Not too much to report this week. The Rev Alex Wheatley was not available to take our service of Holy Communion on Sunday but we had the pleasure of seeing the Rev Gillian Orpin, one of our retired priest friends who stands in for us on occasions. Next Sunday, May 1st, we will be back to our normal service routine and being the first Sunday of the month, this will be our ever popular all age service, Friends and Family. The emphasis of this service is always on the children w

St John's Church, Cockayne Hatley Easter is now behind us for another year, a good year for St Mary’s as for the last two years we have been under Covid restrictions so most Easter celebrations did not take place, or were severely restricted. Even with the arrival of our new Rector a year ago, Easter celebrations had to be low impact so it was quite a quiet time at St Mary’s. But this year was certainly different with nearly every Easter service and event taking place as they

Holy Week in the Benefice got underway with a Palm Sunday service but with a big difference this year. For a start the service was held at St John’s Church at Cockayne Hatley, the first time as far as we are aware. Usually, it is at St Mary’s but this year, the Rector, the Rev Alex Wheatley decided on a new plan which made it a service with a totally new approach to the usual pattern. It started with the congregation and choir, halfway down the approach road to the church, fo

The Sunday Service this week was our popular Friends and Family Service led by our Rector, the Rev Alex Wheatley. This week’s theme was “Preparing for Palm Sunday” and after the opening part of the service where the Rev Alex told stories for the children and led the congregation in singing some children’s hymns, the children and the older members of the congregation, all went about different activities but all to do with Palm Sunday. We had palm leaves large and small, being