The annual Sponsored Ride and Stride is a national event, and every second Saturday in September cyclists, walkers and runners are out making money for their local county Churches Trust.

The idea started in Suffolk, and is now held across England, with Suffolk leading the table of funds raised. The Ride and Stride is the main source of income to Suffolk Historic Churches Trust to enable it to make grants to churches and chapels of all denominations towards repair and restoration costs.

Ride and Stride is run entirely by volunteers and is inter-denominational, with participants sponsored for each place of worship visited between 9.00am and 5.00pm on Ride and Stride Day or with a donation, regardless of the number of churches visited.

The money raised by each cyclist or walker is shared equally between the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust and the place of worship nominated by the participant.

As important as the participants are the many volunteers who give up the day to man the churches and chapels and sign in the cyclists and walkers as they arrive. Hundreds of places of worship are manned during the day and that takes quite a team of volunteers! It is a real community effort that is the lifeblood of the Trust.

We continue our journey through the season of "Ordinary Time", but there is nothing ordinary about this period of the Churches year. It is called this simply because the weeks of Ordinary Time are numbered. The Latin word 'ordinalis', refers to numbers in series, from which we get the English word 'order'.

The numbered weeks represent the ordered life of the Church - a period in which we live our lives neither in feasting (as in the Christmas and Easter seasons), nor in reflection or penance (as in the seasons of Advent and Lent), instead the Church focuses on growth and renewal, and looks forward in expectation of of the second coming of Christ.

Our services in our churches continue as normal, however, we recognise that through ill health, frailty, or infirmity, not everyone is able to join us every week. Therefore, if you are unable to attend in person, you are warmly invited to join in with our Rector, The Revd Mark Woodrow, from your own home, as he celebrates Holy Communion from the Vicarage.

The readings for today are Genesis 50:15-21, Romans 14:1-12, and Matthew 18:21-35.

The hymns for today are, "And can it be", and, "Forgive our sins as we forgive".

A service booklet to accompany this service is also available please email [email protected] for a copy.

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