The Bluebell Benefice

A warm welcome to The Bluebell Benefice, which covers the parishes and churches of Great Gransden, Little Gransden, Abbotsley and Waresley in South Huntingdonshire and South West Cambridgeshire.

Advent in the Bluebell Benefice

There is a whole flurry of special Advent and Christmas events and services about to whirl through the Bluebell Benefice.   ☃️

Below are just some.  Are you looking for...

...gifts and stocking fillers, a chat, an excuse to put the festive jumper on?   ☕🫖🍰 THIS Sat 30th 2-4pm - Gransden Churches' Christmas Bazaar - LG Vill Hall

  ...traditional, atmospheric, peaceful, candlelit?   🕯️ THIS Sun 1st, Advent Sunday - 5pm, Advent Choral Antiphons Service  - GG Church

...a chance to reflect, explore and inwardly prepare?  🤔🙏 Friday 6th, 13th and 20th -🎆🎆 2-3pm - 'On Earth as it is in Heaven'- Advent Group, meeting in The Lighthouse Cafe, Sand Rd, GG.

...exuberant, nativity dress-up, whole family fun, live band?   🎶🐑🐪🐪🐪🕊️ Sat 7th  - 5.45pm - 'Pop Up Nativity' - GG Church.    Dress up in your best crown/tea towel/angel wings/donkey ears/Christmas jumper!   And do come along and join us after popping in to the Fox Festive Cafe at the Reading Room!

...elegant, festive, choral, uplifting?    🌌 Sat 14th - 7.30pm - A Shepherd's Journey Concert with the New Cambridge Singers - GG Church. Tickets go on sale this week! 

...mysterious, magical, stuffed with carols and turkish delight?    ❄️🌲🦁👑🚪 Sun 22nd - 4pm - Lion, Witch & Wardrobe Carol Service - Waresley Church 

...stable & starlight,full of wonder and joy?   🌟🌠✨ Christmas Eve - 3.30pm  - The Crib Service - GG Church;   6pm - Carol Service - Abbotsley Church

...and so, so much more...  😵‍💫 All hugely, warmly welcome - though do remember to wrap up well!!  🧣🧤

December in the Bluebell Benefice

Coffee, Chat & Compline

Coffee, Chat and Compline runs most Sundays at 5pm.

Meeting online from 5-6pm on Sunday afternoons, Coffee, Chat & Compline offers a quiet hour in which to curl up with a drink in the virtual company of others, on the eve of a new week. This is safe space in which to explore joys, doubts, struggles and questions of faith and prayer, and to share together how we encounter the presence of God in our day-to-day lives.  We finish the hour in the calm of the restful evening prayer of Compline.  

Our October theme is 'Poetry'.

Joining details for November 24 are:

Here is a useful prayer 'toolshed' with different approaches to prayer. 

Annual Report

Our Benefice Annual Report for the year 2023-4 is available, covering all that has been happening in our churches.

Money Matters

As a Benefice we have been exploring with gratitude the many different gifts that we have been given, and which we share and offer together.  As part of deepening our discipleship in this way, we are reviewing matters of our stewardship and looking to better understand our finances as a whole.  We are having important conversations as a Benefice-wide congregation about how practically we can better sustain, resource and fund the ministry, maintenance and service of our churches and wider communities both now and into the future.  Please have a read of this information, 'Money Matters', to learn more.

Money matters - 2023.pdf

Vacancy for a Benefice Organist

We are seeking a new organist to share your skills and passion for music, to work with our congregation and choir to bring out and accompany the best worship we have to offer!

Supported by our Rector and PCCs, you will work closely with our experienced Authorised Lay Minister for Music and Choir Director, and with our vibrant RSCM-affiliated choir.

One Sunday service and one choir practice per week, plus additional services at major festivals. £3,000 per annum, plus additional fees for occasional offices.

The Bluebell Benefice consists of four beautiful and adjacent village parishes in South-West Cambridgeshire which enthusiastically support and value a full range and variety of organ, choral and instrumental music in our worship.

Job description and details on how to apply are available here.

For more information, please contact Mrs. Sheila George (ALM/Choir Director): sjg@nutbells.plus.com.

Lego Church

At 4pm one Sunday each month we hold Lego Church, perfect for children young and old who love letting their imaginations run wild with Lego. We start with a thought for the day, then tell a story from the Bible, get into groups to make Lego constructions inspired by the story, and show each other what we have made.

We now meet in the Lighthouse Café in Great Gransden. For more info please contact Rev. Rachel and see our monthly calendar for the date.

Need Project

The Need Project in Gamlingay has put out an urgent call for some food items most required by families they are supporting locally.  If you could possibly kindly donate any of these items, it would make a huge difference.  Please either pass donations to Kathy Craze in Great Gransden, or leave neatly by the baptism fonts in any of our churches. Many thanks.

Daily Worship

Here are some links to resources for prayer and reflection that you can use at home.

A prayer for calm

When Jesus speaks to the woman from Samaria, He reassures her that it does not matter to God where or when we worship, but whether we do so ‘in spirit and in truth’, as our true selves.  If your true self, like mine, feels rather frightened, shaken and overwhelmed by the enormity of these times, then let’s make that the starting point of our worship.  This is a Celtic prayer for stilling our hearts:  

Encircle us, O God, 

keep faith within, 

keep panic without. 


Encircle us, O God, 

keep hope within, 

keep despair out.

 

Encircle us, O God,

keep love within,

keep fear without.


Adapted from David Adam’s 

"The Cry of the Deer"

Get in touch

The Revd. Rachel Blanchflower can be contacted at:

rev.gransdens@gmail.com, or by phone on: 07824 380 479.

Rachel’s post is half-time, but she will be in the villages most days of the week – except for Mondays and Thursdays, her days off.

Please get in touch if you have any enquiries about weddings, baptisms, funerals, home/hospital visits or exploring the Christian faith – or if you’d just value tea and a chat.

You might also like to follow us on Facebook.