Reflections Blog

Support Jars of Change this Lent and turn your small change into safe water.

Our Lent Appeal this year in our Benefice of St Ippolyts with Great and Little Wymondley will be for the charity Water Aid. See www.wateraid.org/uk/lent for more details and to watch a video about their work and Lent Appeal.

Water Aid asks us - could you go without safe water for 40 days? No one should have to go without safe clean water. This year will you donate the money you save by giving something up for Lent to help bring safe, clean water to communities around the world?

Try swapping tea, coffee or soft drinks or beer for the clean tap water we have in the UK. Collect the money you save in a jar and bring it on Sunday 19th to St Ippolyts Church or Sunday 12th to Great Wymondley church, both services will be at 9.30am, You could have a different jar for each member of the family and see who raises the most!

March we forth...

‘God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year’ is one of my favourite hymns, and it contains, the lines ‘March we forth in the strength of God, with the banner of Christ unfurled, that the light of the glorious gospel of truth may shine throughout the world’. In these cautious days those lines might be considered  to be neither very politically correct with their military undertones in marching, nor respectful of our multi-faith world, if it is suggesting that only Christianity has the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

And yet ... each and every Lent, just like this one, we March through Lent towards Holy Week and Easter, and we do it all in the strength of God. For we try our hardest to give something up, to fast from certain foods or fancies and in so doing call to mind Jesus’ forty days of fasting in the wilderness, in a way that we publically unfurl the banner of Christ for all to see, or do we just keep these things to ourselves?

The light of the glorious gospel of truth may shine throughout the world, if only we are bold enough to shine this light ourselves.

Now, in order to shine their best, my black shoes need to be lovingly polished every now and then. I know that they will get dirty in-between the polishing but still I religiously polish them for all to see. I remember my Dad every Saturday evening lining up all the shoes to be worn the next week, to church or to work, and his spending time making them shine for all to see.

Lent is really our opportunity to polish up our lives a bit, even though we know and realise that things will come along and make our lives dull and sometimes in need of a good clean up.

I learned my shoe polishing skills from my father. As Christians we should learn our life polishing skills from our Father who again and again dusts away our dross as he forgives us our sins.

The true banner of Christ was unfurled on that very first Good Friday, as Jesus said to His Father, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’, Jesus didn’t say ‘Father when they come to their senses and repent, forgive them’ no! For the light of the glorious gospel of Christ was and is still for everyone to see. 

It’s just difficult to see sometimes because of the dust of our lives. So get polishing and praying this lent, for the party is to come, this Easter Eve in Great Wymondley. And I know I have said it before but if you have never been to the Easter Eve service before – where have you been! – does it take you that long to polish your shoes?

Carry on marching and polishing with love.

Reverend Ann.

Come and Sing

Young and old, singers and those who think they have no voice, you are all invited to

Come and Sing

with Jayne Mason and Revd Ann.

St Ippolyts church. Tues. 24^th  March.               at 7.30pm.

Jayne Mason, a local composer, pianist and tutor, is passionate and dedicated to her love of music. She will be joining Revd Ann to lead an evening of singing. Jayne's style is easy going, fun and enabling. She will show you the basics of singing in harmony and, before you know it, you will be part of a beautiful sound.

##    A date for your diary    ##

####    18^th -20^th June    ####

The Archbishop of Canterbury,

The Most Revd Justin Welby

will be visiting our Diocese.

We are hoping to have a coach to go to the special service on Saturday 20^th June in St Albans Abbey.

Please sign up on list at the back of the churches by 31^st March, thank you. The cost will be £5 having been subsidised by the Rural Dean!

Services and Events this week

Tuesday 24^th 7.30pm ‘Come and Sing’

in St Ippoyts Church

with Jayne Mason and Revd Ann

Wednesday 25^th  March 11am

Holy Communion St Ippolyts Church

12.30pm Lunch for The Friends

of St Mary’s Church Little Wymondley followed by St Mary’s Annual Parochial Church Meeting, in St Mary’s Church.

Every Wednesday in Lent from 12.45pm -1.45pm Lent Lunches in the Parish Hall,

St Ippolyts. Delicious home-made soup and lovely Bread. Minimum Donation £2.50 please. All profits will be given to charity

Friday 27^th 11am Toddlers’ Service 

At St Ippolyts Church

Friday 27^th 1pm Funeral Service in

St Ippolyts Church – Dorothy Spendilow RIP

Water Aid Our chosen charity for Lent, go online to www.wateraid.org/uk/lent

The Diocesan Magazine ‘Seeround’,

is forall of us. It is now available on line.

To sign up (no charge) go to www.stalbans.anglican.org/news/seeround

Palm Sunday 29^th March

Palm Sunday procession through the village of Little Wymondley. Come and join us and the donkeys as we re-present Jesus’ triumphal procession into Jerusalem.

Our Journey will begin at Wymondley school at 9am and travel to St Mary’s Church, Little Wymondley for a service for the whole of our Benefice. Bring branches of greenery to wave as we sing ‘Hosanna to the King’.

Holy Week Services

Monday 30^th 8pm Bible Reading and Compline ( a quiet service) at St Ippolyts

Tuesday 31^st 8pm Bible Reading and Compline at St Mary’s Great Wymondley

Wednesday 1^st April 8pm Bible Reading and Compline at St Mary’s Little Wymondley

Maundy Thursday 7.30pm Eucharist of the Last Supper. After this service there will be the opportunity to stay for silent prayer.

Good Friday 10am St Ippolyts Parish Hall, beginning with Hot Cross Buns and coffee/tea A service for all the family, complete with activities, songs, readings and prayers.

Good Friday 2pm-3pm Solemn liturgy in

St Ippolyts Church as we remember

Jesus’ last hour on the cross.

Easter Eve 8.30pm – 10pm

in St Mary’s Church Great Wymondley. Join with us as we celebrate the ‘ceremonies’ of Easter. A unique service of readings, hymns, and the drama of darkness and light. A time to renew our baptismal vows, and to receive Holy Communion. And at the end of the service, to celebrate with Champagne and Simnel Cake. If you have never been to this unique service how about trying it this year. (There will be incense used)

Easter Day Services

8am Holy Communion St Ippolyts

9.30am Holy Communion St Mary’s

Little Wymondley

11am Parish Praise and Communion

St Ippolyts Church

On Palm Sunday there will be a procession through the village of Little Wymondley. Come and join us and the two donkeys as we re-present Jesus' triumphal procession into Jerusalem. Our journey will begin at Wymondley School and travel to St Mary's Church, Little Wymondley for a service for the whole Benefice. Bring branches of greenery to wave as we sing. "Hosanna to the King".

Can you help?

1. Open your garden - We are looking for gardens on Waterdell Lane, Mill Road, Mill lane, Gosmore High Street and Maydencroft Lane. Your garden does not have to be huge and fabulously tended. It will be one of about a dozen and variety is the key.

2. Produce Plants - We will have a plant sale so if you are planting seeds or dividing plants please try and do some for us.

3. Deliver leaflets or put up posters

4. Help on the day

If you can help in any way please contact Barbara Thomas on 01462 421647 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Our display of photographs taken by people reading PAX in faraway places is at the back of St Ippolyts Church.

Do come in and take a look, there are photographs from Turkey, Australia, Southern Ireland, The Orkneys, Thailand, Spain, Romania, The Gambia, Sri Lanka and the Channel Islands and one is of PAX being read underwater!! How about that!! 

Thank you to Corne Schafer who arranged the layout for our display and, of course, thank you to everyone who kindly sent Clare their photographs.

Andrew Harris and Paula Shipway carried a lichen survey within the old churchyard surrounding St Ippolyts Church on 25th September 2015. Andrew has completed his report and a copy is available in our Church should any one wish to read through it. In addition a pdf copy can be obtained from Michael Hooper  (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Within his report Andrew has recorded over 100 lichens living within our churchyard and I would recommend having a look at his report as it clearly shows where the variuos lichens can be found. 

Lichens are dual organisms – a fungus enclosing an alga. Most lichenised fungi are dependent on the association and the dominant partner, taking over an alga to exploit it for the sugars it manufactures by photosynthesis. Though the alga may be capable of living independently, it also benefits from the partnership being able to survive in exposed habitats such as sun-baked headstones protected from strong light and desiccation. Nearly everything a lichen needs can be taken from the atmosphere or rainwater, so they require little from the substrate they grow on, though the chemistry and texture of e.g. stone or bark has a strong influence on the species which can colonise. For these reasons, lichens can be good indicators of the quality of the atmosphere and health of the environment.

In his conclusion Andrew stated- "Also, though nothing of exceptional rarity was found, this does not detract from the species-richness of the churchyard, or from the collective significance of particular species associations, most notably on stone and lignum. Churchyards such as St. Ippolyts are of county importance for locally uncommon species including those with very restricted and specific habitat associations such as Aspicilia calcarea requiring limestone of some antiquity and found here on the chancel windowsill. There is further potential for the future, both as a result of growing knowledge of what is already present and through the continuing colonisation of churchyard trees, mirroring the changing fortunes of Hertfordshire lichens."

Michael Hooper Feb 2015

Thank you to everyone who purchased our Church Quiz Sheet for 2014. The winner was Malcolm Parker who managed to answer all but two correctly, runners up were Alan and Pauleen Hinks. Well done to everyone who returned a completed sheet. The quiz raised £170 for church funds. A special thank you to our Village Shop for selling such a large number of sheets.

The answers are as follows

Michael Hooper

St Ippolyts Church 11am Sunday 4^th January 2015

Come and join us for the first service this year.

The theme for the morning will be looking forward, with Christ as our light in the world.

We will be making and receiving Christingles as we pray for the work of The Children’s Society

From the beginning of 2015 See Round will no longer be available in newspaper format. It will only be available on line. To sign up for your digital edition visit www.stalbans.anglican.org/news/seeround . 

With over 120 cribs on display there was something for eveyone to see. This year our spectacular display had cribs of every type imaginable. There were cribs made of wood, clay, citrus peel, soap stone, beads, knitted ones, ones made of Filmo and wool, there was even an Angel made from a used aerosol can by a little boy in The Gambia.Some came from as far a field as Panama and Burma, in fact there were cribs from Ecuador, Panama, Wales, Spain, Belize, Tanzania, Gambia and Niger. Would you believe one was even purchased from Wilkos!!

A big thank you to the fund raising committee of Barbara Thomas, Jane Veasey, Mary Hooper and Lynda Garner for all their hard work in putting it all together and of course for all the helpers who came along either to make teas and coffees, general act as stewards, to lift in and out the heavy display boards, take money on the door or bake a cake to sell.

A special thank you to everyone who lent their precious cribs for the weekend, without them we would not have a crib festival.

It was pleasing to read comments from our many visitors who took the time to write in our visitors book. It is clear that our visitors really enjoyed the displays.

If you would like to see a sample of the cribs on display then have a look at the photo gallery on this web site. http://www.stippolytschurch.org.uk/gallery/crib-festival-2014

Thanks to the generosity of 'The Friends of St Ippolyts Church' we now have a new oak hymn number board in St Ippolyts Church. The old metal one which was originally made at St Ippolyts Foundry and donated Michael Skeggs has proved to be just too heavy to manipulate and it was felt we should have a lighter board which would be easier to lift up and down. The new board is certainly in keeping with our church and once again thanks to 'The Friends'.

What a manic two hours at the annual Christmas Parish Hall Fair. From the time of opening the doors at 2 p.m. to the finish at around 4.30 p.m. the hall was packed with parishioners buying raffle tickets, playing at the various tombola stalls, guessing how many sweets there were in a jar, trying to put marbles into a upturned flower pot, visiting Father Christmas in his grotto or just having a cup of tea and a delicious piece of cake. The St Ippolyts Church PCC had a tombola stall which was incredibly popular. Well done to Jane and Jennifer Veasey for putting all the prizes together and for Jane, Jenny and Mary for manning the stall. Your junior churchwarden was there trying to sell his Christmas Quiz Sheets. In the end the stall raised well over £160 half of which is for the Parish Hall funds.

Nativity Crib Festival

St. Ippolyts Church 29^th& 30th November 11-5

Get into the spirit of Christmas and pay a visit to the St. Ippolyts Church Nativity Crib Festival.

As one or our young contributors says:-

“You should come to the Crib festival at St Ippolyts Church because there are so many different cribs that are put in each year !

You will also be able to have a go at our competition and become a crib owner yourself.

Entry is £2 and children are free.

St Ippolyts Church Sports Quiz Sheets will be on sale, do not miss out on these super time wasters

For more information please contact Barbara 01462 421647This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

There will be a Christmas Fair on Saturday 22 November from 2pm at St Ippolyts Parish Hall.  There will be lots of stalls, face painting and Father Christmas will be visiting.  Refreshments are available. Dancing display by Aspire School of Dance. Prize Draw at 4.30pm.

Over 110 people attended our annual Quiz in the Parish Hall to raise money for the Church. Fifteen teams battled it out answering a wide variety of questions set by Mary Hooper. In the end infiltrators from Clifton and the surrounding area usurped the home teams to win by 1 point. The quizmaster, Michael Hooper, assured everyone he had not been bribed with offers of free drinks to give the winning team the answers. 

A big thank you to everyone who helped and gave prizes for the raffle. Special thanks to the Jane and Jennifer Veasey who, ably assisted by Kath Burt and Jane Guppy, supplied the teams with a sumptuous ploughmans supper and Brian and Hilary Leonard who ran the bar!

Now our annual quiz is over do not forget that the 2014 St Ippolyts Church quiz sheets are on sale for £1 from the village store or Michael Hooper. This years quiz theme is Sport. Buy a quiz sheet and be frustrated trying to unravel the mind of the setter. He certainly has a warped mind! There is a £10 prize for the person who answers the most questions correctly by the end of December.

The Church North porch new permanent disabled access is now in operation although there remains a few finishing touches to complete the work. A big thank yoiu to Roland Bailey who has carried out this new construction as well as installing a new bookcase and notice board at the South entrance.

The disabled access is a welcome addition to the church infrastructure and means that we will not need to lug the heavy ex British Railways ramp from the North porch everytime we have a service or event.

We all receive PAX each month, but where do you read it? In fact where is the most exotic place that PAX has been read? 

Just take a photograph of somebody reading PAX, send it to Michael Hooper at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and your photograph will be published in our picture gallery on this web site.

I wonder how far afield PAX will travel!!?

Just to start things off our PAX has visited the Old Man of Hoy in the Orkneys, surely a PAX will have travelled further than that!! 

If you saw two people crawling on the ground looking at gravestones through a magnifying glass today you will have seen Andrew Harris and Paula Shipway investigating lichens around and on our Church. This intrepid pair having visited over 40 churches and churchyards in Herfordshire recording the various lichens. You may recall Andrew found a particularly rare lichen at Great Wymondley Church. We eagerly await Andrew's report which we will hopefully receive before the end of the year. Have a look at the photos of them exploring our churchyard on this web sites gallery.