From July we will be stopping the regular Zoom services and returning to our churches on a regular basis.
Phone based services will continue.
Guidance during the pandemic continues as follows:-
You can attend places of worship for a service.
However, you must not mingle with anyone outside of your household or support bubble. You should maintain strict social distancing at all times.
Although incidence is currently low and more of us are receiving the vaccine, we must continue to be vigilent, and exercise care toward one another.
We will keep the same discipline as before - meaning:-
cleaning hands with the sanitiser provided on arrival and departure;
not handing out books, but showing people where to collect them;
wearing masks, keeping distance, and listening to the music rather than singing.
Please only come if you are apparently fit and well - and don't come "because you ought".
The resources at Daily Hope continue to develop and grow - simply phone 0800 804 8044 and follow the options. It is an automated line of recorded resources. For the Daily Hope prayer phone line click here.
One idea is simply to put an alert on your phone for 12:00 noon each day and just stop and pray the Lord's Prayer at that moment.
Revd Tom Ringland
June Mid-Week Services
Thursday 24th at 9.30am Holy Communion, St. Bartholomew’s, West Witton
for list of services in June and July go to Our Churches
Links for services on Sunday 20th June
By Zoom : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89223880234?pwd=N01PZkREVHhseHE3SENXVGlucTlyUT09#
Meeting ID: 892 2388 0234 Passcode: 665993
By phone: at 9.30am on Sunday dial 0333 0110 946 then enter room number 61337190# and PIN 7450#
click on: Pew Sheet 20th June
Sunday 20th June 2021 at 10:30 am – Trinity 3
including sermon
Opening Prayer
Let us pray.
All: Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful people,
and kindle in us the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Opening Responses
The light and peace of Jesus Christ be with you
All: and also with you.
The glory of the Lord has risen upon us.
All: Let us rejoice and sing God’s praise for ever.
Blessed are you, creator of all,
to you be praise and glory for ever.
As your dawn renews the face of the earth
bringing light and life to all creation,
may we rejoice in this day you have made;
as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep,
open our eyes to behold your presence
and strengthen our hands to do your will,
that the world may rejoice and give you praise.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
All Blessed be God for ever.
after Lancelot Andrewes (1626)
The night has passed, and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind.
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and for ever.
All: Amen.
Hymn ( music )
Dear Lord and Father of mankind
sung by St Martin’s Voices
1 Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways;
re-clothe us in our rightful mind;
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise.
2 In simple trust like theirs who heard
beside the Syrian sea
the gracious calling of the Lord,
let us, like them, without a word
rise up and follow thee.
3 Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.
4 Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,
O still small voice of calm.
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
(Public Domain)
Invitation to Confession
The gospel calls us to turn away from sin
and be faithful to Christ.
As we offer ourselves to him in penitence and faith,
we renew our confidence and trust in his mercy
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
Confession
We have not always worshipped God, our creator.
Lord, have mercy.
All: Lord, have mercy.
We have not always followed Christ, our Saviour.
Christ, have mercy.
All: Christ, have mercy.
We have not always trusted in the Spirit, our guide.
Lord, have mercy.
All: Lord, have mercy
God’s forgiveness
May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
Bible Readings
2 Corinthians 6 v. 1-13
As we work together with Christ, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! 3 We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
11 We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. 12 There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. 13 In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.
Mark 4 v. 35-41
When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Sermon - Tom Ringland
For some, today is Father’s Day.
The first ever Father’s Day happened in 1908, when a West Virginian Church held a special sermon honouring fathers, after 362 men were killed in a mining accident. Parishioners gave out flowers, both red and white, to honour the living and the dead, in commemoration of all that our fathers do for us.
Despite a campaign to make a Father’s Day annual event, the idea was slow to take off.
Then, in World War II, advertisers in the US grabbed an opportunity to use Father’s Day to promote the troops out on the field. By the time the war was over, Father’s Day was a national institution.
Richard Nixon finally declared Father’s Day a national holiday in 1972 as part of his re-election campaign. The UK by this stage was already celebrating Father’s Day after following the American example.
Today we’ll sing the hymn, ‘O worship the king all glorious above’, in celebration of our heavenly Father. The first verse has the line, ‘our shield and defender the Ancient of Days …
I wonder if you know where the phrase comes from?
It’s taken from Daniel 7 – (where it occurs three times), as here in verse 13:
‘In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,[a] coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshipped him.
It’s a mysterious title, evoking thoughts of great antiquity and authority –
But in the hymn, itself a paraphrase of Psalm 104, that majesty is expressed in terms of protection and care.
“Our shield and defender”.
There are wonderful references throughout the hymn to one whom Jesus invites us to call Father.
And protection and care are much needed, now as ever.
I received an email this week from the Christian advocacy organisation, Open Doors. They have a major report coming before parliament at the end of the month focussing on the persecution of Christians by Hindu extremists in India – the world’s largest democracy.
Aside from the impact of the Delta variant, some Christian communities face eradication – they are beaten, their properties are ransacked and vandalised, and some have died.
The email began by quoting from 2 Corinthians 4, which echoes the words we have heard today a couple of chapters later:-
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
Although we all face difficulties and disappointments in our own experience of the pandemic, it’s surely important we make ourselves aware of the pressures Christian communities like ours are facing on top of this in various parts of the world.
Often times they speak in similar terms of being upheld and encouraged – even in the midst of the storm.
Alongside the experience of Paul and his companions, we remember the story of the storm on the lake.
It’s graphic and there are details included which make it seem like a personal recollection.
We read that It was Jesus’ idea to cross. That there were other boats with them. A great windstorm arose. Jesus was on a cushion - in the stern of the boat, and asleep.
There are echoes of the story of Jonah, the prophet, who was also asleep in a storm. Then the storm was stilled after the sailors accepted Jonah’s instruction to throw him overboard.
Here Jesus simply speaks to the situation: ‘Peace! Be still’
And the storm abated.
When, would you say, were the disciples most alarmed?
In verse 40, Jesus does not say, ‘why were you so afraid?’ – he says, ‘why ARE you afraid’.
I think they were in complete awe of what had just happened.
But it is not God’s will that we should be afraid – a fear-driven people.
We are to know his fatherly care for us:-
thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end!
our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.
Where are the storms for us at the moment?
They may be obvious and very apparent – or they may be simply a vague sense of unease and of failing to flourish.
Like the disciples who said, ‘Master, do you not care if we are perishing’, we need to bring ourselves to God, just as we are – how we are seeing things – not looking for tidy or poetic words for prayer, but just expressing things from our perspective …
And then - wait to hear and receive his ‘Peace – be still’.
The Peace – in our services – began as a time to affirm peace between one another, as we prepare to receive from God in our Holy Communion services –
But it’s developed to include a benediction on one another –
The peace of the Lord be always with you – and also with you!
They can be just nice words – and it can take time to receive peace in troubled hearts – but when distressed, we need to stay with Jesus until we are in a position to hear him.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, was once asked how mong he spent in prayer in the morning.
He replied – ‘Oh about 5 minutes I should think.’
He went on – ‘yes – about 5 minutes – but it takes me about an hour to get there!’
The storms of life are seldom quiet for long.
Sometimes they are persistent and threatening.
Today, we remember particularly those in dire danger and in physical, emotional and economic persecution – through the advocacy of organisations like “Open Doors” and “The Barnabas Fund”.
And on this Father’s Day we thank God for being a loving Father, who’s ‘bountiful care’ stills the storm within, even when life is tough without, so that Paul, with countless others since, could say,
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
(2 Cor 4:8,9)
Hymn ( music )
O worship the King
sung by St Martin’s Voices
1 O worship the King all glorious above;
O gratefully sing his power and his love;
our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendour and girded with praise.
2 O tell of his might, O sing of his grace,
whose robe is the light, whose canopy space;
his chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form,
and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.
3 Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
it streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
and sweetly distils in the dew and the rain.
4 Frail children of dust and feeble as frail,
in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail;
thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end!
our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.
5 O measureless might, ineffable love,
while angels delight to hymn thee above,
thy humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
with true adoration shall sing to thy praise.
William Kethe (fl.1559-1594), Robert Grant (1779-1838)
(Public Domain)
Confession of Faith
Let us declare our faith in God.
We believe in God the Father,
from whom every family
in heaven and on earth is named.
We believe in God the Son,
who lives in our hearts through faith,
and fills us with his love.
We believe in God the Holy Spirit,
who strengthens us with power from on high.
We believe in one God;
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayers of Intercession
The Collect
Almighty God,
you have broken the tyranny of sin
and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts
whereby we call you Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that we and all creation may be brought
to the glorious liberty of the children of God;
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.
All: Amen
The Lord’s Prayer
Jesus taught us to call God our Father, so in faith and trust we pray…
All: Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.
Sharing Peace
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
since as members of one body you are called to peace.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
cf Colossians 3.15
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
All And also with you!
A Gaelic Blessing ( music ) –
by John Rutter
sung by St Martin’s Voices
Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the gentle night to you,
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you,
Deep peace of Christ the light of the world to you,
Deep peace of Christ to you.
Adapted from old Gaelic rune
(One License 194343)
The Conclusion
The Lord bless us and preserve us from all evil
And keep us in eternal life.
All: Amen
Let us bless the Lord
All: Thanks be to God.