Welcome to the website for the united benefice of Ashburnham with Penhurst. Here you will find information about our churches, and the events and activities which are part of our church and village life. Our desire is to know, love and to follow Jesus Christ in our homes, our church family and in the communities where we live and work.
St Peter's Church, Ashburnham
Our aim is to be a church that is accessible to everyone, wherever they are coming from, and to be a place where people can experience healing and restoration. We want to provide the opportunity for all to grow in faith and commitment to Jesus Christ whatever their age.
We have one service each Sunday at 10.30 am.
Our services are informal yet orderly, often following the liturgy of Common Worship. We seek to be led by the Holy Spirit. All members are given the opportunity to share what God is doing in their lives if they wish.
Families with children are very welcome, and we have activities for younger people each Sunday, except when there is an All Age service on the first Sunday of the month. there are two house groups which meet on the 1st, 3rd and 4th Thursday of the month at 8.00pm.
Revd Peter Walker
Preist-in-Charge for the benefice of Ashburnham with Penhurst
Contact details
Our Parish Profile tab gives more information about life at St. Peter's
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St Peter's Ashburnham Churchwardens
Jennifer Oldroyd
Nick Thompson
St Peter's Ashburnham PCC Secretary
Rachel Bickersteth
Ashburnham Chapel
At St. Peter's we often join with friends at Ashburnham Chapel for shared services and events. To contact them and find out lots more about The Chapel see their website here
Village Website
Find out more about activities, groups and events in Ashburnham and Penhurst on the village website here
Peter's message for April
Dear Friends,
‘Lord, teach us to pray’ (St.Luke 11:1)
The Bishop of Chichester has designated this year as ‘The year of Prayer’.
One thing which was impressed on our student minds during our training in a monastic situation was the constant round of prayer. Chapel services occurred at five points of the day beginning at 7am and carrying through to Compline, the last service of the day at 9.30pm.
Amongst all that worship were lectures to attend, essays to write, domestic chores to be done. I was then, as now, reminded of St.Benedict who described the whole of life as: ‘to pray is to work; to work is to pray’. To see whatever we do as a prayer to God.
In his little book ‘Letters from the Desert’ Carlo Carretto tells of his journey into the desert to learn how to pray. The lessons he learned turned his life upside down. He learned that prayer had to be the governing principle of every aspect of his life. ‘Prayer is the sum of our relationship with God. We are what we pray. The degree of our faith is the degree of our prayer. Our ability to love is our ability to pray’, he wrote.
Similarly In his observations in ‘The way of a pilgrim’, the writer sought to understand and practice St. Paul’s injunction ‘Pray without ceasing’. He came to the conclusion that a one line prayer was to be at the centre: ‘Lord Jesus have mercy on me’ –a prayer repeated throughout the day. All else stemmed from this.
The disciples sought Jesus on the matter of prayer. From this they, as we, have the ‘Our Father’. Notice the order in this prayer. First, Jesus praised God; then he made his requests. Praising God first puts us in the right frame of mind to tell Him about our needs. Too often our prayers are more like shopping lists than conversations.
It may pay us all to look at ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ line by line. Pause and meditate on it. Take a week to do this – one line each day. We say this prayer so often that sometimes its deeper meaning can ‘go over one’s head’.
On the Mount of Olives Jesus asked the disciples to ‘watch and pray’. What did they do? Fell asleep! ‘Watch and pray’ may well be a good maxim for us amongst all the things which entice us away from God, because through it our defences can be shored up against all such.
With my prayers,
Peter
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