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Church Services1. On this page you will find the details of Church contacts. 2. Church services for the month within the Benefice. 3. The monthly news letter. 1.CHURCH CONTACT DETAILS Priest-in-charge – Rev Alison Jackson – 01279 790145 / 07833 667707 1 Dovedale, High Wych, Sawbridgeworth CM21 0DT Mission Enabler: Rosemary Davis 01279 419763 Reader June Denton 01279 723714 Lay leaders of worhsip Janet Bellingham 07882743627 Rosemary Davis 01279 419763 Churchwardens Michael Shaw - 01279 726792 We have a vacant post for Church Warden Secretary Christine Law - 01279 411646 Treasurer Werner Marx – marxwerner2@gmail.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Benefice of High Wych and Gilston with Eastwick Church website: stjameshighwych.org.uk Facebook: eastwick and gilston church’s +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MAY SERVICES 2025
Benefice churches will be open for private prayer. St James, open every day 9.00am to 4.00pm. An information notice is displayed outside the church. St Mary’s open every day 8.00am to 4.00pm and for advice on opening of St. Botolph’s for private prayer, please contact Rev. Alison Jackson. I’ve been asked a lot recently about baptisms. Baptisms of babies, children, young people and adults. Baptism is also known by another word Christening – they mean the same thing really. No one is too young or too old to be baptised/christened. Baptism marks the beginning of your Christian journey. A journey of faith that will last your whole life long. If your child is small they will need adults to make the vows on their behalf. These people are very special to your children and are called ‘godparents’. To be a Godparent you have to have been baptised yourself. Either as a child or an adult. As a Godparent you are promising to help bring the child up to know the Christian faith. The Church of England recommends that you have 3 godparents, parents who are baptised can also act as Godparents for their own children. If you are being asked to be a Godparent but are not baptised, or if you feel that you are ready to take that next step as an adult on your journey of faith, then we can help you explore the Christian faith as you find out more about what it means to be a Christian, no question is too silly or too small or too big to bring to the table to discuss. It is my privilege and delight to christen/baptise anyone who is living in our community who would like to be. Over the past couple of years I have had the delight of baptising adults, children and babies. If you are an adult and were not baptised as a baby and want to explore what your own journey of faith could look like please give me a ring or drop me an e-mail so we can begin the conversation together. My hope is that we can journey together discovering what faith could mean for you. You may/ or may not be very aware of God being present in your life …God is. He has known you since before you were born and he would love you to get to know him better. Psalm 139 reassures us of this……. Psalm 139:13-16 For you created my inmost being; I look forward to our conversation. Every blessing Your Priest Rev Alison ================================================================= APRIL SERVICES 2025
Question: What can I offer you? Answer: Hope I wonder how you are feeling as you read this today? Your local church is here to offer you Hope and a Future. As a church we are heading towards Easter – walking through Lent, hoping that our Lent Challenge for 2025 will fill people with hope as they see how generous the people of our villages can be. Anyone can get involved (See Lent Challenge 2025 flyer pg?) As you now see this magazine is filled with flyers for Community Dog Walks – opportunities to come together and have some fun and walk dogs – although dogs not necessary – this month taking place in Terlings Park, Gilston – last month we were in Allens Green. Wednesday Welcome - a monthly chance for the over 55’s to come together and have fun. Messy Church every month – all geared to families where we can do craft together and eat together and discover more about Jesus in a fun and interactive way. Family services at St James and at St Botolph’s every month – again food and fun and being together and learning together about Jesus. Jimmy’s Baby and Toddler Group, every week – creating opportunities for families with babies and toddlers to come together in a warm, relaxing environment with lots of sensory play, creative play and great toys not to mention drinks, snacks and singing. Jim’s café, every week – for those Yr 7’s as they navigate that first year of secondary school and meet up with old friends from High Wych school and bring along new ones they have met in secondary school. Not to mention our Easter services flyer – hopefully meeting your needs for either quiet reflection, outdoor adventure with a firepit, Messy play, and having a meaningful Family service with communion. Your local church is here for you. Offering you hope, a place to belong where you will meet people who are interested in getting to know you better. And ….if you are not feeling very hopeful at the moment, offering you the opportunity to change that. The Bible says:- Do not fear, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, And the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God. Isaiah 43:v1,2,3. I am your Priest, whether you live in High Wych, Gilston or Eastwick. I have the ‘cure of souls’ for everyone in these villages whether you come to church or don’t know Jesus yet. If you would like to meet me – just give me a ring. Every blessing Your Priest Alison
MARCH SERVICES 2025
Psalm 139 (extract) verses 13-16 For you created my inmost being; MARCH LETTER How we say Goodbye As many of you may know my Mum now lives with us and has done for over a year. She is 95 and loves watching a bit of ITV3. The other evening I did not have any meetings and I sat and watched something with her and noticed all the advertisements. Many were for sick animals, over 50’s life insurance and for direct cremations. I don’t know if this is striking a cord with many of you? Direct cremations or unattended funerals used to be filled with such pathos, the funerals of people so utterly alone in this world that not one person was alive to come and say Goodbye. However today we have a growing number, of direct cremations. The shiny ads on tv which trumpet this type of service are trying to persuade us to believe we will be doing our family a favour if we go down that road. In my opinion they appear to be preying on the elderly asking them to consider making the lives of their loved ones easier and cheaper. This service is quite literally, the last word in convenience. I can’t blame the funeral industry for this new undertaking; it’s a logical extension for a consumer-driven operation. We live in the mobile ordering – ‘Just Eat’ for food, drive-thru and pavement pick-up and now - ‘Just die’ for direct cremations!!! What do we think about the indignity of having your loved one’s body shipped off somewhere from a chilled warehouse to a crematorium when they have a spare slot with the ashes being conveyed directly to you without any unnecessary detour to a chapel of rest, or church, no way to say ‘Goodbye’. This way you don’t even have to take a day off work! Let alone sit with the idea of what the loss of your loved one may mean to you and your family. Believe it or not (and admittedly I understand that many of you may not believe) it remains a tenet of the Christian faith that human beings are more than a flesh and blood biological machine that has stopped working. Christians believe that we are all created in the image of God. It tells us in Palm 139 that God knows us even before we are born. Our lives are written on the palm of God’s hand. Our bodies, says the Bible, are given to us in sacred trust – jars of clay honoured for the treasure of the soul they carry. ‘Ashes to ashes – dust to dust’. Those words were never meant to sound as an after thought, the last gleanings of our lives swept up and boxed up for home delivery at the moment of their extinction. And I don’t think that many people want that for themselves either. Yes, Granny may have said something about ‘ just chuck me over the garden hedge’ when she dies. However, I’d be very surprised if you were ever expected to truly take her at her word. What she probably meant to say is that attending funerals is hard and she doesn’t want to be a bother. Whichever way you spin it, funeral services mean death and grief and dirty great bills, emotional cost as well as financial cost – and we might want to avoid that because of the pain it may cause us. We can’t avoid it really. The end of life, if we believe a life has meaning, is, or can be, a painful event. The end of life, is hard for us to face, at any funeral we come face to face with our own mortality and how this loss affects us. But if we pluck up courage to stand in person and look on death at a funeral service, to feel the enormity of this life lost, then we stand as a witness to the value of all lives. Saying a proper ‘Goodbye’ is your opportunity to thank God for the person you have lost, to remember them, this is your final act of love and service for them. It can also be a celebration of all that this person has meant to you over the years. There is little doubt in my mind that the way we commemorate the dead in this country is changing. Very few of us will now remove a hat for a passing hearse, or as a driver not be frustrated by having to give way to a funeral cortege on its solemn journey. I’ve noticed that people no longer seem to stop or bow their head in respect, and keeping silence when asked to remember those who gave their lives for us on Remembrance Day feels difficult, and for the poor bereaved person, they are supposed to get on with it, get over it, move on….. We are all loved by God, valued by God and this act of saying ‘Goodbye’ is such an important part of the bereavement process. God shows us how to love and we in turn are called to love each other. I am not suggesting that everyone should have a Christian funeral but I am suggesting that every person needs a time of remembering, of celebrating the life they had, remembering the joys and the sadnesses, and also the impact they had on our lives. If you really want to do your family a favour, write down what you would like to happen, any music you would want, or poems, or prose or bible readings or whether you would want to be buried or cremated and where. This would be so helpful for those left behind. May God bless you Your Priest Alison The Elephant in the Room As you may have read over the past few months the Church of England is having to put it’s house in order after some serious safeguarding issues have come to light. These are being addressed, measures which include appointing a new Archbishop of Canterbury, who has stepped down as these issues have come to light. I want to reassure everyone that your local parish church is here for you and it takes safeguarding very seriously. We have our own safeguarding Officer, Ms Cath Sharples and all the necessary safety requirements are being taken whenever we meet with your children. Most of our activities include you, as parents, so there are very few opportunities for your children to be without you unsupervised. If you have any concerns at all please can you talk to me or get in contact with our safeguarding officer. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2025 The Lent Challenge During Lent we are called to give things up that may harm us, like alcohol, smoking, maybe to fast from chocolate or too much social media, or TV – the idea being that the time this frees up you can give more attention to God, in prayer and reading the Bible. We are also called during Lent to remember those worse off than ourselves and there are so many ways we can do this. We can give our money to charity, maybe sending help to children in Gaza who are struggling without food and basic necessities:- Donate to Gaza Appeal for Children in Crisis - UNICEF UK – (follow this link to financially give). Or maybe you would like to organise a Lent Lunch or Lent Brekkie and invite people to join you, eat yummy food and donate to Christian Aid and their action against Poverty. Lent Lunches | Christian Aid – (follow this link to find out how to go about it and see all the resources they provide to help you with this). Or you may want to look closer to home and take up the Lent Challenge for our own area. We are committing to give generously to the Pop-Up shop during Lent, focussing on a particular area of food/household products each week as follows:- Week 1 - we focus on bringing soft drinks for that week. Week 2 – cans of food. Week 3 – dried goods Week 4 - Household cleaning products. Week 5 – chocolate (small Easter eggs) Week 6 – Special Easter food This will call us to sacrifice some of our wealth but it will benefit others who are struggling. The church at St James, High Wych is open every day from 9.30 am to 4.00 pm for you to bring food and place in the green box provided, and we will make sure this food gets to the Pop-Up Shop. LENT BIBLE STUDY GROUP IS ON 12th, 19th, 26th March and 2nd, 9th & 16th April. The Rectory, 1 Dovedale, High Wych CM21 0D. Further information contact Rev Alison Jackson on 07833 667707 ======================================================== FEBRUARY SERVICES 2025
It will probably be going into February by the time you read this, but I am currently sitting at my computer on a freezing cold day. It’s minus degrees today, the trees look beautiful, but it is freezy cold if you are not well wrapped up or have your heating on. In church this morning we looked at this scripture:- Isaiah 43:1-3 Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I feel this continues the message from all our Christmas services, as our Christingle Ninja Angels gave us the message ‘Do not fear’. If you want a fridge magnet with this message on you will find them as you enter St James, High Wych or St Mary’s, Gilston, please take one and let me know if we run out!! What we all need to hear is that God loves us, before we have done anything to deserve it, he loves us. Constantly we are being told ‘Do not fear’, he has got us. Whilst he cannot promise that life will be straight forward, easy and without trouble or stress he promises to be with us. As I watch my tv screen for the news, or read on my phone the outcome of wars around our globe and the fact that Los Angeles is on fire as I write this – I am struck by the fragility of life. I want to offer you hope, a future and peace that God will be with you whatever you face. There are many different opportunities to connect with us as church in our community through Jimmy’s baby and Toddler group, Jim’s café, Wednesday Welcome and we are going to be starting Messy Church from 19th January (see flyer for all dates and information). Each of these groups offer friendship and community and Messy Church helps you and your family to gently start on that journey of faith together. If you are curious we are running the Alpha Course both online and in person (see flyer for all information) and I look forward to welcoming people to the Rectory at 7.30 pm on Monday evenings starting from 20th January. Please contact me if you want to be part of this and start your journey of discovery and curiosity about the Christian faith finding out more about Who Jesus is and why we, as Christians, believe what we believe. As we have moved through Christmas we will start to turn towards Easter with Pancake parties, Lent courses, community dog walks, etc all these things to look forward to and for those of you who came to the many Christmas services we had we raised, across our Benefice, £1,031.05 for the Winter Night Shelter in Bishop Stortford and £293.79 for the Children’s Society. Thank you as always for your generosity, your friendship and your contributions to our community. May God bless you as this year unfolds. Your Priest Alison ================================================================ JANUARY SERVICES 2025
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? 3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; 5 The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; 7 The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; January Letter Searching for those Holy Moments As we move from the Old Year to the New Year I have to be honest and say I am finding this December a little tricky. As I write this we are still to have all our Christmas services, which I know will bring me great joy, but….. I do get fed up of dark mornings and evenings, of muddy dog walks and a muddy dog on cream carpets!! My heating has been broken and I have been full of cold for weeks. That’s one way of looking at it… However, another way to look at it is… I am so glad I have Bean, she is a great companion and walking buddy, and thanks to a great team of plumbers we are now toasty warm again…. and my cold is finally going! I am searching for those ‘Holy Moments’. Moments when I see and am aware that God is with me in my everyday life. I know I am not alone in having minor irritations throughout my day, but I also try to see how fortunate I am. Each week we have a team (who I am very thankful for) who pray for our world, our country, our government, our communities, those among us who are sick or in need, we bring all these prayers to God and ask for help and also give thanks for all that he is doing. If you would like prayer, please let me know. As I think forward from today, there will be lots of things that will bring me joy over the next few weeks:- The school nativity play, Pop Up Carol services, our Christmas party at Jimmy’s toddler group, our final session at Jim’s café to name a few. So many people to see and company to enjoy, getting time to spend with my children and grandchild, a quite moment with a good book and some chocolate – all glorious. There will also be some difficult stuff that I can’t talk about here…. This is life’s journey – the ups and the downs, the rough with the smooth, the magic in the muck, the joy and the pain of it, and not just in the Christmas season. As we head into January – we are still us, filled with hope and/or worries for this New Year. We will all have things in the coming year which will be times of joy, and no doubt there will be some welcome and unwelcome surprises along the way. This is the human condition. But, we are a people called to Hope. Hope that every day is a new day, that God gives us each day as a gift, to enjoy, to work in, to endure in, to help each other in and to find ‘Holy Moments’ that we can share with others. God watches over our lives, and my prayer for you is that you see God working for your good in your everyday. Revel in the people you love and the people who love you, the beauty we are surrounded by. Lift your eyes up and think of the good things in your life and work out who needs your help. And I want to give you a question to ponder for this year end…. Does Jesus get tidied away and put back in a box with the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, the Christmas tree and the decorations to gather dust until next year? Or are you prepared to keep him from being ‘put away’? To wonder what a life with Jesus could be like?
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title="Eastwick & Gilston Parish Council in Hertfordshire">
MAY Letter