Wednesday 28 September 2022

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I look forward to seeing many of you in church this coming Sunday. If you cannot come to the service in person on Sunday you can find the readings and hymns for the service here: Service Resources at St Ursula's Church, Berne. The sermon will be recorded and put on the website afterwards, at this same link.

After the service this Sunday, 2nd October, a group of us are hosting a lunch for students. If you know any students who might like to come to the service and the lunch afterwards please let them know about it. We have been in touch with students at Bern and Fribourg university.

Harvest Festival, 9th October
Please do join us for this special Sunday. If you can, please bring fruit and vegetables and other produce to decorate the church and to auction off after the service. The auction will raise money for the Kigezi Water and Sanitation Project we support. We are delighted to welcome Bishop Gaddie Akanjuna from Kigezi who will be our guest preacher and will give a talk about the Water Project after the service. We will also be having a Bring and Share Lunch. Please bring a dish of food to share. We need help setting up tables, serving food, and clearing up. If you are able to help, please let the office know. Thank you.

Pledge Sunday, 16th October
This will be our annual pledge Sunday when we are all encouraged to reflect on our giving and review what we give to the church. St Ursula's does not receive any other funding of any kind so we rely on the giving of our congregation for all our different activities and ministries. A letter about this will be sent to you shortly.

As we meet to worship and share the sacrament, week by week, we are reminded of the abundance of God's grace for us. This is captured beautifully in Malcolm Guite's poem below.

The Church's Banquet
Not some strict modicum, exact allowance,
Precise prescription, rigid regimen,
But beauty and gratuitous abundance,
Capacious grace, beyond comparison.
Not something hasty, always snatched alone;
Junkets of junk food, fuelling our dis-ease,
Not little snacklets eaten on the run,
But peace and plenty, taken at our ease.
Not to be worked for, not another task,
But love that's lavished on us, full and free,
Course after course of hospitality,
And rich wine flowing from an unstopped flask.
He paid the price before we reached the inn,
And all he asks of us is to begin.

With love in Christ,
Helen