Patronal Festival Report - St Mary's, Bottesford

St Mary's Church, Bottesford
Patron Saint: The Blessed Virgin St Mary
Festival Date: 6 September 2026

We had a wonderful service on Sunday evening with a congregation of 50 plus (having already had a similar number at our morning service). Our new Archdeacon, The Ven Richard Trethewy preached and we served a buffet supper afterwards. 

It was the first time we have held Evensong since Covid! There were 12 members of the choir in attendance, and we used Stanford in B flat setting, with Smith of Durham for the responses. 

One of our choir members wrote special vestry prayers which were sung in the chancel, and another composed a beautiful 'Marian' anthem for the occasion. 

The Archdeacon gave a blessing for those named Mary or had a variation of that name, which we all knelt for. Although we only had a small number of ‘Marys’ in attendance, we also prayed for those we knew with that name in the wider parish. To add to this, our second reading was given by one of our ‘Marys’ whose late husband was a former priest.

It was encouraging to see a good number of people from the village there, who don’t usually attend church. They also stayed on for supper and enjoyed the fellowship. We have received a lot of positive feedback during the last week from those who came.

Canon Judith Wells, Lay Minister