St Mary's

Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Rattery

St Mary's APCM

Annual Report St Marys 2022
HERE

St Mary’s financial statements and Examiners Report 2022
HERE

The church at Rattery is a community united in its faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
serving the people of the Parish and is a part of the Body of Christ that is the church around the world. In 2018, an average of 10 to 15 people attend Sunday morning services of worship,
with larger gatherings at the times of the great Festivals.

We follow the Church of England’s Common Worship liturgy on the first, third and fourth Sundays of the month, and the Book of Common Prayer when there is a fifth Sunday; we hold an all-age service of Morning Praise on the second Sunday of the month.
Our Sunday services begin at 11.15 and children are very welcome at them all; if they are too young or too distracted to join in our act of worship,
we have toys and games for them to play with, and welcome their presence amongst us.

Our services on Christmas Day and Easter Day usually begin at 10.00am, and on Remembrance Sunday at 10.30am.

There is diversity in the faith tradition of our members, as is often found in churches of the Anglican Communion.
Features of Protestant, Reformed, Catholic and Orthodox traditions may be observed around the church and in our worship.
We are also an inclusive church, welcoming all people, and celebrating the beauty and diversity of God’s creation, both in humanity and the natural world.

A brief description of the church building

The church preserves its early plan and may well have been built in the later Norman period.

One of the most distinctive features of the interior of the church is the colourful sgraffito which dates from the 1870’s. The word sgraffito comes from the Italian word for ‘scratched’. Sgraffito has its origins in the pottery work of the ancient Greeks.

The font is of great antiquity and much interest. Its design is certainly Norman. The bowl and stem are of red sandstone and the base a grey stone. The cup-shaped bowl is surrounded by shallow flutings.

There are five church bells. Three were cast in 1763. One inscribed ‘God preserve the Church’; another ‘God save the King’; the third has three gold coin impressions, a George II guinea and both sides of a John V Portuguese coin dated 1743. This is very unusual and rare. The one cast in 1901 has the inscription, ‘Hear me when I call’, and the last, cast in 1911, is inscribed ‘George V Rex, 1911.