http://www.stmarysrisborough.org.uk/

St Mary's Church, Church Street, Princes Risborough (2026)

02/06/2026

Tuesday's thought was written by Averil Stephenson.

Living up at Lacey Green, we are no strangers to the wind. It comes straight across from Bledlow Ridge, across Aylesbury Vale and on to our front garden. On strong, windy days, we keep our front windows shut so that they cannot get dislodged from their hinges. The Lord Jesus speaks about the wind, recorded in John
Ch. 3 v 8. He compares the Holy Spirit to a wind; very appropriately as the Greek word pneuma means both spirit and wind. He makes the point that the wind cannot be controlled by people and it is as true today as it was in Jesus’ time; even with all our technical advances. On a good day, the met will accurately predict that a windy day is just about to arrive but it will not always do so. Anyone who was alive then still remembers the hurricane of 1987 and the lack of warning! Jesus compares this with the way the Spirit moves, coming to places and people unpredictably as He decides. Also, we notice that the wind acts in varied ways. Sometimes, He is a gentle breeze; just ruffling the tops of the trees a little or bringing relief and refreshment on a hot day. Sometimes, He is very strong and violent with tremendous power; downing whole trees and in the case of hurricanes, overturning cars and destroying buildings. In the same way The Holy Spirit acts at times with gentleness and at other times with strong power. We see this in the Bible with Jesus describing the Spirit as living water which quenches thirst, to the woman at the well in Samaria in John Ch. 4.
Equally, we see on the Day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came on the disciples so strongly that some people thought that they were under the influence of alcohol and drunk. Equally, we experience the Holy Spirit in different ways today. Sometimes, in quiet worship and prayer, or reading our bibles, we experience his refreshing of our spirits in a deeply, satisfying way. Other times, we may experience The Spirit more dramatically when we are convicted of something that needs changing in our lives or of His calling us to serve the Lord in a new way. However, He comes to us, may we welcome the wind of the Holy Spirit in our lives

28/05/2026

Thursday's thought comes from Andrew Walmsley
Love of God

This week we are in the middle of two key Sundays that allow us to focus on God: Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. We have also had, just two weeks ago, Ascension day, where we remember Jesus going to heaven. Over this time we experience the Godhead in all three ways. Reflecting on this led to a favourite quote from Brother Lawrence in his book 'Practicing the Presence of God' who says this:

'We cannot escape the dangers which abound in life without the actual and continual help of God: let us then pray to Him for it continually. How can we pray to Him without being with Him? How can we be with Him but in thinking of Him often? And how can we often think of Him, but by a holy habit which we should form of it? … In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure'.

I read that quote many years ago when looking at attitudes to prayer on a prayer course and it has stayed with me ever since. It struck me as, in other parts of the book, he talks much about being in a constant state of prayer.

Twice in one paragraph Brother Lawrence refers to thinking of God often. It raises the question for all of us as to whether we do this in our own lives. How much do we think of God during the day? Or are those thoughts just consigned to our bible and prayer times at set points in our day. Like Brother Lawrence, we should remember that God is not just there for those moments when we need him, where we can switch on a button to become a bit more holy and talk to him. Brother Lawrence challenges to get to know God. Because it is only when we get to know him more, understanding who He is and what His nature is like can we understand the Godhead more. It means being prepared to change our lives so that we can live daily with God.

The problem for many today, including Christians, is that they do not fully understand the Godhead, or the Trinity. Francis Chan in his book 'Forgotten God' reflects that the Holy Spirit is one person of the Trinity that people know little about, and will have experienced little of the gifts that have been given to us through Him. Yet at the heart of our faith is God, in all three persons. One of the most important things in our lives should be to develop that relationship with Him. After all, most of us would not begin a relationship with the aim of getting to know them when it fits into our schedule. When you love someone you want to spend time with them, and get to know them intimately. That should be the same with God. Our heart should want to be with our 'treasure' the one we love.

Here then is a challenge to us all. Can we develop our relationship and understanding of God, so that He is not just some abstraction that we turn to every now and again. But is someone who is there beside us all day every day. We love Him so much that he is always on our thoughts. It is a 'holy habit' which we need to form. And if we do, it will change our lives as we live with God daily.

21/05/2026

Thursday's thought comes from Bryan Matthew

From time to time, you can, almost inadvertently, come across something that can move and touch you and you can wonder why you had not heard of it before. One such example was recently when on You Tube I came across the 1907 hymn 'Will the Circle be Unbroken?' Although the video of it is ‘AI enabled’ it is still a hugely affecting song about families’ living members being reconciled and rejoined in Heaven with those they had lost, to once again form their family circle.
It is a hymn, I discovered, that has been covered by the likes of Bob Dylan, The Doors, Leon Russell and Susan Boyle. It has been featured in shows such as Deadwood, Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and Pretty Little Liars.
Its origin is also interesting -despite it being used largely in funerals and revivals in the USA (especially in Appalachian communities)- in that it was written by the London born hymn writer and missionary Ada R. Habershon. Habershon wrote, it is estimated, literally thousands of hymns in her lifetime, many written for the various missions she was involved in.
The lyrics of the hymn set out the grief of losing close loved ones:
There are loved ones in the glory
Whose dear forms you often miss.
When you close your earthly story,
Will you join them in their bliss?
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?

Habershon goes on to talk about how when you are young you learn of Jesus’ love for mankind:
In the joyous days of childhood
Oft they told of wondrous love
Pointed to the dying Saviour;
Now they dwell with Him above.
You remember songs of heaven
Which you sang with childish voice.
Do you love the hymns they taught you,
Or are songs of earth your choice?

She ends the hymns by asking if people will meet each other again on the day of resurrection:
You can picture happy gatherings
Round the fireside long ago,
And you think of tearful partings
When they left you here below.
One by one their seats were emptied.
One by one they went away.
Now the family is parted.
Will it be complete one day?

I think as Christians we all know the answer to the question the hymn asks but it is still very powerful. You can see the video below:
https://youtu.be/8VVThcgRHB0?list=RD8VVThcgRHB0

19/05/2026

Tuesday's thought comes from Rose Williams

Last Saturday St Mary’s Church had a prayer day. At one of the sessions we looked at what was involved in having a relationship with God and communicating with Him. To have a conversation, it needs two people. Both must be ready to talk and to listen. To do that they must be close enough to hear each other. We too must be close to God if we are to hear Him speak to us.
God communicates with us in many ways; through dreams, our five senses, our emotions, the Bible, other people and directly into our thoughts and imagination. We must be open to Him and give Him permission to use all these ways. God does not force us to do anything against our will.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 says this, “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”
If we fill our prayer life with words Gods will not be able to get a word In edge ways. There must be times of relaxed quietness, focusing on the presence of God in order to be ready to hear Him.
God made us with two ears and one mouth so we should take the hint and listen twice as much as we talk. A good discipline is to begin our quiet times with God with these words from 1 Samuel 3:9. “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.”

14/05/2026

Thursday's thought comes from Claire Barbary

What a privilege it is to pray to the one true God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. -To know also that He hears all our prayers, day and night! “Before they call, I will answer;while they are still speaking,I will hear” Isaiah 65;24

One of my favourite prayers to pray before I go to sleep is “even as we sleep Father God would you teach us and those dear to us, of the deepest and innermost truths of knowing and loving You”

-In this season of Pentecost, we are encouraged to pray for 5 people to receive faith in God. Who are the people that you sense God is encouraging you to pray for? Every prayer that we pray makes a difference. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God:that if we ask anything according to His will,He hears us” 1John 5:14

It is also an important reminder during this season to ask God’s Holy Spirit to keep filling us and teaching us as we need God’s wisdom and discernment as we pray. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses” Acts 1:8a

Do join us for our church day of prayer on Saturday. There will be an opportunity for worship, quiet contemplation and led prayer.

Father God, renew our hearts and minds,by the power of your Holy Spirit, for your honour and glory. May your kingdom come, may your will be done. Amen

12/05/2026

Tuesday's thought comes from Peter Cline.

Today we find ourselves towards the end of the Easter season with Ascension Day only two days away and I am sharing some thoughts about Jesus’ Ascension taken from David Ford’s excellent book, ‘Meeting God in John’.

Jesus ascending to his Father means that, in the future, he will be present as God is present, free to relate to all people, at all times and in all places. When Mary encounters Jesus outside the tomb, thinking him to be the gardener, Jesus prepares her for this future. He will be real (indeed, supremely real, divinely real), but not ordinarily to be touched or seen in person here in the world.

This is, in fact, far better. Jesus ascending to the Father means that he will be invisible but free to be present everywhere, as God is present and invisible. He wants the intimacy of mutual indwelling in trust and love, the deepest imaginable, permanently abiding relationship. That uninterrupted personal presence - not occasional meetings - is Mary's future, as it is also for anyone else who receives Jesus with trust and love.

This relationship - which is nothing less than participating in the divine life, eternal life - is signalled by the message Jesus sends Mary to deliver. Up to now in John's Gospel, the Father has only been the Father of Jesus. Now, for the first time, Jesus says, 'My Father and your Father ... my God and your God' (20: 17). His disciples are to share fully in the relationship of Jesus with his Father.

The ascension of Jesus is not a distancing; it is essential to a new sort of radical divine intimacy, available to all people in all times and places. It is as if the resurrection and ascension of Jesus are further dimensions of him being 'lifted up' that began in his crucifixion, with his ascension being the ultimate uplift. Resurrection and ascension are a further fulfilment of his promise, 'I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself' (12: 32). That began with him on the cross forming a new family household of his mother and his Beloved Disciple (19: 25-27), combining kinship and friendship. Now, the wider circle of disciples are embraced in this new family headed by 'my Father and your Father'. And the future horizon is nothing less than 'all people'

07/05/2026

Thursday's thought comes from Tony Eccleston

In the picture you can see Mabel’s stick library. It is on the sea front at Bexhill-on-Sea, and Jan and I came across it while we were on holiday there in April. Mabel is a black cockerpoo or labradoodle and her owner set up the stick library for her friends and passers-by. You can borrow a stick to play fetch on the beach, and return the stick afterwards. Regular users of the stick library have their names burnt into their stick so that people will know that they should leave this one for them. You can see that Dudley, Dizzy and Angel all have their own sticks and you may be able to spot other names. Grateful owners can leave a donation for St Michael’s Hospice if they wish, and Mabel goes there herself to bring comfort as a therapy dog.

The generosity with their time that Mabel and her owner show made me think of the encouragement Jesus gives to us all in Matthew 7.12, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” We shouldn’t see this as simply telling us how to react to others when they ask for help, but rather that we should be proactive - consciously thinking every day about who we can help or what we can do that would meet someone’s need. If not a stick, what? Jesus himself gave everything, including his time, his position and ultimately his life for us. Let’s follow his example and thank God for life’s Mabels and their owners.

05/05/2026

Tuesday's thought was written by Tony Eccleston

Having spent most of my working life in local government I ought to be used to waiting. I’ve waited for the results of interviews, the outcomes of funding bids, and the decisions of committees. But these pale into insignificance compared to the times we can have to wait for services now. If you are a Christian, overlaid on this is waiting for answers to prayer. Waiting for God may be one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian life.
When Jesus ascended to his Father after his resurrection he instructed his followers to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit and, in the longer term, for his return. All this is reenacted in the Church’s year. So here we are, between Easter and Pentecost, waiting. And that is easier said than done. So what do we do in the meantime? What do we do while we wait?
Waiting is not just something we have to do to get what we want; it's the process of becoming what God wants us to be. Waiting, in the biblical sense, is not a passive waiting around for something to happen that will allow us to escape our troubles. Waiting does not mean doing nothing. It is not a way to evade unpleasant reality. Waiting on God requires patient trust. We live by the adage: Don't just stand there, do something. While God often says to us: Don't just do something, stand there. Waiting can be God's way of seeing if we will trust him before we move forward; whether it has to do with our relationships, our finances, our careers, our dreams, or our church.
But still people ask, "What do I do while I'm waiting?” Good question. During those times we need to take on the active role of a watchman. The psalmist declares, "my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning," (Ps. 130:5-6). In biblical times, watchmen vigilantly guarded the city. They watched through the night, and they waited for sunrise. They were alert and obedient. When called upon, they sprang into action. Yet watchmen didn't make things happen. They couldn't speed up the process of the dawning of a new day. A watchman knew the difference between his job and God's job. So waiting on God reminds us that God is in control. And that’s just what we need to know today.

30/04/2026

ST MARY'S ANNUAL REPORT
Further to the post above about the Annual Meeting, you can read all about what has happened over the past year at St Mary's here:

30/04/2026

Thursday's thought comes from Steve Benoy

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work." (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)

On Tuesday evening, we enjoyed our Annual Meeting at St Mary's, reviewing the past year and celebrating God's faithfulness.

One part of the meeting involves electing those people who will represent the congregation on the church council or in meetings across the deanery. Thank the Lord for your church wardens, Neil and Heather, and your PCC members, Andrew, Alex, Tony, Chris, Kathryn, Debby, Peter, Bryan, Carole, Biddy, Tim, Helen, Hannah and Sue. Do pray for them in the responsibilities they carry, that the Lord would bless us with his wisdom.

Another part of our meeting involves reviewing all that has happened within the life of the church over the past year. A comprehensive written report, prepared before the meeting, is testament to the deep commitment of many church members to serving both one another and the local community across all ages and on every day of the week. The whole mission of God is for the whole people of God, and it is so encouraging to be rector of a church which not only believes that but lives it out.

I am reminded of those people acknowledged by Paul in his letters in the New Testament. We know their names but scarcely know what they did, except that he knew their partnership in the gospel was indispensable. I feel the same way about you. We are all different, with different gifts and enthusiasms. Let's continue to be available to the Lord for all he would work in us and through us.

St Mary's Church

02/06/2026

28/05/2026

21/05/2026

19/05/2026

14/05/2026

12/05/2026

07/05/2026

05/05/2026

30/04/2026

30/04/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Place Of Worship

Shortcuts

Share

Category