“…our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 3:20

Greetings friends,

The above verse ‘jumped out’ at me from this week’s readings. Expectations shape our actions in so many ways – expectations about lifestyle, relationships, holidays, weather, church, food, results – the list goes on! And of course, right now we are all waiting expectantly to know how the war in Ukraine will unfold and – we pray – will be resolved with a lasting and workable peace.

It’s good this week to be reminded that as citizens of heaven, all our expectations are met by Jesus – he gathers up the desires of our hearts, our worries, our unknowns in his love and redeems them all through his big story of salvation for the whole of creation.

Who we are in Jesus – citizens of heaven – is the biggest and truest expectation we can hold. And we can allow that truth to change how we live, how we relate to others, what we value and work towards – we can allow it to give us hope for the future in a fragile and hurting world, and to lead into newness and fulness of life with Christ.

Our Services for this coming Sunday 13^th February, the Second Sunday of Lent, are:

8.00am Holy Communion at All Saints with Revd Lizzie

10.00am Holy Communion at St Mary’s with Revd Lizzie

10.30pm Messy / Muddy Church at All Saints with Rev Janey and Elisa. Please encourage and invite those you know with children of any age to come along and join in!

In the week ahead, we have:

· Wednesday 16^th March – 9.00am Celtic Morning Prayer at All Saints

· Thursday 17^th March – 10am Holy Communion at St Mary’s

Next Sunday 20^th March, there will be Creative Church at 10am and Holy Communion at 6:30pm at St Marys, and Holy Communion at 10:30am at All Saints.

I’ll leave you with the words of a modern hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (which can be sung to the well-known tune ‘Oh Jesus I have promised….)

We're citizens of heaven; we know where we belong.
O God, your love surrounds us; we sing your kingdom song.
The grace of Christ transforms us; in him our life is found;
We sing with joy and gladness, for we are heaven-bound.

We're citizens of heaven here in an earthly home;
Lord, it can be a challenge to live as you have shown.
With loyalties divided, we wonder what to do —
To follow wealth and power, or bravely follow you?

We're citizens of heaven; renew our sense of call.
Lord, deepen our commitment to serve you over all.
For we are your creation; by grace, we are your own.
Forgive our sinful wanderings and bring your people home.

Lord, give your church the courage to love and serve you more —
To worship you more gladly, to welcome in the poor,
To pardon as you pardon, to give in all we do —
That, heaven-bound, your people may daily live for you.

May you know afresh this week, that your citizenship is in heaven and from there, our Saviour comes to give us hope and fulness of life. Amen.

Revd Janey

Greetings!

I wanted to greet people this week with a Happy Ash Wednesday, or even a Happy Lent. But the word “happy” jars slightly when linked to Lent in the same way perhaps that the word “Good” always feels slightly at odds with Friday.

Is there such a thing, or could or should there be such a thing as a Happy Lent? And this year with this the sudden and devastating war in Ukraine the self examination and reflection that Lent requires as individuals seems morphed by the bigger global challenge of this war in Europe.

Lent is a time of wilderness and it should be both deeply challenging on a personal and community level. Lent is a call to prayer for others and the world. Lent is a call to fast, so that we can know the physical hunger that is a daily occurrence for so many in this world. Lent is a time of giving, tithing, when something that belongs to an individual is given over to be shared among many in community. Lent is a time for repair and healing, a chance to be brave and make amends where that is needed and necessary.

Lent is in all these things a call for us as individuals to reflect on the purposes of our own hearts, and try and realign then to the greater needs and purposes of how God wants the world to be. It is a giving over, a spilling over, from the individual little boxes that we inhabit so that we might be connected to others. It is ultimately about a conversion of the heart.

This week as we begin Lent there are a variety of ways we can worship

10am – St Marys – Open Church – Looking at Lent through the theme of forgiveness

10.30am – All Saints – A Holy Communion with Hymns and Junior Church

6.30pm – St Marys – Sung Evensong with Sermon

During the week the Living in Love and Faith course start at All Saints on a Tuesday at 2pm and St Marys on a Wednesday at 7.30pm in the evening. Please let Revd Lizzie know at this stage if you are wanting to join one of these groups as there are still spaces left in both. Groups are also being held at St Anne’s and Easton Christian Gamily Centre as well as one online course. Please email admin@citydeanery.co.uk to book a space.

If you wish to make donations to charities that are currently collecting for the crisis in Ukraine then amongst others there are the below charities that have launched emergency appeals.

The British Red Cross The British Red Cross |Médecins Sans Frontières | MSF British-Ukranian Aid are helping the injured (britishukrainianaid.org)

I want to leave with you a picture that I am going to reflect on this Sunday, it is mentioned in the foreword of the Lent Reflections Book 2022. It is a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1559) called “The Fight between Carnival and Lent”. It has so much going on in it, including the fight on pulled trolleys between Lady Lent and Carnival, a possibly allegory for the internal conflicts that we all bear in different ways.

When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs

Mark 13.7–8

We live in uncertain times.

The events in and around Ukraine have brought war closer to home than any time in most of our lifetimes. Yet, as many in Ukraine have reminded us, Ukraine and Russia have been at war for eight years, ever since the annexation of Crimea and the declarations of independence in Donetsk and Luhansk. In my lifetime, there have been many other places in the world that have experienced wars and civil strife, but they have always seemed more distant and less threatening. There is something about the attack by a major power on a European nation that is very reminiscent of the wars that have caused so much death and destruction throughout the history of Europe.

It is so much easier to destroy things than to build things up. The recent history of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya shows that it is easy for a powerful nation to defeat an army or overthrow a government. Building a real peace is much harder. Making a land into a home where all its people may live in safety and happiness takes a lot of work. Reconciling old enemies and helping them work for the common good is a major challenge. Jesus knew this when he warned his disciples that there would be wars and natural disasters. He encouraged the disciples not to panic, but to keep firm in their faith in him.

It is that faith that leads us to pray. Even when there is nothing practical that we can do, even when we don’t know what to pray for, we pray. As St Paul reminded the Christians in Rome, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8.26) I have included with this email a letter from the archbishops and a covering letter from Bishop Viv. There are some suggestions of when and where to pray, but in the words of Justin Welby and Stephen Cottrell, however and whenever you pray, pray that the world may choose peace.

This Sunday, we have our usual fourth Sunday services. At Café Church at All Saints, we will be looking forward to Lent by thinking about forgiveness. We will be repeating this at St Mary’s at Open Church the following Sunday. In addition, this Sunday, we have Holy Communion at 8am at All Saints and 10am at St Mary’s.

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. As such, there is no Thursday Holy Communion at St Mary’s. Instead, there will be a service of Holy Communion for Ash Wednesday with the imposition of ashes on Wednesday 2^nd March at 10am. If anyone cannot make the morning service, St Ambrose are holding a service of Holy Communion with the imposition of ashes at 7.30 pm. Along with the World Day of Prayer service at Argyle Morley URC Church, this gives us a rich selection of opportunities for worship this week:

In all our worship and all our prayers, let us pray for true peace, between nations, communities, and individuals:

Almighty God,
from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed:
kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all, the true love of peace
and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom
those who take counsel for the nations of the earth
that in tranquillity your kingdom may go forward,
till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen
 

May God bless us all

Mark Simms
Licensed Lay Minister
Benefice of All Saints and St Mary, Fishponds

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by. Psalms 57:1.

Dear All Saints and St Mary’s

As I prepare this week’s message I am sitting snug in my office overlooking the garden below, where the south west wind is bending and buffeting trees, plants and grass. The wind is in control of their movements. Birds have sought shelter out of sight. Children have been let off school. We wait and sit out the storm, while emergency services are on high alert to protect us from any dangers arising from storm Eunice.

What a coincidence then that this Sunday’s gospel reading is one where Jesus’ disciples find themselves out on a lake in a storm – the wind and their fears have blown out of control – that is, – until our Lord Jesus stands up and restores calm to waves and hearts. Looking to the future, the New Testament reading from Revelation presents us with a vision of heaven where ‘a rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne’ of God. The scene captures the essence of a place and time where the storms of life’s sufferings have petered out and been replaced by beauty, joy and peace, amid brotherly and sisterly communion. With this in mind, we warmly invite you to gather in worship at one of the following services.

Sunday 20th February – Second Sunday before Lent

10.00am Creative Church at St Mary’s Church – Bird feeders for your gardens! Revd Diane and team

10.30am Holy Communion at All Saints Church – Revd Janey Hiller

6.30pm Holy Communion at St Mary’s Church – Revd Janey Hiller

As we look to the week ahead then we have the following times of prayer and worship

Wednesday 23^rd 09.00 – Celtic Morning Prayer at All Saints Church

Thursday 24^th 10.00 – Holy Communion at St Mary’s Church

Sunday 27^th 08.00 – Holy Communion at All Saints Church

10.00 – Holy Communion at St Mary’s Church

10.30 – Bible Study Worship at All Saints Church

LLF * It’s now time to book your place on a Living in Love and Faith course* The courses offer a learning and listening space – exploring the topics of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.

Face-to-face Groups

Evenings: St.Mary’s: Wednesdays 7.30- 9.00pm starting 9th March

Daytimes: All Saints: Tuesdays 2.00-3.30pm starting 8th March

Alternatively, you are welcome to enrol on any of the following:

City Deanery online Mondays 12 -1.30pm

ECFC Easton Tuesday evenings 7.30-9.00 pm

St Annes Greenbank Wednesdays 4pm- 5.30pm

St Annes Greenbank Saturdays 10am -1pm starting 12th March

The LLF courses run for five weeks (except 3 x Saturdays at St.Annes)

To book your place please email Elaine Jones at admin@citydeanery.co.uk

Creative wind of the Spirit… (continued from above)

Wind may be destructive, but in Scripture it is also creative. In Genesis 1:2 ‘a wind from God swept over the face of the waters’. The word for wind is the same as the word for ’Spirit’ in Hebrew: ruach. So it is also important to see God’s Holy Spirit as an energising wind – sweeping away cobwebs, re-energising people, the church and renewing the faith of our community. You will catch a glimpse of that excitement if you listen to a playground of young children on a windy day, as I did at Fishponds CE Academy this week. ‘Behold I am doing a new thing – do you not perceive it?’ (Isaiah 43.19).

In your lives, in our parishes may we recognise God as both refuge and risk-taker – in both reassurance and renewal as He builds His Kingdom among us.

Revd Diane, deacon