- Lent – As talked about in the Vicar’s Letter, the season of Lent begins on the 22nd
February with a Service of Holy Communion and the Imposition of ashes. Please come
along. We’ll be holding Lent Reflections in Church on the following Wednesday
evenings at 7.30 pm. Please come along and join with us.
7th March Worshipping God
14th March Being still with God
21st March Knowing God
28th March Sharing God
- The Dedication Of The New Bells – This will take place at a special Service on
Saturday 11th February at 4.00 pm. Join us as we celebrate this new chapter in bell-
ringing life of St Mary’s, Ecclesfield.
- New Time For Early Morning Sunday Communion Service – From Sunday 11th
March the early morning Sunday Communion Service will move from 8.00 am to 8.30
am. This twice-monthly Service lasts about half an hour and uses the traditional Book
of Common Prayer language. If you want to experience a quiet and reflective start to
your Sunday mornings then please come along.
Daniel Hartley
| Bell Dedication Service Saturday 11th February 4.00 pm Guests include previous servicing vicars and clergy. |
The Vicars Letter
How quickly the year moves on!
Christmas-tide is barely finished and I’m writing about Lent. The Church’s year doesn’t
allow us to rest too long with the infant Jesus. Before we know it we’re thinking again of the
journey to the cross. In reality the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus belong together as
one single and decisive action. God sent his Son into the world (Christmas) to die for our sins
(Good Friday) and to be raised in glory (Easter Day).
This year we’ll be marking Lent with our Service of Holy Communion and the Imposition of
Ashes on Ash Wednesday (22nd February), our Lent Reflections (see First Words for details)
and our weekly Lent Lunches – this year on a Friday. These collective acts are the backdrop
against which we, as individuals, can reflect on the nature of Christ’s journey to the cross and
resurrection.
Lent affords us the opportunity for spiritual renewal. It allows us the chance to see beyond
the material concerns that so often hinder our relationship with God. But all of this requires
discipline. A discipline that puts prayer and the reading of the Bible at the heart of our
endeavours. In the busyness of our lives it’s all too easy to forget to attend to our spiritual
development. It’s all too easy to forget to pray and to forget to spend time dwelling with the
written Word of God. Prayer is our primary method of communication with God. If we
neglect communication in any relationship then that relationship quickly turns stale. It’s the
same in our relationship with God. God has communicated with us through sending his Son
into the world and he invites us to respond in prayer. You may be asking yourself “how?”
How do I pray to God? Is he listening? Does he respond? If you’re asking these questions
(who doesn’t) then come along to our opening Lent Reflection on Wednesday 29th February
at 7.30 pm in Church. We’ll be thinking about what it means to pray and reflecting on our
calling to be a prayerful people.
Daniel Hartley
How quickly the year moves on!
Christmas-tide is barely finished and I’m writing about Lent. The Church’s year doesn’t
allow us to rest too long with the infant Jesus. Before we know it we’re thinking again of the
journey to the cross. In reality the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus belong together as
one single and decisive action. God sent his Son into the world (Christmas) to die for our sins
(Good Friday) and to be raised in glory (Easter Day).
This year we’ll be marking Lent with our Service of Holy Communion and the Imposition of
Ashes on Ash Wednesday (22nd February), our Lent Reflections (see First Words for details)
and our weekly Lent Lunches – this year on a Friday. These collective acts are the backdrop
against which we, as individuals, can reflect on the nature of Christ’s journey to the cross and
resurrection.
Lent affords us the opportunity for spiritual renewal. It allows us the chance to see beyond
the material concerns that so often hinder our relationship with God. But all of this requires
discipline. A discipline that puts prayer and the reading of the Bible at the heart of our
endeavours. In the busyness of our lives it’s all too easy to forget to attend to our spiritual
development. It’s all too easy to forget to pray and to forget to spend time dwelling with the
written Word of God. Prayer is our primary method of communication with God. If we
neglect communication in any relationship then that relationship quickly turns stale. It’s the
same in our relationship with God. God has communicated with us through sending his Son
into the world and he invites us to respond in prayer. You may be asking yourself “how?”
How do I pray to God? Is he listening? Does he respond? If you’re asking these questions
(who doesn’t) then come along to our opening Lent Reflection on Wednesday 29th February
at 7.30 pm in Church. We’ll be thinking about what it means to pray and reflecting on our
calling to be a prayerful people.
Daniel Hartley
| Mission Statement. We are here to help people love and worship God. We aim to be, and encourage others to become, committed and active disciples of Jesus, who love God and worship him, who know the power of the Holy Spirit and who show God’s love in every part of their lives. |
E-mail the Webmaster:
| Prayer for the Month |
| Thought for the month |
| Below you will find extracts from this month's Parish Magazine First Words..., A Prayer for the Month & A Thought for the Month |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A Prayer for Lent by Edward Hays May you live these Lenten days not in purple penitential denial but in the joyfulness of the intimate embrace of your Blessed God. May you hear on the Lenten winds your Beloved calling you daily to go apart from your routine time to spend desert time with your God. Then your heart can be freshly aflame with a lover’s delight in your God. May you have a blessed and grace-filled Lenten season so as to be a new person in Christ in alleluia joy on Holy Easter. |
| Legal Stuff: CCL Copyright Licence No 670491 |
| First Words... |
| Links to Charity Websites we support that may be of interest to you. |
| Except where otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. |
|
| Latest Additions Click on the links for more information. |
| Coming to a Service? Click on the Map to open our Find Us - Map page. For Satellite Navigation please use the post code S35 9XY |
| Please consider the environment before printing pages from this website. |
|
Monitor this page |
|
powered by ChangeDetection |
| Next Service Due? Click on the Calendar to view all our Services in monthly calendar form. |
| Search Our Website Use the Search Tool below to search our pages. Results open in current page use your Back button to return to this page. |
| Ecclesfield Parish Church AGM Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Sunday 27th March 2011 at 11.50 am are available to view and print off at this link AGM Reports |
| QR Code Scan Me |
| St Mary's - Ecclesfield is a registered charity The Parochial Church Council of The Ecclesiastical Parish St Marys Ecclesfield Charity Commission Reg. No. 1144309 |
| Ecclesfield Church Bell Ringers cordially invite you to a Service of Dedication for the newly augmented bells in church on Saturday 11th February at 4.00 pm followed by Refreshments and then Open Ringing by visiting Bell Ringers will follow the service. This will be a historical event for Ecclesfield church, and occasion that may never happen again. This has been achieved by the generosity, inspiration and hard work by so many people. From all the Bell Ringers, may we say thank you so much to all who have helped in any way. Ecclesfield Church Tower was awarded a Ringing Centre Status in 2009. This means that the Tower is recognised as being a centre of good practice in the promotion of the teaching of bell ringing. In having a peal of ten bells we now have more scope for teaching new ringers on the lighter bells. If you are interested in learning to ring the bells please come along on Tuesday nights at 7.30 pm or visit www.ecclesfieldtower.org.uk for further details. |