The reading from the gospel of Mark that occurs this week in the lectionary is a one that was hard to grasp for the first followers of Jesus and is still a challenge today. Jesus tells his motley crew, after they fight among themselves (again!) that the call to greatness, is one that is first and foremost a call to service. James and John the “Sons of Thunder” had asked that they might have a place at the “top” table, ahead of others. That’s what caused the angry scuffle. Jesus uses it as a teaching opportunity for all those that gathered around. It is still today a “teachable moment”.

Jesus is often guiding people to the greater kingdom vision of a place of service over and above that of hierarchical power and privilege.  Jesus’ choses to spend his last evening with his friends showing them, in the washing of feet. The master is the one who kneels and washes feet, rather than hold court at table. The idea that the true power of God, that the kingdom is first and foremost carried out in the service, practical and prayerful, of those around us. How do we serve others? 

Whilst away this week on conference, one of our speakers – Elizabeth Oldfield, spoke passionately about something that resonated with me. Her core message was one about building relationships, and how this is at the centre of how we relate to people, build people up and understand our differences more keenly. A phrase that stood out for me was “Connect before you Correct!”. Her focus on deep listening to others, to listening to ourselves and our preferences, whilst simultaneously curiously seeking out to discover why other people might view the world differently was refreshing and full of wisdom. Jesus’ call to servant ministry, turning the topsy turvy world of power and privilege on its head requires us to connect with others by accepting a servant centred service. 

Who might we reach out too and listen too today? Who might we cross the road or church aisle to listen too. Who might we not know? Who do we see? Who might we not see? It was a teachable moment for me. As is still the words of Jesus today 

but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant”

Worship Services this Sunday 20^th October

10am – Baptism  with Communion at St Marys

10.30am – Holy Communion with Hymns – All Saints

The Week Ahead

Monday 21st        

10.30am – Tiny Tots – All Saints

Tuesday 22nd

10:30am – M4T  – St Marys

Wednesday 23rd

9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints 

Thursday 24th

10:00am – Holy Communion  – St. Mary’s 

Saturday 26th

12.00 – 2:00pm – Saturday Lunches  – St Mary’s 

7pm – All Saints Quiz – £6 a ticket. 

Sunday 27th

8.00am – Holy Communion – All Saints 

10:00am Sung Holy Communion – St Marys 

10.30am Cafe Church – All Saints 

God of Glory, the end of our searching, help us to lay aside all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom, and to give all that we have, to gain the pearl beyond price, through our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Revd Lizzie

This Sunday, we start a series of readings that will take us through the Letter to the Hebrews in the next seven weeks. This great exposition of the centrality and uniqueness of Jesus, feels more like a sermon than a letter. It exhorts its hearers to be faithful to Christ, despite difficulties and persecution, because Christ is so much more than any of the leaders or heroes of the past. Christ became like us, ‘a little lower than the angels’, so that we might become like him, his brothers and sisters, children of the same Father. Jesus is the pioneer of our faith, the one who has gone before us and the one whom we follow.

This Sunday, we have three services, at which we can concentrate our focus on Jesus and strengthen our commitment to walk in his way. There is Creative Church at St Mary’s at 10.00 am and Holy Communion at All Saints at 10.30 am. At 6.30 pm at St Mary’s we have Choral Evensong, at which we will be celebrating the Dedication Festival. This gives the following services for this Sunday:

10.00 am – St Mary’s  – Creative Church

10.30 am  – All Saints  – Holy Communion

6.30 pm  – St Mary’s – Choral  Evensong

We have our usual midweek services, with Celtic Morning Prayer on Wednesday at 9.00 am at All Saints and Holy Communion on Thursday at 10.00 am at St Mary’s. Next Sunday follows our usual second Sunday pattern, with said Holy Communion at 8.00 am at All Saints, Holy Communion at 10.00 at St Mary’s and Messy/Muddy Church at 10.30 am at All Saints. This gives the following services for the week ahead:

Wednesday 9th 

9.00 am – All Saints  – Celtic morning prayer

Thursday 10th 

10.00 am – St Mary’s – Holy Communion

Sunday 13th 

8.00 am – All Saints  – Holy Communion (said)

10.00 am – St Mary’s – Holy Communion

10.30 am – All Saints – Messy/Muddy Church

As we start on this journey through the Letter to the Hebrews, let us pray for the grace to trust Christ and turn to him afresh each day, in the words of the collect for this Sunday:

Faithful Lord,
whose steadfast love never ceases
and whose mercies never come to an end:
grant us the grace to trust you
and to receive the gifts of your love,
new every morning,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

Yours in Christ

Mark

I have always had a soft spot for the Feast of St Michael and All Angels. I have found the ministry of angels, be them earthly or heavenly, to be a source of protection, wisdom and blessing in my own Christian faith. I would agree with Archbishop Desmund Tutu who once said “Angels speak in many layers of meaning and mystery, trying to express the inexpressible. If we ignore them, our lives are the poorer.” 

So, it is a huge delight when this festival combines with our joining together as a Benefice for our worship on this coming Sunday at St Marys. We also have the privilege of being able to combine this feast by welcoming  the charity “Through the Roof”,  https://throughtheroof.org/, who are one of the nominated charities we are supporting at St Mary’s in 2024. “Through the roof” seek to transform the lives of disabled people in different parts of the world. Katie, who works for the charity will be joining us to reflect, challenge and bless us with her own experience and wisdom. 

This week’s worship:

SUNDAY 29^th SEPTEMBER 

8am – BCP Holy Communion – All Saints

10am – Sung Holy Communion – St Mary’s

THE WEEK AHEAD

Monday 30th Sept

10.30am – Tiny Tots – All Saints 

Tuesday 1st Oct

10:30am – M4T  – St Mary’s

Weds 2nd Oct

9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints 

Thursday 3rd Oct

10:00am – Holy Communion  – St. Mary’s 

Friday 4th Oct

11:00am – Living After Loss – St. Mary’s

Saturday 5th Oct

10:00am – Coffee Morning and Book Sale with Bristol Repair Café – All Saints 

12-2pm – Saturday Lunches  – St Mary’s

Sunday 6th Oct

10:00am – Creative Church – St Mary’s

10:30am – Holy Communion and Junior Church – All   Saints 

 6:30pm – Choral Evensong – St. Mary’s 

The collect prayer for Michaelmas – may we know the defence of your love and be defenders of your people.

Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order: 

grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven, 

so, at your command, they may help and defend us on earth; 

Revd Lizzie

Dear Friends in Christ,

Reflecting on a British summer that seems to have consisted of more rain than sunshine, it’s easy to grumble about the ‘soft refreshing rain’ as the hymn puts it.

Yet without it we wouldn’t have the richness of the creation we experience in this country. We can take for granted the variety and wonder of nature, the profound and beautiful scope of creation. Even more so, it’s so easy to forget that whilst we can buy all manner of things from the local shops, many today cannot do so. We naturally (and rightly) think of those in countries where crops fail and extreme weather decimate harvests, there are other ways that people are denied the food that they need. Those places where there is violence and war destroy the wonders of creation and restrict access to food. Even in this country, many live on budgets that are stretched to the max, with the use of Food Banks proliferating.

But the text from Joel reminds us that God is with us, that even in the hardest times he does not desert us. He supplies us with all that is most necessary for our lives. Creation itself is a testament to God’s glory- a visual, sensual outpouring of his love, and a love that sustains us spiritually and physically.

This Sunday – 17th after Trinity

8.00    Holy Communion: All Saints

10.00  Harvest Holy Communion with Guides: St Marys

10.30  Cafe Church: All Saints

The Week Ahead

Tuesday 24th Sept    

9:00 – Celtic Morning Prayer: All Saints

Thursday 26th Sept

10:00– Holy Communion: St. Mary’s

Saturday 28th Sept 

10:00 – Coffee Morning, Book Sale & Bristol Repair Café:  All Saints

12.00 – 2:00: Saturday Lunches: St Mary’s

Sunday 29th Sept    

8.00 BCP Communion: All Saints

10.00 Joint Benefice Sung Holy Communion:  St. Marys with this year’s charity  “Through the Roof”.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen

Blessings

Revd Kester de Oliveira

Fear not, rejoice and be glad! Joel 2:21

Services this Sunday 15th September

Greetings from Rev Diane

I confess I remember hymns more than sermons from my childhood and I loved decorating the church for Harvest Festival, savouring all the colours and shapes of flowers, fruits and vegetables. I remember sitting next to the sheaf of oats attached to the end of my pew and enjoyed investigating and eating the flour inside the grains. Oats grow well in the Irish climate. My dad, a city boy from Belfast’s Shankill Road, ended up as a Church of Ireland rector among farmers in South Armagh and Tyrone in the 60s and 70s. He was a good singer and a favourite harvest hymn of his was ‘God whose farm is all creation’ – partly because it was written by beloved cricket commentator of the day John Arlott.  In church we thanked God for the sights, sounds, scents and tastes of harvest – a welcome respite from the sectarian violence of the Troubles. Today we continue to live in a world of both bounty and scarcity, peace and war, reassurance and uncertainty.  And yet as Arlott’s hymn says, God takes our ‘hopes and fears of sun and rain’, all our ‘thinking, planning, waiting’,  and still He ripens the fruits and grains. God is good. All the time.

Harvest reminds us to give something back out of what we have generously received from God. Our thoughts turn to people who lack food and financial resources both locally and across the world. 
So we are offering two ways to give to others this harvest.

1) by donating tinned and packaged long life foods for local foodbanks 

2) make a donation to Christian Aid – by virtual envelope or envelope in church.

Christian Aid works with communities to help mitigate the effects of climate change by using alternative crops and farming methods. The charity supports the relief effort in Gaza and places on the brink of famine and advocates for climate justice worldwide

In the  Week Ahead

Thank you for sending rain and sunshine

Thank you for giving harvest growth

Thank you that we can share our food
With those who need it most!  

The season of September is in full swing as schools return and the summer holidays fade from view. Autumn holds for us a feast of seasonal worship, with Patronal festivals and Harvest celebrations on the horizon. This weekend St Mary’s continues its patronal festival and will celebrate together the Song of Mary, as she visits her cousin Elizabeth. What an incredible story we have as part of our shared Christian heritage, this remarkable encounter, between these two strong women of the bible. I wonder often about the strong women in my own life, who have made such an impact on my faith, those ponderings often lead me to a place of thanksgiving and prayer. 

All Saints will make a mini pilgrimage to the river in their Muddy Church worship, as we look with awe and wonder at the different way God’s creation is put together. It might be wet, it may be muddy, but together we will have the chance of those remarkable conversations with others that are often life changing and faith giving. 

May we all be blessed this weekend be it at All Saints or St Mary’s with the presence of God and each other in worship and praise and thanksgiving.

Our services for the weekend – Sunday 8^th September

8am – Holy Communion – All Saints

10am – Sung Patronal Festival Eucharist – St Mary’s

10.30am – Muddy Messy Church – All Saints

7.15pm – Generations –  11+  – All Saints

Please find attached the weekly sheets and readings. Harvest will be celebrated at the churches over the following weekends – 15^th at All Saints and the 22nd at St Mary’s – Please bring any gifts of food donations you have to either church for these celebratory festivals. And a reminder to come and join the Beatles Benefit Gig on Sat 14^th September!

Lizzie

This Sunday’s readings have a common theme: What we do matters, but why we do it matters more. 

The first reading is from Moses final great speech to the people before they cross the Jordan and enter the Promised land. In Deuteronomy 4.1–2,6–9, Moses exhorts the people to obey all the laws that God has given them. However, this passage follows on from Moses reminding the people of all that God had done for them, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt and to the borders of the land he had promised to Abraham. Knowing their history, should help them trust in God. Out of that trust should come an understanding of what God wants and obedience to his laws.

The New Testament reading, James 1.17–end, contains James’ call to be doers of the word. However, this does not mean that we need not be hearers as well. In fact, James tells his readers not to be merely hearers, but doers as well. Hearing and doing should go hand in hand. One complements the other. Each is incomplete by itself. Again, it is knowing God and his will for us that leads towards the generosity and meekness that James commends.

The gospel reading, Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23, takes up a similar theme. The Pharisees and scribes challenge Jesus because his disciples were eating without washing their hands. Although washing your hands before eating is sensible for hygiene reasons, even today it is not always possible. Rigid adherence to such rules discriminated against the poor, who might need to eat on the job or out in the fields. Jesus criticises the scribes and Pharisees, because they are not interested in the wellbeing of the people. Instead, they are more focussed on their own importance. Jesus reminds his audience that they need to think about what their lives show about their hearts more than what is going into their stomachs. The things people do are a sign of what is going on inside.

We will have another chance to reflect on this during our 10:30 am Holy Communion service at All Saints on Sunday. At St Mary’s there is Creative church at 10.00 am. Choral Evensong at 6:30 pm will start our celebrations of the patronal festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Note that different readings will be used at Evensong.) This gives the following services for Sunday 1^st September:

We have our usual midweek services this week with Celtic Morning Prayer at All Saints on Wednesday at 9:00 am and Holy Communion at St Mary’s on Thursday at 10:00 am. In addition, there is a memorial service for Joe Sevens on Thursday at 2:30 pm at St Mary’s. Next Sunday, we have our usual second Sunday pattern with said Holy Communion at All Saints at 8:00 am, Holy Communion at St Mary’s at 10:00 am and Messy/Muddy Church at All Saints at 10:30. This gives the following services for the coming week:

Reflecting on Jesus’ message that it is what comes from our hearts that can defile or sanctify, let us pray for pure hearts and steadfast wills in the words of the collect for this Sunday:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth.
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
Amen

Yours in Christ

Mark Simms

Finish Lines!

The month of August has been a bible extravaganza as people in churches across the globe have listen to the whole of Chapter 6 of St John’s gospel and the conversations and reflections that are inspired by the miracle of the feeding of the 5’000. It has also been a month when the Letter that St Paul wrote to the very early, young and emerging church in Ephesus has been read. Both this letter and gospel chapter come to a finale this Bank Holiday Sunday. We are asked to think on the disciple St Peter and his acclamation of Jesus ” You have the words of eternal life, we have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God“. St Paul speaks uses metaphors of putting on the armour of a Christian life that seeks justice, peace and truth. 

And so Christians are asked again through these words what is it that we believe and know about Jesus? And what difference does that make to our lives and those around us? How do we protect and discern truth, peace and justice. May we be blessed with the company of each other and Christ this weekend in worship and fellowship whether that is in the breaking of bread or through shared food, reflection and discussion at cafe church.

SUNDAY 25^th AUGUST

8:00am – Said Holy Communion – All Saints

10:00am – Sung Holy Communion – St Marys

10.30am – Cafe Church – All Saints

THE WEEK AHEAD

Wednesday 28th Aug

9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints 

Thursday 29th Aug

10:00am – Holy Communion  – St. Mary’s 

Saturday 31st  Aug 

9:00am – 11.30am – Autumn Clean  – St Marys 

12.00 – 2:00pm – Saturday Lunches  – St Mary’s  

Sunday 1st Sept

10:00am – Creative Church – St Marys 

10:30am – Holy Communion and Junior Church –  All Saints 

6:30pm – Patronal Choral Evensong – St. Mary’s 

Blessings

Revd Lizzie