Welcome to St Martin’s Chipping Ongar
with St Peter’s Shelley.
 picture courtesy of
Northcliffe Media, Brentwood Gazette |
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 |
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Recent News
of
People & Events
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Ongar Friends of St Clare Hospice raise £2500!
Mary Love writes …
Once again, the generous folk of Ongar made our collection at the beginning of December something really worth doing. Our sterling band of helpers collected a magnificent £926.46p over the two days – thank you all so much! We are also extremely grateful to Sainsburys for allowing us to collect inside the store at this time of the year and for their continuing support of the Hospice. Thanks also to everyone at Senners Newsagents who let us use their shop as a base and, I understand, even supply a hot beverage to those collecting outside!
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Our ‘Light Up a Life’ service in St. Martin’s was attended this year by 60 people who were there to remember someone special and see the lights officially put on by Patrick Foster, well known in Ongar and who is also a Trustee at the Hospice. It was lovely that another local person, Martyn Pattie of Martyn Pattie Chartered Architects and Designers, generously sponsored the tree this year and we are very grateful to him, Art Nursery who supplied the tree and Central Electrics who loaned us a transformer. Lastly, but by no means least, thanks to everyone who helped with providing refreshments after the service and the men who erected the tree.
Pauline and I last week attended an evening put on by the 10K committee in High Ongar and received a cheque for £500 for the Hospice which was part of the proceeds of the run which took place in early July. As a Group, we are now able to send a cheque for £2,500 to the Hospice – this is the result of the coffee morning, the £500 and various other amounts raised. Well done everyone who has made this possible!
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Community Carol Singing led by St Martin’s Choir Chipping Ongar High Street and Manor Square was lined with hundreds of people on the evening of 2nd December for the lighting of the Christmas Lights organised by the Ongar Town Forum. After the Switch On by “The Only Way is Essex” star Gemma Collins, the Community Carol Singing was led, in the words of the organisers, by the wonderful choir from our own St Martin’s Church. |
Hundreds of people joined in the Community Carol Singing led by members of our Choir
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 | An elf listens to Len, Suzanna, Jean, Mary, Peter & Vivienne |
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The true spirit of Christmas lives on in Ongar! The St Martin’s Church Christmas Bazaar held on 26 November in the Budworth Hall was a great success and once again showed the overwhelming generosity of the people of Ongar despite the current difficult economic times.
Gill Richardson, our Fund-raising Co-ordinator said “I should like to extend a big “thank you” to my fund-raising team, the shops and businesses who displayed posters advertising the event, all the stallholders but especially everyone who came and supported the event. I am delighted to announce that a magnificent total of just over £1000 has been raised and this is being shared with two of the community’s local charities “West Essex Mind” and “Ongar & District Bereavement Service”. The warmth in the Budworth Hall could be felt when entering –the true spirit of Christmas really seemed to surround us and it was lovely to see so many happy smiling faces.”
 |  | Mary with the ever popular raffle | Lynn sold all sorts of things and told visitors
about our church and its activities |  |  | Sarah, Sue and Sally doing a good trade in
home made cakes | Elaine, Sally, Christine, Julia & Pauline were
kept busy serving refreshments |  |  | Vivienne & Nick on the Bottle Stall | Angie with her beautiful hand-made cards |
 | Jean & Elisabeth on the glassware stall |
 | West Essex Mind is affiliated to National Mind and works to support people affected by mental health, and the people around them, on the journey towards recovery. Believing that with the appropriate support everyone has the potential to take steps that will improve their quality of life, the charity aims to achieve this by providing a range of different activities and opportunities. http://www.westessexmind.org.uk/ |  | Ongar & District Bereavement Support Service is a small group of trained volunteers working in Ongar and the surrounding area who help bereaved people deal with their loss. The charity does not charge for its services so rely on donations. http://www.odbss.co.uk/ |
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