Advent , Christmas, Epiphany and Candlemas at St Matthew with St ChadWe hope you will be able to visit or join us for the Advent to Candlemas Season. All are welcome, whether Christians, of other faiths or non. On Friday 26th November 2pm to 4.30pm and Saturday 27th November 11am to 2pm, we are holding our Christmas fete in Church with free visits to see Santa Claus (St Nicholas). There will also be sales of clothes, toys and books as well as a tombola stall and raffle. Light refreshments at reasonable prices will also be on sale. Our new Church Year begins on Sunday 28th November when we light the 1st Candle on our Advent Wreath during our 10am Communion service. Each following Sunday we shall light the other Advent candles during our 10am Communion services.Our Christmas Season begins on 24th December with our 6pm short Family Service of readings and carols, in Church, followed by light refreshments. On 25th December we shall be holding a short family friendly Communion service at 10am - all are welcome.On Sunday 4th January 2026 we shall be holding a short family Communion service to celebrate the Epiphany and remember the visit of the Magi (three Kings) at 10am. Come and see our simple pageant. Each Sunday during Epiphany, we shall be holding 10am Communion services. Our Christmastime season will end as we close our 10am Communion service on Sunday 1st February 2026.
17th after Trinity Readings: 2 Kings 5v1-3&7-15c; Psalm 111; 2 Timothy 2v8-15; Luke 17v11-19. Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. A Word: In the readings today we hear about healing from the disease called leprosy. This is a contagious disease that attacks the nervous system and leaves the person unable to feel hurt and pain. As a result, those with leprosy get terrible injuries. This disease was known about in ancient times. In the book of Kings we hear about the miraculous cure from leprosy of an Aramean army commander. This was prompted through his wife’s slave, a young Israelite woman, who tells them about the Israelite prophet Elisha and his powers of healing. Naaman believes what he is told and gets the King of Aram to write a letter to the King of Israel asking for a cure. However, when the King of Israel gets this letter he is distressed because he thinks he is being asked to cure Naaman. This distress was heard about by Elisha the prophet who sent a message to the King asking for Naaman be sent to him. So the scene is set for Naaman’s cure. But instead of Elisha coming out and speaking to Naaman, Elisha sent a servant to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the River Jordan and that he would be cured. Naaman was disappointed and annoyed at how he was treated, so he went off in a sulk and might have missed out on being cured. Fortunately for Naaman, his men knew their commander well. For they convinced him to do as instructed by the prophet and, after following the instructions, Naaman was healed. Naaman was so thankful that he returned with all of his company to thank Elisha and proclaimed that the only true God was the God of Israel. By the time of Jesus, people with leprosy were banished from living with other people to stop it spreading because there was no treatment for it until the mid-1900s. In Luke we hear about another account of healing when Jesus reaches out and sends 10 lepers to show themselves to the priest. All 10 went and as they went they were cured. One of the ten returned to thank Jesus and Jesus told him that it was by faith that he was healed. This man was a Samaritan. What we learn from both of these accounts is that God healed people and those who were healed were not Israelites. I believe that these accounts of healing show us God’s cares for all humankind, and not just for those who worship him. For, as the psalm tells us, the works of God are great and marvellous. For they are full of power, majesty, honour, grace, compassion, truth and justice. For we have a God who keeps his word by sending freedom and rescue to his people. The psalm also tells us that if we wish to be wise and have true understanding that we need to worship God and live by God’s commandments. This is encouraged in the letter to Timothy. For Paul says to get on with doing our best to explain the word of truth and to stop arguing over the words we use. For as God’s workers, we are a people called and approved by God, a people who must be careful about what we do in proclaiming the good news. For Jesus who was raised from the dead is ever faithful and if we do our best we, along with all who come to believe, will receive salvation, eternal glory and life reigning with Jesus forever in heaven. Let us Pray: Almighty God, our Lord and King, pour your love and grace into us, draw us to yourself, prompt us to search for you, help us to find you and grant our hearts the rest you promise. Then, as we live out our lives, guide us to follow your ways, to ever be a people who are called to love and serve you and other people. For you call us to the way of peace and rest, the way that leads to your heavenly city where we shall see you face-to-face. Amen Thanks for joining us today.
16th after Trinity Readings: Habakuk 1v1-4 & 2v1-4; Psalm 37v1-9; 2 Timothy 1v1-14; Luke 17v5-10. Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. A Word: In Habbakuk we hear that God’s people are behaving very badly and the righteous are being treated unjustly. It is so bad that the prophet has dedicated his time to prayers in which he is complaining to God and waiting to hear what God has to say. The prophet’s perseverance is repaid in a prophesy given by God. A prophesy about a time still to come, a time when the proud will see that their spirit is not right in them and the righteous will live because of their faith. A time that may feel as though it is being delayed but a time that will come. A time that must be waited for in patience because it will come at its appointed time. So, what do we learn from this? I believe that we learn that: it is okay to complain to God about the things that worry us about what is happening in the world. I believe it also calls us to live by faith as we wait for the time of judgement that is coming. In the psalm we hear that we must not fret, be angry over or be jealous of evil people because if we do we run the risk of becoming just like them. Instead, we are to: trust and delight in the Lord, commit ourselves to the Lord’s ways, be fed by the truth and live our lives doing good. For a time is coming when evil people will be cut off, crushed and die. The time when everyone who serves the Lord will prosper. So what do we learn from this? I believe that we learn that we are to focus on living as God calls and trust that God will sort out wicked people. For when the time of judgement comes, evil people will be excluded from good things and the righteous will prosper. I believe that these readings prompt us to think about what it means to live by faith following the ways that God wants of us. For as we hear in Luke, Jesus taught his apostles that if they have faith as small as the size of a mustard seed they will be able to do things that seem impossible. Jesus also taught them that they are to serve God by serving his people, a calling that they will be able to fulfil without needing any thanks, if they serve for the love of serving. But what kind of service does the Lord require of us? As a reply we hear in Paul’s letter to Timothy that the calling that comes from God is a calling supported by sound teaching. The calling to carry the testimony about Jesus into the world without fear or embarrassment. So, as we think about the words of scripture today, we hear a message of encouragement that we are called into God’s service. A service we are called to alongside others, as a body of people sharing the good news of Jesus. Let us Pray: Almighty God, as you call us to be your people, we pray that you will help and guide us so we know how to live as your people. Guide us to understand what love means to you, then show us how to love you with everything that we are as well as to love the people we meet as we live out our lives. For we know that this is something that can only be achieved by us if you grant us your grace and power to do so. Amen Thanks for joining us today.
Readings: Amos 5v6-7&10-15; Psalm 90v12-end; Hebrews 4v12-16; Mark 10v17-31Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. AmenA Word : Today on the occasion of our Harvest Festival Celebrations, we join a long and ancient tradition of giving thanks for the Harvest that pre-dates Christianity. For, the people of Israel, God’s very own chosen people, had a major festival called Sukkot that was celebrated in the Autumn, when they: gathered the crops from the fields and the fruits of the orchards; and remembered their time living in the desert for 40 years, after their rescue from slavery in Egypt, before entering the promised land. An early Christian celebration of Harvest, was the custom that took place in early August (at the beginning of the harvest). In this tradition, the basis of the tradition was the idea of giving God our “first fruits”, and some of the first crops were used to make a loaf that was brought to the Church for use in the service named the “loaf mass”, or Lammas. Today, Loaf Mass continues to be a Christian holy day, but after the reformation, the tradition was discontinued by the Church of England. The modern day Harvest Festival was re-introduced into the Church when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited his Cornish parishioners to a special thanksgiving service for the harvest, at his church in Morwenstow, in 1843. From this grew the tradition of singing Harvest hymns and the custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the service.Today in the Church of England, Harvest festivals are celebrated across a number of dates, because unlike Canada and the USA, the UK does not have a national holiday for Harvest Festival. This means that some Churches celebrate in September, on the Sunday nearest the Feast of Michaelmas, when people gather for a community meal called a Harvest Supper. Others celebrate on the Sunday nearest the time of the Harvest Moon, which occurs in late September or early October. Yet others, like us, have a home-grown tradition of celebrating in October. However, whatever date this celebration takes place, and whatever the origin of the current tradition is, Harvest Festival is: a time to give thanks for the food grown on the land; it is a reminder of all the good things that God gives to us; and it is a time to take stock of how we can help and support others with the gifts we have received.Today as we take stock of what we have and how we can help and support others, I pray that we will all take some sort of Harvest Thanksgiving action. Here are a few of my own ideas:- Maybe making a gift offering of food to neighbours or food banks or schools;- Maybe giving time to make a covid secure visit to those who are lonely;- Maybe being open to give time to listen, without judgement, to those who need to talk;- Maybe using our God given skills and abilities to help someone who needs them.For, I believe that God is calling each of us to share some of what we have for the benefit of others. And, whatever you are thinking of, whether it is much or little, if we dare to share, then I also believe that we begin the journey that Jesus called the young rich man to in the gospel, of giving to those in need and following Jesus. And, as we heard in the psalm, God will prosper the work of our hands.Let us pray:Go before us O Lord, as we endeavour to worship you in spirit and truth, and lift up our hearts that we may serve you fittingly, as you desire.Lords’ prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. AmenThe Grace: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, now and evermore. AMENThank you for joining us today.
