Make a Difference is a campaign that the BBC is promoting across their Local Radio Stations with the aim of keeping communities connected.  Each day examples of acts of kindness from listeners are being broadcast, and on Sunday the Church of the Holy Cross Junior Choir featured on the Emily Jeffries Radio Sussex Sunday Morning programme.  As a result of Social Distancing the Choir has been unable to meet for their regular Thursday practice, so their ‘Choir Master’ organised some remote recording sessions and this was broadcast by Emily Jefferies.  To hear the Choir in action follow one of the links below:-

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Lent 6: Palm Sunday Service and Podcast details

Welcome to you All, we are broadcasting our Podcast today for Palm Sunday. Do join in and sing!

When we recorded this, we had hoped to get Palm Crosses out to everyone.

For a link to the Podcast, please see information below:-

For Holy Cross podcasts please see

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 Click here to open the Front Page of Sunday Link.

Reading: Matthew 21:1- 11

21 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.^[a

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷ they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸ A very large crowd^[b] spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰ When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” ¹¹ The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Talk: The Jewish people were expecting a powerful,  scary Warrior Messiah on a great warhorse who would destroy the occupying Romans & set up a new Jewish Empire to dominate the world: but instead he was a gentle, humble man on a donkey, proclaiming the coming of a Kingdom of Love & Peace.  The crowds met Him, waving palm branches & singing "Hosanna to the Son of David"

Coronavirus

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have announced that in order to keep human contact to a minimum, Church of England Sunday and Midweek Services will be suspended with immediate effect. For more information visit:

https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/archbishops-call-church-england-become-radically-different-public-worship

Holy Cross Church, Little Horsted, Isfield and St Saviour’s will therefore not be holding any regular services for the foreseeable future. They will however be looking at alternative ways of worship and how people can be kept in touch. Please keep an eye on their
Facebook page (www.facebook.com/holycrosschurchuckfield) and Website (www.churchoftheholycrossuckfield.co.uk) for updates.

In the light of the Government’s guidance churches will be encouraged not to hold meetings unless they are absolutely necessary.  The APCM  has as a result been postponed until such times that guidance is received advising that Church Meetings can be resumed.

Dear All,

As I write, my Garden is a Quagmire.

It feels as if it has been raining solidly since the beginning of February, & I, like everyone else, have just about had enough of it all! The ground is sodden, and every time Sophie walks in, she leaves a trail of muddy paw-prints for me to mop up.

As I write, my grass cutters are in the garden for the first cut of the year: using their lightest & smallest mower: they are trying not to sink into the mud, feeling that if they don’t attempt a cut, the grass will be waist high before we know it.

As I write, the forecast is ominous.

Snow & temperatures of down to -5 degrees are supposedly on their way. I remember in Moulsecoomb some 15 or so years ago, waking up on Easter Day to a thick covering of snow. We started the Easter Day Service with a spirited rendition of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas!” I’m hoping we don’t have a repeat performance.

And yet, and yet….

As I write, I see signs of hope too.

Trudging soggily around the garden, in one pot of Lilies I see a number of fat, purple buds promising not only that the flowers have survived winter but potentially will be vigorous and healthy in the months to come. Daffodils are out, and primroses, and snowdrops.

They all show that new life is coming, that the cold grimness of Winter is not the final word, that Spring is breaking through with the certainty of summer beyond. 

This is what Lent & Easter are about: in the midst of death & loss & hopelessness, the death & Resurrection of Jesus the Christ proclaim that love is stronger than death and always will be.

Whatever personal Winters we walk through, whatever storms life throws at us, we have in Eastertide the assurance of God’s love and of God’s power to transform and bring Salvation.

Happy Lent, & when we get there, Happy Eastertide!!

 As I write in Early March, frog tadpoles have hatched out in our Uckfield garden pond, the hazel catkins are nearly over and the tree’s tiny maroon flowers will be generating hazel nuts.  Hawthorn and elder are breaking forth into leaf and eventually white pearlesque blossom.  Among the birds, the robin and blackbird females are carefully building nests in our hedgerows.  Celandines have been flowering for some time, but now look out for the pink flowers of ladies smock, also known as milkmaids and cuckoo flower (Latin Cardamine pratensis) a type of cress.  These will grow in any exposed damp wayside ditch or bank and adorns the roundabout at Little Horsted in most years. 

Spring can be a very personal season as we emerge into longer, brighter days, warmer weather and an awakening of the countryside.  It is good to spend time just watching the changes, as nothing stays the same for long in spring.  Look and watch the different types of tree bursting into leaf. Understorey species like the ones mentioned above are leafing first to ‘catch the rays’ before the larger ones such as oak, ash and horse chestnut steal their light with their canopy.  Listen also, for the singing of the blackbird, robin, wren, song and mistle thrushes, great and blue tit, chaffinch, chiffchaff and eventually cuckoo.  They and others will be celebrating the rise of spring with both a dawn and evening chorus.  Smell also the fragrance of the wood anemones, bluebells carpeting our ancient woodlands in April and May and eventually honeysuckle or woodbine and wild roses adorning our hedgerows.

Nature abhors a vacuum.  So, every damp space on the planet Earth’s soil’s surface will be colonised by something.  Usually, first algae, bacteria and fungi, then moss, grass and broadleaved herbs also known as forbs.  Some of the latter are vigorous and grow large like nettles brambles and hogweed.  But, beneath these, acorns, haws, beech nuts and horse chestnuts will germinate, protected by these herbaceous bullies, then with autumn the herbs die back, tree seedlings are revealed and continue to put on height and eventually outgrow the herbs, shade them out and form a woodland habitat.  This is called succession and will always happen without intervention by humans.  In short, in every grassland there is a woodland trying to get out!

Dr. Martyn Stenning

The Church of the Holy Cross was transformed into a forest of Christmas trees over the course of December 6^th, 7^th and 8^th for the twelfth annual Festival of Christmas Trees.  A wonderful starburst of brightly decorated Christmas trees attracted people from all over Sussex, as well as from further afield, to visit and enjoy the splendour of the magnificent display of over one hundred Christmas trees. Visitors were amazed by the wonderfully creative and stylistic hand crafted decorations.

This year was very much a magical display and the wonderful array of different decorated trees made it a very special event.  A complete cross section of Uckfield’s community was represented by local businesses, charities, Church communities and schools, as well as individual people and families. ITV Meridian came to carry out a recording on the Friday afternoon and it featured on that evening’s local evening news.  Also included in this year’s Festival was live musical entertainment with a strong seasonal bias.  Friday evening featured Uckfield’s talented entertainer Bernard Tagliavini.  During Saturday morning Jimmy the Juggling Jester made his customary appearance to entertain the younger visitors.  In the afternoon John Pontefract sang and played guitar, Tim Guntrip (the Church organist) played the organ and Uckfield Concert Brass followed playing a selection of popular Carols. Click here to see the gallery of photographs.

In the Belmont Centre refreshments and hot lunches were available, and visitors could also purchase from stalls selling a wide variety of made hand seasonal gifts and home produce.  Children could be kept busy with Face painting (by Sarah Moxon) and be creative with a number of craft activities.

The photograph depicts some of the youngest children from Manor Primary School to visit the Festival together with Aissa Rippingale, of Holy Cross Church, who will be 99 in January 2020 Over the course of the three days of this year's Festival the Church welcomed just over 5700 people. Details of the 2020 Festival of Christmas Trees will be available in September.  However, if you wish to receive information about the Festival please contact the organisers via the Contact Us Form on the Home Page menu selection of this website.