The Cub and Beaver sections of our G46 Scout Group meet on Tuesday evenings: for details, please see the attachment below. The Group's HQ is behind the Church Hall.

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The G46 Scouts meet on Friday evenings, in their HQ behind the Church Hall. For further details, please see the attachment below.

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Our main Sunday service takes place at 10.00, and all are welcome. We follow a modern and accessible Common Worship order of service, with Junior Church for children and young people roughly every other week: for details, please see the individual listings on the 'Services and Events' page.

Holy Communion for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity: celebrant the Revd Tola Badejo. Junior Church takes place at the same time in the hall.

First reading: Colossians 1. 1–14
Gospel: Luke 10. 25–37

The Gospel today is the familiar story of the Good Samaritan, in which Jesus answers the question 'Who is my neighbour?'. The lawyer who poses the question probably hopes for a straightforward answer, one that includes certain kinds of people and excludes others. Jesus's answer, however, is about the way we should ourselves behave rather than about who should or shouldn't be treated in a neighbourly way.

The parable is deeply rooted in context, not only in the traditional animosity between mainstream Jews and Samaritans but also in the dangers of life and travel in Jesus's time. In his world, as in some places now, robbers would often kill or injure a victim and leave them by the roadside so that anyone who came to help could also be attacked, and for that reason it was prudent to 'pass by on the other side' as quickly as possible. The Samaritan was taking on not only a troublesome task but also a potentially dangerous one; if he himself had become the next casualty at the roadside, his contemporaries would have said he had only himself to blame. Reading between the lines, he turned good intentions into effective practical help by approaching the situation in a considered and cautious way and by being well prepared for any problems he might encounter on his journey.

Whereas the Gospel quite literally describes hands-on assistance of a neighbour, Paul's letter to the Colossians is written to people he has never met (he knows of them only through the reports of Epaphras, who has presumably founded a church in Colossae) and is unlikely ever to see in person. Yet he addresses them as 'brothers and sisters' and reassures them of his constant prayers. In each reading, the main character acts as a 'neighbour' regardless of the identity or proximity of whoever they are called to support. Neighbourly action is likely to involve effort and liable to involve risk - Paul is already in prison - and van Gogh's painting of the Good Samaritan reflects some of the tension of the situation; it is also a reminder, through the artist's own life story, that we should always be prepared to cast ourselves as the victim as well as the Samaritan. (Detail above; full image attached.)

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Holy Communion for the fifth Sunday after Trinity: celebrant the Revd Tola Badejo.

First reading: Colossians 1. 15-28
Gospel: Luke 10. 38-42

At first sight, today's readings are not only unrelated in content but utterly different in style: the passage from Colossians is a densely-written theological argument about the divinity of Christ and the Gospel appears to be a straightforward story about Jesus's visit to the family of Mary and Martha. Both, however, focus on the unique nature of Jesus. Paul outlines Christ's absolute identity with God - he is not in any sense subordinate to God - and in the Gospel he is not merely an important visitor, as perhaps a priest or another rabbi might have been.

Both Mary and Martha (along with their brother Lazarus) were beloved friends of Jesus, and for this and many other reasons, including the value placed upon hospitality in biblical times, we should not see his words to Martha as a sharp rebuke. They are more of a firm but gentle reminder that although practical tasks are important - and the Gospels leave no doubt that practical generosity is central to Christian faith - they should never become an end in themselves, or a distraction from a worshipful life. The brief story of Mary and Martha gives us a privileged insight into a private Jesus, gently guiding a beloved friend back to the sense of proportion that most of us lose from time to time; what Jesus most desires from us is not an elaborate meal but our careful attention.