St Mary the Virgin and All Saints, Potters Bar - About Us

The Tradition

Since its consecration in 1915, St Mary’s has belonged to the Catholic wing of the Church of England. The tradition of Catholic teaching, ceremonial (vestments, incense and reservation of the Sacrament) and music continues to this day, though we would now describe ourselves as “modern orthodox catholic anglican”. In 1994, following a congregation ballot, the PCC passed both Resolutions A & B of the “Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure 1993”. There is still a considerable amount of support for this stance, even though the composition of the congregation has changed dramatically since 1994. It is worth noting that we are the only town church in the Archdeaconry of Hertford to have these resolutions in place.

Worship and Ministry

Pattern of Sunday Worship:

7.30 am Morning Prayer (Celebrating Common Prayer)
8.00 am Holy Eucharist (Order One – traditional language)
10.00 am Parish Eucharist (Order One – contemporary language)
6.30 pm Evensong (BCP) [4.00pm in winter months] 1st and 3rd Sundays

The average number of communicants on a Sunday are 17 at 8.00am and 70 at 10.00am. The number at Parish Communion increases on the third Sunday of the month when we hold a “Family Communion”, attended by the young people of our uniformed groups and their parents. This service attracts a congregation of approximately 140, with around 85 communicants. During the last year, we have seen support for this service growing which has been most encouraging. We endeavour to keep the duration of the service to one hour or less, include modern hymns/songs and a more informal Ministry of the Word, but retain catholic ceremonial. On the other Sundays of the month, Sunday School meets in the church hall.

Numbers at Evensong are small, but we attempt to vary the diet of evening worship with the occasional Songs of Praise, Taizé service or Stations of the Cross (during Lent).

The usual Sunday attendance, calculated during October 2004, was 86 adults and 10 children

Weekday services: Eucharists 2 days a week (Tuesday and Thursday) with Sung Eucharist on major festivals. Morning and Evening Prayer are said in Church.

Electoral Roll: 137 (92 resident in the parish, 45 non-resident).

Occasional Offices: In 2004, there were 13 baptisms, 2 weddings and 36 funerals (of these, 6 were conducted in church). However, the number of funerals in 2004 was unusually low; the figure is usually at least 50. There were 11 confirmation candidates in 2004 (9 young people and 2 adults). This was a year when the Confirmation service was held at St Mary’s, when numbers tend to be higher. On average, we present about 4 candidates per year.

Ministry Team: Father Peter Bevan (Vicar since June 1995), Father Gareth Randall (a senior member of staff at Dame Alice Owens School and NSM Priest at St Mary’s since September 1998) and Richard Osborn (Reader since September 1992). Until July 2004, we also had a first-post curate (Father Robert Desics) but, for the time being, it has not been possible to replace him.