Wednesday 26 April 2023

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope to see many of you at church on Sunday. The focus of our service will be The Good Shepherd.

Coronation of Charles III
As many of you are aware, the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III will take place on Saturday 6th May. The service is at 12 noon (Swiss time). We will be livestreaming the event in the upper hall, and the livestreaming will start from 11.30am, so that we can watch the King and guests arriving. We will provide sandwiches, scones and cakes. Do come along and bring any family, friends or neighbours who are interested. If any of you are able to help with making sandwiches and cakes please do let the office know.

King Charles is Governor of the Church of England (of which St Ursula's is a part), and we will be saying some special prayers for the King during the service on Sunday 7th May. These will be led by the British Ambassador, James Squire. It has been a great joy to have James, Kate and their family worshipping with us at St Ursula's in recent weeks.

I attach some prayers here which you might like to use in these coming days before the Coronation.

Tuesday Studies
Our zoom studies on Tuesday evenings will start up again soon, and we welcome Benjamin Vaytet to lead us in reflecting on Bonhoeffer's little book Life Together. Benji is a new member of our congregation and he is doing his PhD on Bonhoeffer's vision of the church. Life Together is a very inspiring and encouraging little book about prayer and worship, solitude and community in the Christian life. Benji will be selecting particular passages for us to reflect on and we will send out the first passages in my email message next Wednesday. The first session will be on Tuesday 9th May, 7.00- 8.15pm, via zoom. The following sessions will be Tuesday 16th May, Tuesday 30th May, and Wednesday 7th June. Please do come and join us for these sessions which I'm sure will be very encouraging and thought provoking.

More details will follow in my email message next Wednesday.

Pentecost, 28th May
Looking further ahead, please do put this date in your diaries. This is a very special day in the life of the church, when we celebrate the coming of the Spirit on the first disciples and the preaching of the gospel to people of different nations and languages. It is a good day to celebrate the international nature of our church community and to remember that we are all one in Christ.
There will be two special events taking place on this Sunday:

• Time and Talents Auction: We are one in the Spirit but we are all different, with different gifts. As we celebrate this, we are invited to offer our time and talents to raise money for the church. Please fill in a form with what you can offer (eg an hour's language lesson, an hour's gardening, cooking a meal, etc.) and put it in the red box in the upper hall. After Church on 28th May, we will hold the auction and invite bids for the different services offered.
• International Lunch: As we have done so successfully in previous years, we invite you to bring some food from your own nation or local area to share. If you have a national dress, we encourage you to wear it. This has been a very colourful and joyful occasion in the past, so don't miss it!

Eastertide Hymn

One of my favourite Easter hymns is Now the Green Blade Riseth which speaks of the Risen Christ being like a buried grain which comes to fruitful life. This picks up on Jesus' words in John 12: 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a singe grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.' We rejoice in the life and fruitfulness that comes from Jesus' death and resurrection.

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:

Love is come again,
like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid him, Love whom men had slain,
thinking that never he would wake again,
laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:

Love is come again,
like wheat that springeth green.

Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
he that for three days in the grave had lain,
quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:

Love is come again,
like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving or in pain,
thy touch can call us back to life again,
fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:

Love is come again,
like wheat that springeth green.

(J.M.C. Crum)

With love in Christ,
Helen