Welcome to our weekly benefice newsletter. If you’d like to be notified by email each week, please click or tap here to sign up.
Items for next week’s notices can be sent to manager@StGilesStMargarets.org by Wednesday.
Worship & Prayer
Saturday 4 April
Easter Eve
8.00pm – The Liturgy of Easter (including the Easter Fire, Service of Light, Easter Vigil, and first Eucharist of Easter)
Sunday 5 April
Easter Day
8.00am – Holy Communion at St Giles’ (said, 1662 BCP)
10.30am – All-Age ‘Together’ Holy Communion at St Margaret’s (sung, Common Worship)
10.30am – Holy Communion at St Giles’ (sung, Common Worship)
Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.
Pew sheets
The pew sheets for our services on Easter Day, including the readings, prayers and music details, are available to download below:
Next Sunday (12 April):
Second Sunday of Easter
8.00am – Holy Communion at St Giles’ (said, 1662 BCP)
10.30am – Holy Communion at St Margaret’s (sung, Common Worship)
10.30am – Holy Communion at St Giles’ (sung, Common Worship)
Note there are no evening services on Sunday 12 April.
Coming up in April…
Monthly “What’s On” leaflet
Download April’s issue below:
Online events calendar
Thanks to our ChurchSuite system, you can now see all of the events that we have coming up in the next few months online, and get more information where relevant. You can view them as a list or in a calendar view:
Parish News
Easter Liturgy TONIGHT
After the heaviness of Holy Week, come and celebrate the Easter Liturgy, the climax of the entire Christian year! Beginning outside, gathered around the Easter Fire, we process into a darkened church and hear the beautiful Exsultet, before moving into the Vigil, when we hear of the mighty acts of God throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.
Then the lights come on and we celebrate the Resurrection with as much noise as possible, before re-affirming our baptismal vows at the font, and share together in the first Eucharist of the Easter Season.
And in case your mind still isn’t made up, the service is followed by cake and wine (or orange juice) afterwards…
TONIGHT at St Margaret’s Church, beginning at 8pm.
Holy Week talks
The homilies and addresses this Holy Week has been focused on the theme of “the absences of God”. To find out more, and to catch up with any you’ve missed, click or tap on the link below:
Note: not all talks are available yet – return to the link above if there are still some missing.
Easter Sunday Concert at St Giles’
Nicholas Prozzillo presents a performance of movements from Bach’s cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen (Rejoice, O Hearts) on Easter Sunday, 5 April, at 12:00pm at St Giles’ Church. All welcome.
Changes to Evening Services at St Giles’ and St Margaret’s
After Easter, starting on Sunday 19 November, there will be changes to the evening services at both St Giles’ and St Margaret’s.
At St Giles’, the Evensong services will have a new starting time of 3.30pm in the afternoon, as is common in many Cathedrals and larger parish churches. The hope is that this will allow more of our young choristers to be able to participate, without such a late finish on a school night!
At St Margaret’s, we will have a new rolling programme of quiet, contemplative services at 6.00pm:
- First Sunday of the month: Said Holy Communion according to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (in the Chancel)
- Second Sunday of the month: Taizé service, using chants from the Taizé community in France (in the Lady Chapel).
- Third Sunday of the month: Said Evening Prayer according to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (in the Lady Chapel).
- Fourth Sunday of the month: Contemplative prayer / Christian meditation (in the Lady Chapel).
As with all of our services in the Benefice, anyone from either church is very welcome at all of the above.
Heating and toilets at St Giles’
Unfortunately we’ve been having more problems with heating at St Giles’ – and completely unconnected to the problems we had earlier in the year!
To make matters worse, the connected problem is also affecting our toilets – if you need to use the facilities at St Giles’ this morning, please use those in the Parish Rooms next door to the church.
Benefice Manager vacancy
We are looking for someone to join our team who is confident with people, comfortable managing multiple tasks, and able to work independently and proactively with good judgement.
Do you know someone who fits? Point them here:
Annual Meetings and Electoral Rolls
The annual meetings for the churches will take place this year in April:
- St Margaret’s at midday on Sunday 19 April
- St Giles’ at midday on Sunday 26 April
If you are on the electoral roll, you can both stand and vote for PCC members and churchwardens. Please think and pray carefully about whether this might be something you are called to – particularly at St Margaret’s, where there are currently a number of vacancies on PCC, and will also soon have a churchwarden vacancy.
This means that we need to make sure our respective electoral rolls are up to date. We don’t need to collect everyone’s names like last year (that won’t happen until 2031) but if you are not on the roll, and have been attending either church regularly, or semi-regularly, for the last six months or more, please do join the roll. It doesn’t cost anything; you don’t have to give us any information beyond name and postal address; and most importantly it means we have an accurate record of our communities.
The deadlines to sign up to the roll (to attend this year’s annual meetings) are:
- St Margaret’s: 11.59pm on Saturday 4 April (TONIGHT!)
- St Giles’: 11.59pm on Saturday 11 April
Click or tap on the button below to join the roll:
Jazz at St Giles’: Holly Shearsmith Quartet
The next Jazz at St Giles’ concert is Saturday 18 April at 7:30pm: The Holly Shearsmith Quartet, who present an evening of Modern Jazz with La Nouvelle Vague. The next JASG concert will be on Saturday 20th June: Jazz Spiritualities: ‘Naissance’ with John Law and Jon Lloyd.
Memory Café
Our next Memory Café will be on Wednesday 8 April. If you know someone who might enjoy or benefit from coming along, or if you’d like more details, please contact St Margaret’s Parish Community Worker, Tricia Brant, on 07776 595456 or at triciabrant@stmargaretsoxford.org.
Benefice book group
The next meeting of the benefice book group is on Wed 15 April, 7.15pm at St Anne’s; and we are discussing Pearl, by Siân Hughes.
For more information, contact Siân Grønlie (curate@stgilesstmargarets.org)
Chorister Taster Singing Afternoon at St Giles’
If your child is interested in becoming a chorister, Nicholas is holding a taster afternoon on Saturday 16 May at 1:30pm. Email to register for a place.
Youth Pilgrimage 2026
Booking is now open for the 2026 Youth Pilgrimage to Worcester Cathedral from 10-14th August. Spaces are limited so please contact Eva for more details.
House groups
We are exploring potential interest in small “house groups” for those who might enjoy meeting in homes for conversation, prayer, and informal engagement with Scripture. This is something some people will know from other church traditions, but there is no expectation here that anyone “ought” to join.
At this stage we are simply gathering interest. If you might like to attend, host, or help lead a group, please email Daniel.
Community News
Tea & Talks at St Margaret’s Institute
The current season of Tea & Talks at St Margaret’s Institute continues on Wed 15 April at 1:45-3:30pm with a talk titled Tackling the legacies of slavery and colonialism at English Heritage sites from Andrew Hann. Entry is £2, including tea and cake. All welcome.
Oxford Theatre Guild presents TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral
Local theatre group OTG have asked us to share information about their next show, Murder in the Cathedral, at Oxford Playhouse from 21-25 April. They think it may appeal to our congregation, as not only does it recount one of the most significant events in the Church’s history, but that it also has particular resonance at the moment when the first female archbishop is being installed in Canterbury Cathedral. The production will also feature choral singing.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is a major priority in our Benefice as we work together to keep everyone in our community safe. It is often said safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, thank you for the part you play. If you are concerned about a person’s or activity’s safety in our community, please contact our Parish Safeguarding Officers (details below) or the Diocesan Safeguarding Team (details below). We are greatly helped by many volunteers, thank you for your time, including for completing required DBS checks, safeguarding training and safer recruitment forms.
St Margaret’s Church PSO Becca Rose: safeguarding@stmargaretsoxford.org
St Giles Church PSO Lorraine Desai: safeguarding@st-giles-church.org
Diocesan Team 01865 208 295 safeguardingreferrals@oxford.anglican.org
Out-of-hours: Thirtyone:eight on 0303 003 1111 for confidential advice, guidance and support.