St Mary’s Pastoral Care Team – Doing our best to make a difference.

The St Mary’s Pastoral Care Team was formed in the Spring of 2011. Its purpose is to provide practical and spiritual support to those in need. The team’s objective is to provide pastoral care to everyone at St. Mary’s Church, to the parish family and to reach the whole community. Team members bring their life experiences and learnt skills to the role.

The team will provide a non judgemental listening ear and confidential support. Practical help is available in the form of shopping, letter writing/form filling, walking the dog or calling in for a cup of tea and a chat. Spiritual support is provided through home communion, prayer requests, confession and the laying on of hands with prayer for healing. We always do our best to provide and support what is needed.

The Pastoral Care Team Co-ordinator: Jenny Andrews (Tel:  01621 854360)

Wednesday Welcome

Members of our congregation and people from the wider community meet on the afternoon of the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month.  Come and join us – you will receive a warm welcome.

Servers

The Serving Team is a small group of people who support the Mass every Sunday morning and at festivals. Wehave a Crucifer (who carries the cross) and a Thurifer (who carries the thurible or incense burner) during theservice. It is the job of the servers to attend to the officiating Priest so that he or she has everything they need tohelp them conduct the service such as books, candles, holy water or incense. A server has a very privileged viewof the Church as we are intimately involved in the Act of Worship at the Altar and we regularly handle itemswhich are holy. At the same time it is the job of a server to try to move and act at all times without bringing attention to themselves, so we are both essential but unremarkable to the onlooker.

A number of members of the serving team are also members of the Company of Servers (http://www.companyofservers.org) and we attend three or so events in the Chelmsford diocese each year wherewe celebrate Mass, eat and receive instruction or enjoy a discussion or talk.

The Mothers’ Union

The Mothers’ Union was founded by Mary Sumner in 1876. She was inspired to do this when her daughter, Margaret, herself became a mother, believing that mothers needed a support mechanism in order to avoid feelings of inadequacy. More importantly, she believed that mothers needed support to bring their children up within the love of God.

In 1896, the organisation had grown sufficiently large that a central council was set up with a constitution and a national union. Mary Sumner was the first president. The Mothers’ Union spread rapidly around the British Empire and by 1900 had 170,000 members.

The Mothers’ Union now has 3.6 million members worldwide, all of who continue the work of supporting mothers within the love of God. With so much poverty, strife and hardship around the world, this work is as important now as it was in 1876. The Mothers’ Union is based at Mary Sumner House in Westminster. Visit www.themothersunion.org for more information.

The local branch of the Mothers’ Union meets on the first Wednesday of the month at 2pm in the Octagon of St Mary’s Church.

For more information contact June Davies on (01621) 853295