Weekly Newsletter 19th May

Dear friends,

As I re-read some of the accounts of how Jesus called those early disciples to ‘follow him’ it strikes me that when Jesus speaks these words he offers two main questions: challenge and invitation. He challenges them in their faith. What will they give up to follow him? Where are they prepared to go? What is it they believe about this man? Who is he? These are the same questions we need to ask today as the answers have some implications on our faith, our understand, our journey through this life. But when Jesus asks this question of his disciples, he does it in an invitational manner. ‘Come’, he says. Jesus invites his disciples into something more, something deeper. He says, ‘I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly’. The life that Jesus invites us to is rich, and full and overflowing with mercy, grace and love. Why not take the opportunity to join us at one of our services this week, to encounter Jesus’ invitation to follow him into an abundant life.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Love and blessings,
Grant

The Benefice Weekly Newsletter

Coming up!

Services this Sunday

We livestream a 10am service each week. Please click here to visit our channel

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Next week’s services

Prayer Points

Please do continue to pray for the continued conflict in Ukraine. We have welcomed a Ukrainian family to Basildon Primary School this week. We are working closely with the school to support them. Please pray for the staff and the family as they settle into local life.

Please pray for the couples who are planning to get married in our churches, or from our villages this year. Some of whom have rescheduled quite a few times!

Please pray for the NHS continuing to serve the nation with tiredness and fatigue featuring heavily.

Please pray for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the Jubilee celebrations this year.

Please continue to pray for those we know and love who are at this time unwell or recovering from illnesses.

Please pray for those within our parishes who have lost loved ones recently.

If you would like something to appear in this newsletter please don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

Previous Messages

Weekly Newsletter 13th May

Dear friends,

I hope you have had a good week.

Having been rather unwell last weekend I’m pleased to say I have now fully recovered so thank you all so much for your prayers and messages, much appreciated.

This week I spent some time with folks who are training to be vicars at Ripon College, Cuddesdon (many of whom are EVEN younger than me!). It was inspiring to hear some of their stories of how God has moved in their lives, how he has met with them, healed them, transformed them and equipped them to take the step forward to give their lives in service to him. The people training had come from such wide variety of backgrounds; teachers, sales, military, engineering, NHS and so on, yet they shared a love and devotion to the Lord which surpassed their differences and backgrounds and enabled them to become a community together.

It was a lovely reminder of what happens at church week in and week out; We all come together, from different backgrounds, jobs, family makeup, history and celebrate our shared faith in Jesus however we are feeling or whatever we’re facing and we’re called brothers and sisters together. When God’s people gather together, ‘God inhabits the praises of his people’ (Psalm 22:3). God has certainly been with us in our recent services, moving people amongst us to be baptised, or healed or helping them to overcome something. If you’re seeking a loving and friendly supportive community of faith then let me invite you to explore our churches here in Basildon, Aldworth and Ashampstead. Come and see what God is doing right here.

Hope to see you very soon.
Love and blessings,
Grant

The Benefice Weekly Newsletter

Coming up!

Services this Sunday

We livestream a 10am service each week. Please click here to visit our channel

Future Dates & Events

Next week’s services

Prayer Points

Please do continue to pray for Ukraine.

We are expecting to welcome a Ukrainian family to Basildon Primary School this coming week. The church is working with the school to see how we can help resource materials needed to aid smooth transition for the children. Please do pray for the two children to settle and for the right support to be put in place.

Please pray for the NHS continuing to serve the nation with tiredness and fatigue featuring heavily.

Please pray for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the Jubilee celebrations this year.

Please continue to pray for those we know and love who are at this time unwell or recovering from illnesses.

Please pray for those within our parishes who have lost loved ones recently.

If you would like something to appear in this newsletter please don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

Previous Messages

Weekly Newsletter 6th May

Dear friends,

It’s been a couple of weeks since our last email, so I do hope that you are well. Thank you to everybody who joined us and helped throughout Easter. Our three churches looked stunning and we really were able to joyfully celebrate our Lord’s resurrection. Alleluia!

The excitement continues:

We are delighted to share that from July we will be welcoming a new minister amongst us. The (soon to be) Reverend Jen Green will be joining the benefice as Curate after she is ordained at Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford. Jen is finishing her Theology degree at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and will be moving into the area in the next few weeks. Jen and her family will be with us for around three years so we are very excited about all that they will share with us through their time with us. Do please look out for news items and notices about Jen and her family as we prepare to enthusiastically welcome them to our community.

As promised, things are beginning to ‘ramp up’ a little more now we are able. Alongside our compliment of online bible study groups, services and events and we are pleased to launch a new (in person) home group this week - helping us to think about inspiring characters from the Old Testament. Please see details below if you are interested in joining.

Basildon Jubilee Update: A couple of things to share with you regarding the upcoming Jubilee Celebrations.

1- The previously advertised events on the Thursday and Friday are now being rolled together into one celebration on Thursday 2nd June and have changed venue. There will now be a beacon lighting event held at Hillfields Farm from 7:30pm. With a Bar and BBQ. (This is no longer at The Red Lion).

2 - We have the possibility of a free shuttle service on Saturday 4th June to collect villagers from St Stephen’s Church and/or Teneplas Drive and shuttle them to the Recreation Ground. It would be helpful to know whether there would be a demand for this service. It would likely run from 11:30am-12:15pm, and then 5:30-6pm. If this would be of use to you in Basildon, please do let me know so I can arrange some details. Thank you.

As always, if there is anything we can do or pray for you during this time, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any one of us.

Hope to see you very soon.
Love and blessings,
Grant

The Benefice Weekly Newsletter

Coming up!

Services this Sunday

We livestream a 10am service each week. Please click here to visit our channel

Future Dates & Events

Next week’s services

Prayer Points

Please do continue to pray for Ukraine, for those caught in hostilities, those who are mourning, and for the political situation. Let us give thanks for the refuge we have been able to offer here in the UK and continue to pray for the constraints of bureaucracy to ease so many more families can find safety here too. Lord, Have Mercy.

Please pray for the Local Elections around the UK.

Please pray for the NHS continuing to serve the nation with tiredness and fatigue featuring heavily.

Please pray for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the Jubilee celebrations this year.

Please continue to pray for those we know and love who are at this time unwell or recovering from illnesses.

Please pray for those within our parishes who have lost loved ones recently.

If you would like something to appear in this weekly newsletter please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. Also, if you have any church family news that you would like me to share with the community then do let me know and I can certainly add it in.

Previous Messages

Weekly Newsletter 31st March

Dear friends,

I cannot believe we are at the end of March already. Easter is almost upon us and the weather has been playing tricks on us all these past couple of weeks hasn’t it? We’ve been donning the shorts and sandals one moment, then out come the gloves for the (horizontal!) snow the next.

There is a lot going on over the next few weeks and weekends. This Sunday we have two wonderful traditional services at Ashampstead and Aldworth on offer. With opportunity to quietly reflect, or to sing beautiful hymns - whatever takes your fancy! Alternatively at Basildon it is our Bacon Butty Sunday. It promises to be filled with lively songs, a messy talk and is particularly special as we baptise Ronnie and Sienna as part of the service too. Oh and don’t forget yummy bacon butties (veg option too) afterwards as well! All details below.

One special mention is the Café which will run on Monday 4th. We are donating all proceeds to the UK response fund for Ukraine. Any amount we raise will also be additionally match-funded, so please do pop along, bring a friend and buy a coffee.

Hope to see you very soon.

Love and blessings,
Grant

The Benefice Weekly Newsletter

Coming up!

Services this Sunday

We livestream a 10am service each week. Please click here to visit our channel

Future Dates & Events

Next week’s services

Prayer Points

Please do continue to pray for Ukraine, for those caught in hostilities, those who are mourning, and for the political situation. Lord, Have Mercy.

Please pray for the NHS continuing to serve the nation amongst rising cases of covid and large backlogs for procedures.

Please pray for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the Jubilee celebrations this year.

Please continue to pray for those we know and love who are at this time unwell or recovering from illnesses.

Please pray for the baptisms of Ronnie and Sienna this week.

Please pray for those within our parishes who have lost loved ones recently.

If you would like something to appear in this weekly newsletter please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. Also, if you have any church family news that you would like me to share with the community then do let me know and I can certainly add it in.

Previous Messages

Weekly Newsletter 25th March

Dear friends,

I hope this update finds you and those you love well. This Sunday is Mothering Sunday and I am pleased to say that due to us Fensomes being in Covid induced isolation, the ministry team have once again stepped up and we are able to offer three wonderful family services in our churches this Sunday. Do join us if you are able.

This past week marked the two year anniversary of the first lockdown in the UK back in 2020. I must admit feeling a great deal of sadness and grief as we reflect on all that has been lost over these two years. Of course with the continued war in Ukraine now entering its fifth week, we continue to pray for God’s peace and protection. I read that some 150,000 homes have now been offered as accommodation for the Ukrainian people in response to the invasion. What a wonderful offer of sanctuary and hope that is. Let us continue to pray that the correct safeguarding steps can be overcome quickly and efficiently so that these homes may be filled with all those seeking shelter.

We have now finalised our plans for Holy Week and Easter, which will be published on the website this week.

Finally, I hope you enjoy the slightly revised, yet more interactive newsletter.

Love and blessings,

Grant

The Benefice Weekly Newsletter

Coming up!

This Sunday

We livestream a 10am service each week. Please click here to visit our channel

Future Dates & Events

Next week’s services

Prayer Points

Please do continue to pray for Ukraine, for those caught in hostilities, those who are mourning, and for the political situation. Lord, Have Mercy.

Please pray for the NHS continuing to serve the nation amongst rising cases of covid and large backlogs for procedures.

Please pray for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the Jubilee celebrations this year.

Please continue to pray for those we know and love who are at this time unwell or recovering from illnesses.

Please pray for the baptisms of Ronnie and Sienna next week.

Please pray for those within our parishes who have lost loved ones recently.

If you would like something to appear in this weekly newsletter please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. Also, if you have any church family news that you would like me to share with the community then do let me know and I can certainly add it in.

Previous Messages

Weekly Newsletter 10th March

Dear Friends,

I hope this update find you and those you love well.

Many folks have been asking what we can do to help with the sad crisis in Ukraine. There are plenty of things we can do, although many of them still don’t feel like ‘enough’. I have pledged our support to the Sanctuary Foundation which means that we can offer to host and support families who may end up needing somewhere to live, if the boarder issues are sorted. We can also give donations both financially and material items. There are plenty of places to do this. We can also sign the petition calling the government to provide increased humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine. You can find it here if you are interested. Finally, we can pray.

Some prayer resources from the Church of England can be found here. Some prayer resources from Bishop Steven can be found here.

We prayed for the people of Ukraine on the first of our Lent walks this week and at the services last Sunday. We shall continue to do this at all of our events and services over the coming weeks. Why not join us this week as we seek peace and cry out ‘Lord, have mercy’.

Love

Grant

Weekly Newsletter 3rd March

Hi all,

I hope this finds you well. Please see below this week’s news and notice sheet. We’ve had a fabulous start to the new Tiddlers group this week, so a huge thank you to everybody who kindly donated and purchased toys for it. We’re also really looking forward to the new style family service ‘Bacon Butty Sunday’ beginning at Basildon this weekend too! We also have our family service at Ashampstead and the early communion service at Aldworth. If you’ve been thinking about Ukraine this week and want to join us in praying for peace then the service details are below and you are most welcome to join us at any service. Also, there is a prayer for peace underneath as well which we can all pray at home.

God bless you.

Love

Grant

Please join with us as we continue to pray for peace.

Heavenly Father, hear our prayers for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.

Lord we ask for peace for those who need peace, reconciliation for those who need reconciliation and comfort for all who don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Lord may your Kingdom come, and Your will be done. 

Lord God, we ask for you to be with all – especially children who are suffering as the crisis in Ukraine deteriorates. Lord for those who are anxious and fearful. For those who are bereaved, injured or who have lost their lives. And for those who have lost loved ones. Lord hear our prayers. 

Lord, we ask that decisions makers hear Your voice. Parents protecting their families – deciding whether to stay or leave. Church leaders as they support and comfort people. And Lord we ask for wise actions from global leaders - who have the power not only to start wars, but to stop them too.  

 And Father God we cry out for an end to this crisis. For mercy, peace, and truth – because You are light, hope, power, and love. Amen. 

Weekly Newsletter 24th Feb

Dear Friends,

It seems somewhat trivial to be writing about things coming up across the benefice when folks across the Ukraine, and indeed many other places around the world, are facing such heartbreak and fear at the moment. We are praying for peace and for all those affected by the latest violence in Ukraine each day. If you would like to pray or talk to somebody about it, then our churches remain open each day, as do all of our telephone lines and emails. We’d be very happy to hear from you.

We come then towards the week before Lent. We’re joining together for a special Ash Wednesday communion service at St. Stephen’s 10am next Wednesday and then we begin our Wonder Walks and Lent Lunches. You are invited to join us as we enter this season before Easter as a community.

Tiddlers - The new toddler group begins next week at St. Stephen’s and we’re still looking for a few more bits and pieces to make it extra special. Particularly ‘ride-on’ toys. We’ve put a little Amazon Wish list together which you can find here if you would like to support this wonderful new adventure with a few new toys/items for the children.

Wish List: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/2M0H03U7B3BVX?ref_=wl_share

Hope to see you very soon and you and those you love are well.

Love,

Grant

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