Welcome

A very warm welcome to our website, especially if this is your first visit. We hope that some of the things we do will appeal to you ... and may help you connect with God.

Gardens of Langham Open

On Sunday 24th June we shall be opening some of our loveliest gardens of all kinds and sizes to the public. Refreshments will be available. There will also be an opportunity to buy plants. The money raised will go towards the upkeep of St Mary's Church.

The pictures below are from the last time we held our Open Gardens event.

Boxted Beer and Hymns

We recently held a wonderfully successful Beer and Hymns event ... where church and pub collide! Well over 100 people came along.

Our next Youth Worker: Dorothea Müller

I am very pleased that Dorothea Müller has agreed to be our Youth Worker next year.

Dorothea writes:

Hello! My name is Dorothea Müller, I am 19 years old and I live in a small village in the south of Germany with my parents, my sister (17) and my brother (15). For the last nine years I went to school in Schwäbisch Hall, a town with 37,000 people, but this summer, my school time finishes. After that I would really like to do something else than learning out of books, so I have decided to do a “Diaconal Year abroad”. Now, I am going to be the next TFG-worker (the organisation is called Time for God) for Langham and Boxted from September 2012 until summer 2013. I am really happy to be spending this time at your parish.
In my leisure time I love to make music either on the piano, the guitar or in a choir. Also, I really like to spend time with my friends, to do sports or to go out into nature. Furthermore, my Christian faith has an important role in my life. That’s the reason why I contribute in the local parish, for example in a children’s group and a youth choir. In general the work with children and teenagers gives me a lot of pleasure, so I hope to have new experiences during my time in England.
During the next year, I hope to get to know many interesting people. I hope to learn a lot during the work in the parish and in the schools. Also, I am looking forward to sharing my faith with the people I am going to meet.
I hope we will meet in Langham or Boxted in September!
Best wishes and God bless you!
Dorothea Müller

Start Course

Start! is a basic introduction to the Christian faith in six sessions.

Who’s it for?

It’s for people who are asking “big questions”, or who are wondering about God, or who want to investigate the truth behind Christianity.

What happens?

I will welcome everyone with a cup of tea or coffee. After a chat, we will watch a five minute video clip. This will explain some aspect of the Christian faith and raise the kinds of questions you may have. There is then a chance to talk about what we have watched. At this point, you can ask anything at all — no question is “off limits” because it’s too simple or too challenging. At the end we watch another quick video clip. We will be finished in about an hour.

What’s the catch?

There is no catch. You don’t need to come to all six sessions. If it’s not “your thing”, that’s fine. There’s no cost, and if you like, you can bring a friend!

Where and when?

We meet at The Rectory on Monday mornings at 9.15 am (or come earlier if you like) and we will always be finished by 10.30 am. If you would like to come, phone me on: 01206 230666

14 May    Life is for living
21 May    Oh my God!
28 May    Jesus who?
4 June      No Meeting – Half Term Holiday
11 June    What’s gone wrong?
18 June    Dying to save us
25 June    Into the arms of love

Confirmation

If you are an adult or a young person in Year 6 or above you might like to think about being confirmed.

Confirmation does not mean that you have “arrived” in your Christian journey, but it is an important step forward. It is when you make for yourself the promises made at your baptism. The bishop then prays for you with the laying on of hands. Once you are confirmed, you may receive the bread and wine at the service of Holy Communion.

Confirmation is an important step. To make sure that you’re ready, I shall be putting on some preparation sessions. These will help you understand more of the Christian faith – and help you to live it out. Details are on the back of this leaflet.

There will then be a special Confirmation Service on Sunday 1 July at 5.00 pm when the Bishop will confirm you.

If you are interested, please phone me on: 01206 230666.

Connect

Connect is for people of all ages who want to connect with God … but who don’t want church to be too “churchy”. So one evening, we worshiped God by painting and drawing on a giant canvas!

Come along.     Paint pictures.     Eat doughnuts.     Sing songs.
Watch videos.     Enjoy sketches.     Join in.     Meet Jesus.
Feel young.     Find life.     Worship God.     Be transformed.

Our next Connect services are at 6.00 pm on 13 May and 15 July.

The Edge Youth Group in Norfolk

We recently took nine of our 11 to 16 year-olds for a weekend on the north Norfolk coast. It was a fantastic weekend of table tennis, prayer and Bible study, cooking pizza and buying a single brussell sprout in the local supermarket for just 2p. We also went to the beach, of course. It was jolly cold as you can see!

Congratulations!

Warmest congratulations go to our organist, Elizabeth Schofield, for being appointed an MBE in the New Years Honours! Elizabeth richly deserves this recognition for over 50 years of dedicated service to our churches. Well done!

PCC Priorities

The PCC (the church council) has now come up with a list of five priority areas, and is now looking for comments and feedback from the wider congregation. Please read through the list below and pass on any comments to me. Are these the things we should be doing?

Grow in our personal faith.
Increase our Sunday attendance.
Engage with our young people.
Help our community in practical ways.
Keep our finances on a secure footing.

Rector's PhD Thesis: Genesis, Jesus and Genetics

There have been a number of requests to make the Rector's PhD thesis available. It can be downloaded by clicking on the attachment at the bottom of this page.

What are We About?

Our two beautiful churches of St Mary’s, Langham and St Peter’s, Boxted aim to provide Christian worship and teaching which enables everyone to encounter God. On a Sunday you’ll meet people of all ages and from many church traditions – and none. We unite as a family at the Eucharist as we share bread and wine together and are always delighted to welcome newcomers – especially those who are trying “church” for the first time.

Our music blends the traditional and contemporary. We successfully combine the fun of children playing simple musical instruments with more formal liturgy. We feed our souls, our bodies and our relationships as we study God’s word and as we chat over coffee and eat cakes after our morning service.

We do all this so that the Gospel may be preached, the faith may be taught, and that everyone may come to know the love of Jesus.

What do We Believe?

Each week at the Eucharist we proclaim: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”

We believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to take away our sins so that we might have peace with God. We believe that Jesus rose bodily from the grave on the first Easter morning. We believe that he will one day return this world, and that in the meantime we can know him through the power of God’s Holy Spirit within us.

Sunday Services: Pattern and Style

Our principal Sunday service is at 10 am. This is usually a “Common Worship” Eucharist although sometimes it is a more informal All Age Family Service. It alternates between St Mary’s, Langham, and St Peter’s, Boxted.  Having a single main service helps to bring our two villages together.  The service lasts for 70 minutes (unless it’s an All Age service, which is shorter).  The Eucharist (also known as Holy Communion) is partly sung to a simple setting. We always include a children’s item at the beginning, after which the children leave for their Sunday Group activities, returning for the Communion.  Most baptisms take place during the 10 am service.

After the 10 am service there are always free refreshments, when people stay to chat and enjoy each others’ company; newcomers to St Mary’s or St Peter’s find this a good opportunity to get to know everyone.

Whenever the principal service is in St Mary’s, we hold a 6 pm evening service at St Peter’s. This usually takes the form of Evensong from the Book of Common Prayer (1928). However, from time to time we experiment with alternative forms of worship. These have included services of healing, meditative prayer, and choral evensong with a visiting choir. The evening services last 50 minutes.

Whenever the principal service is at St Peter’s, there is an early morning 8.30 am Eucharist at St Mary’s. This quiet traditional service uses the Book of Common Prayer (1928). There is a short sermon, and the whole service lasts 40 minutes.

From time to time we also hold Connect which is our contemporary, youth-led service. This happens on a Sunday evening at 6 pm roughly once a month.

Click here to see the current programme of Sunday Services.

Sunday Group

The Sunday Group is for children aged 11 and under. It meets during the 10 am principal service for a range of fun, Bible-based activities. These include art and craft, drama and music. At Christmas, the children take part in our annual dramatised Nativity.