Friday 18 June 2021

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Thank you for all the good wishes and prayers for me on my retreat. I had a very nourishing time of reading, prayer and reflection while staying at Ralligen, a Christian community on the shores of Lake Thun.

I look forward to seeing many of you this Sunday. There are a few seats left so if you would like to come, please contact me on 077 495 7419. If you book a seat and then are unable to come please let me know, so I can offer the seat to someone else.

As usual, you can also follow the service online. We are all very thankful to Hector, Martin and Art for making this possible

Bible Study: Growing Old; Reflections from the New Testament
This coming Tuesday, 22nd June, 7 - 8.15pm, we will hold the first of two sessions on Christian reflections on growing old. As a basis for our reflections, we will use a short article (attached to this email) written by a New Testament professor and his wife. It should prompt some interesting discussion. If you can, please read the article before Tuesday, or at least the first half of it (the introduction, and first two sections). I will also summarise the main points on Tuesday, so if you do not have time to read it, please still come along!

Eco-Church Meeting: Wednesday 23rd June, 7-8.15pm
The Eco Group invite you to join us for a discussion about how we can further develop our care for the environment as individuals and as a church. We already have the bronze Eco-Church award and we are now working towards silver and gold. All ideas are welcome. If you would like to join us, please let Hector know and he will send you the zoom link.

Sharing Lifts
As part of our concern for the environment, the Eco group of the church would like to encourage us all to think about sharing lifts to church services and events when possible. If you are interested in having a lift to church, or could offer others a lift, please let Maria in the office know. I will also put up some signing sheets in church on Sunday. We will then see if there are people who live near to each other who could share lifts.

Lectio
Lectio Divina continues on Thursdays, 10.30-11.15am, as we meet (via zoom) to meditate in silence on a short biblical passage and then share our reflections. Come and join us! Let me know if you would like more details.

A Prayer for You All
As part of my retreat, I reflected on Paul's wonderful prayer for the Ephesians (Ephesians 3: 14-21). I pray these words for you and encourage you to pray them for yourselves and for one another.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen

With love in Christ,
Helen