Feel connected and welcomed
This bulletin highlights the practical as well as the spiritual life of our church and the ways we offer support. We hope it helps you feel connected and welcomed as part of our community. This page is updated every Thursday.
DonateSome practicalities
- Children are welcome at all our services – there are play areas at Ottery and Alfington. During our services you are welcome to stand or sit as you are minded or able.
- Gluten free wafers are available at services of Holy Communion at Ottery – just let a steward know as you arrive.
- If you think you can’t sing or don’t know the hymns give it your all anyway – no one judges here.
- Ottery St Mary Parish Church wifi code: John15v5
Links to ....
Notices and requests
Charity of the month: Mission Aviation Fellowship
One of our Tots Praise families, Jordan and Rebekah Overton Cox, are part of the Mission Aviation Fellowship team. The charity is the world’s largest humanitarian air operator, flying medical supplies, doctors, and nurses to places no one else can reach and ensuring critical care gets to where it’s needed most.
https://maf-uk.org/Cleaners needed
We are still short of a few cleaning volunteers. If you think you could give a little time once a month to join one of our teams or would like to know more about what is involved, please get in touch with the church office.
Cream Tea for Devon Historic Churches Day
Saturday 12 September 2.30PM-4.30PM
Come along and help raise money for our church and Devon Historic Churches Trust and enjoy a delicious cream tea at the same time. If you are feeling decadent, why not have a bacon bap in the morning at the Welcome Cafe and come back for a cream tea in the afternoon?Food Bank
The Food Bank has currently run out of custard and tinned sweetcorn and is low on stocks of tinned meat and savoury rice/noodles.
Green Christian Prayer Guide
During Creation Season, why not try using the Green Christian Prayer guide to help with your daily prayers?
https://greenchristian.org.uk/introduction/resources/prayer-guide/Lydia’s Licensing: Livestream to be shown in Ottery church
For those not travelling to Chelsea for Lydia’s licensing, we will be showing the livestream of the service in Ottery church. The service is on 8th September at 7pm. Gather in church from around 6.50pm if you’d like to watch it here. If you are travelling, St Luke’s is on Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NH. The nearest Tube stations are South Kensington (9 minute walk away) or Sloane Square (17-minute walk away).
The parish are providing a high tea at 5pm.Melanesian Mission UK Annual General Meeting & Festival Day
Join us on Saturday 19 September 2026 in Exeter for a day of worship, fellowship and updates on the work of the Melanesian Mission. Come and celebrate our partnership with the Anglican Church of Melanesia and hear inspiring stories of mission and faith. All welcome.
RSVP by 1 September 2026 to or 01404 851656.Ottery Deanery Quiet Day
Saturday 3rd October 2026 10am – 3pm
Led by Canon Cate Edmonds at The Narthex, St Michael’s Church, West Hill , EX11 1UW
There is no charge for the day, but there will be an opportunity to contribute to Revd Cate’s chosen charity, the Melanesian Mission
Given limited numbers and for catering purposes, please sign up with Jennie Golding, lay chair: 01395 578474Pop-up Choir Rehearsal
A reminder that our Second Sunday “pop-up” choir will be rehearsing on Saturday 12th September at 11AM. New singers always welcome. Why not come along and give it a go and, if you arrive early, you can enjoy a bacon bap or cake at the Welcome Cafe.
Quiet Day: “Follow Me”
Jesus calls us to follow Him, but what does this mean in today’s world? What obstacles might we encounter on the way? Make time to reflect on these, and other, questions with a Quiet Morning in Lympstone Parish Church on Wednesday 23rd September from 10AM till 12.30PM. We will share some worship, reflections, music and prayer ideas, with plenty of time for your own silent meditations too! Everyone Welcome. Do drop in for all, or just part, of the morning – Refreshments will be available throughout – Suggested donation £5. Contact Demelza on 01395 272243 for more detail.
RIP
Stephen Tweedie
David Kohler
Annie Haines
Stephen’s funeral will be on Wednesday 9 September 1PM at East Devon Crematorium
David’s funeral will be on Friday 18th September 2PM at Ottery church
A memorial service for Annie Haines will be held on Sunday 6th December 6pm in Ottery churchThe Bereavement Journey
The next course starts on Tuesday 22nd September from 2-4PM. It is for anyone bereaved at any time. If you would like to join us, contact Rosie
News
A reminder when church is closed
Ottery St Mary Parish Church is closed to ALL visitors on:
- Mondays during term time from 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM
- Wednesdays from 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
- Thursdays during term time from 3:45 PM – 5:15 PM
During these times, the parish office is out of bounds to ALL.
If you want to know if the church is open, please check the calendar.

Collect and readings
Sunday 6th September: Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity/Creationtide 1
Wiggaton
Collect
Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Romans 13: 8 – end
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Matthew 18: 15 – 20
‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’
Ottery St Mary
Collect
God of the garden and the wild places,
who calls your people to tend the ground where they worship:
Bless our churches and churchyards as sanctuaries for creatures and people alike.
Make us faithful stewards of soil, stone, and seed,
that your creation may flourish in our care;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Genesis 2:4–15
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground – then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
Colossians 1:15–20
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Matthew 13:31–32
He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’
PCC members
As well as the clergy and churchwardens, the following are on the PCC. Please contact members of the PCC through the Administrator.
- Mrs Sue Clayton
- Ms Anitra Lockwood












