Groups
St Mary's Ladies Group
St Mary's Ladies Group was formed in 2013 to give a space for women of all ages both in our church or living in the village and in sympathy with our Christian faith to meet together. We aim to provide support for each other, deepen our faith and enjoy each others company while experiencing visits and talks. More...
Light Lunch Group
Several times each year we meet together for lunch in the church. We open the doors at 12noon where sherry or fruit juice is served while people catch up with friends or make new ones. We then serve a three course lunch, soup, main and dessert followed by tea or coffee.
We follow lunch with a short prayer service, which people find uplifting and helpful. We sing a hymn together, read the Bible and pray for our friends and family. You would be most welcome to join us. Please book a place so we know how many to cater for. Lifts are available. Check Church Calendar for details.
St. Mary's Choir
Our choir has had a busy year, leading the musical side of St. Mary’s worship. We have been asked to sing at weddings and have been honored to be part of many very special funerals, including important members of our church family. We have been working on recruitment and have been pleased to welcome some new singers, including some younger members.
Choirs Practice is on most Tuesday evenings in the Church @ 7pm. Check Church Calendar for details.
Contact Emily emily@renshawkidd.com
St Mary’s Church – Bell Ringers Chartham
Ringing practice is on most Friday evenings from 7.30pm to 9.00pm - visitors are most welcome. Anyone who is interested in taking up this enjoyable past time, please contact us, we will be pleased to ‘show you the ropes’ !
Check Church Calendar for details.
Contact:
bellringing@stmaryschartham.org
Flower Arrangers
We continue with our faithful group of 6 who derive pleasure from creative use of flowers to add to the beauty of this church. We’ve also arranged flowers for weddings if asked and were planning the Flower Festival in August 2020 with a theme, “Pilgrims–Travelling Light”, initiated by this year being the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower - This is now postponed until August 2021. If anyone would like to be involved in, or even take up, flower arranging, please let me know. The creation of something beautiful brings each person joy and relaxation and so is worth considering.
Contact Dee Hickman.
An important part of our life at St. Mary's is meeting regularly to study the Bible and pray together. We have several groups that meet in people's homes around the parish, some meet in the evenings fortnightly, one weekly and one during the day. If you would like to know more, please contact us.
Shalmsford Street Home Group
Twelve of the St Mary’s congregates, have met regularly over the year for fellowship and to study the bible. Our ethos is to support each other with studies led by each member, confident that what is said remains within the group, and understanding that a home group, being dynamic, will change and expand to develop more Home Groups.
Before the Covid19 shutdown we met fortnightly over tea/coffee and biscuits, in a warm environment, to complete the series “Getting the most out of the Sermon on the Mount” by John Stott. From early April, with lock-down, we met weekly by Zoom, to be led by two volunteers from the home group to study a selected daily study from Lectio365*. Over Lent ’21 we followed the study guides for “Living his Story” by Hanna Steele when our obligations for witnessing was emphasized, but complimented with encouragement that we only do this in partnership with the Holy Spirit. In spite of not being able to worship in our church, we contributed to the external nativity and Easter gabion cross, and have led one of the weekly Zoom Compline services each month.
There are positives to relying on Zoom as we have been able to meet for an hour each week over lockdown, which has also enabled two members who recently moved to Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire to join us again for fellowship and friendship. Nevertheless, we look forward to the return of normality to our fortnightly meetings in person.
We begin our home group with prayer and conclude with our prayer diary covering matters of importance to each of us, our church and world events that are impacting our families, our homes, and wider communities.
We invite anyone interested to join us, without commitment, to sample our home group.
Simon Hickman (Mobile 07703843245)
*(Lectio365 can be downloaded from https://www.24-7prayer.com/dailydevotional as a free App)
Wednesday evening home group
We meet in Robin & Bronny's home in Chartham, on The Green, from 7pm until about 9pm.
Our home group is an opportunity to develop friendships, deepen our fellowship and to support and enourage each other. We pray together and share our news. We take time to discover more about the Bible, about Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit. Finally we look to see what this means for us in our daily lives in today's world.
If this
"sounds like you", we would love to welcome you into our group. Just contact Robin or Bronny and we'll be happy to talk about what we do, and you could come one evening to see if our group is what you are looking for.
Contact: Robin & Bronny Slowe