Entries Tagged 'church events' ↓

St Pancras parish facebook group

If you belong to St Pancras parish (or if you are in Bridge, you don’t belong to it but it is half the distance compared to St Marks) then there is a facebook group for St Pancras parishoners.

If you have a local facebook group that you’d like to promote then please send it to james@bridgeward.org.uk .

Merry Christmas – and an appeal for help

The Ipswich Winter Shelter started on 15th December.

They still need volunteers for the Night and Morning shifts, especially men. Contact Steven Marsh for details on 0772 2618827 .  All volunteers will be emailed or telephoned when they are working, everyone should be included sooner or later; Steven plans to let everyone have a go.

If you want to send donations they would welcome single sheets, duvets and covers, blankets, pillows, and cases, and suitable clothing.

Christmas Services

The Catholic church of St Pancras in have the following Christmas Masses:

  • Saturday 6pm vigil
  • Midnight Mass at midnight with Carols from 11.30PM Saturday
  • Sunday 9.30 AM
  • Sunday 11 AM

The Midnight Mass in St. Pancras is really special and if you want the smells and bells experience it is the one to get to.  Yes, I know I’m biased.

I have no Christmas specific information on St Mary Stoke on Belstead Road, but these are the normal Sunday service times:

  • 8AM Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
  • 10AM Parish Eucharist (Family Friendly

Stoke Green Baptist Church on Halifax Road has a main service at 10.30 AM and they say “ |A lot of people who are not regular church goers would be glad to come and sing some Christmas carols and hear again the story of Christmas – if only you ask them.  You can assure your family, neighbours and other friends that they will be welcome and at home in our services.  The “Messy Church” experiences will help them to come now over Christmas and into the future.”

St Pancras 150th anniversary

The oldest continuing Catholic church in Ipswich, St Pancras, is having its 150th anniversary celebrations.  For most of its existence it was also the Catholic parish church for much of Bridge, and indeed the Pentecostalist church on the corner of Rectory Road and Luther Road used to be the Catholic Stella Maris chapel of ease.

This is from the newsleter:

From this Thursday a 4 day celebration begins with an open church event and flower festival to run until Sunday.

There will be mass at 12.15am and 7.30pm on Thursday the Feast of St Pancras and a Youth Event in the evening. You are invited to join the over-night vigil of prayer and adoration in thanksgiving from 8pm Fri to 8am Sat. Please add your name to a vacant slot on the rota at the back of the church to ensure no one is left alone.

 Saturday morning will include a Children’s Activities Event. All children welcome time 9.15 to 10am.

 The celebrations main event is the 6pm Mass Saturday, with a cheese and wine reception afterwards in the hall. We hope you will all join us. Please take a copy of the Souvenir Program which is available now.

There is also a small but very interesting local history display in the parish hall, which I would urge anyone interested in the local history of the area to make a quick detour to see this.

Easter Services

Anglican – St Mary Stoke, Belstead Road

10 AM

St Mary Elms will be going quite high with a lighting of the Paschal Candle, blessing of the Easter garden, a parish eucharist and renewal of baptismal vows

6.30 PM

Choral Evensong

Catholic – St Pancras, Tacket Street

9.30 AM Mass

11.00 AM Mass with choir

Baptist - Stoke Green Baptist Church, Maidenhall Approach

10.30 AM Sunday Morning Service (possibly with communion)

St Mary Stoke and Ipswich Heritage Days

St Mary Stoke will be open again for the Heritage day this year, which is today and tomorrow. I don’t know whether the Over Stoke History group will be there.

Good and faithful servant

And now to concentrate on more local stuff.  Lori Squirrell, who lives just inside the ward, was awarded the Benemerenti medal for decades of service to St. Pancras church.

The Benemerenti medal is awarded by the Pope for long and faithful service to the Catholic church.  The word means well deserving person. Well done Lori.

Date for your Diary: Meryamana walk

Probably one of the more off beat dates for your diary, and not really starting in Bridge, the Meryemana pilgrimage walk starts in St Peters church (just accross Stoke Bridge) and ends in St Mary Elms.  It’s on on the 6th September (tomorrow) from St. Peter’s church, just across Stoke Bridge.

From the bulletin of St. Pancras’ parish:

Ipswich’s Own Madonna: OUR ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE WALK is taking place the Sunday 6 Sept at 3.00pm, from St Peter’s Church to the Shrine of our Lady of Grace via Lady Lane. Come and support this ecumenical event that honours Our Lady of Ipswich. Tea afterwards.

More on this old-new Ipswich tradition (discontinued by the Tudors and resurrected in the 1970s) :

http://www.stmaryattheelms.org.uk/OurLadyOfGrace/shrine.htm

Happy Saint’s Day

Bridge Ward doesn’t have a patron saint, but if we did it would be Saint Ethelreda or as Æthelthryth, whose feast day is today.  A royal princess, protege of the superstar Saxon bishop Saint Wilfrid and founder of the abbey at Ely (which became Ely Cathedral), her link to our side of Ipswich stems from the fact that from Saxon time Old Stoke belonged to and was built up by the Abbey at Ely.  St. Mary Stoke, or at least the bit that wasn’t built in the Nineteenth Century, was built by the same abbey.

The church that stood in Wherstead Road was dedicated to Saint Ethelreda, and Saint Mary at Stoke still displays a banner for her.

So happy Saint’s day one and all.

50 years of Saint Mark’s parish

Saint Mark’s parish, to which all Roman Catholics in Bridge Ward belong to (even if many of us go to Saint Pancras over the river which for many of us is a shorter walk) has celebrated it’s 50th year with a Mass on 30th May celebrated by Bishop Michael Evans.  There were some pictures on their website.

If you would like to promote your church events that are local to Bridge on this site, then email james@bridgeward.org.uk