Wednesday 16 March 2022

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I want to thank all those who worked so hard to organise our Spring Sale last Saturday. We had a good number of people attending. In addition to raising money for the ministry of the church, these occasions are good opportunities to meet people from our wider community. Thank you SO much to the events team and many others who helped in various ways. It was a great team effort and all went very smoothly.

This Sunday, 20th March, is the third Sunday of Lent. Do join us in church. We especially welcome our families and children. Junior Church and creche will be running. If you can't come along, you can listen to the service online:
Service Resources at St Ursula's Church, Berne Many thanks to Hector, Art and Martin.

Recording of the sermon
You find the text of the sermon, readings and intercessions in the online service. We are no longer recording them. However, a recording of the sermon will be taken during the Sunday service (as in pre-COVID times) and put on the website afterwards. You can find sermons here: https://www.stursula.ch/Sermons/index.html

Lent

Live Lent
I know some people in our community are using the Church of England Live Lent material which suggests prayers and small actions of practical service which we can do each day in Lent. You may want to have a look at it here:
https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/what-we-believe/lent-holy-week-and-easter/livelent-embracing-justice-our-lent-reflections

Bishop's Lent and Easter Appeal
I attach a letter from Bishop Robert about the Lent and Easter appeal for Ukraine. Please read this. If you would like to give, you can give through the church as we usually do for Lent appeals. The tin is put out each Sunday. Or you can give directly in the links provided.

Wednesday Prayers for Peace
There will be a simple 30 minute service online praying for peace in Ukraine every Wednesday at 18:00 throughout Lent. THIS BEGINS TODAY and continues every Wednesday until April 13th. This is organised by the Diocese in Europe.

Music in Church
We are looking at the provision of music in our church. Please could you let me know:

1. If you play a musical instrument and would like to play regularly, or occasionally, in a church music group playing songs in services. (Please let me know the instrument!)

2. If you can suggest anyone you are in contact with who might be willing to play the piano/organ in the church and who is happy and able to play a wide range of music including traditional hymns and more modern worship songs. Ideally we would like that person to become fully involved in the life of the church. Please pass on any contacts to me so that I can get in touch with them to talk further. I would be grateful if you could do this in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, we will also be making contact with other musicians outside the church.

Memorial Service for David Winfield
There will be a special service to give thanks for David's life and to pray for Barbara, Claudia and Daniel on Saturday 9th April, 2.30pm. Please let the office know if you would like to attend as we need to know numbers.

Prayer for Peace
I conclude with a prayer by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr composed during the Second World War which a member of our congregation recently sent to me. He had heard it quoted on the radio by a Bishop in the Church of England as a suitable prayer for these days:

We pray to you this day, O God, mindful of the sorry confusion of our world. Look with mercy upon this generation of your children so steeped in misery of their own contriving, so far strayed from your ways and so blinded by passions…We pray for wicked and cruel men, whose arrogance reveals to us what the sin of our own hearts is like when it has conceived and brought forth its final fruit. O God, who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, bring down the mighty from their seats.

We pray for ourselves who live in peace and quietness, that we may not regard our good fortune as proof of our virtue, or rest content to have our ease at the price of other men’s sorrow and tribulation.

We pray for all who have some vision of your will, despite the confusions and betrayals of human sin, that they humbly and resolutely plan for and fashion the foundations of a just peace between men, even while they seek to preserve what is fair and just among us against the threat of malignant power.

Grant us grace to see what we can do, but also to know what are the limits of our powers, so that courage may feed on trust in you, who are able to rule and overrule the angry passions of men and make the wrath of men to praise you. Amen

With love in Christ,
Helen