St Marys was pleased to host group of twenty-four adults and young people, together with their supporters, who were confirmed by The Bishop Of Hertford on Sunday evening. The service, led by Bishop Paul, was a joint confirmation service with St Nicholas, Harpenden and took the theme of individuals standing up as Christians. St Marys was packed for the service and afterwards there were refreshments, photographs and of course a cake. The Bishop was also seen helping with the washing up!

More photographs can be seen below. Congratulations to all the candidates.

St Marys looked truely amazing for the Flower Festival this weekend. It was very difficult to capture the quality of the flowers, but here are a few images.

Click here for a slide show

We’re approaching a time of year when many will be looking forward to some kind of holiday. It might be a school holiday, a visit to friends or family further afield or a full scale trip overseas to somewhere exotic. As a family, we’re off to Crete for a couple of weeks and I’m really looking forward to it. In fact, we went to the same place last year and it was so perfect that we’re lucky enough to be able to go back. It just ticks all the boxes – a small and friendly complex of apartments, great pool, mezé lunches, a stone’s throw to the beach and a short walk to the town. But in going there, I know how fortunate we are to have such a break. It wasn’t so long ago that holidays were not this sort of thing at all. The root of the word ‘holiday’ is of course ‘holy-day’ and most people would have had Christmas Day, Good Friday, Ascension Day and possibly a few other days as time off work in order to be able to go to church. This, of course, implies that the rest of the year they would be working solidly.