|
Welcome to St Martin’s Chipping Ongar with St Peter’s Shelley.
 | Welcome to our Church! We hope you will find all the information you need on our website, whether you are thinking of visiting us, or are already a member of our church community. We strive to create places of Christian faith and worship in our two beautiful church buildings; St Martin’s in Ongar Town Centre which was built nearly 1000 years ago and St Peter’s which was built in Victorian times in the fields beyond Shelley. We love to welcome visitors, tourists and those seeking something more spiritual and if, when you have browsed the website, you would like to find out more, please contact the Rector, whose details appear in our ‘Who's Who’ page |
|
|
|
Quiet Day 2010 On Saturday 14th August, we were very fortunate to have another Parish Quiet Day at the beautiful Diocesan House of Retreat in Pleshey. 
The theme was ‘Rolling Back The Stone’ and Mary Love led 16 of us in a wonderful day of relaxation and meditation.
Using a variety of materials including a picture of Christ by Mary Fleeson and a story called ‘Stoney-Broke’ by Lorna Arthur, Mary helped us to think about our faith – who had acted as ‘shepherd’ to us on our Christian journey? What were the rocks or stones in our lives that were weighing us down or holding us back? Were we being asked to be ‘shepherds’ to others or undertake tasks for God that we thought were too hard? We were invited to look back in our lives to see the times when the seemingly impossible happened and ‘stones were moved’ to help us, or others, through difficult situations.
In between opening worship in the Evelyn Underhill Room, meditation and mid-day prayer in Holy Trinity Church and afternoon Communion in the Chapel there were times of quiet when we were free to relax, reflect, read, use the books or craft materials that Mary had brought with her and, of course, to take advantage of the beautiful gardens while we opened our hearts and minds to God.
A lovely day that started with coffee and biscuits finished with tea and a delicious chocolate cake, with no-one wanting to make a move to go home until Rev’d Susan ordered us off our chairs in order for us to put the room back the way we found it! Thank you Susan for presiding at the Communion service and to Mary, for all of your hard work ensuring that we had a truly special and inspiring day. Vivienne Chant |
Celebration of Lammastide at St. Peter’s Church on 15 August
This is the time when we celebrate the beginning of harvest with new corn and freshly made bread.
The setting of St. Peter’s Church close to the farmyard was very fitting for our service as we saw that the recently empty barn was now being filled to the roof with straw bales.
Our first reading from Deuteronomy reminded us that as far back as 3000 years ago Israel gave thanks to God for the first fruits of all the produce of the land. We praised God in words based on Psalm 65 – a harvest psalm of thanksgiving. We reflected on John’s account of the feeding of the five thousand, how there was enough for all and to spare - and drew lessons on the continuing inequality of sharing and wastefulness of resources in the world today.
Then Evie Jean (with mother Lisa) carried a sheaf of corn – the first fruits of our harvest – and Emily (with mother Suzanna) a home-made fruit loaf up to the altar as an offering to God. We prayed for his blessing on the ingathering of all our crops and on our homes and families and the food we eat.
‘All things come from you, O Lord
and of your own have we given you”
Then each one of us placed a stalk of wheat on the altar thinking as we did so of one thing in our lives for which we are thankful.
The service ended when we prayed for those in need including the prayer requests from the Prayer Tree, the peoples afflicted in flood-struck Pakistan, by the mud-slide in China and the failing crops in Russia.
We shall be celebrating Harvest at St Peter’s on 19 September at 4.00 pm. Do come along!
|
|
Senior Citizens’ Tea On the afternoon of Saturday, 7th August the Social Committee hosted its annual tea in the garden of St. Martin’s Church when over 30 senior citizens enjoyed kind weather, conversation and a Strawberry Cream Tea.  
The guests were offered a variety of sandwiches, home-made cakes and strawberries and cream.
There was a lot of laughter and conversation!
And a very big thank you to Sainsbury plc for their very generous donation towards the tea of strawberries, cream and bunches of flowers, for which, together with the table decorations donated by Gill, a draw was held.
and to 
Susan King and her Social Committee together with their other halves (and Bertram & Martin who help erect/strike the tents) and Julia who generously gave of their time and talents.
|
|
|
