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Click on pictures to enlarge or on underlined blue text to view pictures |
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Welcome to the website for St Giles’ Church, South Mymms
and St Margaret’s Church, Ridge in the Diocese of St Albans
and the Barnet Deanery (Click here for website)
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Click on the relevant Church link at the left to go to its own Webpages
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The Rev’d Brenda Tipping MA is Honorary Priest-in-Charge of both parishes
The Vicarage, Hamilton Close, South Mymms, Herts EN6 3PG
Fax/minicom: 01707-643 142 E-mail: brendatipping@fsmail.net
Text Brenda on 07780-535 035,
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Click here to read an overview of the two parishes of the Benefice
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Rev’d Brenda will be holding a weekly ‘Surgery’ at the Vicarage, Hamilton Close
South Mymms, on Saturdays from 10.00 am – noon.
For anyone who wishes to speak to her. No appointment necessary
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Brenda is always happy to receive requests for prayer, or for a listening ear, whether on an occasional or a regular basis. It would be helpful, where possible, if contacts about non-urgent matters could avoid Wednesdays and Thursdays - but of course contact her at any time when necessary. And she would be grateful to be told about illnesses or other emergencies affecting people living in the parishes.
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June letter from Rev’d Brenda Tipping
I’m going to a conference in Derbyshire this week, so I’ve just been looking at the road atlas to find the best route. Yes I know I’m old fashioned and should be using satnav these days, but I prefer to have all my options laid out in front of me so that I can make a proper choice. It’s interesting that over the last few years the term road map has been used in connection with peace. The term has been used as a description of the plan to bring about and nurture peace following years of conflict, such as in Northern Ireland.
Wouldn’t it be useful if we could go into a stationery shop and buy a road map that would guide us through our lives; something that would help us to make important decisions about our education choices, our careers and who we should marry. We spend many hours of our lives agonising over such decisions, but I suspect that if this very special map was available we would ignore it and still make our own choices. That’s probably how it should be, we have independence and intellect to guide us in our decision making and we are able to get hold of a vast amount of useful information.
When we are travelling there are certain rules that we have to follow, rules that have become familiar to us so that we follow them automatically. The same applies to our decision making in life, as children we absorb the difference between right and wrong, we become aware of social behaviour, of how to respect one another and how to be honest and trustworthy. These are the basic tenets which we need to guide us when we are choosing our personal path through life. If we forget or ignore these things then we will be sure to take the wrong path. As adults it’s our responsibility to pass on these basic rules to children and sometimes to adults who aren’t too ready to accept them. We’re fortunate in these villages that we have a good school where our children are taught in a Christian and moral way, enriching the teaching that they receive from their parents and families at home.
Rev’d Brenda
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CONFIRMATION
In the Church of England we welcome babies into church for the sacrament of baptism, often called Christening. We baptise the child in the name of God using water, we mark their foreheads with a cross, using specially blessed olive oil and at the end of the service we give the parents a candle to represent Christ as the light of the world. Baptism is the first step into becoming a Christian, parents and godparents promise to bring the child up in the Christian tradition, ensuring that he or she is brought to church regularly and that they will be taught about Christianity and what it means.
Baptism is not an end in itself, it’s the first step on the road to membership of the church. The next step is confirmation which can take place once the child is able to affirm their own faith, from about the age of nine or ten, or at any time after that. Confirmation is a service in which the candidates literally confirm for themselves the promises of their baptism and are blessed by a bishop. After confirmation people are full members of the Church of England and receive Holy Communion. Each year two confirmation services are held in the Barnet and Potters Bar area and candidates are welcomed from all the Anglican churches in the area. The next confirmation service will take place in October in King Charles the Martyr Church in Darke’s Lane. We already have some candidates for that service from St Giles’ church, if you, or your child would like to be confirmed too please contact me, either by email or by text, or ring one of the wardens.
I look forward to hearing from you
Revd Brenda
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Web site updated on 29th June, 2009
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