Our parish is an ancient one in the northern suburbs of Ashford, Kent. The medieval parish church of St. Mary is in the old village, while St. Mary's Community Centre is in the more modern part of the parish.
We hope you will enjoy your visit. Please feel free to contact us for further information about any of our activities.
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Thousands of buildings will be badly affected if government policy to introduce VAT on listed building alterations goes ahead; the Church of England hopes to halt the Chancellor's plans. If you'd like to support the CofE campaign you are urged to sign two e-petitions to reinstate zero rate VAT to alterations to its 12,500 listed churches (here and here.)
Pamela Greener, the Dean of Wakefield's wife, has written and performed a campaigning ditty in Wakefield Cathedral's demolished nave. The YouTube video has been sent to George Osborne's Office and HMRC. Click the arrow below to view:
All men are welcome to our breakfast at St. Mary's Community Centre in Rylands Road, Kennington, Ashford where Mike Wharrad will entertain us! Meet up at 8.15am; suggested donation £3. Click below to download a printable poster advertising all the details:
Is chocolate one of your favourite things? Don't miss this event at St. Mary's Community Centre, Rylands Road! From 3pm we will have a chocolate fountain, chocolate cake stall, chocolate recipes and a raffle with chocolate prizes. Refreshments (hot chocolate and biscuits) and Choc Ices will be available.
A special two course meal with wine, celebration cake and loyal toast on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of HRH Queen Elizabeth II at the new Kennington Scout Hall, jointly organised with Kennington W.I. All tickets for this event have now been sold.
General information about the national Big Lunch is available at www.thebiglunch.com
Kennington Community Forum (KCF) recently planted Kennington's Jubilee oak tree in the Recreation Ground, Ulley Road. The new tree will be dedicated during the Summer Fayre on 30 June. For all the latest keep an eye on www.kenningtoncf.kentparishes.gov.uk!
On Commonwealth Day, for use at Big Jubilee Lunches this summer, a special prayer was announced. The Grace gives thanks for the Queen's life of service and asks for God's blessing on everyone enjoying local Big Jubilee Lunches.
Millions of people throughout the Commonwealth on Sunday, June 3rd will observe Grace before sharing their community's Big Jubilee Lunch. By including words of blessing "on the people beside us", it doesn't assume that everyone will say the prayer. The prayer - which is said in Jesus' name - can be used in part or in its entirety.
The Grace Reads...
O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, we give you thanks for the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth; for her steadfast faith and for her royal service to this nation and all the peoples of the Commonwealth.
Bless the food before us and the people beside us; may the sharing of this meal strengthen our communities, and nurture the bonds between us of friendship, hope and trust.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ who reigns as servant of all.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams says that the ultimate test of the Christian religion is not whether it is useful, beneficial or helpful to the human race but whether or not its central claim - the resurrection of Jesus Christ - actually happened.
Delivering his Easter morning sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Dr Williams said that no other understanding of Easter morning made any sense:
"Easter makes a claim not just about a potentially illuminating set of human activities but about an event in history and its relation to the action of God. Very simply, in the words of this morning's reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we are told that 'God raised Jesus to life.'" Any understanding of the significance of the resurrection which fell short of this truth would be to misunderstand it:
"We are not told that Jesus 'survived death'; we are not told that the story of the empty tomb is a beautiful imaginative creation that offers inspiration to all sorts of people; we are not told that the message of Jesus lives on. We are told that God did something - that is, that this bit of the human record, the things that Peter and John and Mary Magdalene witnessed on Easter morning, is a moment when ... we see through to the ultimate energy behind and within all things. When the universe began, prompted by the will and act of God and maintained in being at every moment by the same will and action, God made it to be a universe in which on a particular Sunday morning in AD33 this will and action would come through the fabric of things and open up an unprecedented possibility - for Jesus and for all of us with him: the possibility of a human life together in which the pouring out of God's Holy Spirit makes possible a degree of reconciled love between us that could not have been imagined ... for the Christian, the basic fact is that this compelling vision is there only because God raised Jesus"
Hostility towards faith and religion in public life might recently have become tempered with an appreciation of the part that religion plays in shaping and sustaining human existence, he says, and this is to be welcomed:
"...there is plenty to suggest that younger people, while still statistically deeply unlikely to be churchgoers, don't have the hostility to faith that one might expect, but at least share some ... sense that there is something here to take seriously - when they have a chance to learn about it. It is about the worst possible moment to downgrade the status and professional excellence of religious education in secondary schools - but that's another sermon..."
Even so, this was not the measure of its real significance:
"Easter raises an extra question, uncomfortable and unavoidable: perhaps 'religion' is more useful than the passing generation of gurus' thought; but is it true?"
The answer was found, not in instant scientific analysis but in a longer measure of the effect of belief in the lives of believers:
"How do we know that it is true? Not by some final knock-down would-be scientific proof, but by the way it works in us through the long story of a whole life and the longer story of the life of the community that believes it. We learn and assimilate its truth by the risk of living it; to those on the edge of it, looking respectfully and wistfully at what it might offer, we can only say, 'you'll learn nothing more by looking; at some point you have to decide whether you want to try to live with it and in it.'"
This he said, led Christians to search for deeper answers in response; exploring far more dangerous intellectual and physical territory in the search for the love of God at work, especially where easy answers are in short supply:
"A visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, will convince you why the state of Israel exists and must go on existing. A visit to any border checkpoint will convince you that the daily harassment and humiliation of Palestinians of all ages and backgrounds cannot be a justifiable or even sustainable price to pay for security. Listening to a rabbi talking about what it is like to witness the gathering up of body parts after a terrorist attack is something that can't be forgotten; neither is listening to a Palestinian whose parent or child has been killed in front of their eyes in a mortar bombing."
That commitment would involve hard conversations:
"If we believe in a God who acts, we have to go beyond this. We have to put immense energy into supporting those on the ground who show that they believe in a God who acts - those who continue, through networks like One Voice and the Bereaved Families Forum, to bring together people from both sides and challenge them to discover empathy and mutual commitment .... We have to prod and nag and encourage the religious leadership in the Holy Land on all sides to speak as if they believed in a God who acts, not only a God who endorses their version of reality. We have to pray, to pray for wisdom and strength and endurance for all who are hungry for peace and justice, pray that people will go on looking for a truly shared future. And we Christians in particular have to look for ways of practically supporting our brothers and sisters there through agencies like the Friends of the Holy Land or the Jerusalem and Middle East Church Association - to help them stay in a context where they feel more and more unwelcome, yet where so many of them remain because they want to play a full part in creating this unimaginable shared future - because they believe in a God who acts."
But even when the contribution faith can make is acknowledged within the secular context, that shouldn't distract from the reality that it is the truth of the resurrection that counts, not its effect:
"When all's said and done about the newly acknowledged social value of religion, we mustn't forget that what we ultimately have to speak about isn't this but God: the God who raised Jesus and, as St Paul repeatedly says, will raise us also with him. Even if every commentator in the country expressed generous appreciation of the Church (and we probably needn't hold our breath...), we'd still be bound to say, 'Thank you - but what matters isn't our usefulness or niceness or whatever: it's God, purposive and active, even - especially - when we are at the end of our resources."
8th April 2012
"Your Grace, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Prince Philip and I are delighted to be with you today to pay tribute to the particular mission of Christianity and the general value of faith in this country.
This gathering is a reminder of how much we owe the nine major religious traditions represented here. They are sources of a rich cultural heritage and have given rise to beautiful sacred objects and holy texts, as we have seen today.
Yet these traditions are also contemporary families of faith. Our religions provide critical guidance for the way we live our lives, and for the way in which we treat each other. Many of the values and ideas we take for granted in this and other countries originate in the ancient wisdom of our traditions. Even the concept of a Jubilee is rooted in the Bible.
Here at Lambeth Palace we should remind ourselves of the significant position of the Church of England in our nation's life. The concept of our established Church is occasionally misunderstood and, I believe, commonly under-appreciated. Its role is not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions. Instead, the Church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country.
It certainly provides an identity and spiritual dimension for its own many adherents. But also, gently and assuredly, the Church of England has created an environment for other faith communities and indeed people of no faith to live freely. Woven into the fabric of this country, the Church has helped to build a better society - more and more in active co-operation for the common good with those of other faiths.
This occasion is thus an opportunity to reflect on the importance of faith in creating and sustaining communities all over the United Kingdom. Faith plays a key role in the identity of many millions of people, providing not only a system of belief but also a sense of belonging. It can act as a spur for social action. Indeed, religious groups have a proud track record of helping those in the greatest need, including the sick, the elderly, the lonely and the disadvantaged. They remind us of the responsibilities we have beyond ourselves.
Your Grace, the presence of your fellow distinguished religious leaders and the objects on display demonstrate how each of these traditions has contributed distinctively to the history and development of the United Kingdom. Prince Philip and I wish to send our good wishes, through you, to each of your communities, in the hope that - with the assurance of the protection of our established Church - you will continue to flourish and display strength and vision in your relations with each other and the rest of society."
Recruitment is now open for Ashford Street Pastors and the Prayer Partner Team. Please e-mail henbreeder@yahoo.co.uk if you are interested. There is also a vacancy for a Street Pastor Coordinator.
A selection of photos taken after Christmas Eve Midnight Mass and before New Year's Eve. Browse the pictures at our Flickr photostream (go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/stmaryskennington/) or click below to enlarge the images. Thanks to Mike Wharrad for his photos.
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A Christmas message from our friends in Madagascar!
"I'm glad to share with St Mary's congregation the program we had during Christmas event. On Christmas vigil, the 24th, at 2.30 in the afternoon, we had 15 children baptised and later on at 7.30pm we had a Holy Communion service followed by a drama played by some young people of All Saints'. It lasted at 11pm. Then on Christmas day I had to run 2 Holy Communion Services, one at St Michael's at 7.30am and the other one at All Saints' at 9.30am. The pupils' christmas party began at 2.30pm and ended only at 6.40pm. 250 pupils alternated on stage. The whole moments were, though tireing, very blessed. I join then some photos of these moments and I hope you'll enjoy them.
With love in Christ.
Revd Steven"
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St. Mary's Church Kennington recently forged new links with a parish in Madagascar! Find and click on Madagascar Link to the left of the page to read all about it.
Robin Britcher - News Editor for Kennington Community Forum and a leading light in the Forum's ongoing Memorial Shelter and Garden Of Remembrance restoration project - has very kindly sent us a recent version of his research into Kennington War Memorial. A few years ago Robin investigated the stories behind all the names on the memorial and held an exhibition in the Church Hall on Remembrance Sunday 2008; a presentation Book is held at St. Mary's Church Kennington. Download and read the copy Robin prepared for Kennington C of E Junior School here. Thanks Robin!
Mike Wharrad writes: "On Sunday 23rd October 75 people attended the Annual Service of Light where we remembered those loved ones who have departed, especially those who have died in the past year. Before inviting everyone to light a candle and place it on the altar, Richard King reminded us that grief must not be rushed, nor must we let it stop our lives. He said that it is important that we recognise the various stages of grief so that we are able to move forward and eventually resume our lives, even though they can never be the same again. We must also remember that God is with us and loves us. He too has felt grief when Jesus mourned the death of his friend Lazarous."
A new Home Group meets on Monday evenings in Burton Road from 8.00pm. Further details from Janet Busk (330121) or Shirley Leslie (624855.)
The first photos of this year's Harvest celebrations at St. Mary's Kennington are in! View Hilary Evers' colourful selection on our Flickr photostream (go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/stmaryskennington/) or click the pictures below to make the individual images bigger...
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Gifts of packets and tins of food received at all services were distributed to Ashford Charities and envelope offerings donated to USPG Anglicans in World Mission Harvest Appeal and Kent Farming.
Earlier this month Bishop Trevor returned to Ashford for the Service of Rededication at our town's renovated St. Mary the Virgin church (click here for map.)
Recent images of the reshaped interior can be found at http://revelationstmarys.tumblr.com/ or by clicking the arrow below to view a short YourKentTV.co.uk report about the renewal of this centre for worship and the arts.
Get the latest information from St. Mary's Ashford sacred space: go to their website (http://www.stmarysashford.org.uk/.) Forthcoming performance events are posted on http://revelationstmarys.com/.
"The Friends of Kent Churches Sponsored Ride and Stride takes place on the second Saturday in September each year. 50% of sponsorship money raised goes to the church or chapel of your choice, with the other 50% going to the Friends, who use it to help the most needy churches and chapels in use in the County."
Visiting 22 churches Mike Paddy, Marianne Hughes, Ted, Methild and friends rode 40 miles and raised £341 - half of which comes to St. Mary's. Thanks to Mike Paddy for photos from Sevington, Bilsington, and Warehorne!
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has launched an appeal for funds to help sustain Christian communities in the Holy Land. "I returned from a visit to the Holy Land last year with a very, very strong sense that we had to do more to express our solidarity with the Christian communities there...We know our brothers and sisters there are suffering; and we don't always ask ourselves often enough what our response needs to be."... "I want to appeal for your support in creating a fund with which we might assist projects of community development and work creation, especially among Palestinian Christians." The rate of emigration from Christian populations in the Holy Land has been growing steadily for a long time. Dr Williams commended to Synod this summer the work of the Friends of the Holy Land, a small ecumenical charity. He hopes that a substantial fund can be established from which regular income could be derived for channeling into simple but effective projects with partners in the Holy Land. Details at: www.friendsoftheholyland.org.uk.
Kennington Summer Fayre
A massive thanks to everyone for making this year's Fayre our best. The Church sold a record number of raffle tickets, beat our previous record for takings on the stalls and had over 50 people helping. After reclaiming tax on some of the takings, the Church will receive just over £2,000 from the event. From those who gave goods to sell, to those who cleaned up at the end and to everyone in between, including those who spent money, we thank you all. A special thank you to Rev. Richard King who received 120 wet sponges thrown at him during a session of twenty minutes in the stocks.
On a lovely July Sunday £156 was raised for church funds from 26 visitors who were treated to an enjoyable tour of our church, followed by cream tea and cakes. Thank you.
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Our church, it is an old church, Built centuries ago; It did not then look quite the same As does the church we know. |
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It had no tower or peal of bells The people there to call, For it was built long, long ago When Kennington was small. |
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Our house, it is an old house, Built centuries ago; It probably looked much the same As does the house we know. |
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But I wonder, oh, I wonder, As I ponder thereupon, Would the families who lived here once To St Mary's Church have gone? |
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Would they have made "a joyful noise" And loved the hymns we sing? - And did they have a Vicar Like the Reverend Richard King? |
| B.J. |
News stories from earlier in the year have moved to the news archive (also accessible from the menu on the left of every page.)
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