Services in the 4 Marys Benefice
Please check our Facebook pages for any updates or email if you would
like to receive occasional updates by email.
Benefice Churches Open
All the churches in our benefice are open for visiting every day during daylight hours.
Church Services for January
Sunday, 4th January:
Epiphany
10am Stratford Morning Praise
Sunday, 11th January:
10am Holton Plough Sunday
Join us for the traditional festival of
Plough Sunday with blessing of a tractor. Please note this month we’ll be in Holton
for the second Sunday and in Higham next week!
Sunday, 18th January:
10am Higham Parish Communion
9.30am Stratford Café Church in the
Parish Room
Sunday, 25th January:
10am Raydon Parish Communion
Church Services for February
Sunday 1st February:
Candlemas
10am
Stratford SM Parish Communion
Sunday,
8h February:
2nd Sunday before Lent
10am Higham Parish Communion
Sunday, 15th February:
Sunday next before Lent
10am Holton Parish Communion
9.30am Stratford St Mary Café Church
in the Parish Room
Wednesday, 18th February:
Ash Wednesday
10am Higham Ash Wednesday Service
A service with Communion and imposition
of
ashes for the beginning of Lent
Sunday 22nd February:
1st Sunday of Lent
10am Raydon Parish Communion
Looking ahead to March
Sunday 1st
March:
2nd Sunday of Lent
10am
Stratford Morning Worship
Sunday,
8th March:
3rd Sunday of Lent
10am Higham Parish Communion
All our services are followed by coffee
& cake / biscuits.
Do stay for fellowship and a chat. It’s a good way to
meet people if you are new to one of the villages.
If you have any questions, please get in
touch
with Rev’d Manette or one of the churchwardens –
for contact details, see About Us
Benefice Bible Study / House Group
The House Group had a break in December and our first meeting in 2026 will be on Thursday, 22nd January 2026 at 2.30pm.
These are the dates for
subsequent meetings for your diaries:
26th February,
26th March & 23rd April
Please get in touch
with Judith, Sandy, Christine if you would
like to know more.
Prayer pointers for the Benefice
We
pray for all those who are ill, unwell or struggling, among them Nicky
Bull, Amanda Berry, Peter Snelling and Vivienne Wilkinson, and any others known
to us who need God’s healing and wholeness.
We remember all those who have died. May they
rest in peace and rise in glory. And we pray for all who mourn, may they be
held in God’s love and comforted in their grief.
Prayer for the New Year
When the
song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
By Howard Thurman
From ‘The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations’
- The Rectory
- Hadleigh Road
- Raydon
- Suffolk
- IP7 5LH
07947 737789
Email Us