Latest News from Silsoe
Below you will find details of some of the latest news about our Church community. Older articles can be found in our News Archive.
News and Events elsewhere in the Benefice can be found from their Home Pages.

Remembrance Service
This year’s Remembrance Day Service, on Sunday 10 November, was very special because it included, for the first time for many years, a parade of scouts and beavers along the High Street to the Church. The scouts together with a large crowd gathered around the memorial for the service, led by Rev. Ian Smith, to remember the dead as the names were read out by Simon Stranks, to observe the two

Remembered in Love
This service, attended by about 80 people celebrated the lives of those dear family members and friends who were no longer with us. The service was led by Gillian Kern and Simon Stranks and was a very simple but moving one with poignant readings from Julius of Norwich and Cardinal Basil Hume. The service began with a reading of the Song of Solomon (2: 10-17), a moving tribute to a loved

CHUMS charity
This charity , which is based at Wrest Park in Silsoe has become the largest children’s mental health provider in Bedfordshire. They are keen that we at St James Church are full aware of the services they offer and these are explained in a recent letter that has been received from Rianna Steer their communications assistant. Rather than paraphrase the letter it is presented in full below.

Harvest service learns about Tanzania
The Bishop of St Alban’s harvest appeal this year was “Light up Tanzania” , which aims to provide solar panels as a source of electricity for rural homes in Tanzania. As usual the Church was beautifully decorated for the occasion by the flower arrangers, with this year some interesting “figures” attached to the end of the pews as well appearing in some of the arrangements. Unlike previous years it was decided

School’s amazing generosity
As Silsoe VC school has grown it has become necessary to have two services in the Church to celebrate harvest. The children brought an astounding array of gifts to the services, so much so that the altar had to be cleared after the first service to make way for the gifts brought at the second services. Rev Ann Barker conducted both services, during which she explained to the children how the
Welcoming entrance
Many of you will have noticed that the 2 flower beds either side of the Church door have been well tended and full of bloom during the past few months. These beds now have a magnificent array of pansies to brighten up the doorway as we enter the Church. It is thanks to John Foolkes that these beds are being well maintained and have offered a range of blooms over the

Successful Harvest Supper
This year’s harvest supper, organised by the Friends of Silsoe Church, was held on 27 September 2019. There were 10 tables, all admirably hosted and this enabled just over 80 people to sit down to a traditional ploughman’s supper of cheddar and stilton cheese, ham and pork pie with chutney and freshly picked tomatoes from Silsoe Horticultural Centre as well as the cottage loaf rolls specially baked for us by Rogers

Bells rung to celebrate 100 years of WI
On Friday 27 September the WI in Bedfordshire were celebrating their centenary. To mark the occasion all Church associated with WI branches were asked to ring their bells at 7pm on that evening. St James was no exception. A group of Silsoe WI members came to the Church to listen to a band of ringers, who rang for 15 minutes from 7pm to celebrate this remarkable milestone for the WI. The