Welcome

                       Photo large of St Johns Church

 

 

Please click on the link below to watch an aerial video of the church and listen to our bells.

Drone photography courtesy of https://www.upaerial.co.uk

 

Welcome, and thank you for visiting our website.

Our church is situated in the picturesque village of Lemsford, close to Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City and opposite Brocket Hall. 

We warmly welcome all visitors to our church and we would love you to come to one of our services or events.  We hope that you find what you are looking for in these pages, but if you have any questions and would like to speak to someone about the church, please do contact one of the team members listed in the Who's Who and Contacts page.

We look forward to seeing you.

 
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WHAT'S ON AT ST JOHN'S IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS AT A GLANCE

   

 
  • Thursday 19th June
    • 9am - School Collective Worship*
    • 10am - No Morning Prayer - Rev Kathryn Away
       
  • Sunday 22nd June
    • 8am - BCP Holy Communion
    • 11am -  Holy Communion
       
  • Thursday 26th June
    • 9am - School Collective Worship*
    • 10am - No Morning Prayer - Rev Kathryn Away
       
  • Sunday 29th June
    • 8am - BCP Holy Communion
    • 11am -  Healing Service
       
  • Thursday 3rd July
    • 9am - School Collective Worship*
    • 10am - Morning Prayer
 
  •  
* Children are welcome at all our services, but these services and events are especially suitable for families and children (as well as people of all other ages!)
 
* Children are welcome at all our services, but these services and events are especially suitable for families and children (as well as people of all other ages!)



    • Readings 

     
    
 


CAR PARKING

Because car parking at the church is becoming difficult, we are  opening up the school playground on Sunday mornings for everyone to use.  The playground is at the back of the school, and is large enough to accommodate about 30 cars.  Please do use this area to park in, but take extra care when exiting into the street as cars do tend to speed up and down the hill.





 


ALL TOGETHER PENTECOST & SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING AND REMEMBRANCE REPORTS
 

What a Spirit-filled Pentecost Sunday at St John’s! 🔥🕊️
In the morning we celebrated the Church’s birthday with a brilliant retelling of the Pentecost story (complete with Wind and Fire children!), joyful music from our wonderful joint choir, cake, balloons — and a special birthday jigsaw, reminding us that God’s Spirit brings all kinds of people together to create His Church.
It really felt like that today — with people of different ages and backgrounds coming together to worship. Every person is a valued part of God’s picture, and it was a joy to see so many different ‘pieces’ fitting together — with room for many more!
We also celebrated Teddy’s first time as Deacon (he was brilliant!), our wonderful readers, and gave thanks for Emma, Geoff, Chris and Ella, confirmed last night!
 

 
In the afternoon, we gathered again for a gentler Pentecost service — remembering loved ones, giving thanks, and tying ribbons of hope as a sign that the Spirit of love and life is still blowing among us.


Join us any Sunday at 8am or 11am to see what the Spirit is doing in St John’s! 🙏🏻



    


SUMMER READING FOR THE SOUL ☀️📖
Join Rev Laura’s Book Group — 8th or 9th July

Lots of you have said you’d love more opportunities to explore your faith outside of Lent and Advent groups.

Plans are afoot for the autumn — but in the meantime, Rev Laura from St John’s, Hatfield warmly invites you to her Summer Book Group on 8th or 9th July (see poster for details).

The book — Phoebe — is a fantastically engaging read that brings the Bible to life in a completely fresh and exciting way. It’s story-based rather than a line-by-line Bible study, and is suitable for people at any stage of faith — no Bible expertise needed!

If you’d like to take part, just drop Laura an email — all the details are on the poster.


Save the date - 13th July! for our Sunday Club party and Whole-Church bring and share picnic
On 13th July, it will be our final Sunday Club of the term during the 11am service and we’ll be going out in style with an end-of-term party, followed by a whole church bring and share picnic!

We'd love to see you, whether you're a regular at St John's or this is your first time giving the church a try!

 

 
THE JUNE/JULY PARISH MAGAZINE


It's time for the new June/July 25 Parish Magazine.  This one is a bumper one containing articles from Paul Butler (Fete), Gina Butler (Pilgrimage to St Albans) Rev Kathryn (Quite a different pilgrimage), Michelle Boylan (St John's School), Jo Brooks (Young People), Kevin Earl (Tower Clock), Andy Chapman (Lemsford History), the late John Marks (becoming a King's Chorister), Geoffrey Hollis (Nature notes) and the editor.  There are photos too and more.    Huge thanks to everyone who contributed.  

And the Falcon on the cover? Well you'll just have to read the magazine to find out more.

The magazine will be in church for you to collect, or you can download the web version by clicking here.  As usual the directory page is not available in the web version, but it is in full colour.


THE YEAR OF SPIRITUAL RENEWAL AND WELLBEING
This year, St Albans Diocese invites us all to embark on a journey of reconnecting with our faith and discovering the renewing life of the Holy Spirit. There’s a wonderful new website full of opportunities, including retreats, quiet days (some specially for churchwardens), pilgrimage walks, talks, online accompanied prayer weeks, courses, and a special summer Cathedral celebration.

You’ll also find resources for prayer, as well as helpful guidance to care for your own wellbeing.

Why not take a look? You can book events directly, but if something catches your eye and you’d like some company, let us know, and we can see if others would like to join in too.

Visit: year.stalbansdiocese.org




'IOO CLUB' MAY DRAW WINNERS

The winning numbers of the May '100 Club' Draw were:

1st prize:  Number 90    £92.70
2nd prize:  Number 82   £55.62
3rd prize:  Number 11   £37.08

FOOD BANK
Our local Food Bank at the New Zion Christian Fellowship church would appreciate receiving donations of food and other things from us now and all year round. It would be wonderful if you could support them by bringing various things in on Sunday mornings, and placing them in the big plastic box which will be placed in the porch. The sort of things the Food Bank would like to receive are:
  • All food with good sell by dates (tins of fruit and veg, jams, packets of cereal, coffee, tea, long life milk and so on)
  • Toiletries such as shampoo and conditioner and toilet rolls
  • Cleaning products (kitchen and bathroom cleaners etc)

We are asked not to donate clothes.

Nigel will arrange to take our offerings to the New Zion church every Wednesday morning.



COULD YOU BE A ST JOHN'S SCHOOL FOUNDATION GOVERNOR?

St John’s school currently has a vacancy for a Foundation Governor. Foundation Governors are nominated by the PCC, represent the Church of England on the Board, and help ensure that the Christian ethos of the school is maintained.
 
Please pray and think about whether you - or someone you know - would make a great governor. They don’t need to be a member of St John’s church, but would need to be able to fulfil the role description above.
As a governor myself, I promise you that it’s an extremely rewarding (and often fun) role, and is manageable alongside other responsibilities.
Please contact me if you’re interested.
Rev Kathryn




CHURCH GIVING

Many of us are happiest giving cash rather than scanning QR codes or tapping payment cards or smartphones.
 But, if you like the QR Code, you can point your Smartphone’s camera or QR app at it, and it will let you give, or from your PC/Mac you can just click this link: https://givealittle.co/campaigns/10cd954f-25f7-46d9-8813-634634729bfa.    You can also give via the new (easy to use) card payment device – both at the back of the church - these donations go to St Johns funds.  We are planning to make the QR Codes easily accessible from the pews too



Please sign up for a spot in the Cleaning Rota
Still slots to fill!

More volunteers are needed to help us. All the  materials you'll need are provided. All that we need is your time!

Let's spread this load between us all!! Please contact the churchwardens if you would like to take a turn with cleaning. 
You can choose a date that suits you!
 

 


We continue to think of Ukraine:


Bishop Alan says we can pray, and practically we also have an option to donate to the Red Cross Appeal.

To see their appeal details, please copy and paste this link into your browser: https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-crisis-appeal.  You may donate any amount you wish, and your cash will go towards helping people who are being affected by the crisis, by supplying them with food, water, first aid, medicines, warm clothes and shelter.  Donations may be made direct to the Red Cross appeal, or alternatively, you may care to donate using the QR code below.  The QR code will also be displayed in church.

If you don't do QR Codes then clicking this link on your computer goes to the same "give-a-litte" link: https://givealittle.co/campaigns/753bbfac-510a-47d8-86cf-f6a707ddc585
 

 

 HOME INSURANCE

If you need to take out, or renew, a home insurance policy, please think of using Ecclesiastical Insurance as they will donate £130 to the church through their Trust 130 Promotion.  All you need to do is to say that the donation is to go to St John's Church, Lemsford.  Find out more at www.ecclesiastical.com/trust130 or call their team on 0800 783 0130 and quote Trust 130.

 


 

2025 PCC meeting dates


29th January at 7.00 pm

11th February at 7.30 pm by Zoom

APCM  2nd March at 12 noon

17th March at 7.15 pm

7th April at 7.15 pm

13th May at 7.15 pm

22nd July at 7.15 pm

27th September (away day)

18th November at 7.15 pm

 


  


    

 

 


PLEASE CAN YOU HELP

 

WE COULD REALLY DO WITH YOUR FINANCIAL HELP IN THIS DIFFICULT TIME.

PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING IF YOU CAN TO SUPPORT OUR CHURCH AND OUR WORK IN THE COMMUNITY.

EITHER

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR QUICK DONATION PAGE

CLICK HERE


   OR

ALTERNATIVELY WE CAN NOW RECEIVE DONATIONS VIA TEXT MESSAGE BY TEXTING THE WORD LEMSFORD FOLLOWED BY A SPACE AND THEN AN AMOUNT OF YOUR DONATION, TO 70085.  FOR EXAMPLE, TO GIVE £5 TYPE LEMSFORD 5, TO GIVE £10 TYPE LEMSFORD 10.  THEN SIMPLY SEND YOUR TEXT TO 70085.  TEXTS WILL COST YOUR DONATION AMOUNT PLUS ONE STANDARD RATE MESSAGE.

MANY THANKS

 

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IMPORTANT REQUEST TO REGULAR GIVERS FROM THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

 

If regular givers would prefer to make their payments by bank transfer, the bank details of the church are:

HSBC Bank.  Sort Code: 40-46-08 A/C No: 51431609

Many thanks

 

 

 

Choir practice every Sunday at 9.45 am 

Bell ringing practice every Monday evening at 7.30 pm

 

 

To email us either click the button below or go to the Who's who and Contacts page and click on the person you would like to contact.  Alternatively please use the form at the bottom of the Who's who and Contacts page.