Welcome
We are a friendly and welcoming church serving the villages of Ripple, Uckinghall, Naunton, Ryall and Holly Green. We work closely with the other Church of England churches in the Hope Church family. We do our best to support each other's events and share activities where it makes sense. This is particularly the case with what we do for young people. To find out more, please visit our Youth and Kids page.
As well as our regular Sunday services, we run special services at various times of the year. Our annual Crib service is a particularly joyous occasion for both young and old.
Apart from Easter, Christmas and occasional special Sundays like Remembrance Sunday, our service pattern is as follows:
| First Sunday of the Month | No service | |
| Second Sunday of the Month | Matins in even months, Morning Worship in odd months | 11am |
| Third Sunday of the month | No service | |
| Fourth Sunday of the month | Holy Communion | 11am |
| Fifth Sunday of the Month | Benefice Service - see calendar. | |
We have an enthusiastic Bell Ringing team and we are very blessed in our Team Captain. We are also blessed by hardworking teams of lockers and unlockers, (who keep the church open at all times) and cleaners and flower arrangers (who contribute so much to the care and beauty of the church). Our organ is much appreciated by those who come to play for our services.
The church makes a beautiful setting for the weddings of couples who have a connection to the parish, the majority of whom return for the baptism of their children.
Coming soon...
History
St Mary’s Church is the biggest medieval church in Worcestershire and one of Simon Jenkins’s 1000 best churches in England. It is also to be found in John Betjeman’s book on churches and in the ‘AA guide to Churches and Chapels Worth Visiting’. Details can be found at www.achurchnearyou.com.
The church was built in the 12th and 13th Centuries and was extensively restored in 1999. It contains 16 misericords carved not by monks but by local craftsmen who wanted to record the village activities typical of the twelve months of the year. These attract many visitors from around the world. The pews were made by a local carpenter in the 18th century. The stained glass is not very old but includes a fine Charles Kempe and a memorial window to the Founder of The Sealed Knot, Brigadier Peter Young, who lived at Uckinghall and worshipped at the Church.
The Sealed Knot keeps its Book of Remembrance in the church and we have a Founder’s Day Service on the Second Sunday in October, when the members come to church in Cavalier and Roundhead costumes complete with halberds, swords, spurs and breastplates. About ten Standards are presented with accompanying drumbeats and the whole occasion is wonderfully colourful.
Data Privacy Notice
The Parish of St Mary's, Ripple
DATA PRIVACY NOTICE
- Our commitment to you
As a data controller I.e. the body responsible for deciding how your personal data is processed and for what purposes, the Parochial Church Council of the parish of Ripple (“the PCC”) is committed to complying with its obligations under data protection law. The PCC provides this Privacy Notice as part of its responsibility to process data fairly under that law.
- Your personal data – what is it?
Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).
- What is our legal basis for processing your personal data?
The situations in which we process your data are where
- you have given us explicit consent so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and can process your gift aid donations and keep you informed about diocesan events
- processing your personal data is necessary to enable the PCC to carry out its legal obligations under statute or under a contract
- processing your personal data is carried out by us because we have a legitimate interest in doing so as a religious not-for-profit body needing to keep in contact with you as an active or regular member of our church provided this does not involve disclosure of your data to a third party without your consent.
- How do we process your personal data?
The PCC complies with its obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.
We use your personal data for the following purposes: -
- to enable us to deliver the mission of our church [across the benefice of Upton, Ripple, Earls Croome with Hill Croome and Strensham and the benefice of Welland and Hanley Castle with Hanley Swan]
- to administer the electoral roll and other membership records
- to fundraise and promote the interests of our church
- to manage our employees and volunteers
- to maintain our own accounts and other financial records (including the processing of gift aid applications)
- to inform you of news, events, activities and services happening across the two benefices
- to share your contact details with the Diocesan office so they can keep you informed about news in the diocese and events, activities and services that will be occurring in the diocese and in which you may be interested.
- Sharing your personal data
Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to carry out a service to other church members or for purposes connected with the church. We will only share your data with third parties outside the church with your consent.
- How long do we keep your personal data[1]?
We keep data in accordance with the guidance set out in the guide “Keep or Bin: Care of Your Parish Records” which is available from the Church of England website [see footnote for link].
Specifically, we retain electoral roll data while it is still current; gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 7 years after the tax year to which they relate; and parish registers (baptisms, marriages, funerals) permanently.
- Your rights and your personal data
Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data: -
- the right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you
- the right to request the PCC to correct any of your personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date
- the right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for it to be retained by the PCC
- the right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time
- the right to request the PCC to provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability (but this only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with you and in either case the data is processed by automated means
- the right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing of your data by the PCC
- the right to object to the processing of your personal data (but this only applies where the processing is based on legitimate interest or the performance of a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority, or involves direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics)
- the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.
- Further processing
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.
- Contact Details
To exercise all relevant rights, queries of complaints please in the first instance contact the benefice administrator Helen Inman at admin@hopechurchfamily.org.uk
You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.
[1]Details about retention periods can currently be found in the Record Management Guides located on the Church of England website at: - https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/churchcommissioners/administration/librariesandarchives/recordsmanagementguides.aspx
Safeguarding
To read our safeguarding policy, or to contact our safeguarding officer, click this link.