Dear friends, I hope you have all had good weeks and perhaps have been able to enjoy the benefits of the next stage of lockdown easing. Have you been indulging in some long-overdue retail therapy? Met up with family and friends outdoors? Or has it felt like ‘business as usual’ for you? Reggie and I went to Prior’s Wood with my family for a walk and a picnic, and although we were well within ‘the rules’, we still felt quite cautious, yet at the same time, it was a real treat to be able to meet up in public! It feels like we have become very privatized during the lockdowns, and it will no doubt take us a while to adjust as these simple freedoms open up to us bit by bit – freedoms I think we have learned to treasure even more during this last year. We continue to remember our Royal Family this week with the funeral of Prince Philip on today. They must find a path through their private loss as a family whilst on ‘public display’, which cannot be easy. Please do remember them in your prayers. This Sunday 18th April is the third Sunday of the Easter Season. At 10.30am we have Benefice Café church (on zoom) :
- led by Mark, with Sharon peaching. The
order of service is here if needed.
This is the second of our Café services based on Pete Grieg’s book “How to Pray”, and the theme this session is ‘Pause’. To quote from Pete’s book: “To start we must stop. To move forward we must pause. This is the first step in a deeper prayer life: put down your wish-list and wait. Sit quietly. Be still. Become fully present in place and time so that your scattered senses can re-centre themselves on God’s eternal presence. Stillness and silence prepare your mind and prime your heart to pray from a place of greater peace, faith and adoration. In fact, it is in itself an important form of prayer.” Join the Zoom details here: Café Church Zoom · Meeting ID: 969 4246 5344 - Passcode: 803495 This will be followed by Zoom Coffee & Chat at 11.45am - A great space for us to chat over a cuppa in the comfort of our homes: Zoom Coffee & Chat Meeting ID: 922 2627 5253 - Passcode: 200369 In the evening, we have a 6.30pm Holy Communion at St Mary’s – Revd Janey will be leading and presiding, with Diane preaching. The Roots At Home and Activity Sheet based on this week’s gospel are here:
In the week ahead, we have our usual daily rhythms: Monday 8.15am Morning Prayer (on zoom), hosted by Carla. Please email stanneseastville@gmail.com for details. Wednesday 9.00am - Celtic Morning Prayer (on zoom), hosted by Mark. If you’re not on the circulation list, and would like to be, please contact Mark on 0117 951 8419. 10.00-11.00am – All Saints open for private prayer Thursday 10.00-11.00am - St Mary’s open for private prayer Next Sunday 25th April, we will have two services in the morning: 8.00am – Holy Communion at All Saints 10.00am – Holy Communion at St Mary’s A final shout out about Lizzie and Flo’s run - there is still time to sponsor or donate to the chosen charities if you would like to! · Lizzie is raising for Christian Aid https://giving.tapsimple.org/online/christian-aid/making-a-dash-for-it · Flo is raising for Self Injury Support - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/florence-weston If you’d rather not donate online, that’s fine - you can also fill in the sponsorship sheets at the back of church. Or if you prefer simply to donate cash, please put it in an envelope saying what it’s for and give to one of the churchwardens or to Revd Janey or Revd Lizzie who can make sure it goes through the right channels. Thank you! I leave you with some simple but beautiful words from the writings of Isabella Gilmore, a pioneering deaconess who served in the poorest parishes of South London in the early 20th Century. Her commemoration was this week (16th April). In talking about the call to go and make disciples, she said: “God has placed us in the world and we are to work for it and in it… I think the secret of all true work is knowledge of those for whom we work, and this takes long to get and needs much single-hearted diligence. To go visiting with your heart up in the clouds or elsewhere is useless: you had better stay away. To go, thinking that you are going to teach, will be equally useless; and even to go in order to help may come to produce a doubt in your own mind. But to go as a friend, tried and true, with a gentle touch, a word of consolation, a merry laugh and a helping hand - who can tell where your influence shall cease?” May we be friends tried and true – to each other and to all those we encounter this coming week. Yours in the Risen Christ, Janey _______________ Rev. Janey Hiller
Curate and Pioneer Minister All Saints & St Mary's, Fishponds
www.theriveruk.wordpress.com www.justcallmejaney.wordpress.com @Mthr_Kerfuffle