German walrus ivory plaque depicting doubting Thomas
John 20.19-end
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’
Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’
Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’
Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Low Sunday can feel like an anticlimax after Easter, and the disciples in today’s Gospel reflect that mood, fearful, uncertain and shut away. Yet the risen Christ meets them there, just as he meets us in our doubt and vulnerability.
Thomas’ questioning is honest and human, and Jesus responds with compassion, turning doubt into faith. In a challenging world, we are invited to bring our fears into the light of the resurrection, receive Christ’s peace and the gift of the Spirit, and share the good news together, with kindness and hope.
Even on Low Sunday, we can still proclaim:
“Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, Alleluia!”
CLUSTER INFORMATION & EVENTS
Celtic Morning Prayer – Each weekday morning on zoom 8:00am – 8:30am. Please email Keno for zoom details.
Psalm Group – Every Thursday at 11:15am we read and meditate on a Psalm. Come and join us at St Mary’s. Josie
Meditation Group – Every Friday a Meditation group meets at St Mary’s church at 10:30am. This is a welcoming and supportive space for everyone in the community. Vicky
Julian Prayer Group
The Julian Group will meet online via zoom at 6:00pm on Sunday 12th April. If you would like to attend, please email Mel at mlevesconte@hotmail.co.uk for zoom details.
Prayer Requests
If you are concerned about someone and would like their name included in the Prayer Request Group’s weekly prayer list, please do email Mel by 7:00pm on Tuesday evenings.
Little Lights group is taking an Easter break, and hope to return to St Mary’s Church on Thursday 23rd April, 1.30-2.30. A new Little Lights group will be starting in St Peter’s Church, Newlyn on Wednesday 22nd April, 9.30-10.30. Please share with anyone you know who has children aged 0-3 years. Many thanks.
St John’s Church update April 7th
After a review and taking considered advice the St Johns PCC Penzance made the sad but necessary decision to close the main area of St John’s Church just before Christmas to those wishing to worship, use for meetings or use the play equipment. This was not an easy decision but with all the changes to various fire and safety regulations we felt it was the correct thing to do as custodians of the building.
Since then, we have engaged a number of external experts and specialists to review, consider and come up with solutions and options and levels of investment to allow us to open the building in a way that minimises health, safety and fire risks. It has not unfortunately been a quick process given the number of people involved and the need to meet the relevant regulations that are in place.
We have now completed that work and we can re-open St Johns to our congregation and for those that wish to worship.
We also have now a complete understanding of the amount we would need to invest and the remedial work needed to bring the church environment to a point where it could be open for use as a soft play space for families. This is far more than we have. We intend to look to fund raising grants.
Our intention is to hopefully raise the money needed to get the venue up to the standard needed to reopen the play area.
We will do this via our webpages and our Facebook page: Penlee Cluster of Churches
We will continue to keep you all informed and let you all know when the fundraising page goes live
We do understand that it is an important place for those that live and work in and around Penzance and West Penwith and we are still working through the best next steps. However we are committed to enabling St John’s church to re-open once the remedial work is in place and be thriving space for families to play safely.
Paul Tuesday Talks
History, secrets, books and bees!
A talk by Jane Johnson
Tuesday May 5th
Jane Johnson is a Cornish writer and publisher. She is the author of many works of historical fiction, some set in Cornwall, others in Morocco; and in her day job is a Publishing Director at HarperCollins Publishers, where she is responsible for publishing many bestselling writers including George RR Martin, and was for many years the publisher of JRR Tolkien’s work.
Her latest novel is SECRETS OF THE BEES – set *very* locally, including even scenes at Paul Church! She describes it as ‘a sort of state of the nation novel for Cornwall’, because within the bounds of a page-turning story about old Ezra, who appears to be about to lose the cottage in which he was born, she examines many topical themes about modern Cornwall: the pressures of tourism on housing, the economy, and the natural world.
She will also talk a little about the novel she’s currently working on – HEART OF SAFFRON, an historical thriller set partly now and partly in the 18th century set in the Lizard Peninsula, and she will bring some books for sale.
Doors open 7pm, talk starts at 7.30pm £5 entry includes nibbles.
Rainbow Project Update April 2026
Context
The Rainbow Project was initially a three year project which commenced in September 2022. The project was unique in the partnership between the Church Schools and Church This project building on the 8 year partnership between church, local schools and church schools to inspire, empower, build aspiration and develop engagement with children and families at a transformative level in Penzance and surrounding areas. This partnership has been invaluable in serving our community and keeping children safe during the Covid period. The main focus of work for the Penlee Cluster churches and Church schools of An Baya combined “ Reaching Out Together” into the community with love and compassion and “ Together we can make a difference”. These pithy strap lines represented our response to the Five Marks of Mission that was developed by the Anglican consultative council in 1984. Responding to human need and being an agent to “transform unjust structures in society” was particularly focused in our working directly with families and young people. Our church schools lived out their ethos of care and compassion both in school and in serving the wider community.
The primary focus of this partnership between church schools and churches provided a solid base for supporting and enhancing children’s life experiences both within and outside the class-room . This vision provided a solid base young people’s work needed to enter the next stage of development, to include stronger family links and greater stability into this Covid future. This work was essential. The work also included other schools in the area.
Original Funding
Funding for this project from the St Paul’s Trust was for three years from September 2022 – September 2025. Due to not always having the proposed two family workers for the entire time, the project was able to extend its work for a further 8 months, until the end of April 2026. This funding stream has now ended.
Moving forward
Funding from St Mary’s and St John’s PCC (£2,000 each) was requested and granted at PCC Meeting in January 2026. Generous donations (including one from an attendee at Nightchurch) and the remaining funds from original project have meant that children and family work is able to continue until the end of August 2026. We hope this will allow Rev Jacky to be able to be involved in the next steps.
Penlee Cluster Trustees have managed the consultation process for employment and as the offer to both employees is much reduced, with only 10 hours a week affordable for each Family Worker from May – August, this has needed to include redundancy provision.
The outcome is that Molly will be taking redundancy at the end of April. Jenny will be reducing her hours from 15 to 10 hours a week.
The substantial reduction in working hours plus the impact of not being able to use St John’s at present (and no timetable for when or if this will be open again), plus an acknowledgment of direction of travel of family work and the Diocesan ‘Growing Younger’ initiative has meant that the overall remit of the project has needed to be adapted.
Our work will now have two broad objectives:
1. To secure further engagement with children and families in activities underpinned by faith
and
2. Addressing child and family poverty in the area of benefit (Penlee Cluster) with the continuation and development of initiatives that have support children and families out of school.
Activities planned for the next months include:
- ‘Little Lights’ (toddler groups). This has already been started at St Mary’s, St Peter’s group to start before the end of April
- ‘Messy Church’ activity to take place next term.
- ‘Wild Church’ family session each month. This is being explored with the possibility of offering this once a month .
- Building links between the Church, Church Schools and Community Schools in the area of Penlee Cluster through the development and hosting of activities using resources such as Easter Experience. Prayer Spaces in Schools. This is continuing and developing work started.
- Feast and Fellowship weekly session with activities and food for families
Summer Holiday Club
- We will need to assess the capacity of being able to provide a Holiday Club for Summer 2026. This takes an immense amount of time in detailed planning and preparation to ensure everything runs smoothly and safely. We will need to look at staffing. Holiday Club pre-dates the Rainbow project and is very much needed in this area of Cornwall with the high levels of deprivation in St John’s St Mary’s and St Peter’s parishes. Many families have benefited from this provision over the years and we will endeavour for this to continue.
Through all our work our mission is to live out an ethos of care and compassion in serving the wider community and the poor.(Matthew 25:35-40) and to enable all (the whole family) to ‘live life in its fullness.’ John 10:10
This is an update for now, but we do need to celebrate the achievements of the Rainbow Project and give thanks for Molly in all that she has achieved as our Family Worker in reaching out, engaging, supporting and caring for families and individuals with such care and compassion. The Rainbow project was unique, fitted the needs of our community and provided a space for children and families to flourish when they had experience hardship and rejection in their lives. These needs are very much still there.
If anyone wishes to donate to The Rainbow Project please see Jenny or Hilary.
If anyone would like to be part of a group looking at further funding then please contact Hilary.
Thank you for your understanding and support, please keep Molly and Jenny in your prayers.
Hilary Tyreman Rainbow Project Lead (volunteer)
NightChurch
We would like to share an update with our NightChurch community.
NightChurch will be paused until the end of April. This time allows for Easter leave for our staff and volunteers, followed by an additional period to invest in further training and development so we can better serve everyone.
NightChurch is about creating a safe, welcoming and well supported space inspired by the love of Jesus, and his promise of life in all its fullness. We want to make sure we are doing that in the best way possible for everyone who walks through our doors.
We understand this may be disappointing, but please know this decision has been made with care and wellbeing at heart.
NightChurch will reopen on Wednesday 29th April, refreshed and ready, and we look forward to welcoming everyone again.
If you need support during this time, please reach out via email and we will do our best to signpost you to the right help. Nightchurchpenzance@gmail.com
Thank you for being part of the NightChurch community.
