“Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace —
in peace because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord for ever,
for in the Lord God
you have an everlasting rock.“
Isaiah 26: 3-4 (NRSV)

A PDF version of this newsletter is available here.

Worship with us across the Team

Details of services across the team, as well as our worship at home resources, are available each week on our website.

Our Sunday Zoom Church meets every week at 11.00am at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82311473640. The service sheet is available on the website. Everyone is welcome.

Events

June

July

August

September

WCCYM Summer Party

This year, the WCCYM Summer Party will be on Friday 4th July and is for anyone in years 6 to 13. Join us at 6pm until 9pm at Mill Farm, Gamlingay, for a great evening. Sign up here today.

Harlton Church’s 650th Anniversary

In July Harlton Church will be celebrating it’s 650th anniversary with two very special events, to which everyone is welcome:

Talk on the History of the Church in Harlton: Wednesday, 2 July at 7pm, Village Hall 
As part of this jubilee, Dr Nicholas Branson will give a talk on the history of Harlton Church – the oldest building in the Village.  The talk will cover the impact of national events on the life of the church, and it will refer to special features of the building and some of the people associated with the church over the centuries. Some of the church’s archives and registers dating back to the beginning of the 19^th century will be on display. Light refreshments will follow.

Organ Scholars & Friends’ Concert – a feast of music on organ, piano, violin, trombone and voice: Sunday, 6 July at 6pm – 7pm,  Harlton Church 
Please come to celebrate 650 years of our beautiful village church and to support these brilliant musicians. Refreshments will follow.

At the start of the concert, there will be the unveiling of a special commemorative banner created by members of the village to recognise this special anniversary. The Archdeacon of Cambridge, The Ven Alex Hughes, will be joining us to bless the banner.

There is no charge for either event but we would welcome voluntary contributions to support the funding of the Organ Scholarship.

News

Toft Methodist Chapel

We are sad to announce that Toft Methodist Chapel will be closing at the end of August 2025. Toft Methodist Chapel has been a part of the Lordsbridge Team for many years and this will mark the end of an era for the Church in Toft. The last service of worship in the church will be taking place on Sunday 27th July at 3.00pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Services will continue at St Andrew’s Toft, with a special Ecumenical Welcome being extended to our Methodist friends at the Team Service at the end of August.

Team Rector Recruitment

Unfortunately the latest round of advertising for the Team Rector post was unsuccessful. We will be readvertising for the post in September, with a view to interviewing in October. Please do keep the vacant parishes – Comberton and Toft – in your prayers.

Team Administrator Recruitment

We will be interviewing for the Team Administrator role at the beginning of July and hope to have someone begin in the post as soon as possible. Please do pray that we are able to appoint the right person to this vacancy.

VE Day Celebrations in Barton

Some pictures from Barton’s VE Day Celebrations early in June. It was a wonderful day!

Goodbye from Becca

This is the last newsletter I will be sending in my role as Team Administrator for the Lordsbridge Team of Churches. It has been a delight and a privilege to work for the Team for the last four years and to meet some of you – in person and via email. Thank you very much for all your support and help over the years.

I would be grateful for your ongoing prayers, as I enter the last year of my ordination training. My last day with the Team will be Tuesday 15th July, and I hope to have the opportunity to say goodbye in person to some of you at the Team Service on Sunday 29th June.

Wishing you all every blessing for the future!

Becca

To contact the Lordsbridge Team and for links to our Facebook and Instagram pages, please see the Contact Us page.

The Zoom Church service begins at 11.00am . The Zoom room is open from 10.50am. Everyone is welcome to join the service using the following link: https://zoom.us/j/82311473640.

Some pictures from the Lordsbridge Team Pilgrimage 2025:

For further information, please see the job advert and the Team Rector Profile.

To apply for the role, please complete the application form and return it to the Archdeacon of Cambridge, the Ven Dr Alex Hughes: archdeacon.cambridge@elydiocese.org.

“Our soul waits for the Lord;
    he is our help and shield.
Our heart is glad in him
    because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
    even as we hope in you.”

Psalm 33: 20-22 (NRSV)

A PDF of this newsletter is available here.

Worship with us across the Team

Details of services across the team, as well as our worship at home resources, are available each week on our website.

Our Sunday Zoom Church meets every week at 11.00am at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82311473640. The service sheet is available on the website. Everyone is welcome.

Events

Eversdens Summer Fete
Great Eversden Village Hall
Saturday 14th June
2.00 – 4.30pm

Women’s Prayer Group

The Caldecote Women’s Prayer Group runs weekly in term time on Thursdays at 9:00am on Zoom. Women from Caldecote and surrounding villages across the Lordsbridge Team are warmly invited to join us online, gathering in spirit to pray, reflect and lift one another up through prayers. For more information, please speak to Rev’d Clare.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88137270141?pwd=pCvjk7eQrFqYX8GrvRP6JmMZKI9bYK.1

Meeting ID: 881 3727 0141
Passcode: 655934

Team Service – 29th June

Everyone is welcome to join us for our Team Services on 29th June. Our Team Administrator, Becca Herrick, will be preaching at the 10.30am service at Dry Drayton Church, which will also be an opportunity to say goodbye to her before she finishes work with the Team in mid-July. Refreshments will be served after the service.

If you would like to join the choir for the Sung Holy Communion, please contact Rev’d Clare Coates by 15th June. Music will be available on the day, with a rehearsal from 9.30am.

Threads through the Bible
Friday 9 May – Sunday 29 June
Ely Cathedral

Threads through the Bible is an astonishing, inspiring exhibition of textile art. With spectacular designs, brilliant colours and extraordinary stitching, you’re taken through a journey from the first pages to the last pages of the Bible. Well worth a visit! More information is available here: https://www.elycathedral.org/events/threads-through-the-bible-exhibition

Harlton Church’s 650th Anniversary!

In July Harlton Church will be celebrating it’s 650th anniversary with two very special events, to which everyone is welcome:

Talk on the History of the Church in Harlton: Wednesday, 2 July at 7pm, Village Hall 
As part of this jubilee, Dr Nicholas Branson will give a talk on the history of Harlton Church – the oldest building in the Village.  The talk will cover the impact of national events on the life of the church, and it will refer to special features of the building and some of the people associated with the church over the centuries. Some of the church’s archives and registers dating back to the beginning of the 19^th century will be on display. Light refreshments will follow.

Organ Scholars & Friends’ Concert – a feast of music on organ, piano, violin, trombone and voice: Sunday, 6 July at 6pm – 7pm,  Harlton Church 
Please come to celebrate 650 years of our beautiful village church and to support these brilliant musicians. Refreshments will follow.

At the start of the concert, there will be the unveiling of a special commemorative banner created by members of the village to recognise this special anniversary. The Archdeacon of Cambridge, The Ven Alex Hughes, will be joining us to bless the banner.

There is no charge for either event but we would welcome voluntary contributions to support the funding of the Organ Scholarship.

News

Team Rector Recruitment

We are readvertising for the role of Team Rector. The deadline is Sunday 8th June. Please do pray for the right applicants for the role.

Team Administrator Post

We are in the process of appointing someone new to the role of Team Administrator. Becca’s last day with us will be Tuesday 15th July.

Rev’d Howard Bigg

It is with great sadness that we pass on the news that Rev’d Howard Bigg died in the middle of May. Rev’d Howard was a much loved part of St Mary’s Church, Hardwick and the wider Lordsbridge Team for several years. Please remember his family and friends in your prayers at this time.

Howard’s funeral will be at St Mary’s Church, Hardwick on Thursday 5th June at 2.00pm followed by refreshments at the Cabin. Please wear bright colours!

Toft Methodist Chapel

We are sad to announce that Toft Methodist Chapel will be closing at the end of August 2025. The last service of worship in the church will be taking place on Sunday 27th July at 3.00pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.

To contact the Lordsbridge Team and for links to our Facebook and Instagram pages, please see the Contact Us page.

We are recruiting for a new Team Administrator for the Lordsbridge Team of Churches.

For further information, please see the job advert and job description.

To apply for the role, please complete the application form and return it to Rebecca Herrick, rebeccaherrick@lordsbridge.org. For any queries about the role, please also contact Rebecca.

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.
Let nothing move you.
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,
because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.”
1 Corinthians 15:58

A PDF version of this newsletter is available here.

Worship with us across the Team

Details of services across the team, as well as our worship at home resources, are available each week on our website.

Our Sunday Zoom Church meets every week at 11.00am at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82311473640. The service sheet is available on the website. Everyone is welcome.

Events

Eversdens Summer Fete
Saturday 14th June

WCCYM Thirst

WCCYM’s monthly youth service, Thirst, will be on Sundays 11th May and 8th June in Cambourne Church Annexe. During the summer term, those in year 6 will be able to join us for Thirst.

There are lots of other exciting WCCYM events taking place this summer term. For more information, see the events diary here: WCCYM Summer Events Diary

Women’s Prayer Group

We are launching Caldecote Women’s Prayer group on Thursday 8th May and thereafter, weekly in term time at 9:00am on Zoom! Women from Caldecote and surrounding villages across the Lordsbridge Team are warmly invited to join us online, gathering in spirit to pray, reflect and lift one another up through prayers. For more information, please speak to Rev’d Clare.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85862955673?pwd=xdAzFalsE5eLRaSjNrPEC2x0dK8m9I.1

Lordsbridge Team Pilgrimage

The Lordsbridge Team Pilgrimage will be taking place on Friday 13th June. Do put this in your diaries, and plan to join us if you can, even if it is just for part of the journey. Everyone is welcome! More details to follow.

News

Thank you!

As the APCM reports for the different parishes continue to arrive in our inboxes, they are a hugely important reminder of all the hard work that takes place in our churches across the year; to maintain them, to worship in them and to use them to share God’s love with our communities. Thank you so much to all of you who serve and volunteer in our churches in so many different capacities. We are so grateful for you and our communities are greatly blessed by you!

Team Rector Vacancy

The latest round of advertising for the Team Rector post closes on Sunday 4th May. Please pray for the right applicants to apply and for the discernment team in the next stages of the process.

Team Administrator Vacancy

Our Team Adminstrator, Becca, will be leaving us in July. As such we are advertising for a new administrator. Applications will close at noon on 9th May. Please do pass the information about the role onto your contacts. More details are available here.

Team Service – 29th June – Singers Needed!

Our next Team Service on Sunday 29th June at 10.30am at Dry Drayton Church needs you! We are putting together a Lordsbridge Choir for a Sung Holy Communion service. If you would like to sing, please contact Clare Coates to let her know your interest and which voice part you sing.

The Church in Toft

It is with great sadness that we pass on the news that Toft Methodist Church will be closing at the end of July. St Andrew’s Toft and Toft Methodist Church have been linked as a Local Ecumenical Project for many years and the closing of the Methodist Church will be a great loss to the community of Toft. Please remember them in your prayers. Services will continue to be held at St Andrew’s Church after the Methodist Church closure, and a service to celebrate the mission and ministry of Toft Methodist Church will be held at the end of July. Further details will follow.

Schools at Easter

Our churches were delighted to host several school Easter services this year. The children from Barton School visited St Peter’s Barton for their Easter service. They had created some amazing artwork on an enrichment day ranging from Jesus’ Baptism, through his Ascension to Pentecost, as you can see in the below pictures.

To contact the Lordsbridge Team and for links to our Facebook and Instagram pages, please see the Contact Us page.

Jesus prays at Gethsemane

Gethsemane
garden of flowers
and hope
let me seek your refuge
and pray
for I need my Father
tonight.

My friends are here
beside the rocks
sleeping
though I begged them not to…
I need them
as I pray
to keep awake

yet their eyes droop
as I lie
in my Father’s absence

Why can’t you hear?
I see the nails
thorns
the tree
blood
fear
wrenching

life draining away
how can this be His will?

How I long
to pick these flowers
bathed in my tears
bury myself away
remove this cup of suffering –
I know you can!
You can do anything, Father
can you hear…?

red
white
blood
death

Yet not my will, but yours Father
I surrender
myself
to you
and through my tears
I reach out
flower petals
falling
through my hands.
My hour has come.

Jesus is betrayed by a Kiss

I stand, pause
at the threshold.

He is here.

I hesitate –
this is my closest friend,
my Lord,
my saviour

But

He is not who I thought he was.
He betrayed me.

I thought he was the one
as he turned over tables
cast out demons
trapped the scribes
and healed the sick.

As he washed my feet with love

I believed in him
but I was wrong.
Force and violence overcome those who oppress us
not love
passive
turning of cheeks embracing our enemies.
No.

There he is.
Pacing as Peter sleeps
and John and James
yet where are the others?

I step
across the threshold
into the garden
my arms wide in embrace

‘Rabbi’

silvery steel clanking
boots stomping

I pull him into my arms
and kiss
his dear cheek
his eyes, so sad, thoughtful
look into mine
and my heart breaks
as they pull him away;
betrayed by a kiss
they lay hands on him
and I stumble, run,
what have I done?

Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin

I am still
silent
as they
compete to condem
I am he
the one you see but do not perceive
hear but do not comprehend.
I am
silent
still
awaiting
death.

Peter denies Jesus

I warm my hands
head bowed
eyes, straying

to the man
my friend
my Lord

Surrounded

kicking
spitting

blood.

I look away,
move my hands
into my pocket

‘You are one of his friends!’
a girl stares
as I shuffle away
no
I do not know this man.

The fire crackles.

‘Yes, you are – I saw you with him!’

No.
Not me.
I do not know him.

I shift,
the flames
scorch
the back of my hands.

‘You know him.’

I do not.

A cockerel’s call pierces the darkness,
I look up
and see that he is looking
straight
into my heart.

The fire scalds
inside
as my heart shatters
into a thousand cuts.

He was right.
I did not know myself at all.

Blackness
engulfs
as my tears
dissolve
into nothingness.

Jesus is judged by Pilate

This man stands before me
as his people yell ‘crucify him
crucify him. Crucify!’
I wash my hands and turn away
it’s not my fault Jesus will die.

Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns

He is jostled
pushed, pulled
this way and that;

they spit.

He is stripped
gouged, beaten
forced to his knees;

they press

a crown made of sharp thorns
down
and onto
his head.

He is yanked
back
up by his arms,
his legs giving way;

they kick.

Stand up straight.

His blood
flows
in copious drops
of thick, red,
blood spreading
endless bleeding
falling
like rain drops in a heavy shower

Hot, fresh, plentiful

the thorns pressing
as he is pushed, pulled,
this way and that;

a soldier’s woollen cloak
thrown
over his shoulders;

a reed, thrust
into his hand;

they bend at their knees
in mock obeisance;

then hands strike
at his fair skin
torn
by the thorns
and fingernails.

Sharp blows
falling
as fast as
his blood.

Jesus carries the cross

The wood
bears the
wounds
of those
who have
walked
this way
before me.

Blood
dried
streaking
in small rivers
collating
in the rivets.

The weight
of expected death
unbearable.

They lead me out
to crucify me
and make me carry
the cross.

Sharp, crushing;
heavier with every step.
I stumble
Scrabbling in the earth
sweat
forcing my eyes
to blink;

yanked
back up
time after time;
stumbling on
to
what awaits.

Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus

I watch
from the sides of my eyes
desperate not to be seen.
Yet
I am drawn
to
this man
struggling before me.

He falls,
is kicked,
spat on,
his crown of thorns digging into his battered head
blood oozes out in rivulets
streaking
and blinding,
mixed with his sweat
and the dust.

He rises
falls
immediately,
the cross beam
crushing
into stunned silence.

He cannot go on.

They will not be deprived
of their spectacle
and search the crowd
as we look away

Please God, let them not choose me.

But strong arms yank mine
force the wood into my hands,
kick me forwards
with this broken man;
its splinters
embedding into my hands.

I take this weight
carry his burden;

a strange peace
descends
burrows
into my heart.

We do not speak.
I walk by his side,
and as I follow
I see
I do not want to be anywhere else.

The Women of Jerusalem

He stumbles; we surge forward
tears cascading, drowning our wailing;
hearts ache at this sight.

We tear our coloured veils
frantic, exposed to heat and fear;
he stops, looks at us:

“Do not weep for me
save your tears for yourselves; for
your sorrows will be more.”

Jesus is crucified

Jesus
stripped, bare;
arms stretched wide;
feet bound, bloodied, bruised;
nails hammered home, cross raised.

Jesus promises the Kingdom to the penitent thief

Jesus
remember me
when you come
into your kingdom; forgive
me, for I have sinned.

Save
me from
the darkest abyss
I am tumbling in
adrift from all that is good.

I
see who
I am, and
acknowledge my own guilt.
Jesus, remember me, welcome me home.

Jesus dies on the cross

The sky darkens. Black.
No light; no breath; no sound but
his agonizing cry:
“Father, why have you forsaken me?”

His hands, his feet. Nailed.
Body wrenched by his weight,
the nails, big, hard, rough,
drawing him to death
bit by bit
protracted torment. Continual suffering-
his garland of thorns
dyed red with his blood.
He hangs suspended
dying
from the inside.
Alone.
Pale- blue – dark blue – brown:
the colours of death
tumbling into deep dying.

He shrivels, dries,
blood seeping into the wood.
And he finally shudders
Sun shrouded
in blackness.
He cries out:
“It is done.”

Jesus is laid in the tomb

Dead.
His body
wrapped in perfume
and laid to rest
in the darkness and silence.

Cold.
Air chilly
he lies alone
enclosed in deep darkness
the stone shutting him in.

Dark.
No light.
We are waiting
bitter grief drawing tears
reality hitting home: he’s gone.

Silence.
That night.
No birds singing.
But as he lies
dawn is about to break.

Jesus is risen from the dead

Early.
Sun. Pale
shards of light
illuminating the tomb’s emptiness
linen cloth wraps discarded hastily.

Birds.
Sing sweetly,
darting, swooping, dancing,
ushering in new day
and they come to see.

But.
He is
not here; for
he is risen! He
is going ahead of you.

Go.
Tell all.
He is with
us always and forever
our risen Lord, master, friend.