This is the website for the mission and ministry of Manningtree Benefice: St. Mary & St. Michael' Church, Mistley with Manningtree and St. Lawrence's Church, Bradfield, including service, group and event information, contact details, media, and information about Mistley Church Hall (Mistley Institute).
We're working towards making this our main website, so please forgive any slight maintenance issues we might have in the next few weeks. If you can't access the information that you need, or you can't find it, do contact the Church Office on info@manningtreebenefice.co.uk or 01206 392200.
I know you're probably all too busy reading up the best pancake recipes and trying to decide on lemon and sugar vs something more edgy (chocolate spread? You rebel) but don't forget that the whole reason for pancake day is that Lent starts tomorrow.
To mark the occasion, rather than forcing the newest member of the clergy to make a pancake on live television (though we SHOULD do that...note to self), we will be holding a service for Ash Wednesday, Wednesday 10 February, 9.30am at Bradfield Church. This traditional-style service will include the opportunity to be marked with ash, starting this season of reflection and rededication the way we mean to go on!
If you have any traditions, books you read, things you give up, things you take up, things you try through Lent, please leave them in the comments here! You might really help someone else with a great idea for these next 40 days.
This Sunday we have our services of Carols by Candlelight. They'll be at 4.00pm at Bradfield (along with our Methodist friends!) and 6.00pm at Mistley.
Please note that Mistley's service particularly will be mainly candlelit, including the use of hand-held candles. If you would feel safer not holding a candle, please bring a torch instead!
But that's not all: oh no! Christmas starts with Christ, and definitely does not end with our carol services. Please come along to our services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Take a break from all the rest of the festivities to remember what it's really about.
Our Crib Services (3pm, Christmas Eve at both Mistley AND Bradfield) are suitable for all-ages, retelling the Christmas story along with songs, a craft, and a biscuit on the way out.
Our Christmas Communion (11pm, Christmas Eve at Mistley) is a formal-style late night service.
On Christmas Day, we'll be joining together (10.30am at Bradfield) for a Christmas Family Celebration with Communion.
Please do join us for any and all of the services to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Following Christmas, there will also be a joint service of Family Christmas Communion, Sunday 27 December, 10.30am at Mistley, but no normal early 8am service of Communion.
Come along to Mistley, 10.30am on Sunday 22 November for Cafe Church, where we'll enjoy each other's company along with food and drink (bacon and veggie sausage sandwiches...), our usual children's programme, film-clips, music to listen to, images to think about, discussions and opportunities to listen to others, thinking and exploring all on the subject of...where on earth am I going?
Everyone welcome! Please tell your friends, family and neighbours!
I'm starting to think that we should all hold funerals pre-death.
Hear me out. It seems such a shame that the wonderful stories of people's lives are only told once they aren't there to embellish them. Almost every funeral that I've ever attended has made me realise that I barely knew a fraction of the person who had died, and now, too late, I can't discuss these amazing stories with them.
Our stories are extraordinary. We too often package them up into boxes, themed and sorted by suitability, revealing only certain boxes to certain people. Maybe this is why our stories spill out after death, when friends join together and open all the boxes at once.
Our Life Group spent the summer eating together. We dumped our usual worship and Bible Study in favour of setting the table, eating, chatting, washing up, and praying together. In amongst the chilli and the cake, and discussions on films and history and flea circuses, we found out more about each other than we had before. We found out how very different we are. We heard each other's stories, which, while showing our differences, showed even more that ours is the same story of rescue and redemption and love in the hand of Jesus.
I went to a funeral last week of a lady whose story is far removed from mine. Her troubles were much worse. Her exuberance was extraordinary. Her enjoyment of concerts and live music made her effortlessly cooler than me. Her story, however, was the same as mine. It was one of grace. Of God's faithfulness. Of his unending love.
So here's what I'm suggesting: I think we need to share our stories now. I think we need to talk about the times where we've felt blessed, and the times where we've had to reassess what 'blessed' really means.
I'm bored of the sound of my own voice.
I like writing, and chatting, and expressing myself, but right here, there's too much me, and not enough you. I was thinking this today, and then I read an article that said that we should use our church websites to share our stories. So for once, I listened.
We're going to keep using this website for information. For notice of events. For occasional posts where I assert theologically suspicious things (I had a great one on St. Michael half written before I started to doubt most of what I had actually written...). But I also want us to use it to get to know each other better. To tell each other our stories, and to encourage each other.
Because here's the thing. He is the God of every story. He sees each tear that falls. We may not understand, but one thing is certain: He's a faithful, faithful God.
