Our Alpha course is about to start! We would love to see you there.Alpha is for anyone who is curious to explore the big questions of life, faith and meaning. Over eleven weeks a series of interactive videos and conversations, each week beginning with a meal together, in an open, friendly and informal environment.We’re starting on Wednesday 5th June at 6.30pm at St Edmund’s Church, Taverham in Norwich, and after this date you can still join the course for the Wednesdays during June. Everyone is welcome. Further details : Rev Paul. vicar@stedmundstaverham.co.uk Tel : 01603 868217
Then Jesus said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’ Mark 2 : 27 - 28Readings this week : Deuteronomy 5 : 12 - 15; 2 Corinthians 4 : 5 - 12; Mark 2 : 23 – 3 : 6Thought for this weekAfter all the celebrations and deeply important events of the Lord’s grace in Jesus’ incarnation, His arrest and crucifixion, and His amazing Resurrection, we are now in Ordinary time. It is a season, just as our lives tend to travel in seasons. Ordinary time is a time for embedding and rooting all we have heard and celebrated over the past months into the depths and realities of our daily lives. Having now heard of Jesus’ resurrection, we now become people of His Resurrection in all we are, and say and do each day.In our Gospel reading Jesus speaks of the Sabbath. Not as an imposed system of rules and regulations, but as a gift of the Lord’s grace to us in our lives. The importance of rest, and also the call to know who it is we truly belong to in this world. Who is our Lord, the one who holds us in His hands.Ordinary time is an opportunity to step aside from the busyness of the festivals to reflect more deeply on how our lives can be filled anew with the Lord’s grace and love. To allow the Lord to speak through the Holy Spirit, and reveal His love in our lives. A love so immense that our lives become far from ordinary! Rev PaulPrayer for this weekO God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you, mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace, that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, AmenGod of truth, help us to keep your law of love and to walk in ways of wisdom, that we may find true life in Jesus Christ your Son. AmenPeople to pray forOur Alpha courseSchools returning after half termOur PCC meeting
The following services will be available via the St Ed's Facebook page or by attendance (as stated below). Sunday 2nd June 9:30am Mustard Tree with Baptism – informal service for families and children. (at St Ed’s)Sunday 2nd June 10am to 5pm Plant Sale (at St Ed’s)Mustard Tree Church– informal service for families and children. (at St Ed’s) Wild ChurchSunday 2nd June 11:15 am Holy Communion (at St Ed’s)Monday 3rd June 10am to 5pm Plant Sale (at St Ed’s)Monday 3rd June 5.00 pm Monday prayers (at St Ed’s)Monday 3rd June 7.30 pm PCC (at St Ed’s)Tuesday 4th June 10am to 5pm Plant Sale (at St Ed’s)Tuesday 4th June 10:00 am Tiny Tunes (music for all young people) (at St Ed’s), refreshments10am til12 noonTuesday 4th June 6:00 pm Rspace (at St Ed’s)Wednesday 5th June 10am to 5pm Plant Sale (at St Ed’s)Wednesday 5th June 10:30 am Holy Communion (at St Ed’s)Wednesday 5th June 5:00 pm Evening Prayer (at St Ed’s)Wednesday 5th June 6:30 pm Alpha Bible Study (at St Ed’s)Thursday 6th June 8.30am Church caretaking team (at St Ed’s )Thursday 6th June 10am to 5pm Plant Sale (at St Ed’s)Thursday 6th June 7.00pm Compline with meditation (at St Ed’s and livestream) Friday 7th June 9:30 am to12.00 noon Arts and Craft Group , - bring anything – art or craft - you fancy doing and coffee and tea are provided. (at Trinity church)Friday 7th June 9am Quinquennial Inspection (at St Peter’s) Friday 7th June 10am to 5pm Plant Sale (at St Ed’s)Saturday 8th June 10am to 5pm Plant Sale (at St Ed’s)Also Sunday 9th June, At St Ed’s 8am Holy Communion, 9:30 am Mustard Tree, 11:15 am Service of the word. Plus Plant sale continues (if we have any plants left!) Plus online 11:15am Informal Service. Also in Ringland St Peter’s 10:30 am Holy Communion ServiceFor on-line services, watch live if you are able --- or join later on 'catch up'.Everyone welcome.AdditionallyRingland: future services/events for Ringland St Peter’s: June 9th 10:30 am Holy Communion (in St Peter’s)July 14th 10:30 am Holy Communion (in St Peter’s)Alpha begins this week, on Wednesday 5th June. Please pray for this exciting time, and please invite anyone you know for whom this would be helpful. Invitations are in St Eds.Plant Sale – our plant sale at St. Edmund’s has started and will continue whilst we have plants to sell. If you have plants to spare, please bring them along for sale and then buy some from our selection too! Thatch in the Chancel of St Eds– the repair works began on Tuesday 28th May, and will last six weeks. Anyone is welcome to come and watch the thatcher at work over this time.Pastoral Visitors we would like to revive our Pastoral Visitors’ team. If you feel the Lord is calling you into this ministry, please let Rev Paul or Rev Phil know. There will be a six week course beginning on 18th June.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3 : 16 - 17Readings this week : Isaiah 6 : 1 - 8; Romans 8 : 12 - 17; John 3 : 1 - 17Thought for this weekThis is Trinity Sunday. It is about being enfolded in love. About the completeness of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, living within the community of divine love of the Trinity. It is a celebration of the perfection of love that brings wholeness, order and life. The love we are invited into in Jesus.In our human world nothing is ever really completed or made whole. There is always more to be done in terms of poverty and hardship, where there is so much disunity, and ‘history’ is constantly being repeated. Yet the Trinity is about completeness, unity and wholeness.The Trinity is also about life, and how as humans beings we are invited into sharing the divine life of the Lord who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.As life becomes ever more challenging, the Trinity is less about understanding the life the Lord offers us, and more about experiencing it and living it.So we are called to celebrate the relationship the Lord offers us. We are called to give thanks for our life of unity and completeness in Him, reflected in the church. And we are called as the church to invite others. To celebrate with us, and discover what being truly loved means. Rev PaulPrayer for this weekAlmighty and everlasting God, you have given us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity: keep us steadfast in this faith, that we may evermore be defended from all adversities; 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. AmenHoly God, faithful and unchanging: enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth, and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love, that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AmenPeople to pray forAll those revising for examsOur Alpha course
