This week we have a mini pause from Lent and celebrate “Mothering Sunday”. A  mix of traditions and emotions, Mothering Sunday comes originally from people returning from their work places to their Mother Church and parishes. One of the readings for this week is from Colossians. It speaks of humility, kindness, compassion and patience, all things that all people are encouraged to practice in daily life, rhythms and rituals. As a church we gather as a “family”, a hybrid of people of different ages and stages, life experiences, wisdom and folly and together collectively try to understand how these Christ centred practices might be lived out in life. 

Our worship this Sunday 30^th March – (Remembering that the clocks go forward!)

8.00am – BCP – Holy Communion – All Saints

10.00am – Sung All Age Communion – St Marys

10.30am – All Age Communion (with band)  – All Saints

The Week Ahead

Monday 31st

7.30pm – Lent Group 1 

10.30am – Tiny Tots – All Saints

Tuesday 1st

10.30am – M4T – St Mary’s

Wednesday 2nd

9.00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints 

Thursday 3rd

10.00am – Holy Communion  – St. Mary’s 

Friday 4th

11.00am – Living after Loss – St Mary’s

Saturday 5th

10.00am – Coffee Morning and Book Sale with Bristol Repair Café – All Saints 

12.00pm- Saturday Lunches  – St Mary’s  

Sunday 6th

10.00am – Creative Church – St Mary’s

10.30am – Holy Communion and Junior Church – All  Saints 

6.30pm – Passiontide readings and Music– St. Mary’s 

Blessings

Revd Lizzie

This week our Lent course, from Charlie Bell’s book Searched me out and known me, looks at what it means to be “holy”, reflecting on Psalm 32 and today’s gospel reading from Luke’s gospel. The word “holy” has a rich range of meanings. This is just as true of the Greek and Hebrew languages in which the bible was originally written.

One meaning of “holy” is to be set apart for the service of God. When people refer to the communion table in church as the “holy table”, what they are saying is that this piece of furniture has been set aside for a specific use in our services. Because of that use, it is something special and should be treated with respect. In the same way, we are all set aside for God’s service in our baptism. As such, we are all holy and we are all saints, because we are set aside for God’s service.

But there is another much deeper and richer meaning to what it means to be “holy”. It is to have something of God about you. In Christian terms, it means to be Christ-like. Although we are made in the image of God, we can become more like Christ. This growing in the likeness of Christ is sometimes referred to as “sanctification”. It is the central purpose of our lent disciplines. We look to see where we are falling short or missing the mark and try to change our attitudes and behaviours, so we follow Christ more closely. In more traditional language, we repent of our sins.

We will have more opportunities to think about this at our Lent groups on Monday evening and Wednesday afternoon.

This Sunday we have our normal fourth Sunday pattern with Holy Communion at 8.00 am at All Saints and 10.00 am at St Mary’s. The 10.30 am service is Café Church, where we will be continuing our look at Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. This week we will be looking at chapter six and seven and considering what they teach us about freedom.

This gives us the following services for Sunday 23^rd March:

8.00 am – All Saints – Holy Communion (said)

10.00 am – St Mary’s – Holy Communion

10.30 am – All Saints – Café Church

Our Lent groups continue this week on Monday evening at 7.30 pm and Wednesday afternoon at 2.00 pm. In addition, we have our usual weekly services of Celtic Morning Prayer at 9.00 am on Wednesday at All Saints and Holy Communion at 10.00 am on Thursday at St Mary’s.

Monday 24^th March

7.30 pm – Lent group -Contact me for location

Wednesday 26^th March

9.00 am – Celtic morning prayer -All Saints

2.00 pm – Lent group – St Mary’s parish room

Thursday 27^th March

10.00 am – Holy Communion – St Mary’s

Next Sunday is Mothering Sunday, so we have services of Holy Communion at St Mary’s and All Saints. In addition, there will be a service of Holy Communion according to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer at 8.00 am.

This gives the following services for Sunday 30^th March:

8.00 am – All Saints – Holy Communion (BCP)

10.00 am – St Mary’s – Holy Communion

10.00 am – All Saints – Holy Communion

As we enter the third full week of Lent, let us pray for God’s guidance and we seek to grow in the likeness of Christ

Eternal God, give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

God bless,

Mark

Dear Friends in Christ,

How are you doing with your Lenten observances? The desire to give up things such as chocolate or social media are laudable but also so easy to stray from. Or there’s the temptation to abstain and then binge when Lent is completed (or is that just me!). 

But maybe we can take on new things-ways of behaviour, devoting more time to spiritual practices. Whilst our other period  of preparation at Advent is one of joyous anticipation, Lent is more poignant and sober, but also a time of beauty and depth. But both conclude in times of joy.

The book we are studying for Lent (Searched me Out and Known Me by Charlie Bell) this week reminded us what we base Lent upon-Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness (note not a desert as is often thought). Jesus needed this time alone with God to discern his own identity following his baptism before he began his ministry.

So as we continue in our Lenten journey let us mirror and reflect upon this foundational moment in Jesus’ life.

This Sunday – 16th  March (Lent 2)

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

 10:30am   Holy Communion with Hymns – All Saints
 

The Week Ahead

Monday 17th March

Tiny Tots – 10.30-12.00 All Saints Community Hall

Squirrels – 5.15pm  All Saints Community Hall

Evening Lent Group  7.30pm

Tuesday 18th March

Music for Toddlers – 10.30am St Mary’s Church

Wednesday 19th March

Celtic Morning Prayer – 9.00-9.30am All Saints Church

Afternoon Lent Group – 2.00-3.30pm St. Mary’s Church (note new time)

Thursday 20th March

Holy Communion – 10.00am.  St. Mary’s Church

Cubs – 6.30pm. All Saints Community Hall

Scouts – 8.00pm All Saints Community Hall

Friday 21st March

Living After Loss – 11am St. Mary’s Church

Saturday 22nd March

Saturday Lunches – 12pm St. Mary’s Church

Next Sunday – 23rd March (Lent 3)

8.00am – Holy Communion – All Saints

10:00am – Sung Holy Communion – St Marys

10.30am – Cafe Church – All Saints

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

 

Fr Kester de Oliveira

On February 27^th this week, the church remembered the Poet and Priest George Herbert. (1593-1633). He was a prolific writer. Through books, poems and hymns he managed to craft something about the ordinary life with God’s remarkable and extraordinary grace. He is both deeply serious and yet hopeful and light to read. I was gifted a book of poems a few months ago, a collection by Janet Morley. In it, at the beginning of Lent, is a poem by George Herbert. It is called Trinity Sunday. Weird perhaps to think of Trinty Sunday at this point in the year – but the poem, albeit it brief, is more about the way in which three’s come together for good and grace. There are three verses, three virtues, three nouns, three verbs to end. It feels that it combines the whole of the three theologies of creation, contrition and resurrection. I leave it here for your prayers and ponderings as we make our way towards Lent.

Trinity Sunday  by George Herbert 

Lord, who hast formed me out of mud, 
And hast redeemed me through thy blood, 
And sanctified me to do good; 

Purge all my sins done heretofore: 
For I confess my heavy score, 
And I will strive to sin no more. 

Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me, 
With faith, with hope, with charity; 
That I may run, rise, rest with thee.

This Last Sunday before Lent  –  2nd March our services are the following:

10.00 – Creative Church – St Mary’s

10.30 – Holy Communion with Band and Junior Church – All Saints

6.30pm – Evensong – St Mary’s

The Week Ahead

Monday 3rd

10.30am Tiny Tots Toddlers – All Saints

7.30pm – Lent Group

Tues 4th

10:30am – Music for Toddlers – St Mary’s

Weds 5th (Ash Wednesday)

9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints

10:00am – Holy Communion – St. Mary’s

1pm – Lent Group – St Mary’s

Friday 7^th

 2pm – World Day of Prayer  – All Saints

Saturday 8th

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

Sunday 9th

8:00am – Holy Communion – All Saints

10:00am – Holy Communion – St. Mary’s

10:30am – Muddy Church – All Saints

4.30pm – Generations – Crazy Golf at

Frenchay.

Revd Lizzie

Dear Friends,

It’s been lovely this week seeing more sunshine and feeling that the days are getting a bit longer again. There are snowdrops in the churchyard and there is the real sniff of Spring in the air-though I wish the temperature was a bit higher!

As we near the end of the Candlemas octave we also reach the end of the period of celebration and reflection that started back with Lent. I will miss the specialness of the services and the music but am also looking forward to what is to come. 

However, change is bittersweet. It’s endings as well as beginnings, and our Candlemas text reminds us of a moment of change and transfer. The Old Covenant becomes the New, with Jesus handed into the care of the aged Simeon to be blessed, knowing that at this supreme moment his role on this earth is completed, and he steps out of the narrative. Later, John the Baptist will do the same, notwithstanding the mix of drama and chronicle that ends his story.

This is a meeting of the human and divine, grounded in family and community. Jesus is explicitly anchored in his society, but Simeon prophecies that that same community will be fractured and reassembled to be a new thing by what is to come. He will expand and transform Judaism, embrace the Gentile, create something new but also that contains and continues what is right from what already exists. Luke very specifically reminds us that Jesus is Jewish and remains Jewish. All that he becomes-all that he does-needs to be interpreted in this context.

This Sunday (4^th Sunday before Lent)

08.00am – Holy Communion – All Saints

10:00am – Sung Holy Communion with Candlemas Procession – St. Mary’s

10:30am – Muddy Messy Church – All Saints

7:15pm – Generations – All Saints Link

The Week Ahead

Monday 10^th

10.30am – Tiny Tots – All Saints

Tuesday 11^th  

10:30am – M4T – St. Mary’s

Weds 12^th 

 9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints

Thursday 13^th 

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

1.00pm – Funeral – St Marys

Friday 14^th

12.30pm – Concert – St Marys

Saturday 15^th

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

3pm – Interment of Judith West followed by refreshments

Next Sunday 16^th (3^rd Sunday before Lent)

10:00am – Holy Communion – St Marys

10.30am Holy Communion – All Saints

 

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

 

Fr Kester de Oliveira in