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Sunday 10 September - Bell Sunday at St Mary's church

Holy Communion at 8am was the first service at St Mary’s on 10 September, the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, a wonderful start to the day.

The Tower Bells welcomed all to the 10am Family Matins service celebrating Bell Sunday. Ten children performed the readings and prayers during the service, and all referred to bells and ringing. Two new bell hymns were sung - 'Ring ye bells your songs to heaven' and 'We who ring the bells of churches', both to well known tunes.

Once the readings and hymns were over, the attention turned to the Bell Ringers. The hand bell ringers rang Belfry Praise, and then Tony Bish, the Tower Captain, asked certain ringers from both the Tower bells and the hand bells to tell the congregation about why they joined the groups, and how much they enjoyed ringing. Then the Tower bell demonstrated change ringing using the hand bells. They demonstrated the procedure twice before asking members of the congregation to join them and try the procedure themselves. All worked very well. Anthony Hodson played improvisations on Belfry Praise before the service, and ended it with Belfrey Page amd then Bach's little prelude BWV 885 with its bell-like arpeggios.

Many of the children and parents went up the Tower. A glorious morning.

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Sunday 3 September - Patronal Communion service at St Mary's church

The Tower bell ringers welcomed all to St Mary’s Patronal Service, in celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary led by Rev. Patrick Mukholi on 3 September. The service began with all singing 'The Lord’s my shepherd' (Brother James’ Air), which was followed by the Hand Bell Ringers ringing 'The Bells of St Mary’s'. The psalm 150 was sung to a chant by Stopford and the Communion setting was also Stopford. The choir communion music was 'Fairest Lord Jesus' and 'Loving Shepherd of thy Sheep' – tune Northampton. Once again several of our extra singers joined for this service. Members of the congregations of both St Martin’s and St Peter’s also attended the service. The organist Luke Saint, once again accompanied magnificently and ended the service with a rousing voluntary.

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Sunday 27 August at St Mary's church

Sunday 27 August was the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. The fourth Sunday 9:30am service in August is Family Praise rather than Crafty Church and the story this week was Daniel in the Lion’s Den. As usual the children read the Bible passages and prayers. The Lord’s Prayer was sung with much enthusiasm.

At 11am the service was Choral Matins led by John Kimbell. The service began with an Introit - Farrant’s 'Lord for thy tender mercies’ sake' sung by the choir, followed by all in the congregation singing the first hymn “Ye that know the Lord is gracious”. The canticles were the Te Deum (part 3) and the Jubilate. The choir anthem was 'O Jesus every moment' by Stopford. We were joined by several of our excellent extra singers, which was wonderful: we are so grateful to them. Luke Saint played the organ superbly.

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Sunday 20 August at St Mary's church

Sunday 20 August, the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, began with the 9:30am Family Praise service. This service told the story of the Prodigal Son. As usual the children in the congregation read excellently the bible passages and prayers. The Tower Bells welcomed all to the 11am Holy Communion service led by Canon Bernard Dagnall.

After the first hymn, the Hand bell Ringers rang 'In an English Country Garden', and after the 10 Commandments the choir sang the Kyrie from St Anne’s Mass by Sir James MacMillan. The service continued with another performance from the Hand Bell Ringers, 'The Floral Dance' and the communion hymn sung by the choir was Praise we now the word of grace.

Just before the end of the service the congregation was informed during the notices that Canon Dagnall had had his birthday the day before he visited, and so we all sang Happy Birthday. It was a wonderful service and a great joy to see Canon Dagnall again. Josh Tuffley ended the service with a glorious voluntary.

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