Church Life – The 3 Churches Benefice

Cups on a String: a TLG/Riding Lights Performance

On Wednesday 16th October, we were delighted to host the Transforming Lives for Good (TLG) / Riding Lights Theatre Company production, ‘Cups on a String’, created to mark 25 years of TLG bringing hope and a future to struggling children across the UK.

Here at The 3 Churches Benefice we are passionate about the charity TLG and the important work they do. We are actively involved with Make Lunch (running Make Lunch Club on Mondays and Fridays during the school holidays) and Early Intervention (with a number of Early Intervention Coaches in our Benefice, who mentor children once a week in school). With this in mind, we wanted to support the national tour of ‘Cups on a String’ and host a performance.

‘Cups on a String’ is a warm-hearted and moving new play, developed from remarkable true stories. Challenging, surprising and beautifully hopeful, ‘Cups on a String’ takes you into the heart of the friendship between Heather and Joe, and the profound impact it has on them both.

St Andrew’s Church was a hive of activity on Wednesday afternoon as the stage was set. The doors opened at 7.30pm and we had an audience of 65 strong. The performance was really good and it was a great evening.

Thank you to those who hosted the performers and for everyone who helped on the evening with tasks like ushering, refreshments and car park duty.

News from St John the Baptist

South African Braii
In August, in the lovely summer sunshine, we had a South African braai in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, organised kindly by parishioners Graeme and Paola McSorley. We enjoyed boerewors followed by melktert, washed down with fabulous South African wine.

Visitors come to St John the Baptist
St John’s church has been blessed this year with visitors from overseas. Recently, we have had visitors from America, who can trace
their ancestry to Richard and Elizabeth Warren who were married in the church in 1610. Richard being one of the Pilgrim Fathers on Mayflower 10 years later.

In September, came Sue and Tom Dietrich from Arizona, followed on 3rd October by well-known authoress Jodie Picoult and her husband, Tim Warren Van Leer from New Hampshire. On the same day, Eric Nye, a visiting professor at Cambridge and related to the Warrens, joined us. It was great to welcome them to St John’s and show them round the church and the churchyard.

Benefice Harvest Festival 2024

Sunday 22nd September was the date of this year’s Benefice Harvest Festival. We had a lovely service at the Old Parish Church of St James, with a brilliant turn out of people. Once again, the church was beautifully decorated with seasonal displays, for which special thanks go to:

The Friends of St James’s Church
Stanstead Abbotts Scouts – Forest Beaver Colony and Oak Squirrel Drey
Stort Valley Organics, Stanstead Abbotts
Joe and Mo from the High Street Allotments
The Easneye Estate
Hill House
Kate Green (overall mastermind)

After the service, there was a very special lunch in the Haybarn at Stanstead Bury Farm, Stanstead Abbotts, organised by Antonia Trower and supported by helpers from the Friends of St James’s. Locally produced food and drink was provided in the barn, and there was a real community feel. Thanks go to the local food and drink producers:

Temple Farm, Roydon
Stanstead Bury Farm
Stort Valley Organics, Stanstead Abbotts
New River Brewery, Hoddesdon
Brick Lock, Roydon
Four Acre Estate, Little Hadham
Hazel End, Bishop’s Stortford

Thank you to everyone for all the hard work that was put into making this such fantastic event.

Benefice Celebration Service for Elizabeth and Martin Goldsmith

On Sunday 30th June, we held a very special Benefice Celebration Service for Elizabeth and Martin Goldsmith at St Andrew’s Church. The service was followed by a ‘bring & share’ lunch in The Wilshere Hall.

During the Celebration Service we heard about their backgrounds: Elizabeth being a 4th generation missionary and Martin from a secular Jewish family. Martin came to faith as a teenager and they met while training for missionary work. We listened to their stories of life and work across the globe, including decades of international ministry.

Rev’d Dr Bob Hunt preached on Acts 1: 6–11, which includes Jesus’s call to ‘be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

The ‘bring & share’ lunch was a lovely time of fellowship together.

Thank you to everyone involved in organising this special service.

Easter 2024

Holy Week, starting with Palm Sunday and ending on Easter Sunday, is always a busy time for everyone with lots of different services and chances to come together as we remember Jesus’ last days and crucifixion, and ultimately celebrate Jesus’s Resurrection! Alongside the church services, Rev’d Sarah was also involved with the Easter activities at both St Andrew’s and St John the Baptist’s Primary Schools, as well as leading services for both schools in the churches, sharing the good news of Jesus with over 400 children.

Our Holy Week and Easter services were wonderfully attended. Thank you to everyone who came along to join us and especially to those who helped with organising, runnning or the logistics of these services. As you can see from the photos, despite the bad weather we had a good turnout at our Walk of Witness and the service held at dawn on Easter Day was a very special.

Good Friday Walk of Witness
(© Lynne Griffiths)

We hope that you all had a Happy Easter!

Easter blessing
“May the glory and the promise of this joyous time of year bring peace and happiness to you and those you hold most dear. And may Christ, Our Risen Saviour, always be there by your side to bless you most abundantly and be your loving guide.”

A Year of Make Lunch Club

This Easter, we’re celebrating an important first anniversary. It’s a year since we first started ‘Make Lunch’, a club for families who need extra help in the school holidays, whether in terms of finances and food, or space to be together and find support. The 3 Churches Benefice partnered with a national charity ‘Transforming Lives for Good’ or ‘TLG’, whose aim is to help churches to work in their communities to combat poverty and improve the lives of children and young people. We started in the Easter holidays last year, running lunch and activity sessions twice a week for anyone who wanted to come. To date we have run 21 sessions, usually Mondays and Fridays, through all the school holidays, and we have made over 300 meals for children and their parents/careers, welcoming over 74 different children and 38 adults.

Every session is different in terms of who comes and what kind of day it is, but we always have an activity and a theme, a two-course hot meal, time to sit together and eat, and to get to know each other and build relationships. We have 16 volunteers signed up and try to have at least 6 or 7 on each session, working in the kitchen, cooking and washing up, or out front coordinating activities or chatting to folk.

It’s been hard work but we know it’s worthwhile from the stories we can share of parents who moved to the area recently and now feel part of the community, of children who were anxious and struggling at school but now feel they belong and have a sense of their identity and value. We shared some of our stories of the last year with our Transforming Lives for Good (TLG) Lead, Alex Hall, who has supported us on the journey and led our yearly review. She is so pleased with our work that she has awarded us Gold Club status!

We look forward positively to the next year at Make Lunch and thank all our supporters, volunteers and families for sharing the adventure!

Join us at Make Lunch Club over the Easter Holidays for fun, friendship and some yummy food. See the poster HERE for all the details.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Email us at makelunch@3churches.net

Warm Welcome Spaces: come and join us!

Every week, we offer two Warm Welcome Spaces to those who need it over the cold winter months:

Coffee Morning on Monday mornings, 9–11.30am at The Wilshere Hall
The Community Hub Drop-in on Wednesdays, 10.30–11.30am at St Mary’s, St Margarets

These groups are a great way to make new friends, and share a cuppa and a chat (and some enjoyable activities) in a warm, welcome space.

In our Monday Coffee Morning, we have been having a lot of fun! On Monday 29^th January, we recycled old candles to make new ones using a slow cooker. The wax was melted on a low heat and we added frankincense to scent it. We then poured the wax out and left them to cool. It we really well! We shared our new candles at Candlemas Prayers (on Wednesday 31^st January after The Community Hub Drop-in) as we celebrated Jesus, who Simeon called The Light of the World!

Everyone is welcome at our Warm Welcome Spaces. We look forward to welcoming you!

[Click HERE to see our Warm Welcome Spaces poster. Please note, these sessions finish on 25th March]

Christmas 2023

All of our Advent and Christmas services were very well attended and it was wonderful to be able to welcome new faces to worship alongside our usual church family.

On Christmas Eve, The Christmas Journey: The Nativity Story Reimagined was a special event. We had a fantastic 175 children and adults (not to mention dogs) gathering together at St Margarets Train Station to make the journey to meet baby Jesus in the manger. It was really special to travel all together, singing carols as we walked, to knock on each inn door as we made our way to the stable (at St Andrew’s Church). Thank you to The Jolly Fisherman, The Oak and The Red Lion for taking part again this year, and thanks to all our helpers ensuring we kept safe.

Every year we draw more people to attend this nativity experience and are assured that is has become a lovely Christmas tradition for many local families.

Christmas Tree Festival 2023

On Saturday 9^th and Sunday 10^th December, 2–6pm, we held our Christmas Tree Festival at St Mary’s Church, St Margarets.

The church looked beautiful all lit up with the trees that had been provided and decorated by local groups and businesses. Powell Funeral Services donated the tree for St Mary’s and Gini Trower from The Wallen Garden kindly loaned us two of her wonderful rooted trees. The amazing nativity scene at the altar, made by Mary Youngman and on loan from Hertford Baptist Church, was much admired by our visitors. We had some delicious cakes, biscuits and mince pies for refreshments; a raffle; a scavenger hunt for the children and some lovely craft items on safe.

The whole event was a brilliant success, with over 130 people coming along to get in the festive spirit over the two afternoons, and we were able to raise over £450. These funds will go towards the upkeep and work of the church.

We would like to thank everyone who helped: organising beforehand, providing and/or decorating trees, making cakes, volunteering as helpers, donating raffle prizes etc. It was a great team effort and we had some lovely feedback from those who came along.

Images: View from outside, Craft Stall, Our Memory Tree, The Three Villages Magazine, The 3 Churches Benefice Wednesday Coffee Morning, St Andrew’s Card-making Group, 1st Stanstead Abbotts Brownies, Age UK, St Andrew’s Primary School, Bobtails Playgroup & Teddy Club, Hoddesdon Ladies Club, Woodland Beavers Colony, St John the Baptist Church, St Mary’s Church, Nativity Scene by Mary Youngman (Hertford Baptist Church).

Remembrance Sunday 2023

We held two outside services in honour of Remembrance Sunday on 12th November: one at the War Memorial at St Andrew’s Church, Stanstead Abbots and another at the Amwell Lane War Memorial, Great Amwell.

These were poignant services. As we all stood together, young and old, we remembered those who have suffered far greater hardships than a bit of rain: those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we might live in freedom and peace.

At St Andrew’s, we had a thought-provoking address by General Sir Nicholas Carter about the nature of service in the armed forces. To quote just one of the important points he made:

‘My generation has been privileged to grow up with veterans who understood the horrors of war, but as each year passes, we lose these veterans, and as they depart the coming generation is not touched so personally by the memory of war. Our challenge in this unstable world is to make sure that this new generation understands that the nature of war never changes – it is always violent, it always causes great suffering, and its first casualty is always the truth. And that is why Remembrance must never be a moment to glorify war, it must be a moment to remember why it must be avoided at all costs.’

Thanks go to the General for taking the time to come and share with us. He was very impressed by the turn out, especially of our youth groups.

It was a great moment of community spirit and we thank everyone involved in the services or who came along to pay their respects.

‘We will remember them’