Tag Archives: faith

Lent 2026

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and follows through to Palm Sunday. It is a season of depth and richness as we reflect on those things we have done wrong and call to God for forgiveness.

Lent Appeal 2026

Acting on poverty, living in solidarity

Join us as we join with Christian Aid to help forge a world where everyone can live a full life, free of poverty. Our donations will make a difference to the lives of people across the globe (including the UK).

How to give:

  • Bring in cash on Sundays in envelopes labelled Lent Appeal 2026
  • Pay directly into the church Bank Account, with the reference Lent Appeal 2026
  • Make a card donation (speak to Chris Thomas)
  • Come along to the Lent Lunch on Passion Sunday 22 March and give (an additional?!) donation to the Lent Appeal 2026

Ash Wednesday – 18 February

10am Holy Communion with Imposition of Ashes (in Church)
7:30pm Holy Communion with Imposition of Ashes (in Oxhey Chapel)

Beginning the journey
‘turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ’
As the Season of Lent begins, we are marked again with the cross with which we were signed at our baptism – a reminder of both death to life and life in death.

Sunday Holy Communion Services

10am each Sunday

The Sunday Collects are the inspiration for Sunday sermons this year. Collects are the special prayers written for Sundays and special Feast Days. You’ll find them in a leaflet available in church – which also has the readings for the different Sundays. Look them up in advance, take time to pray and reflect with them and then compare what you come up with to the preacher on the Sunday!

Compline (Night Prayer)

9pm Monday evenings, online

Join this ancient and beautiful service to close the day.

Lent Groups

Thursdays at 11:30am (in church), and
Fridays at 8pm (house group, ask for venue details)

We’re using a Lent Course written especially for All Saints’ – relating to prayer and spirituality. Everyone is welcome to join us for either of the groups above.

World Day of Prayer – Friday 8 March

7:30pm at South Oxhey Baptist Church

World Day of Prayer is a women led, global, ecumenical movement. This year’s service is titled I will give you rest, come and has been prepared by the Christian women of Nigeria. This is a united service with the churches of South Oxhey and Carpenders Park and this year is hosted by the South Oxhey Baptist Church.

Mothering Sunday – 15 March

10.00am Holy Communion

We celebrate the ‘mothering’ offered by so many – mothers, others and all. Flowers are offered to all the adults present, and we share the traditional Mothering Sunday cake – Simnel Cake.

Passion Sunday – 22 March

10am Holy Communion

12 noon Lent Lunch

Raising funds for our Lent Charity – Christian Aid. With a simple lunch of homemade soup and bread, with cheese and fruit. Sign up in church (or just come along as there is usually plenty!).

Christmas and Epiphany 2025

Christmas Carol Service

Sunday 21 December at 6pm

Readings and favourite carols to tell the Christmas Story.

The service starts in the church and concludes in Oxhey Chapel, followed by mince pies and mulled wine or spiced apple juice.

Crib and Christingle Service

Christmas Eve – Wednesday 24 December at 4pm

Popular with all ages, with children as our focus, we tell the Christmas Story, sing carols and raise much needed funds for The Children’s Society.

Come dressed as an angel, donkey, shepherd or wise person, or borrow our costumes to join in with the telling of the nativity story.

Midnight Christmas Holy Communion

Christmas Eve – Wednesday 24 December at 11:15pm

As the clock turns and we welcome the start of Christmas Day and hear of the Saviour’s birth. This service gives space for a bit of calm and reflection before the busy day ahead.

Christmas Day Holy Communion

Thursday 25 December at 10am

With a sense of fun around the edges, we celebrate what used to be known as The Saviour’s Day. With carols a-plenty amidst the celebration of Holy Communion, join us as we give thanks on this most holy of days.

Christmas Jumper Sunday – Holy Communion

Sunday 28 December at 10am

You may have been given one at Christmas, so come and wear it with pride at our 10am service on the Sunday after Christmas. It is still the Christmas Season in the Church’s year, which gives the perfect excuse to save your Christmas jumper from the moth balls for a while! There will be a prize for the best!

New Year’s Day BBQ

Thursday 1 January 2026 at 12pm

Whatever the weather, we’ll be out barbecuing sausages and burgers. Come and join us as we celebrate the New Year together.

Epiphany Sunday – Holy Communion

Sunday 4 January at 10am

Join us for the celebration of the arrival of the wise men and the witness of Jesus as our Saviour to the wider World.

Advent 2025

Countdown to Christmas

Before we begin: Advent Windows

Saturday 29 November from 9:30am to 12 midday

We will be taking down the Saints and creating Advent and Christmas artwork to go in their place. Come along during the morning of to help create them. No special skill necessary and everyone is welcome to contribute.

Sunday Services in Advent

Starting with Advent Sunday on 30 November 2025 at 10am
and continuing the following three Sundays at 10am

Blessing of Cribs: If you have a Crib, bring it along on Advent Sunday morning (30 November) so that it can be blessed before you put it up at home. When you come to Church on the day, put your Crib at the back of Church on the table so that we can enjoy the different designs. The Cribs will be blessed at the end of the Service, and then you will be able to collect them and take them home again ready to build them at home.

Lighting candles on the Advent Ring: Linking to Advent themes The Patriarchs, The Prophets, John the Baptist and Mary, the candles are lit to light our way through the Season of Advent.

Building the Crib in the window: As well as lighting the candles on the Advent Wreath each Sunday, we will be ‘putting together’ the Crib. Adding figures as we go, remembering the journey of Mary and Jospeh to Bethlehem.

Sermon Series: Linked to our Advent Study Book, we’ll be thinking of the themes given there – and the characters too. What can we learn from the Women of the Nativity and their faithfulness as we journey in faith ourselves?

Prayer Focus Table: In addition to the Crib as an aid to our preparations through the Season of Advent, there will also be a Prayer Focus Table, with readings, images and ‘prayer’ prompt cards, providing a different focus for our thoughts and prayers.

Advent and Christmas Study Groups

Every Thursday at 11am in church – Starting 4 December 2025, or

Every Friday at 8pm, various venues (contact for details) – Starting 5 December 2025

Advent Study Book: We will be using Paula Gooder’s book, Women of the Nativity. Paula Gooder uses her extensive biblical expertise and storytelling skills to recreate the events of the nativity, from the promise of a future people to Sarah, to the presentation in the temple and the encounter with Anna, the prophet. The story is told from the perspective of nine women in all including Mary, Elizabeth, Rachel, and others whom scripture records or tradition has imagined, such as the innkeeper’s wife. As we hear the familiar stories afresh through their words, the wonder of the incarnation and its consequences for good and for ill, come to vivid life in a new way. The book can be purchased online. You can hear the stories and see the paintings by visiting the Church of England wesbite.

Online and digital

Everyday Faith

The daily resources from Church House Publishing and the Church of England’s Digital Team are offering fresh and accessible daily discipleship materials for both Advent and Christmas this year. At their heart is the theme of Joy – joy as we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ during Advent, and joy as we ponder in prayer the great mystery of God’s saving love during the Christmas season.

The Everyday Faith app will carry daily reflections throughout Advent (Monday 1 December to Christmas Eve), based on a full-colour book, O Come Emmanuel, featuring eight respected writers and newly commissioned artwork. These will be followed by twelve reflections from Christmas Day to Monday 5 January. And, of course, the Everyday Faith app will continue to offer content (Monday to Saturday) into the season of Epiphany and throughout 2025.

During Advent, reflections are centred around the Advent antiphons on which the much-loved hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel is based. You can download the app from your App Store. For more information, visit, www.cofe.io/OComeEmmanuel.

We will have a copy of the book with pictures available in church, and copies of the booklet, Joy, available at Christmas.

Books

There will be some books on the bookcase near the prayer table in the foyer. If you borrow a book, please ‘sign it out’ and then return it when you have read it. If you would like to by your own books, some titles you might like to explore are:

  • Ready, steady, slow, Church House Publishing
  • When the time was right, Stephen Rand, brf
  • Stepping Stones to Bethlehem, Jack McCardle
  • The Advent Adventure, David Rhodes, SPCK
  • Advent Calendar, Stephen Cottrell

Just pray

The Church is open most days, so do come in and take the opportunity to pray, to spend time thinking on the different themes of Advent, and to prepare yourself to welcome again the new-born King.

Saying farewell to a much-loved friend – Cedar Tree update

The tree surgeons came today to begin the process of felling the beautiful Cedar of Lebanon Tree that has stood in the grounds of All Saints’ Church for some 100 years or so. It was identified in 2019 that the tree had had succumbed to a fungal infection which recommended the tree be felled. This was then confirmed by a further report which was undertaken in late 2024. The second report was a special x-ray survey which showed the tree was virtually hollow inside. As you can see from the photograph, the centre of the tree is hollow, with all the dark wood around the hole being dead wood. In addition, the branches were very brittle, meaning limited water was reaching them. This means that the fears of both tree specialists that branches might fall was very real.

We are immensely sad at the loss of this lovely tree. Before the tree was felled, prayers were said to give thanks for the life of the tree – and the many ways in which it has served so many different people in the area across the generations, as well as providing a home for wildlife. You can read the prayer below. Copies are available from All Saints’ Church. Please let us know if you would like one.

You can also see information about the disease on the post we made last year: Public Notice: Diseased tree to be felled

We’ll be planting a new Cedar of Lebanon Tree and will give the date on our website and social media when we have a date for this.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for the life of the Cedar of Lebanon Tree at All Saints’ Church, in the Parish of South Oxhey and Carpenders Park: 11 February 2025

God, our creator and redeemer, to you who formed a thousand worlds and who gives the gift of life we give our thanks and praise.

We give you thanks for the gift of life which we enjoy with the whole of creation: with the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, with the plants of the earth and the trees of the field.

We praise you especially for this amazing and beautiful cedar tree which has grown to stand so tall in this place. We praise you for shade enjoyed under its boughs when the heat of the sun has been fierce. We praise you for the shelter provided by its leaves and branches when rain has been heavy. We praise you for the food and home it has given to birds and insects. We praise you for the fun enjoyed by children who have climbed its branches in both its youth and in theirs.

God, our creator and redeemer,  we know that to all living things is given a span of life and that all living things must die. As the life of this tree comes to an end, we thank you for all the memories it holds for us, for all the pleasure it has given to us, for all the joy we have enjoyed in its presence.

To us who will miss its presence, bring consolation. To us who mourn its death, bring peace. To us who long for life, bring hope.

With all of Creation we offer these prayers to you, O Lord our God, the giver of new life in Christ. Amen.