Last month, I wrote about the coming year and the opportunities it will offer us to mark some very key sporting and social occasions.  One of the most important events will be the celebrations in early June to mark The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Sixty years is a huge length of time to serve this country and its people, and is second only in length to the reign of Queen Victoria which lasted almost 64 years.  In that time, Her Majesty the Queen has given unstinting and exemplary service to people close to home and oversees, and taken a keen and active interest in political developments, the work of many charities, music and the arts, the affairs of the Church, wildlife and nature and, of course, her beloved horse racing!  There is much to be grateful for and to celebrate.

On Sunday 3rd June we invite you to come and be a part of some very special celebrations, where the memories will live long:

Too often Lent can feel like a time of sombre introspection and becomes dominated by ‘giving things up’. At St Mary’s, we prefer to use this season creatively to re-invigorate and deepen our faith in God through a wide selection of courses and discussion groups.  Each is a stand-alone series; in fact each talk does not rely on being at the previous one so come to whatever you can as we discuss and share these things together.

Have a look at our Lent page where you can see the series we are running and download a leaflet.

Some young people from the parish - and some that were more young at heart - had a great trip to Fellowship Afloat last weekend. We enjoyed a very busy weekend of team games, cake, archery, cake, and a trip out on to the Blackwater estuary, some more cake, and some great music and a bit of Rockclimbing!. Everyone seems to have had a really great weekend and our thanks go to the Fellowship Afloat staff for looking after us and the St Marys leaders for organizing it all. 

A few pictures are below but a much bigger collection will be shown to the Gospellers at the meeting on the 25th September. - See you then!

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.