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 – see link below, or telephone 01763 208195 should you need pastoral support or would like her to pray for anything that is concerning you.
Please continue to look after yourselves and STAY SAFE and let us know if you need any spiritual or practical support. We are only able to allow our churches to be open for individual private prayer at the moment but still have networks of people providing help where needed and we can put you in touch with the right people to support you.
Support our Churches During Covid-19
Church services
We are delighted to tell you that from Wednesday 2nd December we will again be able to hold public worship in our churches. St Mary’s Church, Fowlmere, St Laurence’s Church, Foxton and St George’s Church, Thriplow all remain open for your private individual prayer during the week
We will continue to ensure full Covid Security so face coverings must be worn and numbers will be limited. Go to the calendar events section for details of how to book your place at a service.
Please see below for the pattern of worship for the next few weeks.
Morning Prayer will be available on zoom on Tuesday every week. Go to calendar events for the link
Our mid week worship ‘Refresh’ will take place on zoom every Wednesday. Please see the Calendar Events’ and Worship Pages for full details
Upcoming Services
Sunday 29th November
11.00 am Holy Communion Service
broadcast from St Laurence’s Church, Foxton
Sunday 6th December – Second Sunday of Advent
9.30 am Holy Communion at St George’s Church, Thriplow *
9.30 am Holy Communion at St Laurence’s Church, Foxotn
11.00 am All Age Worship at All Saints’ Church, Shepreth
Sunday 13th December
9.30 am Holy Communion at St Laurence’s Church, Foxton*
11.00 am Holy Communion at St Mary’s Church, Fowlmere
Services marked * will be recorded and the link will be available on the website from 12 midday
View our Celtic Communion Service from All Saints’ Church, Shepreth
see link below
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.
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
