Church opening – suspended on Government Advice Dated 23/3/2020

St Mary’s Church will remain open for prayer each day, approximately 9am-5pm, and all are welcome. We have such a huge church building, that many people can pray in peace, whilst also ensuring that they are self-isolating!  Online resources are available via: https://www.stmaryshorsham.org.uk/index.php/home-resources/

St Margaret’s Warnham – Our church will be open from 9am to dusk every day and warmly welcomes anyone who would like to enjoy the beautiful space. Some prayer resources will be available.

St. Johns Catholic Church in Springfield Road will remain open throughout this time of concern from 9.00am until at least 6.00pm each and every day Monday to Sunday inclusive to provide a sanctuary of peace and calm to all people of whatever denomination and none.

Holy Trinity Church, Rushams Road will be open from Monday 23rd March for individuals to pray in from 10am until 4pm. At 4pm each day the church bell will be rung and anyone who hears it is invited to stop for a few moments and pray for the workers of the NHS, for all those isolating and for those infected with coronavirus.

Lifespring will be Live Streaming a Sunday morning meeting from our offices in Southwater – this will be available for anyone to join and watch, not just for individuals of Lifespring. https://wearelifespring.church/live It is due to start at 10.30am

St. Mark’s Church, Holbrook – every Sunday morning we will post on the church website (accessed via “online service” tab on home page http://www.stmarksholbrook.org.uk/ ) a service order for that Sunday, a video in 3 parts of the spoken part of the service recorded in church which will include the confession, readings, a sermon and intercessions, and videos for the songs in the service order to facilitate singing! Via the service video Rev. Richard will give instructions for when to play the hymn videos. The “online service” tab will go live early on Sunday morning. Our sermon library is also on the website (see http://www.stmarksholbrook.org.uk/services–audio-talks.html ) – every one of our talks is a part of a sermon series and you will find a huge number of sermons there to hopefully continue to feed you at home.

National Day of Prayer & Action being called for this Sunday 22nd March

The full statement is available below, and can be viewed online at www.cte.org.uk/calltoprayer

This Mothering Sunday, 22nd March, we are calling all churches to a National Day of Prayer and Action. At such a time as this, when so many are fearful and there is great uncertainty, we are reminded of our dependence on our loving Heavenly Father and the future that he holds.

At 7pm this Sunday, light a candle in the windows of your homes as a visible symbol of the light of life, Jesus Christ, our source and hope in prayer.

Whether you are continuing to worship as congregations or not, we have the great privilege and freedom to be able to call upon God, wherever we are, individually and corporately, for healing in our nation. We would pray for all in leadership at this time, making decisions about the containment of the COVID-19 virus, for those working in health and social care, and especially for the most vulnerable, whether elderly or those with underlying health conditions.

There are already stories being told of wonderful acts of kindness across neighbourhoods. Alongside your prayers, take the opportunity to telephone or email someone who is isolated, buy some additional food for your local foodbank, or offer to deliver shopping for an elderly neighbour. We may not be able to touch physically, but we can make connections in so many other ways.

In the meantime, do please attend to all the government health advice that will be issued, and look out for resources from your specific church governing bodies. At least for those of us in the global North, we do seem to be in unusual times, and wisdom and flexibility about worship gatherings are a key part of our Christian discipleship during this period.

We note that this call to prayer and action comes on Mothering Sunday: a time of thankfulness, remembering especially mothers who have served us, often in very costly ways. It is also a very mixed day for many. For some the remembrance is painful, and for others Mothering Sunday is a reminder of disappointment or loss. In many ways, this period under the shadow of the coronavirus will be prompting similarly diverse reactions and so it seems especially appropriate that the call to prayer is made this Sunday. At this time of uncertainty join in with the National Day of Prayer and Action, lighting a candle of hope.

“Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” 1 Peter 5:7

Please help at Horsham Matters

Horsham Matters Office is under huge pressure dealing with requests for help.  Could we put out a plea to Horsham Parish – is there anyone with social work / admin experience and is not in an at risk group who could help in the office for 2 months or so – full time, part time, paid, voluntary.
Please contact Emma, the General Manager :
emma.elnaugh@horsham-matters.org.uk   0300 124 0204

 

Welcome to Rev’d Lisa Barnett – our new incumbent!

The Churchwardens are very pleased and delighted to welcome The Reverend Canon Lisa Barnett as the new Team Rector of the Horsham Team Ministry.

Lisa joins us from Scaynes Hill where she was the Vicar of St. Augustine’s Church.
She was licensed in St. Mary’s Church on Thursday 6th February.

To find out a little more about Lisa, please click here: Revd Lisa Barnett 2019 biography.

Here is a photo from the licensing service held on 6th Feb:

Reverse Advent Calendar

St. Mary’s Growing As Disciples team invited all the church family to participate in a Reverse Advent Calendar throughout Advent 2019.

Rather than opening a window to take something (like a piece of chocolate) each day, a Reverse Advent Calendar encourages giving something each day, reminds us to say thank you to God for all we have each day and helps people in our community who need it.

We had chosen Horsham District Foodbank to support, we designed an A3 Nativity picture with prayer stickers for each day and suggested a daily prayer of thankfulness for each day as well as suggested items to donate. The office team produced many ‘reverse calendar packs’ ready to collect from church at the end of November.

 

Over 50 generously filled boxes were received back in church at Epiphany along with many comments about how engaging the task had been. Volunteers from the Horsham District Foodbank kindly came to collect the donations, which would be sorted in the warehouse and distributed to families within days.

 

A huge thanks to all those who took part! Please let us know if you would like to do something similar next year.

Growing as disciples team , Jan 2020

 

 

 

 

Rev’d Canon Lisa Barnett is Appointed Team Rector, Horsham Team Ministry

The Churchwardens are very pleased and delighted to announce the appointment of The Reverend Canon Lisa Barnett to be the new Team Rector of the Horsham Team Ministry.

Lisa joins us from Scaynes Hill where she is currently the Vicar of St. Augustine’s Church.  She will be licensed in St. Mary’s Church on Thursday 6th February at 7.30pm.

To find out a little more about Lisa, please click here: Revd Lisa Barnett 2019 biography

Horsham Team Ministry is advertising for our new Vicar

Welcome to Horsham!

Find out what we have to offer a new Vicar and the sort of person we are looking for here: Horsham Parish Profile.

Lee Buck joins Horsham Parish as our Parish Youth Work Enabler

Lee became the Parish Youth Work enabler in May 2019. Lee has been involved in Youth Work for 10 years. Lee struggled as a teenager with school and home life. This led him wanting to help teenagers and become a Youth worker. Lee found his faith in his early 20’s. Lee felt a calling to use his passion for Youth and Christ to become a Christian youth Leader. Using both of his passions Lee can get alongside young people and help show how important God can be in their lives. Lee loves to spend time with his children. He enjoys socialising and watching tv series.

When are we getting a new Vicar? – update June 2019

Latest news – 

Following our recent PCC meeting we will very soon be advertising for our new Vicar. 

In the meantime, here is our Parish Profile: Horsham Parish Profile

More details will follow very shortly.

 

Following the Horsham Parish review, and the decision for St. John’s Church in Broadbridge Heath to become a separate Parish, we are now looking to move forward with the appointment process for a new Vicar for St. Mary’s.  It is still early days, but progress is starting to be made.

Over the coming month we will be finalizing our Parish Profile and awaiting a decision from the Bishop that we can go ahead and start the formal appointment process.

Watch this space!

When are we getting a new Vicar?

As many people have been asking us, “when will we be getting a new vicar?”, we thought that we must let you know what is happening behind the scenes.

Bishop Martin has asked for a Parish Review to take place.  This will be conducted by Archdeacon Fiona and will happen in February and March 2019.

The Parish review is expected to look at the current set up of the Team Parish of Horsham which is currently made up of four churches: St. Leonard’s, Holy Trinity, St. John’s and St. Mary’s.

Any suggested changes from the review would then be considered by our parish Parochial Church Council before recommending a way forward. Currently our four churches work together and support each other in many different ways and we are blessed by our close working partnership. As far as we are aware there is no desire from any of the Churches in the team to break away.  We have been told that a Parish Review is standard practice in the Diocese when a vacancy like ours arises.

As to our new vicar, well no appointment process can really be started until the Parish review is concluded.  For the time being we are pleased to welcome Bernard Sinton who the Bishop has appointed as Interim Rector.

We will continue to let you know what is happening as and when we know.

Your Churchwardens

Nigel, Steve, Liz and Morag

During the current interregnum at St Mary’s, Bishop Martin has asked Revd Bernard Sinton to act as Interim Rector during the vacancy. Bernard has worked in the Parish since 1990 and was our first SSM (Self Supporting Minister).  He is based at Holy Trinity Church.  Since retiring from a full time secular job, he has acted as Interim Minister during vacancies in Warnham, West Grinstead and Partridge Green and has just finished at Sullington and Thakeham with Warminghurst.  Bernard’s wife is the vicar of Shipley.  Bernard can be contacted via the St Mary’s church office or via our contact form: Contact Us.