Church Life – The 3 Churches Benefice

The Mayflower Society Visit to St John the Baptist Church

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants (Mayflower Society) is committed to research on the lineal descent of the Mayflower Pilgrims and education about the Pilgrims who travelled aboard ‘Mayflower’ in 1620.

The Society provides education and understanding of why the Mayflower Pilgrims were important, how they shaped western civilization and what their 1620 voyage means today and its impact on the world.

Their coach arrived on time, but unfortunately it was brand new (five days old) and 15m long. It could only get as far as the village sign in Cautherly Lane due to parked cars further down and overhanging trees, but everybody alighted okay and walked to the church.

Frances Adams arranged for the bells to be rung as the visitors approached the church and they were both surprised and impressed with the bell ringing display. We sat them in the pews and Richard Mellor gave a brief history of the church. This was followed by the Rev’d Sarah talking about weddings at the time of the Warrens’ marriage in 1610, according to the 1559 book of Common Prayer and then there was a short service at which our visitors sang heartily!

We filled them after the service with refreshments tea, coffee and cake provided by some very kind members of the congregation and judging by the small leftovers, they must have enjoyed it. One of the visitors even asked for the blueberry bread recipe.

We ferried those that needed it by car back to the coach. It was a great pleasure to see them all and their party included some Warren descendants. Unfortunately, their president Marty Beerman and his wife Jane could not be present and neither could Richard Pickering from the Boston who is an expert on the Mayflower pilgrims. There were 42 visitors and it was great to meet them all. They were delightful visitors and all seemed to enjoy their visit to the church and the churchyard.

Richard Mellor, Churchwarden

St Mary’s, St Margarets achieves Eco Church Bronze Award

We’re delighted to announce that St Mary’s Church, St Margarets, has been awarded A Rocha UK’s Eco Church Bronze Award.

Eco Church is a programme that helps churches put care for God’s creation into practice. The award recognises work across five areas of church life: worship and teaching, buildings and energy, land and nature, community and global engagement, and sustainable lifestyles.

After completing the Eco Church survey and meeting the required standard across all five areas, St Mary’s Church has now achieved its Bronze Award.

A huge thank you to Lyn Paddon and Jen Jackson for all their hard work in helping reach this milestone, and to everyone who helps keep the churchyard maintained.

We look forward to continuing to explore how we can care for God’s wonderful world as a church and as a community.

St Mary’s, St Margarets Comes Alive with Art and Community

This summer, St Mary’s Church, St Margarets opened its doors to the community in a rather different way, as the church was transformed into a gallery for our first Summer Miniature Art Exhibition and Silent Auction.

The idea was simple: invite artists to create miniature artworks inspired by the theme of Stanstead Abbotts and St Margarets, and then bring those pieces together in the beautiful setting of St Mary’s Church. What followed was a wonderful celebration of creativity, our local area and, most importantly, community.

The exhibition featured 41 artworks by 13 artists, with a wonderful variety of styles and subjects. Familiar buildings, landscapes and local scenes appeared alongside more imaginative interpretations of the villages, giving visitors plenty to look at and enjoy.

Over the weekend, St Mary’s welcomed over 130 visitors through its doors. People came to admire the artwork, chat with friends and neighbours, enjoy refreshments and take part in the silent auction. It was lovely to see the church being used in a different way and to welcome many people who may not otherwise have visited.

The exhibition also gave visitors the chance to choose their favourite artwork in our People’s Choice Award. Congratulations to Indigo, whose beautiful artwork, ‘Reflections on Lea’, received the most votes. At just 16, and a student of artist Dawn Coulter, Indigo showed great talent and confidence in her chosen medium. The painting’s beautiful setting and masterful use of light on the water clearly captured the imagination of our visitors.

The generosity of everyone involved has also made a real difference to St Mary’s Church. So far to date we have raised a NET figure of £894.76, which will go towards supporting the work and ministry of the church. We hope to have a final total soon. We are hugely grateful to every artist who donated their creativity, to everyone who came along and supported the auction, and to our volunteers who gave their time to welcome visitors and provide refreshments.

Events like this remind us that our churches are not only places for worship, but places where people can meet, share their gifts, enjoy one another’s company and be part of the life of the local community.

We are so thankful to everyone who helped make our first Summer Miniature Art Exhibition such a success, and we hope it will be the first of many opportunities to open St Mary’s doors and bring people together.

Experience Pentecost

On 20th and 21st May our two church schools visited St John the Baptist and St Andrew’s churches to “Experience Pentecost” – an opportunity to find out more about the Holy Spirit in an interactive way. On each day, we had six stations set up both inside and outside the church, to provide multi-sensory ways to engage the children imaginatively with the events surrounding Pentecost.

During the day, each Year class visited their linked church for 40–50 minutes. Having experienced the first session outdoors entitled Waiting (for the Holy Spirit to come) with the Vicar and decorating the trees and surrounding area with paper doves – many church goers and visitors will have seen these in place – they then split into four groups to explore the next stations on their journey. These took place inside the church and covered Receiving (when the Holy Spirit came), Telling (after the Spirit came, believers began to tell others), Doing (believers started to take action) and Sharing (they began to work together).

The groups came together for a final station called Growing where they explored with the Vicar how the early Christian Church began to grow.

As one of the volunteers, it was really interesting to see how a Year 6 youngster (around 10 years old) had grown in their understanding of Pentecost over their years of learning about this important time in the Church year compared with a child from Year 2 (around 6 years old). The children were interested and a pleasure to engage with. Each volunteer covered their particular station four times for the six St John the Baptist classes and seven St Andrew’s classes. As you can imagine, we each knew our own “station” very well by the end of the days!

A worthwhile Pentecost Experience for us all.

Lynne Griffiths

Martin Goldsmith’s Celebration of Life on 22nd March 2026

On 22nd March, we came together as a church family to remember Martin Goldsmith, with gratitude for a life well lived and with sadness at his passing.

A delegation travelled to Chichester, via different means of transport, to attend the Celebration of Life in person. We are particularly grateful to Steve Scott for driving a group down from St Andrew’s in a hired people carrier.

There were also a number of people who watched the live stream in the comfort of their own homes. While a group of 26 from across the Benefice met at The Wilshere Hall in fellowship to watch the live stream. There was great comfort in coming together and there was a sigh across the room as Elizabeth Goldsmith shared the Romans verses with everyone. Those who came along felt very grateful to feel part of the service and comforted by being together in a place so special to Martin and Elizabeth. Thanks go to Lynne Griffiths for providing refreshments at The Wilshere Hall and for Jan Kinsman for handling all the technology.

The service was full of humour and joy amid the sadness of losing Martin. The power of holding onto the hope of heaven came through most clearly.

We give thanks for Martin’s life, for his faithful witness, and for the many ways he and Elizabeth have been such a blessing to our church community over the years. While we feel the sadness of his loss, we also hold onto the sure and certain hope we have in Christ.

Mothering Sunday across the Benefice

On Sunday 15th March, we came together to mark Mothering Sunday, giving thanks for mothers and for all those who nurture and care for us.

Across the Benefice, we held services at St John the Baptist, Great Amwell; St Andrew, Stanstead Abbots; and St Mary’s, St Margarets. It was a joyful day that brought together people of all ages from across our local communities.

We were especially pleased to welcome families to our family friendly services, including the 9am Mothering Sunday service at St John the Baptist and Make Church at 4pm at St Andrew, where children and adults explored faith together through creative activities and worship.

Alongside these, our more traditional services at St Andrew and St Mary’s offered space for prayer, reflection and thanksgiving.

Flowers were given out at every service as a small sign of appreciation and love – a simple but meaningful tradition that many people cherish and often share with family, friends or neighbours.

Mothering Sunday can bring many different emotions. For some it is a joyful celebration, while for others it can be a more reflective or difficult day. As a Benefice, we hope to be a place where people can come in times of joy and in times of sorrow, knowing they will find prayer, support and a warm welcome.

It was wonderful to share this special day together, and we look forward to continuing to welcome families and people of all ages into the life of our churches.

Mothering Sunday Flowers at St Andrew’s, Stanstead Abbots

A Very Special Peal at St John the Baptist

If you heard the bells ringing out from St John the Baptist on Friday 6th March, there was a very special reason!

A talented team of bell ringers gathered to attempt a celebratory peal in honour of Roy’s 90th birthday. The occasion was particularly meaningful, as Roy himself rang the very first peal on these bells seventy years ago, after they were augmented to six. To mark this milestone with another peal on the same bells made it a truly special moment for everyone involved.

Bell ringing is an ancient and highly skilled tradition that continues to thrive in churches across the country. Around 5,000 church towers in England – and many more worldwide – practise the English style of change ringing. Using ropes and wheels, ringers carefully control the bells to produce intricate sequences of changes, creating the beautiful and distinctive sound many of us associate with church celebrations.

A peal is a particularly impressive achievement. It involves ringing a continuous sequence of at least 5,000 different changes without repetition – something that requires great concentration, teamwork and stamina. It is often described as the bell ringers’ equivalent of running a marathon!

For this special celebration, the band rang a fascinating combination of 14 different methods, with wonderful names such as Cambridge, Primrose, Hull, Ipswich and Norfolk. The attempt lasted 2 hours and 43 minutes – an impressive accomplishment for the six ringers involved. The peal has been reported on BellBoard (see: https://bellboard.uk/view.php?id=1945940), which is run by Ringing World, the weekly publication for bell ringers.

Full peals are not something we hear very often at St John the Baptist, which made this occasion even more memorable for those who were nearby to enjoy the sound of the bells.

If you would like to learn more about what ringing a peal involves, you can read more here:
https://cccbr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/what-is-a-peal.pdf

And if hearing the bells has inspired you to try bell ringing yourself, new ringers are always very welcome. The team practises every Thursday from 7:30pm to around 9:00pm at St John the Baptist Church, Great Amwell. For more information, please contact Frances Adams at fmadams750@gmail.com.

Make Church: our new worshipping community!

Make Church is our new monthly gathering especially for children and families, designed to be inclusive, sensory and joyful – a place where children of all abilities can explore faith in their own way. Whether your child is full of energy, prefers to observe, or has additional needs, there’s a place for them at Make Church.

And it’s not just for the kids! Parents and carers are part of the journey too.

Together we explore faith using the building block of worship: offering songs, hands-on sensory experiences, movement and play as we go!

We were thrilled that at our first session in September we welcomed 28 children and 24 adults, which was a fantastic start. At our recent October session we also had 22 children and 22 adults! These are children and adults that don’t normally come to our regular services. We hope that our new worshipping community will encourage the seeds of faith to grow in the hearts of those that come along.

Why not join us for our next session…? Come as you are. Let’s Make Church together.

🕓 When?
Every 3rd Sunday of the month at 4.00 pm
Next sessions: 16th November, 21st December
Dates for early 2026: 18th January, 15th February, 15th March

📍 Where?
St Andrew’s Church, Stanstead Abbots

Harvest Festival 2025

On Sunday 14th September 2025, we celebrated a brilliant Harvest Festival with the community.

We held a special Harvest Thanksgiving Service at the Old Parish Church of St James, which was beautifully decorated again this year by a very talented group of volunteers, led by Kate Green. It was a lovely service with a full congregation.

Following the service, the festivities continued with a Harvest Lunch at 12:30pm in the Haybarn at Stanstead Bury Farm, which is just a short stroll from the church. This year tickets were sold out a week before the event as we reached capacity of 100 guests! As always, lunch offered a fantastic spread of locally produced and sourced food. The weather forecast hadn’t been great, but thankfully the rain held off.

What people had to say…
‘[It] was such a happy occasion and lovely to be part of it all. What a truly scrumptious feast too.’ (Kate)

‘Lovely service, brilliant food and a great atmosphere.’ (Janet)

‘All the hard work paid off. Lovely food, superbly cooked. Great to bring locals together.’ (Rosemary)

A wonderful time was had by all! Thank you to everyone for all the hard work that was put into making this such fantastic event.

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While our Harvest Festival is over, the season goes on… There are a number of Harvest events still to come within The 3 Churches Benefice, including those with the schools.

If anyone would like to make food donations, the following items are currently in need at The Foodbank:

Tinned meat, fish, potatoes, vegetables
Toiletries
Rice/pasta
Custard/rice pudding
UHT milk, coffee, tea
Cooking sauces
Long-life fruit juices

All donations are welcome. Thank you

A Faithful Servant Recognised

We are delighted to share some truly joyful news from within our Benefice: Lynne Griffiths, a long-standing and active member of our church community, has been awarded the Order of St Alban in recognition of her outstanding service to the Diocese over more than 25 years.

The Order of St Alban is a diocesan honour given to lay people who have offered faithful and committed service over a substantial period of time. It is a fitting tribute to Lynne’s years of commitment, her wisdom and the grace with which she serves.

Throughout this time, Lynne has served in a variety of roles including PA to the Diocesan Secretary and to both Archdeacons of Hertford, and several posts within the Education team – always with humility, dedication and a deep love for the Church. In all roles, Lynne’s efforts have been felt and appreciated by many. She embodies servant-hearted leadership and her example has inspired countless others in their own walk of faith.

The award was presented on Saturday 20th September, at a beautiful Choral Evensong, and it marks a significant milestone in Lynne’s faithful contribution to church life – not only within The 3 Churches Benefice, but across the Diocese of St Albans.

As a Benefice, we are proud to see one of our own recognised in this way. Let us hold Lynne in our prayers as she continues her ministry among us, and may her story encourage all of us to serve faithfully in the places God has called us.

‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ (Matthew 25:21)