Shaw Church

Welcome

We are the Church of England parish of St Mary’s Shaw cum Donnington – just to the north and east of Newbury.

Our purpose and focus is Knowing Jesus, Sharing God’s Love, Caring for People.
You can read more about it here.

We meet every Sunday at 10am, as well as at other times during the week.
Everyone is welcome to join us.

Word for the Week

• Follow my leader27 August 2025

  For those of you well attuned to following a SatNav, have you tried Zen Navigation? I first heard about it from Dirk Gently (a Douglas Adams character) and it involves finding someone who looks like they know where they are going, and then following them. There is a variant where you just follow the car in front (whether they look like they have a plan or not) – and if another car comes between you, follow that one instead. I suppose you could super-spiritualise it by praying first.

  Most people wouldn’t want to following a random car just hoping for the best – as the poster said: if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.

  The apostle Thomas thought he needed to know the destination in order to find the way, but Jesus told him that knowing the way is enough because He (Jesus) is the way, and that following Him is all we need to do (see John 14:4-6).

  In a world where there are so many calls on our time and energy, so many things we need to get done, I wonder if we dare take a moment and recall that being a Christian really is about following Jesus. As Jesus said to Martha, complaining about her sister sitting at Jesus’ feet, “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41).

   

  Raymond