Welcome
The Four Church Benefice is a group of village churches in South Cambridgeshire comprising of St Mary’s Fowlmere, St Laurence’s Foxton, All Saints Shepreth and St George’s Thriplow.
We aim to reach out to every member of our community offering them occasions to meet with God within our worship and life together, to take opportunities to explore their faith and to receive support and help during the milestones on life’s journey.
Our Rector Revd. Angela Melaniphy is available to all members of the community.
Please don’t hesitate to contact Revd Angela either, through the website or, by email rector@thefourchurchbenefice.org or telephone 01763 208195 should you need pastoral support or would like her to pray for anything that is concerning you.
Please STAY HOME, STAY SAFE and let us know if you need any spiritual or practical support. We have networks of people providing help where needed and we can put you in touch with the right people to support you.
Church services
In the light of latest Government advice for everyone to gradually extend their activities our church buildings are now open for Private Prayer only.
From Monday 15th June: St George’s Church, Thriplow is open
From Monday 22nd June: St Laurence Church, Foxton is open
From Sunday 28th June at 12 midday St Mary’s Church, Fowlmere is open
For information about the times and days each church is open please go to our calendar section
During the current Covid 19 restrictions The Rector will be conducting morning prayer daily at the Rectory. You will find resources on the Worship section of the website to join in.
Live Streamed Services
Holy Communion on Sunday 5th July at 11.00 am
Log on at 10.50 and greet others as you prepare for worship
The Service sheet will be here Holy Communion 5th July
See below for the link
View from the Rectory
12th May
Erik helping with the technology!
In my sermon on Sunday I was talking about how adaptable we are as human beings. When we become ill or something goes wrong we are extremely good at compensating in the way we do things and in learning new skills.
This has never been more apparent than during the past two months. We have all had to learn new ways of behaving, new ways of thinking and new ways of communicating.
After the first panic when people rushed out and bought as much toilet paper, flour and alcohol as they could we have, in the main, adapted very well. People are mostly obeying the social distancing rules. We are finding new ways of amusing ourselves and keeping ourselves occupied and we have, above all, learned new ways of communicating.
Having always lived on my own and been used to working from home I adapted quite well too lock down without the stress that many people initially felt. But after six or seven weeks I realised that was I was missing most of all was seeing people’s faces. The telephone is a wonderful tool but video conferencing and face time have been a marvelous gift. When my mother had her 87th birthday I decided to buy her a Facebook Portal that allows her to speak face to face with me and my siblings and her grandchildren. This has made such a difference to her.
The other day when I rang, my mother turned the portal on and I spoke from the screen into the room. Her cat Bertie, who had been sitting on her lap jumped up at the sound of my voice and began to pat my face on the screen. Even our pets are adapting to new ways of communicating!
I think we have had a tendency to be negative about social media and there are aspects of it that can be harmful but the use of technology has been such a gift to us in recent months. We have been able to live stream worship on YouTube, join meetings on zoom, and even play music at graveside services via a blue tooth speaker. My technical skills have improved by leaps and bounds and I am so grateful for these new ways of communicating and feeling that although we are staying at home we are still part of a community.
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View the previous ‘view from the Rectory’ updates here:
What's Going On?
Getting married in the Four Church Benefice
Some good reasons for getting married in the church:
- A wedding is one of life’s greatest moments
- A time of solemn commitment as well as good wishes, feasting and joy
- A public and life-long covenant, declared and celebrated in the presence of God and before witnesses
