Every Sunday at 11 am we have a Family Church Service.

We are continuing with a hybrid Church/Zoom Service, with worship led from the church.

Hymns are played and sung in church and those participating at home via Zoom can sing along.

We distribute an Order of Service via e-mail and include the Zoom log-in details which change for each service. If you would like to receive the weekly invitation e-mail, please let us know with an e-mail to pottersbarurc@googlemail.com

On the first & third Sunday of the month Holy Communion is celebrated at this service.

An edited video of our weekly Service can be viewed on our Services Page.

December 2025 – On behalf of the Elders

Dear Friends

How quickly the years pass as one becomes older.  December again, and all the excitement for children, but there are sadly, some who do not enjoy the festive season and have nothing to look forward to in their future.  We, in our church, support many charities and the one I am going to write about today is our Charity Lunches.

I joined the PBURC in 1995, introduced by my dear  friend, Mary Deller.  She had been a member with her husband Michael, since 1976.  I soon realized that this was the church with such friendly people that I needed.  At that time the Christian Aid lunches, as they were then called,  had been taking place for many years.  It was run by a lady, Mary Harvey.  There was a small team of ladies, and it took place every Friday.  It consisted of soup, served in a small cup, a tea plate with a small piece of cheese and a slice of bread and butter.   The cost was £1.  I very soon joined this group and asked why it was such a small meal.  I was told this was to represent the poor in the world who had nothing.  The money raised was insignificant of course and it always went to Christian Aid.

When Mary & her husband retired and moved away, she asked me if I would take on the job of organising it, to which I gladly agreed.   The first person I spoke to was Phil Barton, Margaret’s husband, and I asked him why he didn’t attend.  He said I go home hungry and then Margaret has to give me lunch.   So I asked the ladies if we could improve the lunch a bit, like adding a bit of salad and a tomato.   They weren’t too happy but agreed.  In those days we were making soup from powdered soup in 3lb bags from Iceland.  It was a nightmare to mix it without getting it lumpy and so I suggested we bought tins – more expensive but we increased the price to £1.50.  We did then get a few more visitors and we had soup bowls.

Gradually the food got more and more interesting, over the years, until it reached the wonderful lunch we produce today and presently it costs £6 for as much as you can eat or the food runs out.    It must be over 20 years now since I took over from Mary and we now raise around £100 a month, having just one every first Friday of the month and we have around 25 to 30 visitors each time, a number of whom are from outside our church.    We change the charity every fourth month and have raised many thousands of pounds for Noah’s Ark Hospice for Children, Dogs for the Blind, The Peace & Rennie Hospice, RNLI, TWAM (Tools with a Mission), and many, many more.    We now have only three teams of four each and this year we have included some of our men friends to help,  as each team chooses and buys the food for their turn which is quite an amount and heavy work, but we all happily continue and I hope we still will.   If you have never come to our Professional Recital at 12.15 which precedes our Charity Lunch at 13.15 please do give us a try !

I wish you all every blessing for the Christmas season and a healthy, happy and peaceful New Year.

Janet O’Connor

On behalf of the Elders