Wednesday 14 July 2021

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope to see many of you on Sunday. There is a problem with the office computer so if you have emailed about a seat on Sunday, please could you re-confirm it by ringing the church office and leaving a message. (There is no need to do this if you have informed the office that you want a seat on an ongoing basis). If you book a seat and then find you are unable to come please ring 077 495 7419 and let me know, so I can offer the seat to someone else.

As usual, you can also follow the Sunday service online: Service Resources at St Ursula's Church, Berne. We are all very thankful to Hector, Martin and Art for making this possible.

Bible Study on Growing Old
We had a very interesting session on Tuesday evening on this theme. I know some of you were unable to attend but were keen to have more information about the evening. Our starting point for reflection and discussion was the second half of an article written by a New Testament professor and his wife and I attach my summary notes of the article and the questions for discussion.
There will be no more Bible study sessions now until September.

Trash Heroes Clean Up Day, 24th July
Trash Heroes organise a clean up of the city regularly throughout the year. The next such event is on Saturday 24th July, beginning at 11am. Those who have been on such cleaning up days say that it is very worthwhile, suitable for families, and it is also fun! If you would like to join in, please meet Richard and Mary Lou at 10.50am at the Zytglogge. Please BRING GLOVES with you. Children need to be fully supervised by their parents. If you want to find out more about Trash Heroes you can look at: https://trashhero.org/de/network/trash-hero-bern/

Afternoon Tea, 24th July, 2-4pm for the Church Family
This will be an outdoor event only (weather permitting) in the Church Garden with sandwiches and home made cakes. It will be an opportunity for us to socialise and re-connect with one another. All adults who attend will need to be fully vaccinated. We will need to know numbers, so if you would like to attend please contact Lynn Morgan on infaith40@gmail.com or 031 971 13 36 by Thursday 22nd. A very big thank you to those who are organising the tea.

The theme for this Sunday's sermon is 'Christ is our peace.' I end with a poem about peace.

Peace

Not as the world give, not the victor's peace,
Not to be fought for, hard-won, or achieved,
Just grace and mercy, gratefully received:
An undeserved and unforeseen release,
As the cold chains of memory and wrath
Fall from our hearts before we are aware,
Their rusty locks all picked by patient prayer,
Till closed doors open, and we see a path
Descending from a source we cannot see;
A path that must be taken, hand in hand,
Only by those, forgiving and forgiven,
Who see their saviour in their enemy.
So reach for me. We'll cross our broken land,
And make each other bridges back to heaven.
(Malcolm Guite)

With love in Christ,

With best wishes,
Helen