Higham, Holton St Mary, Raydon, Stratford St Mary

Four churches united by God and his people

  • The Rectory
  • Hadleigh Road
  • Raydon
  • Suffolk
  • IP7 5LH

07947 737789
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 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.    

                

Church Services for October 2024

Sunday 6th October:       11am Stratford St Mary
19th Sunday after Trinity   Harvest Festival Communion
                                          
followed by Lunch in Church

Sunday, 13th October:   11am Higham
20th Sunday after Trinity   Harvest Festival Communion
                                          
followed by Lunch
Speaker Graham Miles, Lightwave Rural Chaplain for Suffolk
                                          
5pm Raydon Evensong
                          
Sunday, 20th October:   10am Holton St. Mary 
21st Sunday after Trinity   Parish Communion

Sunday 27th October:   10am Raydon Parish Communion 
Bible Sunday                   9.30 for 10am: Stratford St Mary
                                        Family Hour
 
 (in the Parish Room) 
                                         
                                              

Looking ahead to November

Sunday, 3rd   November: 10am Stratford SM  Parish Communion
All Saints’ Day

Sunday, 10th November: Remembrance Sunday       
Civic Services of Remembrance will be held in all four churches
 in the benefice, beginning at the War Memorials at
10.50am
              

In 2024 the 5th Sundays fall on 31st March (Easter Day), 30th June, 29th September & 29th December and we will be meeting in our churches around the benefice. 

Benefice Churches Open 

All the churches in our benefice are open for visiting every day during daylight hours.


Family Hour in Stratford St Mary 

The next meeting will be on the 27th October. Our usual breakfast of bacon rolls etc will be served from 9.30 am.  Do join us for our informal half-hour service, bible story and kids craft activity. We very much look forward to seeing you.              


The Family Hour Team.

Benefice Bible Study / House Group  

The House Group will resume its monthly meetings on Thursday, 24th October at 2.30pm at the home of Mrs Judith Shanks,  34 Strickmere,
 Stratford St Mary.
 

Subsequent meeting date will be on
 28th November

Prayer pointers for the Benefice

 

We pray our farming communities and especially for farmers affected by the Bluetongue Virus.
We pray for all those who are ill, in pain or in any way unwell, for
those personally known to us and also for: Nicky Bull, Steve Meech, James Stock, Daphne Horrex, Amanda Berry and Penny Watkins. And we pray for the continuing recovery of HM the King and of the Princess of Wales.
Grant to them and to all who are affected by illness, your healing
and wholeness, faith, hope, and the knowledge of your love,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We remember all those who have recently died, among them Tony Ablitt, formerly from Raydon. May they rest in peace and rise in glory. And we pray for all who are nearing the end of the earthly journey and those who watch and wait with them. We hold those who mourn in our prayers. May they be held in God’s love and comforted in their grief
.



Prayer Space for Harvest
 

We believe that the earth is the Lord’s
and all that lives on it;
we believe that living gratefully
and giving generously are marks of faith.
We believe that all humanity should have sufficient food to eat,
and that we must all act now to support
food producers around the world
so that the children of tomorrow
may not be burdened by the mistakes of today.
And so we commit ourselves to think globally,
to trade fairly, to live responsibly,
to love this world as God loves it,
who, in Christ, became part of creation. Amen.
Adapted from Harvesting the World:
A Liturgy for harvest festivals Wild Goose Resource Group
 

SUNDAY SERVICES 

What kind of services?

The 10 a.m. service is usually Common Worship Holy Communion, but we sometimes have baptisms or other events during that service. Every other month the service in Stratford St. Mary is a Morning Praise service.

The evening service in the Benefice may be Choral Evensong, a said Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer with a short sermon or a contemporary reflective Sacred Space. Follow us on Facebook for the latest updates.

10 a.m. and 5 p.m. (October-March) or 6.30 p.m. (April-September) services rotate around the parishes.  In principle, the pattern is as follows (but please note that the schedule may vary - especially in December - depending on special events, so please check individual dates):

1st Sunday    10am Stratford St Mary (SSM) 

2nd Sunday   10am Higham

3rd Sunday    10am Holton St Mary

4th Sunday  10am Raydon + SSM Family Hour with refreshments and activities for children in the Parish Room (green building in the middle of the village).  

Services on 5th Sundays move around the benefice.

Sometimes we make changes to our usual pattern for special services or visiting speakers. and we will advertise those as far in advance as possible.



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