Easter 2026

Easter at the Fishermen’s Chapel

We are so excited to welcome you to our Easter Services! Please read on:

Thursday 2nd April 7.30pm Candlelit reflective Tenebrae service with Holy Communion at The Fishermen’s Chapel.

Good Friday 3rd April – Walk of witness with the cross and thorns through Leigh, starting at Highlands Methodist Church on Sutherland Boulevard at 9.10am, walking to Wesley Methodist Church for hot cross buns and service.

Easter Sunday 5th April 9.30am Holy Communion Family Service at The Fishermen’s Chapel. (The Easter Bunny has promised a delivery of chocolate eggs to be found hidden in the chapel for children of all ages! 😍)

Taizé service

A change for our third Sunday of the month evening service: a Taize service, at 7.30pm.

Our Taizé services are based on the Christian worship practised by the ecumenical Taizé community in France (www.taize.fr). The service involves the repetitive singing of simple harmonised songs, interspersed with readings, prayers and periods of silence.

You’d be very welcome to join us!

Gospel service

Our Gospel services, on the second Sunday of the month, are now taking place in the Chapel once again. The service features the Fishermen’s Chapel Gospel Choir, the Monday Singers, and a time when we share acts of kindness we have experienced. Feel free to arrive from 7 for refreshments, with the service itself starting at 7.30pm.

At Gospel Vespers we will now be collecting donations for Southend Foodbank. See here for the items that they really need (avoid pasta and baked beans!)

We’d love new people to join the Gospel Choir too – ask Heather for details at one of our services.

Lectio Divina

Every Wednesday evening Rev’d Heather and Clive Johnson ( Interfaith Minister) are offering a time of Lectio Divina.

Lectio Divina is a monastic practice used for Scripture reading and prayer that is gaining popularity among many Christians today. The term roughly translates to “divine reading.” Lectio Divina is not meant as an intellectual study of the Bible, but as a means of communion with God. The practice consists of four parts:

Lectio: First, a person reads a passage of Scripture. This reading is meant to be intentional and slow. Most people will read the focus passage several times through.

Meditatio: Next, the person doing Lectio Divina meditates on the Scripture. This means they ponder over the passage, seeking to hear from the Holy Spirit. They do not analyse the passage, but  attempt to view it from various perspectives.
Oratio: This step consists of prayer. After having read and meditated on the passage, the practitioner of Lectio Divina brings it to God in prayer.
Contemplatio: The Lectio Divina process concludes with contemplation. This is a type of listening or restful prayer. The practitioner seeks to simply sit in God’s presence with God’s Word still fresh on the mind.
It is a beautiful practice that lasts 45 minutes and allows the participants to slow down and be with God as they absorb the Word. Again, each session is stand alone and there is the option to offer minimal participation or none which ever is comfortable.
If you’re interested contact us for the Zoom link.

Join us for a service

Great news – the Fishermen’s Chapel returned to a service every week from September 2023, when Heather was appointed to be our minister. The pattern is now as follows:

First Sunday of the month: Communion service, 9.30am

Our beautiful family service that includes Holy Communion is for all those who like to deepen their faith in a symbolic way that is steeped in history. We spend time: in prayer; listening to the Bible; having a short reflection from our minister; singing hymns modern and traditional; and sharing the Lord’s supper of bread and wine ( non-alcoholic). Everyone is welcome to join us at the table, however if you prefer a just a blessing or to remain seated that is fine too. To share in the sacraments is a transforming act which is so special – it can give great comfort and peace in our restless and challenging world.

Second Sunday of the month: Gospel service with the Fishermen’s Chapel Gospel Choir and the Monday singers, 7.30pm. Doors open from 7 for refreshments.

Third Sunday of the month: Taizé 7.30pm. Our Taizé services are based on the Christian worship practised by the ecumenical Taizé community in France (www.taize.fr). The service involves the repetitive singing of simple harmonised songs, interspersed with readings, prayers and periods of silence.

Fourth Sunday of the month: Mindfulness, 7.30 pm.

Fifth Sunday of the month (when there is one): United service with other Leigh-on-Sea Methodist churches.

Coffee mornings – every Wednesday

Our weekly coffee gathering is every Wednesday morning at 10.30am. Come along for coffee, flapjack, and a chat. Over the summer we have been meeting at Belfairs cafe – please see our Facebook page every Wednesday morning or contact us for location info.

If there’s any change to this details will be on our Facebook page. If you can’t see this for any reason please let us know and we can notify you another way. Everyone is welcome – please come along!

Serendipity Sounds sound bath events

Fiona Tudor-Tompkins leads regular ‘sound bath’ Sound Healing Therapy sessions at the Fishermen’s Chapel – check Fiona’s Instagram or our email newsletter or social media for the date of the next one.

Monthly sound bath – general info

There will be refreshments (for a donation) after the session.
Doors typically open 6.30 pm and we start at 7.00 pm, but please check the individual event.
The session will be about one to one and a half hours, sound bath with half hour for tea or chai and a chat afterwards.

Please be sure to let Fiona know in advance if you are coming, and bring mats, blankets, and a cushion or two if you need them.

You can find out more and all details below. Any questions – please contact Fiona via the numbers / email address below.

Natural Healing Therapy – Serendipity Sounds

Hello, my name is Fiona. I am a retired Occupational Therapist and a Registered British Assoc and Psychotherapy (BACP) Counsellor.
In my working practice, I provided many Relaxation Programmes, to clients with various Health Conditions. To tailor to individual needs and develop my practice, I began researching into other types of Therapies that would complement the Relaxation and Healing processes. With a strong interest in music, the use of Sound for Healing really appealed, especially as Sound Healing is now being acknowledged scientifically and has been used for thousands of years within different cultures around the world.

Sound Healing is a branch of the Meditative Therapeutic Arts; it is one of the top Wellness trends at the moment.

Sound Healing can be defined as the intentional use of sound to create a vibrational environment which becomes a catalyst in the physical, mental, emotional or spiritual aspects of our being. Sound is used to realign the body’s vibration. These vibrations can also affect your brainwave frequencies
Mark Menolascino, MD explains that “everything in the universe has a vibrational frequency… Those vibrations interact with every cell in your body.” In other words, the vibrations made by instruments or vocals can actually interact with your body’s cells to create specific results: in this case, to encourage healing.
While more research is needed to establish just how effective Sound Healing Therapy can be, so far there is plenty of evidence suggesting it is an effective option to help people suffering from pain injury or stress, reduce low mood – depression and anxiety.
Even without science of sound of vibrations, there’s also evidence that sound baths and music therapy can be effective for healing as it encourages your body into the parasympathetic state, in this state our bodies produce nitric oxide which open blood vessels and increases efficiency of our cells and regulates blood pressure. It helps stimulate the immune system. Sound healing can bring about a balancing and harmonising of the body’s energy systems.
Here at Serendipity Sounds, a selection of sound is created through Crystal singing bowls, Tibetan bowls, chimes, gongs and occasionally the addition of stringed instruments.

It is excellent for managing stress and improves your overall wellbeing
It is a space where you can come to quieten the distractions of your physical environment
It is a space where you can immerse your whole Self, Body, Mind and Soul
It is a space where you can turn off your Brains distractive thoughts

There will be opportunities for you to attend a variety of venues at Sharon of Scents and Serenity or at the Fisherman’s Chapel in Leigh-on –Sea, or The Bay – Free Spirit Studio in Thorpe Bay. I would love to share this wonderful experience with you and look forward to meeting you.
For enquiries please contact Fiona on: 01702 304479 / 07809153952
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serendipitysounds4u/
Email: serendipitysounds4u@gmail.com

The Fishermen’s Chapel Gospel Choir

Looking for something different to do this year? Why not join our Fishermen’s Chapel Gospel Choir, singing traditional gospel music at the Chapel? Rehearsals are every Tuesday evening in the downstairs room, 7-8pm. Contact Heather for more details, 07879 232231. There is a new Facebook page for the Gospel Choir here: Fishermen’s Chapel Gospel Choir – Facebook.

The choir sings at our ‘Gospel Vespers’ service every month.

Gospel Vespers

The Gospel Vespers service at the Fishermen’s Chapel is an informal service including traditional gospel music from the Fishermen’s Chapel Gospel Choir and the Monday Singers, along with readings and reflections. Everyone is welcome.

Our next Gospel Vespers services are every second Sunday of the month at 7.30pm. Refreshments are served from 7.

At Gospel Vespers we will now be collecting donations for Southend Foodbank. See here for the items that they really need (avoid pasta and baked beans!)

You can join the Gospel Choir too – come along on a Tuesday, 7-8pm in the community room.

Art in our Community Room

We have art on display in our community room. Do pop in and see the work at any time that the Chapel is open, so on Wednesday mornings or before and after a service.

Currently we have work by Nicola Osborne Art on display. See Nicola’s Facebook page.

Previous artists

Claire Thompson, aka Eyeseethingsdifferently is our artist in residence at the Chapel.

At the beginning of 2018 I decided to undertake an artistic challenge of completing a page in my sketchbook everyday.
The challenge allowed me to experiment with different mediums and different ways of working.
I intuitively decided to break each page into 4 smaller squares and stick to a limited colour palette of 2/3 colours.
Whilst experimenting with different mediums, I picked up my watercolour paints and the subsequent sketchbook pages that followed seemed to flow easily from my brush.
Nature is and always will be a huge source of inspiration to me and whilst I was undertaking the challenge I was intuitively thinking of new life, hidden growth and what happens to our natural world during the Winter months.
The ‘Grow’ series is my intuitive response to the start of a new year and how you can develop and ‘Grow’ by stepping outside of your comfort zone and trying something new.

Claire is Eyeseethingsdifferently on Facebook / Instagram.

 

Eco-Wind Publishing is an illustration partnership between Architect / Sailor Chris Page and Animator / Perspectivist Amber Young.

Our combined passion for visual storytelling first ignited with the realisation that we could bring people back in time using digital apps when in 2009 we realised that were lucky to be at an amazing period in time when you could interact with another person through an application on a phone at any single point in time to provide them with new information wherever they may be. Never before had a product allowed a viewer to experience events true-to-timescale in such a manner than we were able to achieve with the technology of notifications within smartphones. We created our own art form called ‘iPT-A’ or ‘i-Push Time-Alternation’ to explore historic events and magical sporting spectacles from the past century in true to time, 1st person illustrated accounts.

During research to create the applications and their companion books, we begun to accumulate a substantial body of visual work and our two individual styles gradually converged into one playful, colourful aesthetic that we have utilised in each of our projects to date, initially starting work traditionally with hand drawn pen to paper illustration before moving into inks, watercolours and digital to complete the imagery. There is always a keen desire to retain the essence of being in the moment with retained freehand speed lines, raw edged borders, freehand text and sometimes jotted annotation.

Portrayals of the trackside at Le Mans, being in the pilots seat during the Schneider Trophy Races, at the launch site of a manned rocket, or on the waves alongside a C-Class Catamaran, by keeping our work looking slightly sketchy it helps feel like the drawings have been completed in the moment of these events.

We hope that our illustrations inspires onlookers to stay curious and look to building a better future by experiencing the past in as close to the road accounts as possible.

Prints can be bought via the Eco-wind website.