Dear All Saints and St Mary’s
This Sunday, at St Mary’s, we have an opportunity to continue our reflections on what it means to believe in one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This idea was born out of and continues to be reinforced by the Church’s experience of God. We believe in and know God, the transcendent Father, creator and sustainer of all that is, above and beyond and greater than all creation. We believe in and know God, the incarnate Son, the image of the unseen God and model of what it means to be truly human. We believe in and know God, the Holy Spirit, God with us, giving us God’s strength and leading us on in God’s mission. But we also firmly and truly believe that there is only one God. This is the mystery of the Trinity, that Christians have pondered, reflected on, and discussed since the early church. There is one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This Sunday, at St Mary’s, we have two very different opportunities to help us with this. At 10.00 am, we have creative church, where we will be exploring the Trinity and other names for God in our craft activity. At 6.30 pm, we have Trinity Choral Evensong, with music to lift us above our limited human understanding to contemplate the mystery of God.
At All Saints, at 10.30 am, at our communion service, we will be reflecting on Jesus’ meeting with the Gerasene demoniac in the tombs by lake Galilee and what this tells us about how God wants us to relate to those, who are on the fringes of society.
This gives us the following services for Sunday 19th June 2022:
10:00am | St Mary’s | Creative Church |
10:30am | All Saints | Holy Communion |
6:30pm | St Mary’s | Choral Evensong |
This coming week we have our usual midweek services, with Celtic Moring Prayer on Wednesday at All Saints and Communion on Thursday at St Mary’s. In addition, there is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Steven Purvis’ ordination as St John’s at 2.00 pm. This will start with a sung Holy Communion, which will be followed by refreshments in St John’s Hall. Next Sunday we have our usual fourth Sunday pattern with a said Communion and Café church at All Saints and Holy Communion at St Mary’s.
Therefore, the services for the coming week are as follows:
Weds 22nd | 9:00am | All Saints | Celtic Morning Prayer |
Thurs 23rd | 10:00am | St Mary's | Holy Communion |
Sat 25th | 2:00pm | St Johns | Celebration for Steven Purvis |
Sun 26th | 8:00am | All Saints | Holy Communion (said) |
| 10;00am | St Marys | Holy Communion |
| 10:30am | All Saints | Café Church |
One date for the diary, that is coming up very quickly, is Diane’s ordination as priest. This will take place on Saturday 2nd July at 3.00 pm in Bristol Cathedral. All are welcome, but it would help the cathedral to plan the seating if you let Lizzie know if you are intending to come, so the cathedral have some idea of numbers. Please pray for Diane and her future ministry among us.
As we turn away from the annual flow of the church seasons from Christmas to Pentecost and start into ordinary time, let us pray that God will draw us into the truth we need to know and so we may experience and reflect his love.
Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yours in Christ
Mark
Mark Simms
Licensed Lay Minister
Benefice of All Saints and St Mary, Fishponds