News & Features

As the Easter Season draws to a close for another year we enter into the season of Ascension to Pentecost

The Feast of the Ascension is celebrated forty days after Easter Sunday. It is always on a Thursday. The date for 2021 is May 13^th. After his crucifixion and resurrection, Holy Scripture tell us he was seen for forty days before he ascended into heaven to be “seated at the right hand of God the Father.” After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples awaited the promised gift of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem.

There will be an opportunity to celebrate the feast of the Ascension on Thursday 13^th May at St Peter’s Yaxham at 7.30pm . Do join us if you are able.  

The Day, or Feast of Pentecost celebrates the day when the Holy Spirit came to the disciples as they were gathered in Jerusalem.

We are told in Acts 2 that tongues of fire came to rest on each of them and each were filled with the Holy Spirit.

May our prayer be that by the power of the Holy Spirit we will be inspired and equipped to share the Good news of Jesus Christ with all those we meet.

Services to celebrate Pentecost will be announce shortly.

Further Opportunities to Pray
Morning Prayer will be continuing on Zoom each day at 9am and as always all are welcome. The liturgy and readings for the coming season are in the Resources section of this website or directly from HERE.

Thy Kingdom Come

https://www.thykingdomcome.global

On this website there are lots of resources to help you:

• Deepen your own relationship with Jesus Christ
• Pray for 5 friends or family to come to faith in Jesus
• Pray for the empowerment of the Spirit that we would be effective in our witness.

So far we only have a video recording available this week, which can be found HERE. We'll update this page if we can also get an audio version. It is also available on the benefice Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/matvchurch.

A new edition of ASM Communicates is now available from HERE.

The audio and video recordings of the Zoom benefice service are now available from HERE and HERE respectively.

The audio and video recording of the benefice service on Sunday 18th April are now available HERE and HERE respectively. Mark's talk was based on Luke 24:36b-48.

A simple service of Remembrance for HRH The Duke of Edinburgh is being held at All Saints, Mattishall on Friday 16^th April at 6pm, the time many such services are happening across the country. This service is open to all, but we hope will be of relevance to anyone who has felt the Duke’s loss personally or who has been influenced by his life of service and charity work. 

The service will include a few personal tributes to Prince Philip. If you have any that you would to be considered for inclusion, please pass them onto to Mark. 

The audio and video are now available from HERE and HERE respectively. The service was led by Mel, who also gave the talk based on John 20:19-end and Acts 4:32-35. The service included a reflection on the life of Prince Philip.

It is with sadness that we announce the death of Prince Phillip, and offer our condolences and prayers to Her Majesty The Queen and all the Royal Family.

A special prayer for the Prince.

God of our lives,
we give thanks for the life of Prince Philip,
for his love of our country,
and for his devotion to duty.
We entrust him now to your love and mercy,
through our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you wish to offer your condolences you can do so here: Remembering his Royal Highness Prince Philip.

Local arrangements will announced as soon as they have been made.

The Roothams have created another video of a worship song. This time it is "King of Kings" and can be seen HERE. Do take a look. Enjoy it and worship with them!

The audio and video recordings for the benefice service on Easter morning are HERE and HERE respectively. This service was one of 6 services in the benefice that morning, with the other services taking place in the various churches of the benefice.

Dear all,
With the next stage of lockdown easing due on 17th May, we have only planned services up until 16th May. From the Sunday after Easter, we will be having services in 2 churches each Sunday (one at 9.00 and one at 10.30) as well as continuing with the Zoom service at 10.00. Current plans are as follows:

Please note that we intend to have the annual Parker Sermon service in All Saints, Mattishall at 18.00 on Sunday 9th May. More details on that later.

Over the next couple of months we have our annual meetings around the benefice. Each parish has its own meeting, when churchwardens are elected together with other lay people who serve as part of the leadership of their parish and the wider church. There are two annual meetings, often run together, one which just elects the churchwardens, called the Annual Parochial Meeting (APM) and the other that looks at the financial health of the church, and conducts the other elections, called the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM).

Covid-19 restrictions means that we will be doing things differently this year. For the parishes of East Tuddenham, Mattishall, North Tuddenham and Yaxham, we will be running them online using Zoom. For Hockering and Welborne we are splitting the two parts onto two dates - the APM after a church service and the APCM in May.

The official notices are uploaded onto the resources section of this website here, but here is the summary of what they say:

East Tuddenham: APM & APCM on Tue 20 Apr 21 at 19:30 at tinyurl.com/MATV-APCM. There are elections for 2 churchwardens and 6 PCC members.

Hockering: APM on Sun 18 Apr 21 at 09:00 at St. Michael's, Hockering & APCM on Wed 19 May 21 at 19:30 at St. Michael's, Hockering. There are elections for 2 churchwardens, 5 PCC members, and 1 Deanery Synod representatives.

Mattishall: APM & APCM on Wed 21 Apr 21 at 19:30 at tinyurl.com/MATV-APCM. There are elections for 2 churchwardens, 6 PCC members, and 3 Deanery Synod representatives.

North Tuddenham: APM & APCM on Thu 22 Apr 21 at 19:30 at tinyurl.com/MATV-APCM. There are elections for 2 churchwardens, 4 PCC members, and 1 Deanery Synod representatives.

Welborne: APM on Sun 25 Apr 21 at 09:00 at All Saints, Welborne  & APCM on Mon 17 May 21 at 19:30 at All Saints, Welborne. There are elections for 2 churchwardens, 6 PCC members, and 1 Deanery Synod representatives.

Yaxham: APM & APCM on Mon 19 Apr 21 at 19:30 at tinyurl.com/MATV-APCM. There are elections for 2 churchwardens, 5 PCC members, and 1 Deanery Synod representatives.

Churchwardens are elected every year, but because we missed out elections last year at all the parishes except East Tuddenham, we have elections for Deanery Synod Reps and two years worth of PCC members as well. If you would like to consider election for any of these important roles, or would like to suggest to someone else you know that they consider it, please find nomination forms also in the resources section of the website here.

The audio and video recordings of the Zoom benefice service on Palm Sunday 2021 are now availalbe. The audio is HERE and the video is HERE. Alan was speaking about Jesus coming as king and making sure he is our king.

Everyone in the benefie should have received their Easter booklet by now, but a downloadable copy is available from HERE too.

North Tuddenham's Mardle magazine is now available for download HERE.

Services over the period Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday will be as follows:

Palm Sunday:
10:00 Online service (Zoom). We will be looking, with a bit of help from Donald Trump and Bob Dylan, at Jerusalem as king.

Maundy Thursday:
19:30 Online service “Jesus washed his disciples' feet…” (Zoom)

Good Friday:
11:00 Online Walk of Witness (Zoom)
14:00 Hour before the Cross at Yaxham

Easter Day:
09:00 Communion services at Hockering & Welborne
10:00 Online service (Zoom)
10:30 Communion services at ASM, East Tuddenham and Yaxham

All online services will use the usual connection details of:

https://tinyurl.com/matv-sundays

Meeting ID: 834 0140 0096
Password: 858873

Dear Friends,

We have uploaded the Liturgy for Morning Prayer for Holy Week here.

As always you are very welcome to Join us on Zoom Mon-Fri or for a more informal time of prayer on Saturday 9am

835 1392 5378 password 858873

Also for Holy week there are services on Zoom

Maundy Thursday 7.30pm  – When we will be focusing Jesus Humility and his command for us to love one another -There will be an opportunity for foot or hand washing – Please bring with you an Empty bowl, a jug of water and a towel.  

Good Friday 11am -  A virtual walk of witness around Mattishall

Good Friday 2pm – An Hour at the cross

Id and password for all the above: ID 834 0140 0096 password  858873

Easter Day – Holy Communion at All Saints Mattishall, All Saints Welborne, St Peters Yaxham , St Michaels Hockering and All Saints East Tuddenham – Details will be confirmed in due course.  Please check the website. Restrictions will still be in place so please wear a mask, apply hand sanitiser on entry and socially distance

With every blessing

Andrea

This morning (21st March 2021) Mark led us through the last verses of Romans 15 where the apostle Paul is writing to the church in Rome. There, amongst other things, he asks them to pray for him in hse work. Mark then went on to speak of our privilege in being partnered with people overseas who are spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and focussed on Paula and Derek Finlayson.

The audio can be heard from HERE and the video recording HERE.

The last year and a bit have been hard for many, many people. Even for some of us oldies (I’m pushing 63 myself), it has been a time unlike any other we can remember. The huge change since early 2020 has been a shock to the system. Early on things were changing rapidly, but as the months wore on, so many of us became tired, so very tired. Now, there is hope that the darkest days are generally behind us, though thousands upon thousands of families have lost loved ones and many who have had Covid-19 are still struggling with ongoing symptoms. For some, such difficulties are still to come.

So where has God been in all this? For Christians, this sort of question is difficult to answer. I don’t think any Christian can honestly say they have the complete answer.

However, we do know someone who does and it is someone who has suffered immense pain and suffering himself. The bible teaches that Jesus was “in very nature God”, yet was born as a human being into this world where there was so much pain and suffering. He knew and knows what it is to suffer.

There was a state-sponsored attempt on his life as a baby, he was a refugee as a baby, he was brought up in an ordinary family in an occupied country and when he began his public ministry around the age of 30 he had “nowhere to lay his head”. He was betrayed by a close friend, arrested, beaten, scourged and then nailed to a cross to die a horrific death. On top of that was something that we struggle to understand, his abandonment by his Father. On the cross Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!” Those words are the opening line of Psalm 22, one of the psalms that he, as a Jewish man, would have known by heart. It was this psalm, which Jesus prayed on that cross.

Yet, the day Jesus died, the day we call “Good Friday”, was followed by Easter Sunday. Jesus had died on the cross to pay for our sins (the actions and attitudes that separate us from God), to make a way back to God for us. His Father demonstrated his acceptance of what Jesus did by raising him from the dead early that Easter Sunday. There was an end to the darkness.

Those who love and follow Jesus Christ, who know his forgiveness, have a hope that God has given us. If you read the whole of Psalm 22, you will see that despite the horror of the first verses the psalmist (King David) is able to trust God through that horror and have hope. It isn’t a wishful thinking, but a hope based on the God that David knew. For Christians, things are clearer than they were for the David, who lived hundreds of years before Jesus did. For Christians we can see that Jesus conquered death and promised the same for those who turn to him.

Maybe we will get back to some sort of normality this year, but there will always be things that life will throw at us, things we can’t handle. Yet there is a God who loves you, who wants to be with you through those bad things (and in the good things too). In the relatively comfortable West, we so often ignore him, yet elsewhere in the world many people are driven by their circumstances to look at what is really important in their life. They have come to the conclusion that what matters above all else is knowing the God who loves them. Covid-19 has turned our lives upside down. May it lead to us knowing that what matters above all else is the same for us too, knowing the God who loves us, both now and for all eternity. Want to know more? Grab yourself a bible and read about what Jesus said and what Jesus did in the New Testament. Maybe you heard about some of it when you were young and in Sunday School and have distant memories of it. If you look again now and dig deep, you’ll meet the Jesus who has been through it all himself and wants you back.

The audio and video recordings of the benefice service for Mothering Sunday are available HERE and HERE respectively.

The audio & video recordings of the benefice service for the World Day of Prayer are now available. Anna English led the service along with several other ladies. The audio can be heard HERE and the video seen HERE.

The Mardle magazine from North Tuddenham is now available in the Resources section of this website.

The audio and video recordings of the benefice service are now available from HERE (audio) and HERE. Our them was Jesus' command to "Take up your cross". Alan Cossey was the speaker.

The audio and video recordings of the benefice service on Genesis 9 is now available. The audio file can be found HERE and the video file HERE.

The audio and video files of tonight's Ash Wednesday service can be found HERE and HERE. Andrea led in in a series of reflections.

The audio and video recordings of the service on 14th February 2021 are now available. The audio recording is HERE and the video recording is HERE.

The audio and video recordings of today's benefice service are now available. The audio recording is available from the Resources section of this website or directly from HERE and the video is available HERE.

The recording of the service from 31st January 2021 is now available as audio HERE and as video HERE.

Dear Friends,

The Season of Epiphany is coming to an end and so is January. The days are beginning to lengthen and we see signs of new growth in our gardens and hedgerows.  The Church now enters into a short period of “Ordinary time” before the Season of Lent. If we were able to be in our church buildings, the colour you would see on the Lords Table would be green. A sign of hope or triumph of life over death, like regrowth in springtime.

Last spring as we entered the 1^st lockdown many people I spoke to, were struck a new at the wonder of creation as the trees and hedges came into bud, the birds sang with gusto and the bare earth once again revealed new life. 

 “Ordinary” Time might well refer to living out our “ordinary” lives as Christians. But, since we follow the risen Lord of the Universe, there is nothing “ordinary” about it!

May this season allow for more continuous reading from the Bible, for the exploration of other themes such as creation and the environment. May we continue with a renewed energy to Love God and neighbour and pray with expectation for regrowth of Christ’s Church in our communities.

Attached is the Liturgy and readings for Morning Prayer. As always you are welcome to join us on Zoom every morning at 9am or to use the booklet on your own at home. The booklet can be found HERE.

Coming Up…….

On Wednesday 17^th February at 7.30pm we will be marking Ash Wednesday – the beginning of Lent. As we are on Zoom this service will be different from anything we might have done in ‘normal times’ . Using Psalm 103 as a basis for this short service we will explore together the themes of praise, God’s Grace and compassion, our own fragility and the wonder of God’s Kingdom for all. There will also be time for you to mark yourselves with ash, a sign of penitence and a reminder that we are created by God from the dust of the earth. More information will follow nearer the time, Please do put the date in your diary.

With every blessing

Andrea   

The latest edition of North Tuddenham's Mardle, the February 2021 edition, is now available from the Resources section of this website or directly from HERE.

The audio and video recordings of the benefice service of 24th January 2021 is now available. The audio can be heard HERE and the video seen HERE. As ever, there may be a slight delay on the afternoon of the recording while YouTube processes the video, but it should be available to watch from about 14:30 on 24/1/2020 onwards.

The audio and video recordings for this service, where we looked at creation and it demonstrating God's love for us, are now available. The video is HERE and the audio is HERE.

The audio and video recordings of this service are now available. The audio recording can be found HERE and the video HERE.

The audio and video recordings of our service are now available HERE and HERE respectively. Jackie's talk was based on John 1:1-18 and included telling us about how she became a Christian.

The AUDIO and VIDEO recording of the benefice service on Sunday 27th December are now available. We looked at the example of Joseph in Matthew 2:13-23 and how he leads us to Jesus. Please note that the 1 minute 15 seconds video clip shown during the service has not been allowed on YouTube because of copyright reasons.

Dear friends, 

I hope this email finds you well and with some of the hope of Advent filling your life after such a difficult year.

As Advent makes the transition into Christmas this weekend, we are having plenty of opportunities to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We look forward to welcoming to you to our worship, both online and also in our parish churches. We have tried to choose the best approach to fit the service. Therefore, Carol Services and Christingle are on Zoom because we aren’t allowed to sing carols together in church buildings and we can’t fit in the numbers we usually have, and there are Communion Services in every open parish church as we cannot receive bread and wine ‘virtually’.

The details are all below, but can I encourage you to please spread the news as widely as possible. Not everyone who would like to join in is on our email list, or reads their emails. And people in our communities who would normally come to a service may not realise what is happening, especially for those services on Zoom. Please give people a call, or pass on the details in other ways so that everyone who wishes to join in for Christmas has the opportunity. Thank you in advance.

Carol Services and Christingle (on Zoom and Facebook Live)

Sunday 20^th December:

• 14:00; Carol Service for the village of North Tuddenham (Meeting ID: 834 0140 0096, Passcode: 858873)
• 18:00; Contemporary style Carol Service, similar to that held at ASM in previous years (Meeting ID: 820 9614 6521, Passcode 20122020)

Thursday 24^th December, Christmas Eve:

• 16:00; Christingle Service – (Meeting ID: 890 7383 6690, Passcode 24122020)
• 18:00; Traditional style Carol Service, based on nine lessons and carols (Meeting ID: 879 2263 3430, Passcode 24122020)

Friday 25^th December, Christmas Day:

• 10:00; Joyful Christmas Day service with carols (Meeting ID: 834 0140 0096, Passcode: 858873)

Sunday 27^th December, Christmas 1/John

• 10:00; Morning Worship (Meeting ID: 834 0140 0096, Passcode: 858873)

Christmas Communion Services (in our parish churches)

These are happening in our parish churches (except for St. Mary’s, North Tuddenham which is unfortunately closed at the moment). They are ‘proper’ communion services, and we will be receiving both the bread and wine, but the social distancing rules apply, we must wear masks and there is still no congregational singing.

For the services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we heavily recommend that you book up in advance, because the capacity of all our churches is heavily reduced owing to the social distancing regulations. If you don’t book up, come on the day, and the church is ‘full’ then we will not be able to let you in the service!

Thursday 24^th December, Christmas Eve:

• 10:30 East Tuddenham; book through Janet Guy on 01603 880523
• 20:00 Yaxham; book through Sally Thurgill on 01362 692745
• 21:30 Welborne; book through Susan Cross on 01362 858612
• 23:30 Hockering; book through Andrea Woods on 01603 928279

Friday 25^th December, Christmas Day:

• 10:30 Mattishall, All Saints; book through Alan Cossey on alan.cossey@matvchurch.uk or 01362 857904 (email preferred, please).

Sunday 27^th December, Christmas 1/John

• 10.30 Yaxham; no need to book in advance

We look forward to seeing you all at some point(s) this Christmas season.

Wishing you a joyful and safe time.

Mark McCaghrey

Rector: Mattishall and Tudd Valley Benefice
Benefice Office, Church Rooms, Dereham Road, Mattishall,
Dereham, Norfolk, NR20 3QA.
​Phone: 01362 882260
Office: 01362 858873
www.matvchurch.uk
Skype: mark_16515

North Tuddenham's Mardle magazine for January 2021 is now available either from the Resources section or directly from HERE.

The video and audio recordings are now available. The video is available from HERE and the audio from HERE or the resources section of this benefice web site.

The audio and video are now available. As usual the audio can be heard and/or downloaded from the resources section of this benefice website or directly from HERE and the video can be see HERE. 

The December edition of Marled, the magazine for North Tuddenham, is now available from the Resources section of this benefice website or directly from HERE.

The audio and video recordings of the benefice Zoom service on 29th November, which is the first Sunday in Advent, are now available. The audio recording can be found in the resources section of the benefice website or directly HERE. The video can be seen HERE.

The audio and video recording of the benefice service on 22nd November 2020 are now available. The audio recording can be found in the resources section or directly from HERE. The video is available from HERE. Mark was speaking on Matthew 25:31-46.

The 1 hour time of information, prayer and worship spoken about in the service today (15th November 2020) has been recorded and can be seen at HERE.

The audio and video files of this service are now available. The video is available HERE and the audio file can be found on the resources section of the website or, directly, HERE.