Welcome to St Marys

We warmly invite you to join us at St Mary's. You will be struck by the diversity of our community, which is a rich mixture of people of all ages, cultures and from different walks of life. The church is fully inclusive and no matter what your background, history or current understanding of the Christian faith, you are warmly invited. The best way to get to know us is to join us on Sunday at one of our meetings or turn up to any of the activities going on.

A copy of the Parish Profile is available for you to download. It contains lots of useful information about St Mary's and the associated Parish.

  What's been going on here?

From November 1st – 5th, for five days, we opened the church building from 6.30 am – 8.00 pm, we moved furniture, we set up different places or stations in the building for people to come and pray.. stations for giving thanks and praise, for seeking forgiveness, for prayer for others, for adoration. We used the whole building so you could light a candle in the chancel, use a labyrinth on one side the church have coffee at the end of the building many people came in, from the church family and from the community. Many young children came and brought their parents. We had silence. We have activities for children and for adults, we had focused times of prayer we had loud and wonderful praise, we had beautiful and contemplative Taize. We loved opening our building and will do it again. Many who came found peace, asked questions about God, prayed for others, remembered their links here from many years ago, ran around the church making it their own.

This is your church, come and use it when ever you can to pray, to seek God, to talk, to be still and to find rest.

For it is when we stop, when we are still and focus on God that we are most likely to find the refreshment that makes us buzz. When we hear sounds afresh, when we look and see people and the environment surrounding us in more detail, we realise that we have become caught and wrapped up in our ways of making life have some kind of meaning. We need God’s focus on life.

Jesus came as a baby and broke into these worlds we make up and inhabit. Even as a baby he caused us to stop and be still to listen and to see.. at the time it was the impoverished shepherds on the hillsides who stopped in their tracks, startled by the sight and sound of angels proclaiming the birth of God’s son, Jesus. They left heir work and went to see him, and were ‘still’ as they looked and touched and listened to this tiny but remarkable new king..  the wealthy Wise men took a sabbatical to travel through Asia, deploying their best Sat Nav skills (a star) to find the same baby, and with all their wealth and finery they bowed in stillness and silence before him, as they touched in reverence this king at his birth.

When Jesus opened his arms on the cross to die for us some thirty years later it was so that we could find his peace in the midst of the lives we all lead. When we open up our hearts to see and hear him we are stilled and we are changed.  

Have you listened to him recently? Ever? Would you like to?

This Christmas make it your prayer to say ‘Come Lord Jesus and lead me, guide me, speak to me today.’

Come and find some space this Christmas at St Mary’s Canning Road. It would be good to meet you.

God bless you and give you a very happy Christmas.