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There will be a Crafty Church (St Mary's style) Zoom service at 9:30am on 'the Lord’s Prayer'. This is our first Crafty Church service via Zoom.

The theme is how Jesus taught his Disciples to pray, and the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer. To access click on this Crafty Church link

The activity is available on line – next to the copy of the order of service. There will be a short time within the service for you to work on the activity.

11am Holy Communion (St Martin’s style) on 22 November celebrates Christ the King. To access click on the usual Zoomed services link.

St Mary's annual Civic Service for Remembrance Sunday took place using the usual Zoom link, but it featured a pre-recording of the traditional gathering around the War Memorial at St Mary's Winkfield. This recording required emergency action, because of the Prime Ministers's announcement on 31 October of a new Lockdown starting on Thurday 5/11/20.

So Lesley Philpot put together a full plan, supported by many people, to record the special Remembrance Day activities on Wednesday, the day before Lockdown, to avoid losing the special moments of the occasion. These included the Royal British Legion recitations of the Exhortation and Kohima Epitaph, trumpet calls of the Last Post and Reveille, the two minute silence, the wreath-laying ceremony, and the ringing of muffled Tower Bells.

The actual service on 8 November was on Zoom with readings, prayers, the sermon, but the pre-recording also included music by the Hand Bell Ringers, members of the choir, with organ, to support the Zoom.

Many thanks to all who contributed a huge amount of time, effort and skill to the organisation and execution of the special features of the service. Here are the recorded elements of the service:
Remembrance Sunday Service
The National Anthem
Drop, Drop, Slow Tears
Abide With Me
O God, Our Help in Ages Past

There were no services at St Mary's on 1 November, but this was the occasion for the live and Zoomed Patronal service at St Martins. It was an excellent and well supported service of Holy Communion, taking place in the Church Hall, and was led by Revd Patrick, who gave a very interesting account of the life and work of St Martin of Tours, pioneer of Western monasticism.

The first service on Sunday 25 October was the 8am Holy Communion service, a very good start to the day. This was led by Rev. Patrick Mukholi.

Crafty Church followed at 9:30am with the theme 'The Parable of the Weeds'. When starting the activity the weaving was not as easy as it first appeared!! Children of the congregation read the lessons, played the piano and managed the computer.

The All Souls service was at 11am. Grateful thanks must go to Harvey Lin who took over, at very short notice, as organist. He accompanied the choir for the psalm, canticles and Anthem beautifully, and he thrilled all in the congregation with his playing before the service of the third movement from Bach’s Trio Sonata No. 1. His voluntary at the end of the service was the Finale from Vierne’s Symphony No 1 - a wonderful performance.

Thanks must also go to those who sang so beautifully in the small choir, The anthem 'Be still, for the presence of the Lord' was an excellent choice for this service. The names of those to be remembered were read by Jonathan Hemsley.

After the service the congregation was enthralled with a virtuosic performance by violinist Sarah Aizawa of 'La Folia' by Corelli. Sarah, aged 11, is a fine young violinist who has competed with success in international competitions. Sarah was accompanied by Anthony Hodson.

In this popular service, the children are encouraged to participate in craft activities that help them remember a particular bible truth or story. Usually there are between 6 – 8 activities. Obviously at this time we cannot continue that arrangement so we are trying a new format 'Activity in the Pew'. All youngsters will collect a bag as they enter the church containing all they need for the activity. The service will begin and when it is time for the activity the instructions will be shown on the screen. The themes are:-

• August – Jonah and the Whale
• September – Noah’s Ark
• October – Parable of the Weeds
• November – The Lord’s Prayer
• December - Christmas

Unfortunately it is with great regret that this has been cancelled. Luke Saint who has been one of the organists at St Mary’s for several years was conductor of the Founders Choir of Royal Holloway College and had agreed to a concert at St Mary’s. I was very fortunate and had attended a performance of the choir at Holloway and thought the sound quite magical and Luke an exceedingly polished performer. We hope there may be an opportunity for the choir to perform at St Mary’s later in the year.

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