I hope this finds you well and enjoying these long days and the abundance of nature that surrounds us.
This Saturday our Curate, Helen, will be ordained Priest at the Cathedral.
You can watch the live stream and download the order of service here.
Please do pray for Helen, and all those being ordained this weekend.
I am sure that you, like me, will take the opportunity to thank God for her.
This coming Sunday there will be a Communion service, 11am at The Church of the Holy Spirit, Paganhill, and next Wednesday, 11.30 Holy Trinity, Stroud, as well as various other services you can see here on our website.
Please do pray for Freya, that God would bless her and keep her, as her family bring her for baptism this Sunday in Randwick.
This week is also the final one of our online services and I will be leading and preaching on Jairus’ daughter and the woman who dares to touch Jesus’ hem.
Some questions that may help you to engage with the Gospel; Mark 5: 21-43 as you prepare for Sunday:
- Imagine yourself in Jairus’ shoes –
What response might you have expected from Jesus?
What risks were there?
What hopes were there? - Imagine yourself in the woman who was hemorraging’s shoes –
What response might you have expected from Jesus?
What risks were there?
What hopes were there?
The online service will be followed by online coffee at 11am – just press the ‘join us for a chat’ button.
As we move into our new pattern of services, our online content will be shorter, more of a ‘thought for the day’, which may be a reflection on a reading, or painting, or poem. It may be an interview with someone, some music or a dramatic reading of a passage of scripture. This will be done in a way that is consciously orientated towards those who are not yet part of our worshipping communities. This change will also mean an end to our online after service chat, but we sincerely hope we will be able to have such interesting conversations, going deeper into the readings and sharing stories of the difference our faith has made, as we talk to each other face to face.
We are delighted that Jodie Calcutt is joining the team, picking up the good work Fiona has done. As well as this, Jodie will also be managing the hiring of our buildings, starting with St Laurence Church and Hall. She will be making sure these are well advertised, thinking about different ways they can be used and liaising with those who are using them. This is an exciting development and will mean that those spaces that are currently underutilised will become assets to our communities as well as sources of much needed income for our worshipping communities. If you would like to talk through the spaces available in your buildings and how they might be used, do get in touch with Jodie.
Our APCM’s are coming up very soon and the reports are available, or certainly will be very soon. Do read them and ask any questions you have. Our APCMs will not involve a series of reports being read out; they will assume you have read the reports, had conversations that need to be had and prayerfully considered the role you are going to help in your worshipping community. This will mean that our APCMs can be opportunities to celebrate all that has been and commission those who will serve us over the coming year.
Our new group, which will be exploring Communion, is starting this coming Wednesday evening. Please get in touch if you would like to be part of that.
Finally, many of you will have heard about the tragic death of North Vernon-White who fell from Tricorn House in Cainscross. Please do consider signing the petition that you can find on our news page asking for this awful building to be taken down.
Please pray for his parents and brother, for the whole community of Archway School and all those friends and family that are affected by this. Pray especially for our young people who have been so disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
May the Lord bless you and keep you and smile upon you and bring you peace.