As part of our tercentenary celebrations, on Saturday 27th May 2023 we have chosen a trail around Kingswood, with "stations" in the village that suggest stories about Jesus from the Bible. There will be activities for children and adults at each station to help you to explore your journey, looking to Jesus. The trail ends at the church with a free fish-and-chip supper, based on the story of Jesus feeding 5000 people with five loaves and two fish. The trail opens at 2:30pm, and the fish-and-chip supper starts at 5:30pm.
To help you follow the trail, we have produced a children’s book especially for the occasion, distributed in advance to all children at Kingswood Primary School. The story follows the adventures of Sophie and Joe, two children who go looking for Jesus around Kingswood. Please request a copy from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you will not be getting one at that school.
On Sunday 28th May we have a service at 11am to celebrate St Mary's 300th birthday, followed by a party. This is Pentecost Sunday, an important day for Christians. The Bishop of Tewkesbury will be there to help us celebrate.
Pentecost Sunday, the day we remember the Holy Spirit being given to the first Christians, is regarded as the Birthday of the Church. We will be marking the 300th birthday of St Mary’s. And we will also be remembering our own baptisms… the day on which Christians are symbolically “born again” into the church. If you have not been baptised, we can do that at the service, if you let us know.
So that’s three birthdays… the spiritual birthday of the individual Christian, the birthday of our local church, and the birthday of the worldwide Church.
Everybody in the village, and all who wish St Mary's well, are invited, so come along! After all, how often do you get invited to a 300th birthday party?
was produced as part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the building of St Mary’s Church in 1723. For 300 years, St Mary’s has been a place where the message of Jesus has been made known, and we wanted to mark our special birthday by sharing those stories of Jesus in a memorable way.
Members of St Mary’s, along with our friends from Kingswood Congregational Church, regularly go into Kingswood Primary School to tell stories of Jesus through “Open the Book”, a way of telling stories through drama.
Our story imagines two children who have heard those stories and go through the village of Kingswood to try and find Jesus. You can follow their adventures yourself using this book… details are inside.
You can use this book to share in our special weekend, but we also hope that you will hang on to it as a memory of a special event in the life of our village.
Thanks to Old Town Christian Trust and Sylvanus Lysons Trust for helping to fund the book and the weekend, and support from the Diocese of Gloucester’s "Bishops in Mission" programme.
This book was written by Revd Jay Niblett and illustrated by Revd Rick Williams. The painting of St Mary’s used in our Tercentenary Logo is by Sarah Farwell.