St Marys Church Redbourn

In this short film about Pentecost, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and others talk about "the big bang of the Church" and its meaning today. It's worth a look.

Christian Aid Week 12–18 May 2013

‘It’s very rewarding to know that Christians of different traditions are working together for one common aim during Christian Aid Week.’ Christian Aid Week volunteer

Thousands of churches will stand together this Christian Aid Week to speak out for change. Some 100,000 committed volunteers will go out and put their faith into action, raising funds to help some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

This includes Britain’s largest house-to-house collection, an extraordinary act of witness – demonstrating to our communities that we care about ending poverty and injustice.

This year’s Christian Aid Week tells the story of how Christian Aid is helping communities to bite back at hunger through the lens of land rights in Bolivia, new technology in Kenya (pictured) and innovative agriculture in Zimbabwe.

You can support Christian Aid Week by looking out for local events, and discover how you can be involved by contacting your local Christian Aid Week representative or by visiting www.caweek.org/article. There is also a special service at St Marys Church, Sunday 12th 6.30pm where you can hear more.

News on our appeal for Tanzania - the villages have bought a truck load of grain with the money we collected, which has been distributed by their local church. Happy faces and full bellies. Thank you for showing God's love to our brothers and sisters in Christ. You can see more photos, and messages from them on the facebook page.

At the time of writing, the sun is actually out and it feels distinctly Spring-like! Whether it lasts, remains to be seen, but warmer weather and lighter evenings certainly do help to lift our spirits. I always think that this is such a hopeful time of year. The cricket season looms (naive optimism?), a whole variety of delightful birds are around and the garden comes alive with potential and life.

I spent last weekend digging over the vegetable patch and planting it up. How much survives after the attentions of a clutch of pigeons for a few hours (before I managed to get some netting over it all), time will tell. But for now, I’m quietly hopeful.

And this hope is echoed in the season of Easter. Many of the stories we hear in church at this time of year are chockfull with reversal of fortune and mood. For those first disciples, seeing Jesus on the cross was a huge failure in their eyes. Everything that they had worked for and been a part of seemed to have been taken from them as their leader Jesus is arrested and led away. And yet in the Easter story and in the weeks that follow, the risen Jesus appears time and time again to them to turn that sense of rejection and failure into new hope. He comes to them in an upper room and doubt turns to faith. He comes to them on the road to Emmaus and turns their lives and journey around. He comes to them as they slink back to their old fishing ways and gives them a vision that they will be part of a much bigger catch.

A fabulous opportunity to meet together to explore the many issues and questions that arise in our lives, that we often never have a chance to discuss.   Come and join in our welcoming and friendly small groups, some meeting in homes, some in communal Village buildings. We never meet during half terms or school holidays.   Spotlight 7,  ‘Together in Breakthrough’  begins the week of 30^th April, meeting on Tuesday mornings and evenings, Wednesday evening, and Thursday evenings  every two weeks. The focus will be on stories from the early Church in ‘The Acts of the Apostles’. If you are interested in the opportunity Spotlight offers or you would like further information please contact Penny McAdam

(For session details & dates please click "read more" if shown.)