We welcomed Ricky Turner as our new Curate on Sunday. He was ordained as a Deacon at St Albans Abbey in the morning and then we came back to All Saints’ for a lunchtime service.

If you haven’t met Ricky yet, then come along to our service this Sunday, which is a breakfast service so we are starting at 9:30am with a selection of breakfast goodies.

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Next Sunday (13th April) is Palm Sunday. We will be holding our traditional Palm Sunday Service at 10am where we celebrate Christ’s entry into Jerusalem before starting his final week of ministry. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the most important week in the Christian calendar.

On Thursday (17th April) we will have a Holy Communion Service for Maundy Thursday at 7.30pm, the moment when Jesus gave us the Eucharist as our main act of worship and it is the service when he washed the feet of his disciples and set us the example of how to live as Christians. On Friday (18th April), we will hold our Good Friday Service at 2.30pm to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us as he suffered on the cross to save our sins. Please join us for these services, there is no Easter without Good Friday or Maundy Thursday

Then looking forward to Easter Day (20th April), we will be holding our Easter Communion Service at 10am. The service will start outside – beside Oxhey Chapel – with the lighting of the Pascal Candle from a fire. The lit candle will then be carried into the church  symbolising the light of Christ coming into the world. Our Easter Service will be followed by our annual Decorated Egg Competition and Egg Rolling Competition.

Then on Monday(21st April) a group of us will be heading on our annual Easter Monday Pilgrimage to St. Albans Abbey. Chris and Vik will be leading a walk to the Abbey (11 miles), leaving All Saints at 9am, or you can meet us outside the Abbey for a picnic before the service at 3pm.

Check our Special Services page for full details and come and join us at All Saints’ this Holy Week and Easter.

We had a fantastic Breakfast Service  for Mothering Sunday. We were thinking about caring. We wrote the names of the people and things we care for and those that care for us. We then joined these thoughts together into paper chains.

Which of the people or things you care for or who care for you would you put on your paper chain link?

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Next Wednesday (5th March) is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Please come along to our Ash Wednesday service at 7.30pm. It is a beautiful service and wonderful way to begin our Lent observance.

Then on Sunday 9th March at 3pm we will be showing ‘The King’s Speech’ as an introduction to our Lent Course which will be based around this film. If you haven’t seen it then now is your opportunity to see the Oscar winning film, even if your not taking part in the Lent groups. There will snacks…maybe even popcorn!

Our Lent Course will start the following week. We will be holding three Lent Groups which will be at various venues on Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening and Friday evening. Please speak to Pam if you want to find out more.

Finally, our next Breakfast Service will be on Sunday 30th March – Mothering Sunday. Come along (and bring a friend) and have breakfast made for you!

Details of our Holy Week and Easter services can be found on our Special Services page.

At our service yesterday we watched the annual new year message from Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans. His message centred around the centenary of the formation of the current Diocese of St Albans in 1914. As part of this celebration, there will be a festival day of fun and praise on the 25 August in Keysoe, Bedfordshire. For more information, you can visit the Diocese website www.celebrate100.org.uk.

Also accompanying this special year, we have been given a book “Saints and Pilgrims in the Diocese of St Albans”. This book has 366 pages for each day of the year with each one reflecting on the life of an inspirational person from our diocese. One of the people represented is our very own Peggy Leech who most of you will remember preaching at All Saints’ for many, many years.

We hope to put this inspiring book on display in the church so that all our congregation and visitors can follow this centenary year through the interesting stories of these fascinating individuals.

All the shopping is done and the presents are under the tree. Now take time and remember what Christmas is all about.

Our Christingle and Nativity Service is at 4pm on Christmas Eve. This service is designed with children in mind and is a great way to take time out from your Christmas preparations to remind them of the true meaning of Christmas.

We will be holding Midnight Mass at 11:30pm on Christmas Eve as we wait beside the manger.

Then at 10am on Christmas morning, come along to celebrate Jesus’s birthday and bring along your favourite present to show us.

We had a wonderful breakfast service this morning all about welcoming. Before the service, we met to share breakfast while the children (and the young at heart) decorated our Christmas Tree. It’s looking fantastic!

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In the spirit of today’s message, we would like to welcome everyone to our church over this Christmastide. You can find details and times for all our services here.

On Sunday we had inspirational Breakfast Service where we heard several moving stories of how ASCEND have changed people’s lives. We shared our prayers for ASCEND’s work on this prayer tree.

If you would like to find out more about ASCEND, why not go along to their Black History Day this Thursday from 11 till 3.