Sharing God’s Love

This morning (Sunday 3 May) the intrepid Wonderful Walkers gathered in Western Park at 5am for a Dawn Chorus Walk!

International Dawn Chorus Day encourages us to get up before dawn to listen symphony of song performed by birds looking for love, and to defend their patch. As Christians we also believe that all creation worships God, so we enjoyed being part of natures worship this morning.

The bird song we heard included bluetits, song thrush, robin, blackbird, wood pigeon, black cap, chaffinch, chiff chaff, crows and magpie.  We also heard a woodpecker, doing just that, pecking on wood.

#DawnChorusClub

Our next Wonderful Walk is on Sunday 17 May, 9.30am meeting at the main gate, Western Park.

Rev’d Liz Wilson has recorded a podcast!

Rev’d Liz was a guest in the Methodist Church’s ‘Politics in the Pulpit’ podcast, organised by their Joint Public Issues Team. This is a lectionary based preaching resource, designed to ask the provocative question of how politics could appear in our preaching each week.

During the podcast, Rev’d Liz spoke with Thomas (from the Methodist Church) and Roo from the (United Reform Church) on the Lectionary readings for Sunday 26th April 2026.

If you would like to listen to the podcast you can find it here – https://open.spotify.com/show/3H8jaxOmFHvf3if7q8dYkm?si=OTo_Ju8ATeGPGXYP7GFo6Q

To read Rev’d Liz’s sermon inspired by participating in the podcast, go to our sermon archive.

On Sunday 15 February we celebrated Margaret Gillespie’s retirement from 30 years of Reader Ministry, reflecting on how Jesus’ transfiguration (the reading for the day) at the top of the mountain was an opportunity to look back over the highs and lows of her ministry. Giving thanks to God for how he had worked through Margaret serving our Benefice and to pray for Margaret as she enjoys worshiping with us ‘from the pews’.

During the service we prayed for Margaret, gave her gifts including flowers and a card, and celebrated after the service with coffee and cake.

Thank you Margaret for all your years of dedication to St Anne’s Church.

On Tuesday afternoon (9th December) the Mothers Union gathered to celebrate Christmas.  Following some Christmassy poems, we welcomed Paulette as our newest member.  Then we retold the Christmas story using nativity sets we brought in from home, singing carols, and remembering what God has done for us, through the birth of Jesus.  Thank you to Margaret and Sheila, our Co-Chairs and the entire MU committee for leading us through another year of MU meetings, events and fundraising activities.

Reader Margaret Gillespie is to retire!

Our Reader Margaret Gillespie is to retire after 30 years in ministry. Margaret has served the parishes of St Anne, St Paul with St Augustine and St Margaret’s for over 25 years.  During this time she has preached hundreds of sermons, led countless funerals, taught thousands of school children about her Christian faith, and served her three churches in a variety of different ways.

While we will miss Margaret’s Reader ministry, she will continue as co-Chair of the Mothers’ Union and will keep praying and supporting our work from the pews.

We will be having a celebration of Margaret’s ministry in February 2026.

Thank you Margaret for your faithful years of service.

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.

Yesterday (4 December) Wednesday Club enjoyed their annual Christmas Celebration. Friends old and new shared food, friendship and a glass of festive cheer together.  There were even a few early Christmas Jumpers on show!  Thank you to Lesley, Hillary and all who volunteer at Wednesday Club, who make each meeting so special. We look forward to seeing you in 2025!

On Thursday 28 November Rev’d Liz and John Andrews (one of our lay ministers) attended a Bishop’s Study Day at St Martin’s House.  These take place twice a year. They are are an opportunity for lay ministers and clergy to come together from across the Diocese to learn from each other.  Our subject this time was Growing Faith and we were joined by pupils, teachers and school leaders. We learned about how we can support children learning about God in the school, with their family and in their church.  It was a great day and we enjoyed it!

We visited our new community allotment. We explored the site, put up bird feeders, bug hotels, and said a big ‘Thank you’ prayer to God.

We celebrated Mothering Sunday by exploring family trees, and shared what it means to be a church family, and made a church family tree.

We have been harvesting at our new community allotment. We planted raspberries, sowed seeds, pulled rhubarb, and inspected the potato bed!