HOLMBURY
ST MARY
At St Mary's this week
Sunday 25 July
10.00 Holy Communion (sung)
Hurrah! EVERYBODY can sing!!
The church is open every day for private prayer and reflection.
Please read the CV19 Risk Assessment and Mitigations for St Mary's Church HERE
EcoChurch Awards
St Mary's has been awarded BRONZE
A message from Revd David Grundy,
Associate Minister
Dear Friends,
A warm welcome to this website, whether you’re here for the first time or visit regularly. We’re delighted that you’ve found us.
Many churches are closed for worship at the moment, and whilst we are open every day for private prayer and on Sundays at 10am for worship, many people still prefer to access the online service which we post each week, which is a complete service with hymns, a sermon, readings, a blessing, an introduction and prayers. The website is also designed to give you an idea of other aspects of the church’s life such as Eco Church, Prayer and Meditation (Christian Mindfulness sessions), Spiritual Refreshment, and there is also a Community Noticeboard, with online access to the Parish News magazine.
Above all, we hope that in these pages you find something of Jesus himself, the centre of our faith, and the one who longs for us to be in relationship with him, and who welcomes us with open arms. Please get in touch, if you’d like, whether it is to find out more, to ask for prayer or simply to introduce yourself.
And in the meantime, we hope you stay safe and well, and enjoy the website.
With very best wishes,
David
tel. 01306 731142
REFLECTION
by Hilary Swift
What’s in a name?
I love finding out what people’s names mean and when we were deciding on names for our children the meaning was very important to me. Our eldest is Susannah, which means ‘city of lilies’, she is a designer and lilies often figure in her designs; Emily is our middle daughter and is a teacher – her name means ‘industrious one’ and Daisy, our youngest, works for a music organisation and loves performing, her name means ‘eye of the sun’.
I’m also very interested in finding out about the meaning of words in the original language of the Bible. My name in Greek is Hilaros and the only time this word appears in the Bible is in 2 Corinthians 9:7: ‘Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’ I love the idea of being a ‘cheerful giver’. To be generous is one thing, but to be cheerful when you give is not always easy, especially when giving money or time that is scarce or hard-earned.
The great 19th century preacher, Charles Spurgeon said in his sermon on this verse: ‘What the church wants nowadays is more of cheerful, whole-hearted service.’ He describes how all of nature is created to give generously within creation: ‘All the rivers run into the sea, the sea feeds the clouds, the clouds empty out their treasures, the earth gives back the rain in fertility, and so it is an endless chain of giving generosity. Generosity reigns supreme in nature.’ But, he says, not so with us humans: ‘[Man] is not fit for this world at all. He has not realised the motion of the spheres. He keeps not step with the march of the ages. He is out of date; he is out of place; he is out of God’s order altogether. But the cheerful giver is marching to the music of the spheres. He is in order with God’s great natural laws, and God therefore loveth him, since he sees his own work in him’.
I pray that the Holy Spirit will help me to walk in step with God’s order, to ‘march with the music of the spheres,’ to do my best to live up to my name.
Dear Lord, thank you that you know our names and we are precious to you. You have designed each of us to give something different, something unique to us, to be part of an ‘endless chain of generosity’. Help us to be cheerful givers in all that we do and say. AMEN
“God is light; In him there is no darkness...”
[1 John 1:5]
St Mary's, the parish church of Holmbury St Mary, is a beautiful place to seek & know God.
Holmbury church is not, though, just a building; it is a community of worshippers who are here to serve each other, the Holmbury parish and the world beyond in witness to the Christian faith.
St Mary's offers friendship, fellowship and support throughout the village and further afield, not just for those who come to services but for everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation and belief.
If you would like to find out more or speak to someone in confidence, please contact
Revd. David Grundy on 01306 731142 or at
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“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.”
[Matthew 7:7]
