Services this Sunday 1^st November are as follows:

10:00 am – Creative Church – St Mary’s

10:30 am – Holy Communion with Band and Junior Church – All Saints Patronal Festival

6:30pm – Choral Evensong – St Marys

The Week Ahead

This Sunday (25th October)

8:00am – Holy Communion – All Saints

10:00am – Sung Holy Communion – St Marys

10:30pm – Cafe Church – All Saints

The Week Ahead

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This Sunday (18th October)

This Sunday (11th October)

8:00 am Holy Communion, All Saints

10:00 am Prison Sunday Communion, St Mary’s

10:30 am Messy Muddy Church, All Saints

1 pm Generations – Cotswold Walk

The week ahead

Looking back on this week, I’m thankful for the many different people, conversations and opportunities to see God at work.

One thing that particularly stood out to me this week was a meeting with church leaders from across Fishponds. We come from different churches, each with our own traditions and ways of expressing our faith. It was good to come together, learn from one another and share our desire to serve God and reflect something of God’s love and hope in Fishponds and beyond.

This led me to reflect on how often we see things one way or another, as though we have to choose between two things. But perhaps two things can be true at once. We can see things differently and still find common ground. We can have questions and still have faith. We can find life difficult and still experience moments of joy and hope.

This weekend, we have different ways to gather and worship together. From Holy Communion at All Saints, to exploring the life of a well-known saint at Messy Muddy Church, to Communion at St Mary’s, where we’ll be marking Prison Sunday, our worship takes different forms. Generations will also be joining young people from across the Diocese for a walk that invites them to reflect on pilgrimage. Each offers its own opportunity to connect with God and one another.

We each come with our own experiences, questions and hopes, so please do join us at whichever service you feel drawn to.

May we remain open to the ways God meets us, sometimes in the familiar and often in the unexpected. Amen.

Blessings,

Revd Charlie

In my life, I have attended many churches. Growing up, I attended my local parish church, St James the Great, Manston in Leeds. When I went to university in Bristol, I attended St Paul’s Clifton, where the Anglican chaplaincy was based. On leaving university and moving to Bishopston, I attended St Michael’s. After we got married and moved to Fishponds, we attended All Saints. During my assignment in the United States, We attended St Stephen’s, Boise. 

Each of these churches had its own character shaped by its tradition, its congregation and its location. Each contributed in its own way to the development of my faith. Each one was, for a time, my spiritual home. 

However, faith is not static, and a time comes to take the next step in the pilgrimage of life.  My wife, Diane has been exploring a role as a community chaplain based at St John’s church on Lodge Causeway. For the past few months, I have been sharing my time between St John’s and All Saints and St Mary’s. From October I will be based At St John’s full time. Over the coming months, I will work out the pattern of my ministry there and in the wider Kingsway Benefice. My last service at All Saints, for the time being at least, will be the Harvest Festival on the 4th of October.

All our earthly homes are temporary. Whether they are our family homes, our workplaces or our church congregations. In the end, our only true home is in Christ. In chapter 15 of the Gospel according to John, Jesus tells the disciples to abide, dwell, make their home in him. He tells them to abide in his love and let his words abide in them. It is this dwelling in Christ that enables us to bear fruit that will last.  Wherever else we may be, we are at home when we abide in Christ. We will be looking at this passage in more detail and at what it says about “home” in Café Church this Sunday at All Saints. 

St Mary’s have their Harvest Festival this Sunday and there is Holy Communion at All Saints at 8.00 am. This gives the following services for this Sunday:

We have our usual pattern of services this week. Next Sunday is a first Sunday of the month, so there is Creative Church at 10:00 am and Evensong at 6:30 pm at St Mary’s. The Service at All Saints is the Harvest Festival. This will be a communion service with Junior Church. This gives the following services for the coming week:

So let us pray that we may find our home in Christ, using a collect inspired by the words of Augustine of Hippo and the command of Christ to abide in him:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
Amen

Yours in Christ

Mark

“It’s not fair!”  So often, it is children who shout that, when they feel hard done by.  But we adults do it too – when someone jumps in front of you in a queue, or a person is singled out for praise when they have not done as much work as others, or even, when we hear of people claiming benefits that seem to put us at a disadvantage.  Yes, for many years, there was a distinction between the “deserving poor” (we like them – we want to help them) and the “undeserving poor” (scroungers, who make light of the rules, only looking out for themselves).  Perhaps adults need to hear what is said to children as well: “yes, life is unfair.  Get over it!”  Harsh, but true.

And yet, there are two ways of life being unfair (so the readings suggest this week).  In Matthew’s Gospel, some workers seem to receive a full day’s reward for only a little work, on an equal basis to those who have borne the heat and burden of the day.  But in Isaiah, we hear the surprising, generous, gracious words from a market stallholder (God): ‘come and get it!  Come for bread and wine, even though you have no money!’  This is not fair (God says) – no, but it is my free gift.  Perhaps we become people who are less angry with others if we increasingly recognize how much we receive freely – friendship, kindness, the beauty of creation, and life itself.  All given freely, for us to enjoy … and then perhaps, for us to become people who will continue that tradition of gracious generosity, in some way or other.

To give a live up-to-date example: most of us will know and love the RNLI.  As well as being the acronym for Lifeboats, it can also stand for the people who serve in the lifeboats: Relentless Noble Life-saving Individuals.  One of their mottos is: “They don’t ask who you voted for.  They don’t ask where you live.  They don’t ask whether you think you deserve their help.  They come.”  Note the use of that word “come” – exactly the word that appears repeatedly in Isaiah 55 (this morning’s Old Testament reading).  God says to us “Come”!  And then asks us to ‘go and do likewise’.

Rev’d Bob

Services on Sunday 20^th September 2026

10:00am -Sung Holy Communion – St Marys

10:30am – Holy Communion and Hymns – All Saints

The Week Ahead

Mon 21st Sep

10:30am – Tiny Tots, All Saints

Tues 22nd Sep

10:30am – Music for Toddlers, St Mary’s

Wed 23rd Sep

9:00 am – Celtic Morning Prayer, All Saints

Thu 24th Sep

10:00 am – Holy Communion, St Mary’s

Sat 26th Sep

12:00pm – Saturday Lunches, St Mary’s

Sun 27th Sep

8:00 am – Holy Communion, All Saints

10:00 am – Harvest Celebration with Communion, St Marys

10:30 am – Café Church, All Saints