Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I hope to see you this coming Sunday, as we give thanks for all that so many people contribute to the life of the church and pray for them. This is a special service, so please do come along (see details below).
Men’s Group (Open to Women!)
The Men’s Group will meet this Saturday, 6th June, at 9.30am. The meeting this time will be open to women too. It begins with breakfast at 9.30am and then David will lead a session reflecting on the Trinity. Please let David know if you would like to attend: revdem63@yahoo.co.uk
If you’re interested in reading and reflecting a bit on this topic either before or after the meeting on Saturday, you can access last Sunday’s sermon here https://www.academia.edu/167994850/Trinity; and you can find a very short section on the Trinity in a booklet David wrote on the Creed some years ago here https://www.academia.edu/71083921/An_Introduction_to_the_Nicene_Creed. It’s section 8, pages 30-32. (Some of you may have taken part in a series on the Creed here at St Ursula’s a few years ago when we used this booklet.) But this reading is entirely optional; it will not be assumed people have read these pieces. So don’t feel you can’t come along if you don’t have time to read them.
Commissioning Service, 7th June
During this service, we will ask those who serve in different ways in the church to stand up and we will pray for them. The service is an opportunity to thank all those who give of themselves so generously to our church community. We will pray for the Spirit to empower us in all that we do in our life together as the Body of Christ. It is also an opportunity for us all to think how we can contribute to the life of our church.
If you have a particular role in the church, or are involved in serving in different ways, please make every effort to come to this service.
Summer Fete, Saturday 20th June
The Summer Fete is fast approaching. Please put this in your diary and come along with your friends and family.
We need more volunteers to make cakes, scones and cookies, and to run stalls during the day. It would be especially good to have some new, younger volunteers.
Thanks to some of the teenagers who have offered to help. It is a great way to get to know others in the church and in the wider community.
If you can help in any way, please let Maria know in the office: office@stursula.ch
As we meet together week by week to be nourished by word and sacrament, we give thanks for the abundance of God’s provision for us. The poem below reminds us of all that is ‘lavished on us, full and free.’ As we receive of God’s abundance let us also respond by being generous people ourselves.
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.
(Malcolm Guite)
With love in Christ,
Helen