News and Photo Gallery
Carols by Candlelight December 2023
The service was held on Thursday 21st December at 7pm and over 230 people attended. This year, as in 2022, the Church bells were rung before the service which is always very special.
The service was a combination of carols, readings and prayers. The St Mary’s choir was bolstered in numbers by members of other choirs and individuals who just wanted to sing. This was particularly welcoming, giving a much richer sound to the carols sung purely by the choir. Once all the congregations’ candles had been lit, or glow sticks handed out if preferred, the service opened with “Once in Royal David’s City” as is tradition the first verse was sung as a solo, our soloist being the very talented Maggie Jeeves. The junior choir sang “Away in a Manger” and “The Zither” carol. They were superb and as always one of the highlights of the evening, another being the solo of “O Holy Night” sung by Dean.
After the last carol had been sung, the junior choir were each given a cash gift and a chocolate Father Christmas. A bottle of wine was also presented to our organists Bill Fudge and Dean De-Matteis. At the end of the service the cash prizes and certificates were handed out to the winners and runners up for the decorated trees entered into the St Marys Christmas Tree Festival. The evening drew to a close with a gathering together for mulled wine, soft drinks and mince pies. A good opportunity to meet new people and catch up with old friends.
A Merry Celebration:
A do It Yourself, Nativity delights Maulden community
The 2023 Christmas Eve Nativity at Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Maulden was nothing short of magical, as the community came together for the heart-warming and entertaining “Do It Yourself Nativity”. The event was a resounding success, filling our church with joy and laughter. More than 280 people attended and once again the church was packed with extra chairs being set out to accommodate everyone.The “Do It Yourself Nativity”, a creative and community-driven production, saw both children and adults taking centre stage, bringing the timeless story to life with their infectious enthusiasm and spirited performances. The pews were filled with families and friends, creating a festive atmosphere that truly captured the spirit of Christmas.
A special thank you goes out to the dedicated cast, whose hard work and stellar performances made the Nativity a memorable experience for all. We extend our gratitude to Felicity Mehta and Kate Hillson for their work in putting the show together, adding a touch of magic to the Nativity scenes. A heartfelt acknowledgment is also due to Marjorie Horrell, whose tireless efforts behind the scenes have contributed to countless Nativity productions over the years, ensuring each one is more special than the last. In addition to the talented cast, we express our appreciation to Dean De-Matteis for his enchanting organ playing, which added a beautiful musical backdrop to the Nativity.
The success of the nativity would not have been possible without the fantastic turnout from the Maulden community. We extend our warmest thanks to everyone who filled the pews, making it a truly communal celebration. It was particularly heartening to welcome new faces into the church, reinforcing the sense of togetherness that defines our village.
As we reflect on the 2023 festive season, let’s take a moment to appreciate the joy and unity that events like the Christmas Eve Nativity bring to our community. The warmth and laughter shared in Saint Mary the Virgin Church remind us of the true spirit of Christmas, fostering connections and creating lasting memories.
Once again, a big thank you to everyone involved, and may the spirit of the season continue to shine brightly in Maulden throughout the coming year.
St Mary’s Christmas Tree Festival 2023
A superb total of twenty nine trees were entered .This comprised adult organisations /groups, individuals and children’s organisations/groups. In addition to the 29 trees in the contest there was also a Secret Santa and a Wishing tree.
The Secret Santa tree was a new addition to the festival this year and proved to be a great hit with the children. At least 40 gifts consisting of either toys or books were either wrapped or placed in a lucky dip box for the children to help themselves. Some carried their gifts home still wrapped whilst others ripped the paper off in haste to see what they had chosen from what was on offer. It was great fun not only for the children and proved a very welcome addition to the festivities.
The Wishing Tree, which was introduced the previous year, once again had a vast number of visitors complete a label and tie it onto the tree. Some did indeed write a wish for the future but others used it as an opportunity to remember loved ones. It really didn’t matter, it was still a very special tree with very special wishes.
As in previous years there was no set theme so participants could run riot with their ideas. Recycling was a theme that appeared in a number of the trees with one very ingenious tree being constructed purely from plastic bottles. The trees were very diverse this year so the outcome of the voting was going to be interesting.
There was a steady flow of visitors over the two days and it seemed that the short spells of rain did not put people off. The burgers and hotdogs proved popular as was the soup and assorted refreshments being served in the church hall where there were also stalls selling Christmas decorations and Bric-a-Brac.
A raffle was also held over the weekend with a good selection of prizes. This was drawn on the Sunday of the festival with prizes being delivered to those not in attendance.
The winners of the different categories of the tree competition were announced at the Carols by Candlelight service where they were presented with a cash prize and a certificate.
The results were as follows:-
CHILDREN’S CATEGORY
1st. Maulden Lower School with Winter Wonderland
2nd. Badger Hill Scouts with Where’s Rudolph
ADULT’S CATEGORY
1st. Spencer and Sam with The Christmas Decorator
2nd Emma Jackson with A Golden Touch
GROUPS CATEGORY
Joint 1st The Jigsaw Club with The Disabled tree
Women’s Institute with Skandi Juldagen
2nd Maulden Charities with Christmas T-Reecycled
Congratulations to everyone that took part and thank you to all the back room staff for their hard work. It wouldn’t happen without you.
Christmas Tree Festival 2024Winners and Runners UpWinter WonderlandMaulden Lower SchoolFirst place Children's CategoryWhere's Rudolph?Badger Hill ScoutsSecond Place Children's CategoryThe Christmas DecoratorSpencer & Sam - First Place Adult CategoryA Golden Touch - Second Place Adult CategoryEmma JacksonThe Disabled TreeJigsaw ClubJoint First Place Groups CategorySkandi JuldagenWomen's Institute Dabblers Group
Joint First Place Groups Category
Christmas T-Reecycled
Maulden Charities
Second Place Group Category
All the trees were amazing and so imaginative. Thank you to everyone who entered a tree and all the visitors who attended over the weekend.
Voting for favourite treeExcitement at the Secret Santa Tree~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before the service at the Village War Memorial a quiet reflective
service was held in St Mary’s Church. The well attended memorial service in the Church was very poignant and also enabled those who find standing outside somewhat difficult to also be part of commemorating Remembrance. The service allowed the opportunity to remember the sacrifice others made and are still making today.
Starting with the hymn “God is Love” and the poem “I went to see the Soldiers”, a small group that included children sang “Let there be peace on earth” and the poem “In Flanders Fields” was read.
These were interspersed with prayers, with a special one based on the poppy. As we touched the seeds we prayed they would be blown and spread across the world carrying the message of peace.
Special Prayers were said for Ukraine and the terrible violence taking place in Israel and Gaza.
With the organ playing softly the congregation came and laid poppies round the wreath that would then be taken to the service at the Village War Memorial.
After the hymn “O God our help in ages past” there was the
opportunity for candles, placed in the form of a cross, to be lit.
The last hymn “Peace perfect Peace” was sung, followed by the final Blessing.
A different and much appreciated quiet and reflective start to
Remembrance Sunday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Charity Dinners The Jigsaw Club has been one of our chosen charities this year and we are pleased to let you know that the sum of £580.00 has been forwarded to this very worthwhile organisation as a result of the charity dinners.
and also to the guests who have attended. The evenings are so enjoyable that I am sure it has not been a hardship for those who have participated !! Jean and Yune are excellent hosts and we know that some have almost become regular attendees at the charity dinners. Sue Derrick the Treasurer of
The Jigsaw Club:- We are very grateful and we will use it to improve the social lives of our members who without our transport and the activities that we provide would be quite isolated '
For more information on the charity dinners keep a look out for details on the weekly Pew Sheet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
GREAT NEWS !! The organ is now fully restored and sounding better than ever.
whose hard work has made this possible. To Jackson Environmental who removed the asbestos and Craig of EJ Johnson & Son who supervised the repair of the blower and the installation of the new blower box and all necessary work needed to put it all back together again. we are extremely grateful to The Friends of St Mary’s Church, The Williams Church Music Trust and the ON Organ fund. We also received a donation from The Gale Family Charity Trust and a personal donation from Mr Geoffrey Farr. grant applications, sourcing the people needed to carry out the work and generally overseeing the project. The unstinting resolve to achieve their goal must be applauded. Now come and join us on 24th February 2024 to celebrate at the organ recital.
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday 8th October 2023 saw a number of four legged furry, and some not so furry animals attending St Mary’s Church along with their human companions for a Pet Blessing Service. Those who were unable to bring their pet came with a cuddly toy to represent them. The 4th October is St Francis Day, the patron saint of animals, birds and all God’s creatures, so the perfect time to hold a Pet Blessing Service.
Dogs of all sizes and shapes attended and behaved impeccably.
There was a very quiet tortoise and mustn’t forget Lucy the cat.
The congregation enjoyed an informative talk by Sarah “The Vet” including the important principles of the Animal Welfare Act,
1. That all animals be kept in a suitable environment,
2. Have a suitable diet,
3. be able to exhibit normal behaviours,
4. Be housed appropriately
5. Protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.
After the pets received their individual blessings it was time for the drama, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, with actors of all ages taking part.
Poor Daniel, thrown into the lion’s den over night for praying to God and not to the king. But a happy ending as God sent an angel to protect him and leave the lions whimpering at the back of the cave.
The junior choir sang “If I were a butterfly” and by popular demand “A wiggly, wiggly worm”.
Out came the instruments for the last hymn. Would the dogs start barking as the instruments were banged and shaken? No! Of course not!
A good time was had by All.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harvest Festival 2023 at St Mary's Maulden
The weekend of Saturday, the 23rd and Sunday the 24th of September 2023 was very busy at St Mary’s Church Maulden with Harvest Festival celebrations.
On Saturday teams gathered in the Church Hall for the harvest supper and quiz. Jacket potatoes followed by amazing fruit crumble for pudding as well as refreshments of all kinds where enjoyed by all. Once the scrumptious meal had taken place, the serious business of answering the quiz questions commenced. Quiz Master Michael Richardson carefully posed all the questions to the teams and a really lovely, social and very enjoyable evening was had by all, excellent food, excellent company and lots of fun with the quiz.
On Sunday the church was decorated throughout with beautiful Harvest Festival arrangements which included displays of fruit, vegetables, foliage and flowers all set out in wonderful displays across the windowsills and all around the church.
The children’s choir sang beautifully a song entitled “When your father made the world" and the drama entitled “The greedy farmer" was excellently acted out with quite a bit of improvisation along the way by some of the actors, much to the joy of the congregation. Among the fun of it all was of course the message about sharing and not being greedy and certainly with all the wonderful donations of produce that had been brought in by the congregation to benefit the Clophill Community hub which serves Clophill and Maulden, generosity, kindness and sharing was certainly evident at the family service.
Revd Lynda received a lovely note of thanks for the gifts donated by the congregation for the Clophill Community hub which serves Clophill and Maulden.
Hi Lynda
Thank you so much for the wonderful donations from your kind parishioners it is a real boost to our stock.
“Can I just say a huge thank you to the parishioners of the church for the wonderful donations to the Community Hub Food Bank.
I can assure you every packet, tin and bottle will soon be on the hands of an individual or family who are finding things tough in the current economic environment.
Every time I restock our shelves I think of those people who will find things just a tiny bit easier if only for that one meal or that day and that together we are doing our little bit to make that happen.
Thanks again
Steve Langhorn
The Bishop of St Albans Harvest Appeal will also benefit from Harvest Festival when Maulden Lower School have their Harvest Festival Service in the church as the money raised will go to Missions Direct for their work in Kumi, Uganda by providing poor families with chickens of their own from which to get eggs and to continue to breed the chickens for more eggs in the future, a brilliant idea and self-perpetuation help for the families in dire need.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Refurbishment and repairs to the Organ 2023
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Images of the church at night
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Sunday the 13th of August 2023, St Mary's Church Maulden along with St Mary’s Church Clophill celebrated St Mary's Day at the annual Patronal Festival.
After the service all the congregation were asked to stand round the flag pole at St Mary’s church Maulden for a group picture as it was the first time the new St Alban flag had been flown with a visiting dignitary from the St Albans Diocese being present. Rev Canon Tim Bull can be seen in the picture standing next to Rev Canon Lynda Klimas on what turned out to be a bright and sunny August summer day with all the guests around them and the magnificent flag pole.
Further celebrations ensued at the Patronal barbecue held in The Rectory garden. As well as amazing food and brilliant company there was a table top quiz and a few sideshows from the Hillson Fairground as well. The caption for one of the photos with Sue and Lynda is "You wash, and I will wipe", they are always such busy bees and hostesses with the mostesses!!
New St Alban flag for St Mary the Virgin Church in Maulden
Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Maulden stands gracefully high on a hill
and can be seen from all around the village. A new addition to the church is
the magnificent St Alban flag that is now flown on special days on the superb
flag pole perfectly situated within the church grounds.
The Saint Alban Flag is a golden saltire on a blue field. The golden
saltire represents the first English Martyr, however, because St Alban was
not crucified but was beheaded, the cross is depicted diagonally (Saltire)
as Saint Alban was entitled to the cross of martyrdom having been executed
for his faith.
St Marys is part of the Diocese of St Albans and situated within the church itself is the St Alban Chapel. The chapel has a beautiful stained glass window at the east end of the aisle which depicts Saint Alban, who was a Roman soldier, wearing his uniform and giving his sword to Jesus to show his allegiance to Jesus and the Christian faith. Saint Alban is attributed as being the first Christian martyr in England and is the patron saint of converts and torture victims.
St Alban is a Christian Saint whose final words whilst he was being tortured are said to have been “I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Confirmation Service 29th June 2023
On a beautiful summer's evening on the 29th of June 2023, Saint Mary The Virgin Church in Maulden, Bedfordshire played host to the Rt Revd Richard Atkinson, Bishop of Bedfordshire who was attending to conduct a Confirmation service in the lovely setting of St Marys.
Assisting the Bishop was The Revd Canon Lynda Klimas, Honorary Chaplain to the King and Rector of Clophill and Maulden, and Rural Dean of Ampthill and Shefford as well as Prebendary Eric Shegog, who is a retired priest at Clophill and acted as the Bishop's Chaplain.
The magnificent St Mary's bells were beautifully rung before the service and with the united choir of singers from St Marys Maulden, St Mary's Clophill, St James Silsoe and St Andrews in Ampthill a wonderful selection of hymns all chosen by the Confirmation candidates themselves were sung and enjoyed by all.
There were also special prayers and a thoughtful sermon given by Bishop Richard and not forgetting the excellent refreshments at the end of the service where everyone could mingle and chat with each other after a very special celebration.
Congratulations to Confirmation Candidates Helene Bradshaw, Richard Janes, Dean De-Matteis and Garth Macintosh who were each presented with a Confirmation candle and a copy of "Questions of Life" by Nicky Gumbel as a memento of the occasion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Award winners Brian Woodward and Marjorie Horrell
Brian was awarded the British Empire Medal by King Charles III for meritorious service to the community having served on the Parish Council for 50 years as well as volunteering at the local school and at St Marys Church, Maulden. Brian has also been involved in the local branch of the Royal British Legion for almost 50 years and continues to be Maulden's official Standard Bearer.
Marjorie received the High Sheriff's Award in recognition of her good and valuable service in the community. Marjorie is also an extremely hardworking, highly valued volunteer at St Marys Church dealing with a number of roles on behalf of the church and its congregation.
Junior Choir 19th March 2023
OLIVIA ELEPHANT comes to visit St Marys.
OLIVIA is part of a Girl Guiding Bedfordshire initiative with Keech Hospice Care. Olivia has been on her "Big Trunk Trail" having adventures on her tour of the county and has been on display throughout Bedfordshire as part of her travels raising awareness for Keech Hospice along the way. Olivia will be staying with Maulden Brownies for a few weeks in June standing proudly in the Lady Chapel in St Mary’s church after the Brownies recent concert held in St Marys Church raising funds for Keech Hospice.
The Bell Tower
Model of the church
Sexton Hut Renovated
Harvest Festival 9th October 2022
Confirmation Service 3rd October 2019
Patronal Festival 11th August 2019
Bishop Richard dedicates the rebuilt wall 12th May 2019
clearing ivy from boundary wall Jan 2018
Before we started
The team in action
A job well done