GentlenessDear All Saints and St MarysHow do we live well in a world that marks many different life defining moments, almost simultaneously? The last 48 hours has brought us the news and horror of an attack on a synagogue during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur. The news has also brought again a week of witnessing to continued bombing of Gaza and the subsequent loss of life. It has also been a week when a cure for Huntington's Disease is seemingly possible, and one when the Church of England has made a historic appointment of the first woman to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. There are things to mourn, times to weep and yet also things of thanksgiving and wonder and celebration. Is it okay to celebrate one thing at the same time as feeling aggrieved in prayer at another? How do we square that? Should we even try to make sense of it? Can we find genuine joy in one thing when it sits alongside tragedy in another? Today, the 4th October, is the day the church remembers St Francis of Assisi. A Saint whose story filled both extremes of wealth and chosen poverty. He may not have been aware in the 12th century of global news from around the world, but he did experience the extremes of both sorrow and joy. One of the striking things about Francis is perhaps once he had made his choice about how he was going to follow God, he appeared to have made peace with that decision, and in that he became a man of peace. A gentle, simple appreciative life was lived in the service of others and the created world. It was his intentional living in this way that perhaps gave rise to some of his more famous moments of compassion. No doubt he continued to have the same human responses of anger and injustice as others around him at what he saw and experienced. Yet he practiced peace. And for that I am truly grateful.Peace.Revd LizzieServices this Sunday 5th October10am - St Marys - Creative Church - Looking at Eve10.30am - All Saints - Harvest Festival Holy Communion Celebration with Band and Junior Church and Harvest Lunch6.30am - Choral Evensong for Dedication at St MarysThe week aheadMon 6thOct 10:30am – Tiny Tots, All SaintsTue 7th Oct 10:30am – M4T, St. Marys Parish RoomsWeds 8th Oct 9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer, All SaintsThurs 9th Oct 10:00am – Holy Communion, St. MarysSat 11th Oct 12:00pm - 1:30pm – Saturday Lunches, St. Mary’s\Sunday 12th Oct 8:00am – Holy Communion, All Saints 10:00am – Holy Communion, St. Mary’s 10:30am – Pet Service, All Saints 7:15pm – Generations, The Wood
Dear Friends in Christ,Since I moved to Fishponds 2 years ago, I’ve spent a lot of time walking around the area. It’s sometimes chaotic diversity can be refreshing, exciting, sometimes challenging, but never dull! What strikes me within the diversity are the contrasts. Perhaps the starkest is between those who can afford to use the artisan and independent cafes and shops and those who sit on the streets begging. These are the visible ones. May more are just about scraping by unnoticed.Of course, other places are even more stark in contrast. I visited Sao Paulo in Brazil and there the contrast between the uber wealthy and the destitute is shocking. Our Gospel warns us of stocking up earthly treasure at the cost of our spiritual lives, our connection with God. the transient vs the eternal. Yet it’s not telling us to hate the things of the world, but to have the right relationship with them. Being totally consumed with the modern consumerist world is a way of life that will never be fully satisfying as its never ending. But we mustn’t become so holier than thou that we fail to see the real need that so many have for the means to live and thrive Instead, Jesus is teaching us to not make money and stuff our God, but to keep God at the centre of our lives. These other things are an undeniable and vital part of life, but they are not its fullest answer. The tension of this is real, but God gives us the way to navigate it as long as we constantly lean into and on him.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 This Sunday 28 September 15th after Trinity8:00 Holy Communion, All Saints10:00 Harvest Festival Communion, St. Mary’s10:30 Cafe Church, All SaintsThe Week AheadWeds 1st Oct 9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer, All SaintsThurs 2nd Oct 10:00am – Holy Communion, St. MarysFri 3rd Oct 11:00am – Living After Loss, St. MarysSat 4th Oct 10:00am – Coffee Morning and Book Sale with Bristol Repair Café, All Saints11:00am – Communion in the Wood12:00pm - 1:30pm – Saturday Lunches, St. Mary’s7:00pm – Barn Dance, All SaintsSun 5th Oct 10:00am – Creative Church, St. Mary’s10:30am – Holy Communion, All Saints10:30am – Junior Church, All Saints6:30pm – Choral Evensong, St. Mary’s
Red Letter DaysDear All Saints and St MarysI always enjoy finding out new things! This Sunday 21st September happens to also be what was traditionally called a "Red Letter Day". It's a way of describing a special feast day that occurs in the calendar, often linked to saints and therefore in medieval times they were also always holidays! St Matthews feast day falls this Sunday and is a Red Letter Day. Researching the term was fascinating, as what I discovered is that they got their name when the printing press was invented. These festival days were marked out in the calendar in red, instead of black, so that they stood out, hence the name. Adopted almost universally when the Book of Common Prayer came into print, it meant that they were easy to spot and look forward to. They provide interruptions in our rhythms, sometimes welcome, sometimes not! They often require an ability to pivot, embrace a change, stop and consider rather than ploughing on. Jesus was a good interrupter. His call on people like St Matthew, marked moments of change, pivot and disruption in life, presenting opportunities to rethink and discover something new about God. The choice becomes ours, to either embrace them or avoid them, but my spiritual hunch is that that God will continue to put these disrupters in our lives until we are ready to listen and learn and grow.Services this Sunday 21st September10.00am - Sung Holy Communion - St Marys10.30am - Holy Communion with Hymns - All SaintsThe week aheadMon 22nd Sept 10:30am – Tiny Tots, All SaintsTues 23rd Sept 10:30am – Music for Toddlers, St. Mary’s Parish RoomsWeds 24th Sept 9:00am – Celtic Morning Prayer, All SaintsThurs 25th Sept 10:00am – Holy Communion, St. MarysSat 27th Sept 12:00 - 1:30pm – Saturday Lunches, St. Mary’sSun 28th September8:00am – Holy Communion, All Saints 10:00am – Harvest Festival Communion, St. Mary’s 10:30am – Café Church, All SaintsHarvest Festival at All Saints will be on the 5th October, with a barn dance on the evening of 4th October.BlessingsRevd LizzieVicar of All Saints and St Marys Churches, Fishponds
Dear All Saints and St MarysBefore we decided to move to Bristol, there was a charming story in the national news that endeared me to this city. Following troubles and riots, many were very angry with the Mayor, Marvin Rees. In protest, someone painted a message on the road just outside his house with the message: “Marvin must die”. Soon enough, the police were called and cordoned off the area – but not before, one of his neighbours had added a ‘T’. So, now the message read: “Marvin must diet”!Each one of us is allowed to be angry – but sometimes that is not all that has to be said. Take an example from today: painting the middle of a mini-roundabout with a flag of St George. Is that a message saying “we are proud to be British” (and, by implication: “migrants out!”)? Yes, be proud to be British, but I believe you are required then to complete the sentence – WHY are you proud to be British? And the answer cannot just be “because we hate the French”!Occasionally, you might hear in a documentary a story about someone who came to this country and her life was turned around. She will tell how, on arriving here, she felt safe, was enabled to go to university, raise a family and provide a future of hope for her children. She is, very evidently, proud to live in this country – and we should be proud to be part of this country which made this happen. How can we enable such a voice (of which there are thousands of examples) to be better heard?This coming weekend, we mark the Dedication Festival of St Mary’s, partly by hearing the Gospel reading of the Magnificat. It expresses not only Mary’s pride in her God, but also names why – God is the one who raises the lowly, and who feeds the hungry. Mary was a single teenage mother. Thank God a voice was found for her so that, even today, we can sing God’s praise, associate ourselves with God’s compassionate works and give hope to those in need.Revd BobSunday 14th September Services8am - Holy Communion All Saints10am - Sung Eucharist St Marys10.30am - Muddy/Messy Church Reptile Experience7.15pm - Generations - All SaintsThe week aheadMon 15th Sept 10:30am - Tiny Tots, All SaintsTues 16th Sept 10:30am - Music for Toddlers, St. Mary’s Parish RoomsWeds 17th Sept 9:00am - Celtic Morning Prayer, All SaintsWeds 17th Sept 2.00pm - Bible Book Club, All SaintsThurs 18th Sept 10:00am - Holy Communion, St. MarysFri 19th Sept 11:00am - Living After Loss, St. MarysFri 19th Sept 12:30am - 2:00pm – Concert performance, St. Mary’sSat 20th Sept 12:00am - 1:30pm – Saturday Lunches, St. Mary’sSun 21th Sept 10:00 – Sung Service of the Word, St. Mary’s 10:30 – Holy Communion, All Saints
