Welcome to Weobley & Staunton Joint Benefice
incorporating the Churches and Parishes of Weobley, Staunton On Wye, Norton Canon, Monnington, Sarnesfield, Byford and Letton in Herefordshire
Inclusive Church
As a Benefice, we believe in Inclusive Church – church which does not discriminate, on any level, on grounds of economic power, gender, mental health, physical ability, ethnicity, race, marital status or sexuality. We believe in Church which welcomes and serves all people in the name of Jesus Christ; which chooses to interpret scripture inclusively; which seeks to proclaim the Gospel afresh for each generation; and which, in the power of the Holy Spirit, allows all people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ.
Carol Services across our Joint Benefice
Sunday 22nd December
11.30am Carol Service Sarnesfield
6.00pm Carol Service Weobley
All are welcome to join us this Christmas time
Staunton-on-Wye Christingle
Tuesday, 24th December 2024
2.30pm
The Christingle Service is a great way for communities everywhere to come together this Christmas to catch up, make special memories and have fun!
Funds raised in support of The Children’s Society
St Marys Church, Staunton-on-Wye HR4 7NE
Christmas Eve Crib Service
Tuesday, 24th December 2024
5.00pm
A special service for children and families to celebrate Christmas
WEOBLEY PARISH CHURCH
Christmas Eve Services
Tuesday 24th December 2024
2.30pm Staunton-on-Wye, HR4 7NE Christingle Service
5.00pm Weobley, HR4 8SD Crib Service
7.00pm Letton, HR3 6DH Christmas Eve Communion
9.00pm Monnington-on-Wye, HR4 7NL Christmas Eve Communion
11.15pm Weobley, HR4 8SD Midnight Mass
Join us this Christmas
Christmas Day Services
Wednesday, 25th December 2024
9.00am Norton Canon, HR4 7BQ (joined with Sarnesfield) Christmas Day Family Communion
9.30am Byford, HR4 7LD Christmas Day Family Communion
10.30am Weobley, HR4 8SD Christmas Day Family Communion
WEOBLEY & STAUNTON JOINT BENEFICE
The First Sunday of Christmas Group Service
Sunday 29th December 2024
10.30am
Join us as we gather together from across our joint benefice
WEOBLEY PARISH CHURCH
STAUNTON-ON-WYE SERVICES throughout January, February & March 2025
During January, February and March we are hosting our services in Staunton-on-Wye Village Hall, HR4 7LR
Cafe Church on the 2nd Sunday of each month with guest speaker and Communion Service on the 4th Sunday.
WEOBLEY & STAUNTON JOINT BENEFICE
Cafe Church Service
Sunday 12th January 2025
10.30am
'A good ending' - the whys and wherefores of a Funeral with guest speakers Gill Layton & Dick Alford, local Funeral Directors
Staunton-on-Wye Village Hall HR4 7LR
A Year of Faith
Hereford Diocese has branded 2024 the ‘Year of Faith’. The apostle Paul says that ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’ (Hebrews 11:1). Bishop Richard says: "Jesus shows us that self-giving love is who God is, and his fingerprints are all over us. He shows us that a relationship with him provides the personal security: psychological, material and eternal to risk living differently. I hope our year of faith will increase our confidence in that reality and thus our confidence to live in the light of it" (Weekly eNews from Hereford Diocese 4.1.2024). Upon the solid rock of faith, we can build a vision for positive change.
For Year of Faith ideas and resources please click on the button below.
Weekly Reflection
thoughts and reflections from the Rev'd Philip Harvey
22nd, 29th December & 5th January And hear the angels sing…
In 1849, a Unitarian minister from Massachusetts named Edmund Sears penned the carol ‘It Came Upon a Midnight Clear’. He wrote this during a period of uncertainty and unrest. Sears was concerned about the social divisions erupting within his country, about the terrible human and moral toll of slavery and growing talk of an impending war between the states. His concerns were realised years later when the first shots of the American Civil War rang out in April 1861.
His poignant carol guides us to look to the skies and listen to the song of the Christmas-tide angels, singing a song of hope and peace and goodwill to a world that seems deaf to this music.
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
Oh, hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.
As we move through the Christmas season together; as we come to services of worship and celebrate with our families, let us also take the time to pray for places in our world torn apart by war and violence. Let us pray that the harmonious music and message of the angels may ring out loudly, hushing the noisy and vengeful ‘men of strife’ and enabling people of goodwill to seek that just and lasting peace made possible by the one we call the Prince of Peace.
Rev’d Philip
1st, 8th & 15th December Watching and waiting: Luke 21, 25-36
I remember a voyage taken once on a boat in high seas, feeling sea-sick and hoping to catch a glimpse of land. But the roll and pitch of the boat, the height of the waves, and the misty conditions prevented us seeing the distant contours of the Isles of Scilly as they were picked up on the boat’s radar. In our gospel text Jesus speaks to his disciples about difficult sailing ahead; of ‘distress among the nations, confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves’. He paints images of a world in conflict and destruction, but with all of this being a prelude to an even more powerful event, the arrival of God’s redemption.
In the season of Advent we are called to watch and wait as our church pitches and rolls through a stormy world; as we hang on to the railings of our faith. We do not watch in vain. Jesus assures us that ‘when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near’. In the turbulence of the present, the approaching coastline may seem far-off, even invisible. But we have a captain who knows our destination and is steering us calmly into port.
Rev’d Philip