Dear All Saints and St Mary’s
This Sunday we have a variety of things to be thinking and praying about. It is the third Sunday of the Epiphany season, as we think about how Jesus let people know and understand who he is. It is also the Sunday of the week of prayer for Christian unity, when we can reflect on how we can work together to build a society that reflects the kingdom of God. At All Saints, we have the last of our Café Church series based on Pete Greig’s book How to pray, where we will be thinking about listening for God’s response to our prayers.
Holding all these threads together are Jesus words in Sunday’s gospel reading:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ Luke 4.18-19 (NRSV)
In the same way God calls us to work in his Spirit to bring good news to the poor and oppressed. Yet we can only make that good news a reality when our faith is grounded in the active life of the church community. Our mission in the world is grounded, informed, and inspired by our worship in church, whether that be creative, discussion or traditional.
In summary, this Sunday we have the following services:
8.00 am All Saints Holy Communion (said)
10.00 am St Mary’s Holy Communion
10.30 am All Saints Café Church
During the week we have our usual Celtic Morning Prayer at All Saints and Thursday Communion at St Mary’s. Next Sunday is the fifth Sunday of the month, so we will be having a benefice service at St Mary’s. As such, there will be no 10.30 service at All Saints. The services for the coming week are as follows:
Wed 26th 9.00 am All Saints Celtic morning prayer
Thur 27th 10.00 am St Mary’s Holy Communion
Sunday 30th 8.00 am All Saints Holy Communion (said)
10.00 am St Mary’s Benefice communion
May God bless all you do this coming week, and may he give you the courage, wisdom and strength to bring the good news to all you encounter.
Mark
Mark Simms Licensed Lay Minister Benefice of All Saints and St Mary, Fishponds