Week beginning Sunday 6th July 2025

On 5 Jul 2025 By Sam ToogoodIn Weekly Info

This weekend Bishop Viv will ordain new Deacons and Priests in Bristol Cathedral. This is a wonderful occasion for the whole church, and also especially for us as we celebrate alongside Fr Kester as he is ordained priest to serve in the parishes of All Saints and St Marys.

One of the readings this weekend in the Old Testament reading of Micah speaks of “doing justice, walking humbly and being kind”. It has struck me that as we approach this weekend it will also be the final ordination in Bristol for Bishop Viv as she looks to her retirement. We send her our blessings and prayers and thanks for her episcopal ministry. She has, IMHO, lived out those three qualities of Christian discipleship – a call of justice, kindness and humility. As we pray and discern for a new Bishop of Bristol, may these words of scripture be our guide. Our Junior Church will be looking at this on Sunday, and I invite you all to contribute your thoughts, prayers and wisdom to this process. If you want to do that then please click the link.

https://www.bristol.anglican.org/churchlife/help-shape-the-future-of-the-diocese-of-bristol-your-voice-matters/

This weekend of celebration and thanksgiving we have

Saturday 5^th July – 3pm – Ordination of Fr Kester – Bristol Cathedral

Sunday 6^th July – 10.30am – Benefice Service – All Saints

Sunday 6^th July – 6.30pm – Choral Evensong – St Mary’s

Everyone is welcome to all the above and also to a celebration in St Mary’s parish rooms at 6pm-8pm on Sat 5^th July after the ordinations.

Let’s come together and celebrate in all these different ways this weekend. God is good!

THE WEEK AHEAD

Monday 7th July

10.30am Tiny Tots – All Saints

Tuesday 8th July

10.30am – M4T End of Term Party

10.00am – Fishponds Leavers Service – All Saints

Wednesday 9th July

9.00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints

Thursday 10th July

11.00am – Wedding of Megan Barnes and Mani Baird – All Welcome – St. Mary’s

Friday 11th July

1.00 – 2.00pm Drop-in Concert, St. Mary’s

Saturday 12th July

11.00am – 2.00pm – St Mary’s Fair

Sunday 13th July

08.00am – Holy Communion, All Saints

10.00am – Holy Communion, St Marys

10.30am – Junior Church Family Service All Saints

7.15pm – Generations – Vicarage

With thanksgiving

Revd Lizzie

Week beginning Sunday 29th June 2025

On 28 Jun 2025 By Sam ToogoodIn Weekly Info

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of St Peter and St Paul, two of the most significant followers of Jesus in the New Testament. Both their stories tell of a growth in faith and a call to ministry. For both of them, that call included a change in name.

Simon, the son of John (or Jonah), was a fisherman working on lake Galilee. Jesus called him to catch people rather than fish. When Simon recognised Jesus as the Christ, Jesus gave him the name Cephas, which means rock in Aramaic. In the Bible, this is sometimes written as the Greek word Petros, from which we get the name Peter. He became the rock, the foundation on which Jesus built the church in Jerusalem. He was also the champion of gentile Christians among the Jewish Christians.

Saul was a highly educated Pharisee, who was eager to serve God. However, Jesus showed him that serving God did not mean rigid following of the law of Moses, but faith in Jesus. He travelled widely, spreading the good news of Jesus through what is now Turkey and Greece. In Luke’s telling of his story, he switches from using Saul’s Hebrew name to his Greek name Paul, to indicate that he was now looking out into the world beyond Israel.

It is at this time when we think about the ministry of the church today. Not many of us are given a new name, but many of us are called to new and exciting ministries. It is a time to pray about our own calling and whether God is challenging us to take on something new or to continue faithfully in our current work.

It is also the time when the church has traditionally ordained new priests and deacons. From our own community, Kester de Oliveira will be ordained priest this Saturday in Bristol Cathedral. As a community, we will be praying for him and looking for practical ways we can support him in this new phase of his ministry.

This Sunday, although it is a fifth Sunday of the month, we will not be having a benefice service. Instead, there will be services at both All Saints and St Mary’s. The benefice service will be on 6th May, when Kester will preside at communion for the first time. As such, there will be the following services this Sunday:

8.00 am	All Saints	Holy Communion (BCP)
10.00 am	St Mary’s	Holy Communion
10.30 am	All Saints	Holy Communion

This coming week we have the usual services with Celtic Morning Prayer on Wednesday at All Saints and Holy Communion at St Mary’s on Thursday. In addition to the Benefice service at All Saints, there will be Choral Evensong at St Mary’s. Note that there is no morning service at St Mary’s. This gives the following services for the coming week:

Wednesday 2nd July	9.00 am	All Saints	Celtic Morning Prayer
Thursday 3rd July	10.00 am	St Mary’s	Holy Communion
Saturday 5th July	3.00 pm	Bristol Cathedral	Ordination of Kester de Oliveira
Sunday 6th July	10.30 am	All Saints	Benefice communion service
	6.30 pm	St Mary’s	Choral Evensong

As we remember the ministry of Peter and Paul, let us pray for the ministry of all the church, in the words of the collect for Embertide:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Yours in Christ,

Mark

Week beginning Sunday 22nd June 2025

On 21 Jun 2025 By Sam ToogoodIn Weekly Info

“Doing Good”

‘The Acts of the Apostles was written about 100 AD, a generation after the first Gospels. It contains stories about the growth of the church, and reflects some of the concerns they were having, as local Christian communities were becoming more established. Yet, preserved within these chapters, there are some very early summaries of Jesus’s life. These verses show how the earliest Christians talked about Jesus, before later refinements were made (such as we say each week in the Creed). One important early description is found in Acts 10.38, with four different descriptions of Jesus. Each of these captures something true about Jesus, as they experienced him in his own lifetime, and also as we experience him now.

‘God anointed Jesus with power’: yes, God’s power was evident, as he taught and as he fed people in amazing ways. ‘Jesus healed those who were oppressed’: yes, Jesus released people trapped by illness, stigma, or lack of love. ‘For God was with him’: yes, when we meet Jesus, we meet God.

But my favourite phrase is this: ‘Jesus went about doing good’. It is such a simple phrase, but it condenses into five words so much of what I believe about Jesus. Whatever troubles he met, whoever he came across, whatever difficult circumstances he encountered, Jesus simply did good. He made goodness happen, and not only left people in a better place – but also gave them the power to continue doing good themselves. In our culture, being a “do-gooder” is a critical description, usually delivered with a sneer. But I don’t think it should be. How about this wonderful quotation from a Quaker missionary, who was saying in different words what Acts 10.38 is pointing us towards:

“I shall pass this way but once. Any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

This Sunday’s Worship on 22nd June

8:00 – Holy Communion, All Saints

10:00 – Holy Communion, St Mary’s

10:30 – Café Church, All Saints

The Week Ahead

Monday 23rd June

10.30am Tiny Tots – All Saints

Tuesday 24th June

10:30am – M4T – St Mary’s

Weds 25th June

9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints

Thurs 26th June

10:00am Holy Communion – St. Marys

Saturday 28th June

12:00 – 2:00pm – Saturday Lunches – St Mary’s

Sunday 29th June

8:00am – BCP Holy Communion, All Saints

10:00am – Holy Communion, St Mary’s

10:30am – Holy Communion, All Saints

Revd Bob.

Week beginning Sunday 15th June 2025

On 14 Jun 2025 By Sam ToogoodIn Weekly Info

Trinity Sunday

Happy Holy Trinity Sunday! Did you know that Bristol Cathedral’s ‘name’ or dedication is “The Holy and Undivided Trinity”? I have always found it inspiring and comforting that the “mother” church of this City and the Diocese bears this name. Trinity Sunday comes straight after the feasts of Pentecost and the Ascension. In many ways bringing full circle the whole theological journey that Christians live from the beginning of creation, through Jesus’ life and death and resurrection to the sending of the Spirit. It is when we celebrate all that is unique about the Christian faith. And it is a unique and radical claim that God can be both one and three all at the same time. That we can know God in all ways simultaneously, and experience God in this dynamic relationship of God who creates, redeems and sustains us in one community and one communion. A day when we sing three fold “Holy! Holy! Holy!”

Sunday 15^th June

Our worship is:

10am – Sung Holy Communion – St Marys

10.30am – Holy Communion with Hymns – All Saints

The Week Ahead

Monday 16th June

10.30am Tiny Tots – All Saints

Tuesday 17th June

10:30am – M4T – St Mary’s

Weds 18th June

9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints

Thurs 19th June

10:00 Holy Communion – St. Marys

Saturday 21st June

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

Sunday 22nd June

8:00 – Holy Communion – All Saints

10:00 – Holy Communion -St Mary’s

10:30 – Café Church – All Saints

Blessings

Lizzie

Week beginning Sunday 8th June 2025

On 7 Jun 2025 By Sam ToogoodIn Weekly Info

Pentecost – Come Holy Spirit

This Sunday, we remember the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first disciples, equipping them with courage, unity, and a new language of love to proclaim the gospel to all nations. It was not the end of the story, but the beginning—the birth of the Church.

As an Ordinand, walking this journey of discernment and formation, I am struck with how Pentecost reminds us that ministry is not something we take up alone. It is God’s Spirit who calls, who equips, and who sends. The same Spirit who hovered over the waters of creation now dwells in each of us, empowering us to live as Christ’s body in the world.

What might it look like to truly open ourselves to the Spirit’s work in our lives and in our communities? Where is God inviting us to speak hope, act justly, and love boldly?

With three different styles of Worship this Sunday, we hope that you can join us at one of them.

This Sunday 8th June – Pentecost

8:00am – Holy Communion – All Saints

10.00am – Holy Communion, St Marys

10:30am – Messy Muddy Church, All Saints

19:15pm – Generations – All Saints Link

The week ahead

Monday 9th June

10.30am Tiny Tots – All Saints

Tuesday 10th June

10:30am – M4T – ST Mary’s
Weds 11th June

9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints
Thurs 12th June

10:00 Holy Communion – St. Marys
Friday 13th June

12.30 – Activate concert by “Now and Then”
Saturday 14th June

12.00 – 13:30pm – Saturday Lunches – St Mary’s

Next Sunday 15th June

10:00am – Holy Communion – St Mary’s
10:30am – Holy Communion – All Saints

Come, Holy Spirit.

Fill the hearts of your people and kindle in us the flame of your love. Renew your Church and send us out in the power of your Spirit, to the glory of your name.

Amen

With every blessing,

Charlie Blackett

Ordinand -All Saints and St Mary’s -Bristol Diocese

Week beginning Sunday 1st June 2025

On 31 May 2025 By Sam ToogoodIn Weekly Info

This Sunday falls between Ascension day where we contemplate Jesus’s ascension to the Father and the events of Pentecost. The disciples and his followers are left confused and emotionally drained, having lived through weeks of promise, despair, fear and rejoicing, and now their beloved leader is leaving them. But he promises the Comforter-an agent who will connect and witness to each all who believe..

Those first followers wouldn’t have fully understood what was going to happen. The Spirit of God has previously been attached to specific events rather than interacting with all believers. This would be a new level of personal, intimate connection.

In this week’s Gospel Jesus talks of the destruction of divisions, the erasing of barriers. He and the Father are one, and they in turn enfold us into their intimacy of relationships when we accept Jesus as Christ.

The writer, theologian and Franciscan priest Richard Rohr wrote in his book The Divine Dance of his concept of the Trinity as a constantly fluid dance of equality and love with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This vibrant living and harmonious dance is not one of exclusion, but inclusion, and we are invited to join in. When we do we become connected to the dynamic spiritual reality of this inter-relationship.