Faith in Shenley
For information about services, please click on the following links.
St Martin's (Church of England)
Church of the Good Shepherd (Roman Catholic)
Shenley United Jewish Community (United Synagogue)
[The information on churches in this section is reproduced from Shenley Parish News by kind permission of the editor, Christine Braynis].
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Come and celebrate Easter morning in Shenley’s famous Walled garden!!
Re-create the garden experience at Easter! (The latest start-time yet so perhaps the easiest one!)
All are welcome to attend the communion service led by Rev Alison Facey, Methodist Minister of Shenley, Radlett & Potters Bar. Come early or bring a chair. This year the offering is again being donated to the charity, Action for Children.
The south entrance will be the one used and afterwards the Orchard tearoom (adjacent to the Garden) will be open for refreshments (tea/coffee or full breakfast - up to you)! All are very welcome to share in the experience.
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Monthly message
After a long harsh winter we seem to be finally seeing the first signs of Spring. As I write this, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the outside temperature has reached double figures. In the garden the crocuses and daffodils are beginning to reveal their vivid colours.
In the northern hemisphere, the Christian celebration at Easter - of Jesus’ resurrection from death to life - coincides well with the season of Spring. I never fail to marvel at the way in which buds form on branches of trees that, during winter, looked dead and lifeless. And yet it is at Easter that Christians celebrate God’s ability to bring new life to seemingly hopeless situations.
The diagnosis of a serious illness, the loss of a job, the sudden death of a loved one or friend can make us feel as if someone has pulled the rug from beneath our feet. Our plans crumble before our eyes and we are no longer sure of what the future holds for us.
Revd Donald Eadie, a Methodist minister, knows what it means to have to die to an old life that he loved. Diagnosed with a serious spinal condition, he was forced to retire early from his position as Chairman of the Birmingham District of the Methodist Church, and embrace a more restrictive way of living. He once, with ease, travelled around the UK and overseas. These days he spends most of his time in his study, reclining in a chair especially built to incline at an angle that doesn´t put pressure on his spine, listening to those who want the space to reflect on their lives with someone who will offer words of wisdom. From his own experience Donald writes:
“Out of the darkest soil God brings the life we call ‘resurrection’, out of the ruins of the best made plans, out of bruised and disappointed people, God brings the new creation…….. within a place of fear and trembling God still opens up in the deep places a future we could not plan.
For some these rumours are sheer foolishness; for others they are the central mystery into which [we are invited] both to enter and trust.” (Grain in Winter, p.132)
May this spring be a time when we discover the signs of new life not just in our gardens but in our own lives.
Rev Alison Facey