Church

Westleton Parish Church of St. PeterSt Peter's Church, Westleton from the south-east.

St Peters Church in early spring
(Photo: Hillas Smith)

 

Our present church dates from 1340 when the original Anglo-Saxon building was completely rebuilt. When complete the church had a tower but this collapsed in the 1770's. The tower was reduced to a stump which survived until the Second World War when a landmine that fell close by made it unsafe and the remains had to be dismantled.

The exterior of the parish church is unusual in that it has no tower or spire and also has a thatched roof.

Westleton is one of the eight parishes within the Yoxmere Confederation. Please initially contact Church Warden J. Branch 01728 648140 jbranch563@gmail.com or S. Foster, 01728649034 susanelizabethfoster@icloud.com 

The church has a wide variety of services at which both traditional and modern liturgies are used.

The church has fine acoustic qualities, which, combined with its light airy appearance, makes it a superb venue for concerts and recitals. These are held on a regular basis and details may be found in the Parish Magazine “The Yoxmere Fisherman”.

More information is available at the website:
www.achurchnearyou.com//westleton-st-peter/

Westleton is one of 8 parishes in the Yoxmere Benefice of the Church of England Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

Visit the website of the Church of England Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich for more information about the work of the diocese.

St Peter’s Church Westleton Services in September Sunday 6th 9.30am Benefice Service Holy Communion (Common Worship) Or at St Peter’s Yoxmere 11am Sunday 13th 9.30am Harvest Festival Worship for All Sunday 16th 9.30am Holy Communion (Common Worship) Sunday 20th 9.30am Holy Communion (Common Worship) Sunday 27th 9.30am Holy Communion (Common Worship) Every Wednesday 9am Midweek Communion Service October 4th Joint Services here at Westleton 9.30am Holy Communion or at St Peter’s Yoxford at 11am Holy Communion Everyone is always Welcome

 

Meet the Rogers Family

Revd Tim Rogers will be joining us here in the Yoxmere Benefice as our new incumbent as soon as the Covid-19 restrictions allow.

Meanwhile he has written to us giving a brief introduction to himself and his family. 

St Peter’s Church Westleton GOOD NEWS For 13th September Come if you can to our Harvest for All Service. Please could you bring a gift of non-perishable food or a donation for the Leiston Food Bank. This Sunday 9.30am …. Everyone will be very welcome, we’ll all keep to social distancing, ‘Hands, Face and Space’. Time to look back. You have been suffering the ramblings of a demented church warden since March the 22nd! Yes, since lockdown began, we have been keeping the home fires burning with some useful, some not so useful, information. We first asked you on the 14th of March if you wanted to keep in touch as a church family. Believe it or not, this is the 27th edition of the Good News during which we have thanked the NHS, the village shop, the pub and the volunteers. We have welcomed Tim, Sarah and the boys as they made their home here and joined our Benefice. We celebrated Palm Sunday, a special Good Friday edition and of course Easter Sunday. The beauty of God’s creation has always been there to cheer us through this strange time; the abundance of wildflowers in our churchyard, the flowers and birds in our gardens, the common house fly, spiders and doves have all featured in our Newsletter. We welcomed the reopening of our churches and celebrated the NHS’s 70th Birthday. We’ve been amazed at the wonder of technology, the internet and Zoom in complete comparison with the steam radios of our youth. We honoured the heroes of the past and even made a comparison of life with a great big meat pie. Tim and Brian have furnished us with Biblical comfort and challenges as the Good News has lifted our hopes. We have seen the route Brian has taken to being ‘Priested’ and very soon we’ll see Tim being officially Installed by the Bishop as we look to the future when once more, we can gather together, sing and hug, well maybe not quite yet. All this Good News as we pray to see the church grow again as many more come to worship the risen Christ and start their wonderful relationship with Him. Our Service this Sunday 9.30am Harvest for All, Wednesday 2nd 9am Mid-week Holy Communion* Next Sunday 9.30am Holy Communion* *Don’t forget to bring your own bread and wine, and face masks please For details of all our Services here and throughout the Benefice are in the Fisherman Advance Notices 28th September 7.30pm Please pray for Tim as he is officially installed by the Bishop 29th September 10.30am Annual Parochial Church Meeting please join us in the church. Copies of the Annual Report and other relevant reports are available, just call Pam on 648175. 24th and 31st October Churchyard Grass Cut and RakeOther Services Radio 4 8.10am 400th Anniversary of the Mayflower, Revd Nick McKinnel, Bishop of Plymouth For Services from the Cathedral see www.facebook.com/stedscathedral or www.facebook.com/BishopsCofEsuffolk/ BBC1 TV 1.15pm Songs of Praise. Aled Jones is in Plymouth where 400 years ago a group of Christians embarked on an epic journey across the Atlantic. Take good care and God bless Sue and Jeremy Tim’s reflections Exodus 14 — Passing through the Red Sea and Baptism Last week I talked about communion as a deliberate reminder of our rescue, by Jesus the Messiah — and how the bread and wine came from the (evolved) passover festival that was inaugurated in Exodus. The very next story of Exodus is crossing the Red Sea, which, incredibly, gives us a core image for the other Christian sacrament — baptism. The sea is used consistently throughout the Bible as a symbol of chaos and evil and death. • In the very beginning of Genesis the Spirit ‘hovers over the waters’ — the symbol of chaos — after which God steadily creates order. • In Revelation 21 as we are told about the New Jerusalem we learn that there is no more sin and death, and the sea is no more. This begins to make sense if you understand this symbolically — there is no more chaos or evil. • When Jesus walked on the water, and when Jesus calmed the waves he effectively declared that he was master of all creation, even chaos and death. So, when God parts the Red Sea for the Israelites it is symbolic as well as practical — God has authority even over chaos and death. In our modern baptism service, in the prayer over the water three distinct ideas are referenced. 1. We are cleansed from sin. 2. We ‘die’ in immersion (the sea is death, remember) and rise to new life with Christ. 3. We pass through the water — in and out again — in a pilgrimage from slavery to sin and death to freedom under God: just as the Israelites passed through the waters of the Red Sea. This freedom from slavery that the Israelites enjoyed after escape through the red sea was not as we often imagine freedom. It was freedom from oppression, slavery and all that brutish, insidious soul-reducing choicelessness and hopelessness. But it was not the independence that we commonly equate with freedom. Rather it was freedom into utter dependence on a faithful God. Children do not measure their freedom by their independence. Rather they know they are happy because they are loved. They depend on parents in everything. So it was for the children of Israel — who had in fact been infantilized by slavery. They depended, and God delivered: manna from heaven, water from the rock, quail in superabundance. The first day of the week after passover was the festival of unleavened bread — an annual reminder of that pilgrimage in the desert, and God’s faithfulness through forty years. The bread without yeast was the reminder that Jews — and Christians — are a pilgrim people. We, too, believe in a promised land — the kingdom of God. We journey toward that promised land, and we have faith in God to get us there. We are dependent on God through the wilderness. Your journey from baptism has taken you on a metaphorical journey, but you are not done yet, nor has God done with you yet! We are pilgrim people, we have a promised land to get to and a long way to go. Let’s fix our eyes on the destination and keep going, encouraging each other all the while. All blessings, Tim.

 

Includes two images of books available for sale.

Westleton 100 Club

 

The 100 club is a joint venture between the Church and Village Hall. The proceeds are shared equally between them. To see the winners click on the link in the box at the top left of this page.