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.
December Services
Lots and lots of invitations this Advent and Christmas!
The December poster gives details of all our services and events, whilst
'Follow the Star, Join the Song' highlights a caroling route through the season!
Everyone is warmly welcome at all services and events (though do dress up warmly too!). Together we yearn and look for the coming of Light, and tune into God's extraordinary notes of love, hope, peace and joy.
A very blessed Advent and Christmastide.
Money Matters
In this month of harvest, we are 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.pdfCoffee, Chat & Compline
Coffee, Chat and Compline runs most Sunday 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.
Through October, our Harvest Festival month, we will be exploring together the theme of 'God's good gifts' - being gifts, receiving gifts, sharing gifts and offering gifts - and what gifts and giving teach us of God's own nature and character.
Joining details for November 19 are:
Here is a useful prayer 'toolshed' with different approaches to prayer.
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.
cereal, pasta sauce, tea, coffee, squash, UHT milk
tins (baked beans/potatoes/carrots/sweetcorn/peas/cold meats/tuna/pasta/fruit/custard/rice pudding)
Annual Report
Our Benefice Annual Report for the year 2020-1 is available, covering all that has been happening in our churches.
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.
