ST MARY’S CHURCH

St Mary’s Church Coddenham

At the heart of Coddenham Parish

An introduction

The parish of Coddenham is part of the North Bosmere Benefice^[1], within the Deanery^[2] of Bosmere in theDiocese^[3]of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

Our benefice comprises the parishes of Coddenham, Creeting St. Mary, Creeting St. Peter, Crowfield, Earl Stonham with Stonham Parva, Gosbeck, Hemingstone, and Stonham Aspal and Mickfield.  We enjoy worshipping together when there is a fifth Sunday in the month.

The church is open every day (8.00 – 4.00 GMT, 8.30 – 5.00 BST) and visitors are very welcome, whether for private prayer and contemplations, to enjoy the sense of peace or to admire the stunning architecture. 

Regular services of Morning Worship, Holy Communion and Evening Prayer are held at St Mary’s. Please see the weekly Notice Sheet  which can be found in the Downloads section of the website with a link at the end of the weekly post on the website Front Page.  The church’s role as a focusfor the village is very much in evidence when there are weddings, baptisms and funerals.

In addition, there are special services on important days in the church calendar – Christmas (the carol service, Crib and Christingle, Midnight Mass), Palm Sunday walks, Easter (Good Friday and Easter Day), Mothering Sunday, Pentecost, Harvest and Remembrance Sunday which are all always well supported.

A notable feature of the church community has been the involvement of so many people offering their talents – whether in grass-cutting, cleaning the church, flower arranging, taking responsibility for parts of the worship, providing tea and coffee after the services, serving on the PCC, running the monthly coffee mornings and organising and running a variety of other social and fund raising events (see our news/blog).

The Church of England is committed:

1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
2. To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
3. To respond to human need by loving service
4. To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation
5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth

These are sometimes known as Tell – Teach – Tend – Transform – Treasure.

[1] A benefice is a grouping of church parishes.

[2] A deanery is a geographical area in a diocese within which parishes are grouped for pastoral and administrative purposes.

[3] A Church of England administrative area under the pastoral care of a bishop.