The 3 R's history trail

The 3 R’s history trail covers the churches of Rawreth, Rettendon & Runwell.

Each church is unique with its own history and we welcome you to come and find out more. Visit our churches and see for yourself.

Today we launched the 3 R’s history trail with Open Days at St Nicholas Rawreth, All Saints Rettendon, and St Mary’s Runwell.

Rawreth Church (St Nicholas)

The parish of Rawreth has a list of Rectors going back to before 1361. It retains a 13th century tower, but the present church was rebuilt in 1882. The tower, arch and west wall of the north aisle remain from 1450, the rest has been rebuilt in 1882 to designs of Ernest Geldart, rector of Little Braxted.

• The family of Lancelot Andrewes lived in Rawreth and St Nicholas Church was their family church. Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the Authorized Version (or King James Version) of the Bible.
• Church organ - one of the smallest church organs in the country, built c.1860-1870 by Bryceson and Ellis
• Bells - over 700 years old and made by John Hadham C. 1320, making them amongst the oldest bells in Essex
• Chancel screen, reredos and pulpit - designed by the architect, the Reverend Geldart in 1862
• Memorial - to Edmund Tyrell and his wife of Beeches manor dated 1576

Runwell Church (St Mary's)

St. Mary’s Church is a beautiful Grade I* listed building, a magnificent mediaeval building which boasts an interesting and mixed history. The church is often described by both visitors and regular worshippers as a powerful sacred space to which they have been drawn.

This powerful impact comes in part from the art and architecture in the space. From the modern rood screen to the beautiful stained glass windows, St Mary’s is a must on any history trail. Its two churchyards (one linked to Runwell Hospital) also provide green space in which to walk and reflect. The church and churchyards are often used for contemplative Quiet Days. The Running Well, which may have given Runwell its name, is one mile from the Church.

• Prioress' tomb - tomb of the last Prioress at the Nunnery by the Running Well
• Runwell cross - original and contemporary versions of this unique cross design
• Devil's Claw - marks on a door, said to have been made by the Devil whilst chasing a curate
• Murals - medieval-style mural designs and interior decoration
• Painting - 'The Baptism of Christ' by Walsingham artist Enid Chadwick
• Squints - enabling those outside to see in.

Rettendon Church (All Saints)

The village of Rettendon is blessed with an old and beautiful Grade 1 listed church, with many unique aspects of its history.

The church stands on high ground, its 15th century ragstone tower acting as a landmark for the area. All Saints stands on high ground and from its lofty tower, over 100 feet high, there is an extensive view. To the east one can see the Crouch estuary, to the south the hills of Rayleigh stand out boldly, to the west, the round hilltops of the Langdon Hills are a notable landmark.

• Memorial - marble and alabaster memorial to Edmund Humfrye dating from the early 18th century, one of the best of its type in the country
• Anchorite Cell - the upstairs room over the vestry may have been used by an anchorite linked to the Nunnery at the Running Well, as evidenced by the window there which overlooks the altar
• Memorial brasses - to the Canon family, whose charity fund is available to villagers in need to this day
• Choir stalls - with 15th century medieval wood carvings on the nine bench ends
• Piscina and Sedilia - the Piscina, a stone basin, is dated 1220 while the double Sedilia also dates from the 13th century and consists of two bays with trefoiled heads and moulded labels

St Nicholas Church, Church Rd, Rawreth, Wickford SS11 8SH
Open every day between 09:00—16:00

St Mary's Church, Runwell Road, Runwell, Essex SS11 7HS
St Mary's is open by prior arrangement only. Please contact the churchwarden to arrange a time to visit:
Tel: 01268 765360
Email: alanvictorjones20@gmail.com

All Saints Church, Church Chase, Rettendon, Chelmsford CM3 8DP
Open Friday 10:00—12:00 or by prior arrangement only.

For further details on our history trail please contact:

Rev'd Jonathan Evens - jonathan.evens@btinternet.com | 07803 562329
Rev’d Steve Lissenden - revsteveliss@gmail.com | 07944 959300

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Josh Garrels - Farther Along.

Thin Places & Sacred Spaces: Launch events & readings

Dates have now been set for the online launch events for 'Thin Places & Sacred Spaces'. Join editor Sarah Law, founder of Amethyst Press for evenings of poetry readings and discussion on what makes the concept of a thin place so compatible with poetry. 

Use the following links to book your free space:

Monday September 30th 7-8PM UK time (BST)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thin-places-sacred-spaces-september-online-launch-tickets-1026921248097?aff=oddtdtcreator

Friday October 25th 7-8PM UK time (BST)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thin-places-sacred-spaces-october-online-launch-tickets-1026964326947?aff=oddtdtcreator

In this important and wide-ranging new anthology from Amethyst Press, with contributions by over 150 contemporary poets, readers are invited to reflect on and experience the poetry of ‘thin places’. The ‘thin place’ is a Celtic term, originally indicating a specific geographical location where the veil between heaven and earth seems exceptionally thin or lifted altogether. The anthology embraces and expands the concept of thin places and sacred spaces, including:

• Sacred Locations
• Sacred Nature
• Sacred Architecture
• Sacred Times & Holy Hours
• The Thin Veil Between Life & Death
• The Holy Unexpected
• Thin Places in Art, Poetry & Language

If you have ever felt the touch of eternity in nature or sacred architecture; at specific times of the day or year; in stillness, movement, art, silence or surprise – this collection is for you.

'Runwell', the poem of mine which has been included in Thin Places and Sacred Spaces, is part of a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in Essex. 'Broomfield' has just been published by International Times and the other poems in this sequence - 'Bradwell' and 'Pleshey' - will be published shortly by International Times and Amethyst Review respectively.

I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems. 'All Shall Be Well' is an anthology of new poems for Mother Julian, medieval mystic, anchoress, and the first woman to write a book in English. Lyrical, prayerful, vivid and insightful, these poems offer a poetic testament to Julian's enduring legacy of prayer and confidence in a merciful God who assured her that 'All Shall Be Well, and All Shall Be Well, and All Manner of Thing Shall Be Well.' The anthology has been edited by and comes with an introduction by Sarah Law, editor of Amethyst Review.

My poem for that anthology is based on a large painting 'The Revelations of Julian of Norwich' by Australian artist Alan Oldfield which is to be found at the Belsey Bridge Conference Centre in Ditchingham, Norfolk.

Amethyst Review is a publication for readers and writers who are interested in creative exploration of spirituality and the sacred. Readers and writers of all religions and none are most welcome. All work published engages in some way with spirituality or the sacred in a spirit of thoughtful and respectful inquiry, rather than proselytizing.

The Editor-in-chief is Sarah Law – poet (mainly), tutor, occasional critic, sometime fiction writer. She has published five poetry collections, the latest of which is 'Thérèse: Poems'. Her novel, Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven is a 2023 Illumination Book Award silver medal winner. She set up Amethyst Review feeling the lack of a UK-based platform for the sharing and readership of new literary writing that engages in some way with spirituality and the sacred.

Four of my poems have appeared in Amethyst Review. They are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'. To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, and here. My latest poem to be published, 'The ABC of creativity', is at International Times. It covers attention, beginning and creation and can be read here.

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Sarah Law - Thérèse: Poems.

Launch of Fruits of the Spirit - Art from the Heart,

The launch of the virtual exhibition Fruits of the Spirit - Art from the Heart, curated by the Rev Dr Ayla Lepine (2021–22 Ahmanson Fellow in Art and Religion, The National Gallery) and Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, Senior Research Curator (History of Collecting) at the National Gallery was held tonight at The Foundling Museum.

The 'fruits of the Spirit' are a list of nine qualities found in Saint Paul's Letter to the Galatians in the New Testament. They include peace, joy, love, and patience. Fruits of the Spirit – Art from the Heart focuses on these terms in relation to paintings in the National Gallery's collection, from Titian and Rembrandt to Monet and Van Gogh, featured alongside works from UK regional collections. This exciting new digital project opens new doors regarding accessible online arts content and focuses on the nine qualities themselves as ways of amplifying wellbeing for all people, of all faiths or none.

Fruits of the Spirit: Art from the Heart, is an online exhibition and trail, pairing nine paintings from the National Gallery with nine works in public collections across the UK. Visit the online exhibition.

Each pair represents one of the nine ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – positive attributes outlined in a letter from Saint Paul in the New Testament.

The virtual exhibition is combined with a free digital catalogue of essays. Over twenty authors, including curators, artists and community groups, as well as a new poetry commission by Dr Aviva Dautch, explore the importance of the exhibition’s themes, from love and family life to self-control in relation to climate change. Including words from a Nurse-in-Residence, a care-experienced young person and social justice charities, these essays aim to bring voices not normally heard in gallery catalogues to the fore. Creating links between paintings within and beyond the National Gallery and fostering interactions through different perspectives in communities and cultures encourages new ways of seeing and more open ways of engaging with one another. As a digital exhibition, 'Fruits of the Spirit' is freely accessible to both new and regular visitors from the UK and beyond.

The Foundling Museum’s ‘Fruit’ is Faithfulness and focussing on maternal faith the National Gallery’s The Finding of Moses by Orazio Gentileschi, dating from the early 1630s, has been paired with their Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, 1738, by Andrea Soldi.

In the story of Moses, his birth mother places him in a basket in the river to avoid certain death, demonstrating immense faith that her child will survive. Her faith is rewarded, and the Gentileschi painting depicts the moment of rescue and hope. This maternal faith is also reflected in our portrait of Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, who was instrumental in the formation of the Foundling Hospital. As with Moses, the birth mothers of children given up to the care of the hospital faced heart-breaking decisions that demanded enormous faith and trust.

As part of the collaboration visitors to the Foundling Museum are able to see in person The Finding of Moses painting, attributed to Venetian artist Francesco Zugno, which is on display next to Soldi’s Isabella, Duchess of Manchester on the first floor.

Lizzie Jones, whose painting 'Couple' at Southampton City Art Gallery is paired with 'The Painter;s Daughter with a Cat' by Thomas Gainsborough, was among those present. With a commitment to direct action in different forms involving making connections with people in order to influence and inform change around issues of military violence and harm, she takes painting commissions for public spaces, for charitable organisations and community groups and for special events / private spaces. She has created and is maintaining the Dye Garden at Southampton's Arches studio complex, while utilising those plants and their colour in print and paint. Puppet Back Up sees giant puppets getting involved in live concerns and beginning to turn up - in time - brought to life with the participation of many.

Canterbury Cathedral’s altarpiece, 'Scenes from the Life of Saint Martin of Tours', 1928–33, by Winifred Knights, also features in the exhibition. It is a powerful example of religious art by a British woman of the last century. This painting represents ‘peace’. A young woman who arrived in Kent as a refugee reflected on the painting in relation to this theme and identified a strong connection between the altarpiece and her story of family, uncertainty, and courage. Knights’s painting is paired with Claude Monet’s 'Water-Lilies' from the National Gallery’s collection. Monet described this work, painted during the First World War, as a ‘monument to peace’. In her catalogue essay, Revd Dr Ayla Lepine argues that contemplating sacred and secular art and relating it to people’s lives today can inspire us all to work for peace when it is most urgently needed around the world.

This free virtual exhibition also includes paintings by Jan Van Eyck, Vincent van Gogh, Frank Auerbach, Turner, Titian, Ernst Neuschul, Eugène Delacroix, Ron Stenberg, Orazio Gentileschi, Andrea Soldi and Thomas Gainsborough.

Other participating organisations:
The Bowes Museum
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Canterbury Cathedral
The McManus
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
Ben Uri Gallery & Museum
The Box
Southampton City Art Gallery

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Carleen Anderson - True Spirit.

The GRA:CE Project: Growth, Relationship and Action in the Church of England

The GRA:CE Project: Growth, Relationship and Action in the Church of England was launched at Lambeth Palace this week. The Archbishop of Canterbury commented that we cannot divide social action, discipleship and the call to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ – they're all part of the Christian journey.

Theos and the Church Urban Fund are conducting a three–year research project seeking to understand the relationship between church growth, social action and discipleship within the Church of England.

“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” (Matthew 22.37–39)

Christians are called to love God and to love neighbour – and that is precisely what churches across the country seek to do, week in week out through:

• serving the needs of their local communities, through projects such as foodbanks, parent–toddler groups and night shelters;
• encouraging people on a journey of faith and deepening people’s relationships with God;
• and helping them learn to support others in their faith.

These three elements – in modern parlance: social action, discipleship and church growth – are all key to the English church in 2018.

What is the relationship between the three, however? And what would happen to church growth if we were better able to join the dots between social action and discipleship?

Their research, which includes St Martin-in-the-Fields as one of the churches being studied, involves substantial primary qualitative research, gathering interviewees, observations and case studies from a diverse range of churches in terms of geography, churchmanship and demographics. This will be followed by a quantitative study drawing on analysis of the qualitative work, aiming to measure the extent of the relationship between social action and church growth. A series of ‘roadshows’ will be held across the country to meet people, hear stories and showcase the research. The project will also develop a set of responses and ‘how to’ documents for church leaders based on the research findings. Throughout the project, there will be regular blog posts to communicate the ongoing thinking and findings of the research.

Some of the questions the research will address are:

• What are churches currently doing in terms of social action and discipleship?
• Is social action a means by which people become part of the church?
• What does this mean for church growth?
• How does discipleship fit into strategies for church growth and social action?
• How can we build on this to encourage churches in the future?

Keep up to date with progress on the GRA:CE project through their blogs here.

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Delirious? - Love Will Find A Way.

Prophetic voices calling from the edge

Vox pop interviews given by participants at Prophets & Seers: Calling from the Edge, the 2016 conference on Disability and Church, organised in partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church. Participants shared their message to the Church.

Here is my Thought for the Week for the Parish Newsletter at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

“My weakness and my weariness can be something like a gift.”

“It is really important to have a chance to tell our stories, hear them underpinned by theology and find out how they can – or should – influence wider public policy.”

“We need to move on from welcoming disabled people as an act of grace and see them as whole people with as much right to be there as anyone else.”

“Disabled people are not so much a pastoral problem as a prophetic potential. We need to ask not how the church can care for disabled people but to ask what is the prophetic message of the church in our culture and how disabled people can make a unique contribution to that renewal.”

“Our disabilities don’t necessarily detract from how whole we are, please don’t presume we need to be healed or that we have nothing to contribute – everyone has gifts to give.”

These quotes come from ‘Calling from the Edge’, a beautifully produced booklet celebrating the first five disability conferences that have been held as a partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church. In the booklet you will find stories and reflections that tell the story that underlies this significant series of conferences. We are launching this booklet during a weekend of events that includes the sixth conference in the series, in which we are exploring what being disabled says about God and what the stories of disabled people tell us about God’s story.

All this is predicated on the basis that nothing should be said about us without us and, as a result, that the conference is organised by and for disabled people. The prophetic voices we hear emanating from the conference and booklet are, rightly, challenging for the Church but, as Sam Wells says in his Foreword to the booklet, we need to recognise the sin of how much we have rejected in the past, and celebrate the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives. That’s what prophetic ministry means.

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St Martin's Voices - Gloria.

At the heart. On the edge.

 

‘At the heart. On the edge.’ was a day exploring mission by sharing ideas, uncovering solutions and finding support held on 8 February 2017 at St Stephen Walbrook, London. This conference which launched HeartEdge was hosted by Revd Dr Sam Wells.

Following the event, Sam said, ‘I was so delighted to see so many energised and engaged faces at the HeartEdge launch as we spoke about structures, configurations, approaches, insights – but most of all of renewal of vocation, vision and common exploration. That left me full of hope for the emergence of HeartEdge – a movement as yet of many different words but one purposeful spirit. I hope you will sign up and encourage others to do so.’

Find out more or apply to join by downloading the HeartEdge Membership Pack.

For more information contact Revd Jonathan Evens, Associate Vicar for Partnerships on 02077661127 or jonathan.evens@smitf.org.
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Corinne Bailey Rae - The Skies Will Break.