaches out in love to everyone; that is what we proclaim, that lies near the heart of what we believe.

With my love and best wishes,

Paul

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Holy Week Services

Service times vary and may be in any of our three churches so please check the time and venue carefully.

Sunday 24^th March – Palm Sunday

9.15am – Holy Communion – St Ippolyts Church

11.00am – Parish Praise - St Mary’s Church, Great Wymondley

Monday 25^th March

7.00pm – Compline (Night Prayer) – St Mary’s Church, Great Wymondley

Tuesday 26^th March

7.00pm – Compline (Night Prayer) – St Mary’s Church, Great Wymondley

Wednesday 27^th March

7.00pm – Compline (Night Prayer) – St Mary’s Church, Great Wymondley

Maundy Thursday 28^th March

11.00am – Chrism Eucharist – St Albans Cathedral

7.00pm – Holy Communion with Washing of Feet – St Ippolyts Church

Good Friday 29^th March

2.00pm – The Way of the Cross – St Ippolyts Church

Easter Eve – Saturday 30^th March

9.30am-10.30am – Children’s Easter Workshop – St Ippolyts Church

7.00pm – Little Wymondley Churchyard – Easter Vigil

Sunday 31^st March – Easter Day

9.15am – Benefice Holy Communion – St Ippolyts Church

Lent Lunches start this year in the St Ippolyts Parish Hall at 12:45 on 20th February and will be served each week at the same time on each Tuesday until Tuesday 26th March. 

The lunch costing £3 will be the usual delicious soup with roll and butter followed by tea or coffee.

Do come along and join us everyone welcome!

ASH WEDNESDAY

14^th February 2024

7.00pm

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the church’s season of Lent.

Lent is a time when Christians refocus their hearts and minds on God and try to set aside the things that prevent us from living our lives in the way God intended us to.

Would you like to refocus? 

Join us at St Ippolyts Church on Wednesday 14th February at 7pm for a service of Holy Communion with the Imposition of Ashes.

January numbers, winners, and prizes 

1^st Prize      No 22        Frank Harding   £20

2^nd Prize     No 10        Irene Isaac          £15

3^rd Prize     No 79        Gary Hill            £10

The '100' Club was formed to raise funds for the care, maintenance, and improvement of the Parish Church. Members pay £10 each year for a numbered ticket and every number is entered in a draw on the first Sunday of every month after the 9.15am service. Cash prizes are won.

New members are always welcome. Details from Jane Veasey 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 01462 434254 

St Ippolyts church installed the floodlights for the Millennium celebrations 23 years ago with the aid of a grant from the Floodlighting Trust.  They were first illuminated on Christmas Eve 1999, and they have been used every night since.  We now have mainly LED replacement lights that are more reliable, have better colour control and are cheaper to run. We have recently had to renew the two spotlights on the top of the tower that illuminate the cross with LEDs so we are now 100% LED floodlit.

With the current electricity costs the annual sponsorship needs to be £20 per week, we hope this will be enough and we have 52 weeks to fill.  You may sponsor as many weeks as you wish and you may wish this to be in memory of a loved one, to celebrate a birthday, a wedding, or anniversary etc.

The list giving the 52 weeks is normally at the back of church so please sign up early if you want a particular week.

Please pay by BACS if possible, to 

St Ippolyts Church Finance Fund

Sort Code 20-41-12 

Account Number 00522899 

please ref Floodlighting.

Otherwise Cash, or Cheques made payable to ‘St Ippolyts Church’.

"Lent Lunches 2021 - St John the Evangelist, Shirley" >You are welcome to join us for Lent Lunches that will be held in the Parish Hall every Tuesday lunch time with the doors opening at 12.00 pm from Tuesday 20^th February to Tuesday 26^th March. There is a choice of a selection of three homemade soups which are served from 12.45 pm at £3.00 per serving and this includes fresh bread, butter or spread and a mug of coffee or tea. A donation is requested for any second helpings. The money taken for Lent Lunches will go towards Motor Neurone Disorder Society and USPG an Anglican Missionary Agency.

DECORATING ST IPPOLYTS CHURCH FOR EASTER

On Saturday 30^th March from 9.30 am at St Ippolyts Church all are invited to join Friends and bring flower arrangements and/or flowers in a vase to make the church look welcoming for our Easter Service. Donations are welcome to put towards buying Easter Lilies and this can be put in an envelope and given directly to Jane Veasey, Gosmore House, Newlands Lane, SG4 9BD or placed in an envelope titled 'Easter Lilies' and put at the back of St Ippolyts Church. 

Frances Williams, Carol Scott, and Joan Pinkstone

Friends' Coffee Morning is a lovely time for local friends and sometimes their families who are coming for a monthly catch up together enjoying refreshments and we are grateful for the variety of cake contributions and selection of biscuits too. All are welcome to join us and share some time together - particularly during these cold winter months. Our Next Community Coffee Morning is Wednesday 7^th February 10.30 am till Noon at the Parish Hall.

A thank you to Carl Watson for helping us each month with opening the Hall and with all our setting up and clearing away at the end. 

Frances Williams, Carol Scott, and Joan Pinkstone

LENT STUDY COURSE – A Way Through the Wilderness by Paula Gooder When faced with times of crisis or challenge, many people turn to self-help for support. But what about Christians – how can we find strength not merely in self-help but in God’s help? ‘A Way through the Wilderness’ is a five-session course which explores God’s promise to comfort his people as they struggle through life’s wildernesses. Canon Dr Paula Gooder is a writer and lecturer in Biblical Studies. Her passion is to ignite people’s enthusiasm for reading the Bible today, by presenting the best of biblical scholarship in an accessible and interesting way. She is currently the Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral. Beginning on Wednesday 21st February at 7pm – venue to be confirmed. The course should last no more than 90 minutes (including tea/coffee) and will be led by Reverend Ginni and Reverend Tricia.

Some years ago I was visiting a North African town sixty miles from Alexandria called El Alamein. Judy's father had fought in the battle in 1943 and we were able to visit the place. We went round the museum then paid our respects to those who lie in the huge cemetery nearby. When it was over, I stood beside the road and looked out across the desert beyond it. It was burning hot and utterly desolate, stretching hundreds of miles beyond the horizon. It occurred to me that it might have been like that when we read of Our Lord going into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days and forty nights by the devil. I have never visited the Holy Land and I do not want to because I prefer to hold the Bible story in my mind rather than seeing what it is really like now. But looking towards that desert brought this incident very close to mind.

This season of Lent which we associate with Christ in the wilderness begins with Ash Wednesday on February 14; it continues for the rest of the month and throughout March. I wonder what really happened in the wilderness. Jesus knew He had to perform His ministry; there was this inner compulsion that He could not resist. The question was HOW? I wonder if we could think of the temptation in the context of going into a quiet place to think things out rather than meeting a physical tempter. He had to prepare Himself spiritually for the task that lay ahead. But He was practical; He had to plan ahead. So, l envisage Him going into this lonely place to meditate.

The temptations took the form of what the psychiatrists call 'intrusive thoughts'. He is hungry and round stones look like bread rolls; He could change stones into bread and feed the hungry, getting a popular following who He could then teach. He sees a distant village with its huge synagogue; if He jumps from the top, He can float to the ground protected by the angels, thus getting a crowd because people love the sensational – again He can teach them. Finally, there is the ultimate temptation, that of compromise. Lower His sights a bit, connive with the Establishment, have lower standards, play safe. The temptations in the wilderness are therefore rooted in doing the wrong thing for the right reason. They need not involve actually appearances with a devil, but they are just as real.

Perhaps this may be a different way of looking at a much loved Gospel story in a different way, but if so, that is me (once again!) thinking outside the box and challenging the orthodox. If so, it may help us to take a different attitude to Lent. For just as Our Lord needed to go into the wilderness so we need our own periods of quiet to ponder; and just as Christ often withdrew for meditation so we need similar times just to think. Not necessarily formally but pausing for short times. Thinking about such things as spiritual priorities – or how we might deepen our awareness of God – or whether our spiritual discipline can be deepened – or in any number of other things. Silence can be the most life affirming thing, the most intense experience. 'What is life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare?' wrote the poet W.H. Davies. What indeed? 

So, my mind goes back to another very different wilderness, high above Buttermere in the Lake District fifty years ago, on the Sunday after Easter. Brilliant sunshine, total silence, and one of the most glorious views in England. God had never been closer than He was that day. We need our wildernesses; we need our wilderness experiences. We need to let God into our busy lives – and be still with Him.

With my love,

Paul   

Well done to our Curate, Tricia, for getting into the spirit of the Christingle Service today!!

We will be having our church Christingle Service in aid of The Children’s Society on Sunday 7^th January at 9.15am, followed by breakfast. All are welcome. 

Jenny Sheach