Blog - Denham Parish Church

Meet Lenny the Lion!

September 7, 2026/in Uncategorized/by Christoph Lindner

Lenny the Lion has been living in St Mary’s Church since 1564, that’s 462 years. If you want to say ‘hello’ to him, you will find him resting in the front left corner. He’s tucked away a bit because he loves his sleep!

Help Lenny tell his story!

Write a short story about Lenny’s adventures.

Imagine the adventures Lenny has had over the years in our church and write a short story. Think about the people and animals he has met, the events taking place in church, the fun and the scary moments he has had. If you are a bit older you can link the story to something that happened in Denham or in England in the past and take your inspiration from that. Your story will bring this stone lion to life!

Colour in a picture of Lenny or make your own drawing.

The best stories and images will be printed as a booklet, with all proceeds going to our appeal.

You can post your story or image through St Mary’s letterbox (next to the vestry door around the left hand side of the front door of St Mary’s). Don’t forget to put your name and age and a contact number or email on the back. You can also email them to us…

Download the colouring sheet of Lenny here…

(A big thank you to Roz Read for creating the artwork for the Lenny colouring sheet)

Why not raise some money yourself?

You could use your time and gifts to wash a car, help with gardening… and give the money to our appeal.

You can post the money you’ve raised through our church letterbox in a sealed envelope with the words “Fundraising” on it, or ask a grown-up to transfer the money for you (again: ask them to put “Fundraising” on the bank transfer or back of cheque). Click here to find out about ways to give…

A note for adults:

We launched our campaign “Two buildings, one community, a future worth investing in” at St Mary’s Festival on Sunday, 13 September 2026. Our goal is to raise £300,000 for St Mary’s Church and St Mark’s Hall. Our stone lion connects both buildings – it can be found at the feet of the tomb effigies of the first patron, Sir Edmund Peckham, and his wife. The lion is also the heraldic animal of St Mark. With “Lenny the Lion” we want to give everyone a stake in helping us preserve and improve our buildings for future generations – it doesn’t matter how old you are or how much you can contribute. You can download the full brochure with all details of our campaign here…

(Christoph Lindner, Rector)

For the latest update about the building work at St Mark’s, click here…

Sunday 6 September at St Mary’s

September 5, 2026/in Uncategorized/by Christoph Lindner

It’s a new month and a new term! As always on the first Sunday of the month, we will have our “All In” Service at 10.30am – all involved, all included, all inspired and all in the room. Therefore we won’t stream the service live on Youtube. We are aiming the upload the talk by the end of the day.

Both at 9am and 10.30am we will start our new monthly theme “Healthy Habits” where we are exploring practices that will shape our life. Tomorrow’s theme is “Making Disciples” and fittingly, we will have a baptism at 10.30am.

COMING UP:

Sunday 13 September – St Mary’s Festival. In the morning there won’t be a 9am service and in our joint 10.30 service we will celebrate the hymns of Timothy Dudley Smith (you will know “Tell out my soul” or “Lord for the years). We still have some tickets left for the piano concert with Seth Schultheis at 4pm. Click here to reserve your ticket…

Our mission partners

September 4, 2026/in Uncategorized/by Christoph Lindner

Our aim is to build meaningful relationships with a small number of mission partners (expressed through prayer, financial support, practical help, exposure visits, etc.). This updated list was approved and formally adopted at the APCM in April 2024.

TRINITY (with SHOC)– This local homeless charity and has an immediate impact on the local area.

CARE FOR THE FAMILY “… aims to promote strong family life and to help those who face family difficulties.” . Denham Parish has been running CFF parenting courses for several years. CFF’s vision, including a focus in supporting Christian families as they help their children grow in faith, chimes with our focus on young people and families.

BRF MINISTRIES “offer creative programmes and resources for individuals, churches and schools.” Denham Parish has been connected with BRF for 60 years. We have been blessed by their daily bible reading notes. They have a focus on schools work and new ministries for families and children, and are the publishers of Messy Church resources.

WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATIONS “To see God’s Word made accessible to all people in the language of their hearts.” This worthwhile cause reaches out to communities in remote places that do not have the bible in their own language or people that are illiterate. Our Parish has a connection with Samuel Kpagheri (originally set up by the St Mark’s service and committee). In 2025 we had a visit from Samuel.

TEARFUND “changes the lives of people who have suffered due to conflict and poverty, working through local churches”. Church members have held fund raising events for this in the past. Tearfund’s excellent work has been recognised by qualifying for the gift-matching programme of the UK government in 2024.

Denham Parish News: Autumn 2026

August 30, 2026/in Magazine/by Christoph Lindner

Our Autumn issue for 2026 is out.
In this issue:

Title Story: Grumpy Old Men? Not at all!
Preserving our heritage, building our future: Progress at St Mark’s
Healthy Habits
Walks and Pilgrimages
Craft Corner: Making Stick People
and much more…

Click here or on the title image above to download a PDF of the magazine…

Would you like to subscribe to the paper version? Email our editor…

This Sunday (30 August) at Denham Parish Church

August 29, 2026/in Uncategorized/by Christoph Lindner

Join us for our last talk in our August series “Psalms for Life” – both at 9am (Holy Communion) and 10.30am, which will also be streamed live on our YouTube channel…

Café Church: New time, new location

In the afternoon we will have our first Café Church in the new location – Denham Garden Village, Village Hall. For the duration of the building work at St Mark’s this will be our temporary home for Café Church, always on the LAST Sunday of the month. As always, you can come from 3.15pm for a cuppa. The service will start at 3.30pm.

Sunday 23 August at St Mary’s

August 22, 2026/in Uncategorized/by Christoph Lindner

This Sunday we are continuing with our series “Psalms for Life”. Janet Allen will be preaching at both services – 9am and 10.30am at St Mary’s.

At 10.30, Axel Melis will be baptised. To join us live on our YouTube channel, click here…
Of course the recording will be available afterwards, too.

What’s happening at St Mary’s on 9 August?

August 8, 2026/in Bible, Events, Prayer, Service/by Christoph Lindner

Psalms for Life BANNER.jpg

This Sunday we are continuing our series on the Psalms and Chris Macqueen will be speaking at both services – 9am and 10.30am.

Both services will be Holy Communion services and we are hoping that the livestream at 10.30am will work.

Click here for the livestream…

At 10.30am we will be praying for the team that will be leading the Lighthouse holiday club, starting on Tuesday next week.

St Mark’s Building Work

August 6, 2026/in Uncategorized/by Christoph Lindner

St Mark’s Hall is now closed for building work. Find out more about our plans here. Scroll down for the latest update.

Two buildings, one community, a future worth investing in

St Mark’s Community Hall, built in 1968 to serve the growing community of Denham Green, now needs refurbishment and extension to meet the needs of today’s residents. The initial funding is in place and planning permission has been received from Buckinghamshire County Council. Two community meetings in April showed resounding support for these plans by local residents.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a renewed and enlarged St Mark’s Community Hall, ensuring that both the historic parish church (St Mary’s) and the contemporary hall (St Mark’s) continue to serve our parish for many years to come.

Planning for the redevelopment of St Mark’s began in 2017. Following detailed design work, a pause during the Covid pandemic and further review, we applied for planning permission in April 2026 and were granted permission at the end of August.

The project includes

Refurbishment of the existing hall of 69 sq metres
New community hall extension of 120 sq metres
New entrance lobby of 40 sq metres
Modern accessible toilet facilities
New kitchen serving both halls
New front entrance and façade
Final fit-out including audio-visual equipment, acoustics, air conditioning, fencing and landscaping.

You can download the full brochure with all details of our campaign here…

(Above: Removal of asbestos in August 2026.)

Update 7 September 2026

Building work started today with the clearing of the site for the new hall.

Update 12 September 2026

All in a week’s work!

If you would like to find out more, including ways to financially support this project, please contact PCC Treasurer Mike Stewart

Healthy Habits

August 4, 2026/in Article, Bible, Faith at Work, Families and Children, Service/by Christoph Lindner

Written by Jenny Tebboth, August 2026

It is almost a year now since we launched the ‘All In’ service with the aim of worshipping in creative ways across the entire age spectrum of the church family so that we learn and grow together.

Highlights for me have been the use of art for reflection and the opportunity to give and receive prayer as a way of responding to what God has been saying to us. It has been a joy to see whole families serving in different ways; on the AV, welcoming, leading prayers and giving the notices by news reel!

Starting in September we have a new series for the All In service which will take us right through to next July. It is based on a short passage from Acts which give us Luke’s portrait of the very first community, of followers of Jesus and the way they behaved toward each other which was like nothing anyone had seen before and stood out in that society like a light on a hill!

‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and generous hearts,praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2: 42-47

We are using the book ‘Holy Habits’ by Andrew Roberts as our guide. He selects ten characteristics of the early church which, as we practice them will build a healthy and thriving community of faith which has an impact on the communities we live in. We have decided to call them HEALTHY HABITS to stress the life-giving nature of each of them. All of them can be practiced equally by all of us of whatever age or culture.

The first great North African theologian and lawyer Tertullian imagined outsiders looking at Christians and saying, “Look . . . how they love one another; and how they are ready to die for each other.”

He contrasted this way of living with what he observed in his own society at the time; people who often hated one another and were even ready to kill one another.

Month by month we will focus on one of the characteristics described in Acts; work out how to apply them in ways that are contemporary and fitting to our context. Then we will use the following weeks to apply them at home or at work. Our aim is that we all grow deeper in faith – not only in understanding but also in the way we live so that we become gradually, as Jesus taught us ‘the light of the world’ and the ‘salt of the earth’. A high calling indeed but one that can be nurtured through practicing what Jesus taught and living in imitation of him.

We have linked some of the practices with events in the church calendar. For example, in October, ‘sharing resources’ is linked to our celebration of harvest. The Sunday on ‘Prayer’ is adjacent to the week of prayer between Ascension and Pentecost. ‘Eating together’ in July 2027 would ideally be followed by lunch all together after the service. Our useful space in the North aisle makes this an opportunity not to be missed!

Most Sundays we focus on our own personal faith and life; but this series will encourage us to focus as well on the faith and life of our church community. The way of living we will try out month by month nurtures a discipleship that will spill out into the week. It will shape the way we are at home with our families, at work or school as well as in our church family and as individuals. It is a way of life that, when lived faithfully day by day, will encourage others to join the adventure of following Jesus because it is a life-giving way to live.

Sunday 2 August at St Mary’s

August 1, 2026/in Bible, Sermons, Service/by Christoph Lindner

Tomorrow we are starting our summer series “Psalms for Life” at St Mary’s. Jenny Tebboth will reflect on the very first Psalm with us – 9am at St Mary’s, 10.30am both at St Mary’s and on our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPoDz05jL84

THE LATEST