St Annes

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Western Park Open Gardens Weekend.  It was great to see so many people walking around the neighbourhood, exploring beautiful gardens, enjoying cake and ice cream at St Anne’s Hall and taking a couple of plants home for their own garden.  Thank you to those who opened their gardens and the Letchworth Road Neighbourhood Watch for organising the bi-annual event. See you in June 2027!

Last night we held our annual meeting in which we elected four church members to become Parochial Church Council members (PCC). These people will help to lead the church for the next 3 years. Thank you to Paul and Elise who are returning to the PCC to serve again. Welcome to Anita and Elizabeth who have joined the PCC for the first time. We also said ”Thank you” to Alan who is stepping down as Churchwarden to become Churchwarden Emeritus.

Our May Wonderful Walk was a saunter around Western Park, a leisurely stroll so that we could really savour the ‘holy ground’ we were walking on. We stopped to listen to the bird song, admired the dappled sunlight under the canopy of trees and spent some time appreciating, touching and exploring a mighty oak tree.  This tree called ‘Old Major’ is estimated to be over 450 years old, and is a habitat for birds, beasts and beatles of many kinds. Our Wonderful Walk ended with coffee and cake back at St Anne’s Church Hall.

We learned about the story of Ruth and Naomi from the Hebrew Bible at our May Messy Church.   We discovered that Ruth was the many times Great Grannie of Jesus. Activities to help us learn about Ruth included making popcorn, dancing around a May Pole, grinding corn, making models, traveling around an obstacle course.  Rev’d Liz showed us how Jesus was descended from Adam and Eve and from God during our celebration and reminded us with stickers that we are all children of God! Thank you to Sahra our Messy Church Coordinator and everyone who came!

We had a joyful start to the Easter Season with two services in St Anne’s Church.  On Easter Eve, we gathered around the Easter Fire for the beginning of our Easter Vigil, as we remembered all that God has done for us, and renewed our baptism vows.  On Easter Morning, we celebrated Easter by lighting the Easter (Pascal) Candle.  Our children also helped us, by opening the tomb on the Easter Garden (made at Messy Church the afternoon before), lighting the six Lent candles, and helping everyone get a little bit damp, by sprinkling blessed water from the font on all.  HAPPY EASTER!

Our Messy Church families came together on Saturday 19 April to celebrate Easter, from the perspective of the Roman Soldiers who were present at both the cross and the empty tomb.  We made swords and shields from cardboard, made and ate sheep cupcakes, experimented with slime, played hockey and anointed each other with healing oil, to help us to think about different aspects of the Holy Week and Easter Story.  Thank you to Sahra who leads us in worship and everyone who came and got messy!

We held two reflective services on Good Friday, led by the Choir of St Anne’s Church.  Marking Jesus’ ‘last hour’ exploring the ‘seven words of love’, the last seven sayings of Jesus as he hung from the cross.  Later in the evening, the male voices from the choir led us in Compline, the ancient night prayer, prayed by the Catholic and Anglican Church for centuries.  Thank you to the choir for all their preparation and leading us in worship on Good Friday.

Today (13 April) we celebrated Palm Sunday, reenacting Jesus entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and then shared scenes from Jesus’ last 24hours.  Remembering what happened to Jesus on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  As part of the service we also explored prayer stations, reflecting on what Jesus did for us in his death on the cross.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week we have Evening Prayer at 6pm in the Lady Chapel.

On Maundy Thursday you can also join us at 6pm for Holy Communion with Foot Washing.

Rev’d Liz and Rev’d Sharon P. have had a busy fortnight, sharing the Holy Week and Easter story with lots of local school children.  Between them they visited six local schools for Assembly and got the children to help act out the last few days of Jesus’ life.  Riding a donkey into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), sharing bread and wine and washing stinky feet (Maundy Thursday), dieing on the cross and being buried in a cave (Good Friday) and coming back to life again (Easter Sunday).  They also shared how a chocolate Easter egg, is like the empty tomb. Over 300 pupils also walked to St Anne’s Church to learn about the Holy Week and Easter story through hands on activities.  All the children worked really hard and one child said ”that was a good day!” at the end of her visit to church.  If you want to learn more about the Easter Story, join us for Messy Church on Saturday 19 April at 4pm in the Hall.

We had a glorious spring day for our Spring Fair (on 29 March), with plants, james, cakes, chocolate, bric-a-brac and children’s toys all selling like hot cakes! Raising funds to go towards the maintenance of our Community Hall.  Thank you to everyone who attended and spent their money.  Thank you too to everyone who volunteered their time making the event a success.

We had a lovely spring morning for our March Wonderful Walk, with 19 entrepid walkers (plus one dog) exploring the park. Lent was our theme this time, taking inspiration from the daffodils, crocus, primroses and cherry plum blossom, we thought about the practices or rhythms of our own life, that bring us into a better relationship with ourselves, the world around us and God. Do join us on Sunday 20 April (Easter Day) for our next Wonderful Walk.  Meeting at 9.30am at the gates to Western Park.

Moses was our theme for March Messy Church, we learned about the story of the burning bush (around the fire pit), parted the red sea (made of Jelly), made mini Moses’ in Baskets (Jelly Babies, Marshmallow Fluff and Rice Crispies) and had lots of fun! Thank you to everyone who came.  See you next month!

Women and men from across churches West Leicester came together on Friday 7 March for the World Day of Prayer.  This year the prayers were developed by women of the Cook Islands.  Churches represented included St Andrew’s Methodist Church, St Peter’s Catholic Church, St Paul with St Augustine’s Anglican Church and St Anne’s Church.

Anthea and Jean who helped lead the service said; ‘It was a privilege to know that we were praying with women and men across the world, inspired by the faith of Christians in the Cook Islands’.

On Wednesday 5 March, we celebrated Shrove Tuesday (a day late) with the children, parents, grandparents and carers of Pram Club.  A wonderful time was had by all!  Pram Club meets every Wednesday (during term time) in St Anne’s Hall from 9.15am to 11.15am, for babies and children under 5 years old and their grown up!

It was great to host Dr Bike on Saturday 15 February for a free bike fixing drop-in.  Chris and the team fixed over 40 bikes!  Thanks to everyone who came and Leicester City Council for funding the event.

We had fun getting messy at Messy Church on Saturday (15 February) as we explored the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den.  The children particularly enjoyed the sensory play activity and ended up covered in lots of bits of paper!  This activity was designed to encourage the children to bravely explore and see if they could find the lions hidden in their den! Next month we will be learning about the Prophet Moses.  Join us on Saturday 15 March from 4pm.

The church was full of Characters from the Christmas Story this afternoon, as we celebrated our Christmas Eve Crib Service.  A host of heavenly angles proclaimed Jesus’ birth.  The stable included a real dog and a pink bunny rabbit!  Seven Wise Men paid homage to the Son of God.  And we prayed for the children of Gaza and Israel.  Thank you to everyone who attended, acted a part and served mulled wine and mince pies afterwards.  Wishing you a peaceful Christmas from everyone at St Anne’s.

On the last Sunday of Advent we held our traditional Nine Lessons and Carols Service by candlelight.  Many thanks to all who attended, especially St Anne’s Choir and the Tudor Choir, led by Director of Music, Judy and Organist, Patrick, for their beautiful music.  Thanks also to our wonderful readers, especially those representing the wider community and our five children who read the lessons so beautifully.  There will be more opportunities to sing carols at our Crib Service (4pm on Christmas Eve).  Wishing our Western Park community a Merry and Peaceful Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas Messy Church on Saturday 21 December.  We made stars, angels and christingles, played skittles, learned about the Angels in the Christmas Story, sang songs and Christmas Carols and shared a full Christmas meal together.  Thank you to all the Messy Church team who made it possible.  Join us on the 18 January, 4pm, in the Hall for our next Messy Church where we will be discovering all about Adam and Eve!

It was wonderful to welcome Inglehurst Junior School to St Anne’s Church this morning (18 December) for their Christmas Carol Service.  We shared the Christmas story and sang Carols and Christmas songs with gusto!  Well done to all the students for practicing their singing during their singing assemblies.  We had a beautiful morning!