St Mary's Church, Eversley

St Mary's Church, Eversley A traditional CofE Church with contemporary values. St. Mary’s has served the local community as a place of worship for many hundreds of years.

Charles Kingsley, the 19th century author, preacher and reformer, was its Rector for 31 years. Our Church of England services and other activities cater for a wide age range. We try to offer something for everyone, from traditional to modern forms of worship.

Nice Sermon VicarI once read that the worst thing you can say to a vicar is, “Nice sermon, Vicar.” It usually suggests t...
11/06/2026

Nice Sermon Vicar

I once read that the worst thing you can say to a vicar is, “Nice sermon, Vicar.” It usually suggests the listener wasn’t really paying attention — or that nothing in the message challenged, stretched, or encouraged them. Perhaps, the only thing worse is when people avoid you altogether or say nothing at all.

As Rachel mentioned last week, we’ve begun a new preaching series on ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. These chapters contain some of the most demanding words Jesus ever spoke, and they’ve shaped the lives of remarkable figures across history: Martin Luther King Jr. in his pursuit of civil rights, Corrie Ten Boom in her extraordinary forgiveness, and even Mahatma Gandhi in his commitment to non‑violent resistance.

At St Barnabas, one of our banners quotes a powerful line from Scripture: “The word of the Lord is sharper than any two‑edged sword.” It’s a reminder that God’s word isn’t meant to sit comfortably with us — it’s meant to cut through, to shape, and to transform.

I wonder if we are prepared to let these words, which came from Jesus own lips, challenge and change us?

God Bless

Faith

Thank you to those who rang in memory of Shan Nash this evening.
10/06/2026

Thank you to those who rang in memory of Shan Nash this evening.

05/06/2026

Celebrating Sue’s birthday at lunch club

Dear friends,I wonder if you are feeling blessed by God at the moment? Perhaps you've recognised his grace to you in a p...
04/06/2026

Dear friends,

I wonder if you are feeling blessed by God at the moment? Perhaps you've recognised his grace to you in a particular situation, or experienced answered prayer in a particularly difficult situation, even if that answer isn't quite what you thought it was going to be? Or are you feeling like you're a bit 'out in the cold' spiritually speaking, perhaps feeling overwhelmed by various pressures on your time and energy, and wondering where or how you can seek God's presence and find joy or direction for your life again?

I know in my own spiritual journey that because of various external responsibilities and commitments, I'm going to need to do less to be more available to God, and to be more focused in giving space to creativity to enable me to hear God's direction, both for my own benefit and for supporting others. I need to change my attitudes to the challenges I face, so as to be able to experience and share in the joy of being blessed by the Holy Spirit and purposefully be more open in my awareness of God's actions.

We are starting a sequence of teaching in our Sunday services this week that will be focusing on the Sermon on the Mount, which is an extended sequence of teaching by Jesus on all sorts of subjects and found in Matthew 5-7. It starts with what are known as the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12); a series of sayings or truths about how we can know and serve God even in the most tricky of circumstances. You may be familiar with them; they are worded "Blessed are those who..."

They encourage us to look at our attitude to the situations we face in our daily lives, seeking the positive, and unearthing the hope that enables us to trust God, and then to ask ourselves who, or what, can we be in those particular set of circumstances: be-attitudes. God wants to bless us, and through the grace of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, offers us gifts of insight, comfort, a sense of belonging to Jesus' family that will encourage us through the joys and sorrows of life, as well as helping us to serve God in appropriate ways.

Do come and join us in learning of and being blessed by God, over the next few weeks.

Go well and God bless,
Rachel

Only three weeks until St Mary's Steam & Vintage Festival.We can't wait to see you there! All welcome.
30/05/2026

Only three weeks until St Mary's Steam & Vintage Festival.

We can't wait to see you there! All welcome.

Love one anotherI was looking for somewhere to go on retreat recently and came across a blog on one of the monasteries I...
28/05/2026

Love one another

I was looking for somewhere to go on retreat recently and came across a blog on one of the monasteries I looked at that was interesting.

Sister Alison’s blog reminded me of some knowledge I’d been taught or read about eternal life and had since forgotten. That is, that we don’t have to wait for eternal life, eternal life begins now, it is as we come to trust Jesus and as we begin to find ourselves drawn into loving just as he loves. To put it another way, as we love one another.

As you probably know I’m the centre lead for the foodbank that runs out of St Barnabas and each and every week we hear some very distressing/upsetting stories from the people who need to attend the foodbank. Providing them with food is quite easy, signposting them to other support can be challenging at times but what is easiest is offering them love, be that a smile, a cup of tea, a freshly baked cake or letting them have two packets of biscuits when they’re only supposed to take one!

And I can also love my foodbank neighbour, by praying for them at the end of the day, handing them and their stories over to God, knowing that his arms are always open.

Blessings,
Jane

As part of Thy Kingdom Come we will be holding Benefice Prayer Workshops at St Barnabas with breakfast on Saturday 23rd ...
22/05/2026

As part of Thy Kingdom Come we will be holding Benefice Prayer Workshops at St Barnabas with breakfast on Saturday 23rd May from 9.30am to 12 noon. The theme is all about the presence of God through His spirit and we will be exploring this in different ways through the morning. Do join us for all or part of the morning. All are welcome.

Happy Birthday!For my family, this week is always special because our children and one of our daughter-in-law have birth...
21/05/2026

Happy Birthday!

For my family, this week is always special because our children and one of our daughter-in-law have birthdays within four days of each other. This week is more special than usual this year because we celebrate another birthday in the same week.

Pentecost, in The Bible, is considered to mark the birth, or start, of the church. It is the time when the Holy Spirit came in Power to the disciples, and in that power Peter preached a sermon that caused 3000 people to believe in Jesus Christ and commit their lives to following Him.

This year, we are particularly blessed as we have people who want to publicly acknowledge their faith in Jesus and their commitment to following him by being baptised or reconfirming their baptism vows in the Sunday morning service at St Barnabas.

My prayer for this Pentecost is that it starts a year when we see a real growth in the number of people who decide to do the same, and for those of us who have already committed to be Christ’s followers, that we will increasingly know the love of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to transform us and to the lives of those around us.
As the ancient prayer says ‘Come Holy Spirit, Come’.

God Bless
Faith

15/05/2026

Morning Prayer for the second day of prayers between Ascension and Pentecost.

Helping those less fortunate I always seem to be writing my piece for the newsletter whilst preparing to go on holiday. ...
15/05/2026

Helping those less fortunate

I always seem to be writing my piece for the newsletter whilst preparing to go on holiday. So whilst dreaming of sun and sand, or is it preparing for wind and rain, let me share with you some of my recent events.

Once again I have been appointed as Churchwarden for St. Mary’s, a job that is interesting and fulfilling, however there should be two churchwardens, so if anyone would like to join me they would be more than welcome.

I help run the Friday St. Mary’s Lunch Club and last week we had a talk from the ”New Forest for Ukraine”, a charity who collect and deliver the latest required aid directly to Ukrainian refugees still in Ukraine. Several members of the benefice have already provide funds and materials to this charity. To me it was a timely reminder that although not making the headlines, those living in Ukraine still need our support.

At foodbank the following Monday we provided three food parcels to refugee families from various countries.

The Bible contains hundreds of references emphasizing God’s commitment to justice, protection, and advocacy for the oppressed, vulnerable, and marginalized, to quote just one. Psalm 9:9: "The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble."
It is encouraging that the churches in the benefice are working together to provide support to those less fortunate both at home and abroad.

God Bless,

Tim Ellis
Churchwarden St. Mary’s Eversley

Address

Church Road, Eversley
England
RG270PX

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