Dear FriendsCan I please ask you all to pray for all the many children and young people who have started exams this week:-- SAT’s at primary school- GCSE’s, mocks and A levels at secondary school- End of year exams at colleges and Universities.I know many of you will have family members doing these exams at the moment and my prayer is that all will be able to be calm, and be able to show what they have learnt and get some enjoyment from being able to show what they have learnt. May they be aware that God will be with them each day as they take these exams. Please ask God to give them courage so they will not be afraid. Amen. Thank you.In my sermon last week we were talking about all of us being called to follow Jesus (as his sheep recognising his voice) and we were called to earnestly seek the gifts that the Holy Spirit can give us.The scriptures I highlighted for you to read were the following:1 Corinthians 12:1-11Spiritual Gifts12 Now concerning spiritual gifts,[a] brothers and sisters,[b] I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.Galatians 5:22-26The Fruit of the Spirit22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.At our online prayer session on Tuesday morning we explored the same theme through the following scripture:-Romans 12:3-8 NIV - JudithHumble Service in the Body of Christ3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.1 Peter 4:10-11From his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another – Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. A few scriptures to consider as you ponder on the gifts that God has given you and how you can best use them to serve and enable your church family to thrive and grow. If you would like to explore with someone else what gifts you are able to offer, if you would like a conversation about how best to use your gifts, or both, contact me, if you would like to start monthly giving or increasing your monthly giving please talk to Sam our Treasurer.A reminder that we have our communion service at 9.30 am this Sunday at St James’sFollowed by our APCM at 11.00 am at St James’sOur Messy Church will be from 4.00 – 6.00 pm at St James’s which will include; craft activities; celebration and singing and eating togetherI hope you can join us for one (or all three) of these and I look forward to meeting you soon.Every blessingAlison
Dear All<br>We are now in Holy Week with our Maundy Thursday service tonight at 7.30 pm.There are so many different occasions where we can meet this week.<br>Tomorrow, Good Friday gives us two opportunities to meet up either with our Messy Church at 10.00 am to 12 noon at St James or our Last Hour service of reflection at St Botolph's from 2.00 pm to 3.00 pm<br>If you are thinking of coming to the Easter Vigil at St Mary's, Gilston on Saturday at 7.00 pm please bring your own chair with you to sit outside, you might like a blanket and you will definitely need a torch as we lose the light.<br>On Easter Sunday we will have a service of Celebration as we gather together to worship with communion for the whole Church Family at 9.30 am at St James.<br>On Easter Sunday our collection will be to support the Myanmar earthquake Appeal that is running via Christian Aid, if you are able to, please support our brothers and sisters in Myanmar as they deal with the after affects of this catastrophic earthquake, thank you.<br>At a very impromptu last minute we will be taking Easter to Terlings Park development with an Easter Egg Hunt and hot cross buns from 11.30 am, with some give away Easter books and stickers for the children, if you would care to be involved.<br>Every blessing for this Easter.Your Priest, Alison
Dear AllI am looking forward to a very enjoyable but busy Sunday this week.At 8.00 am we have our BCP said communion at St JamesAt 9.30 am we start with breakfast followed by our Family service at St JamesAt 11.00 am Following on from this service we will have the retirement gathering and presentation to Ian Brown who has been our community postman for many years.Following on from that we will have a short Messy Church meeting to sort out all things ‘Messy’ for our Good Friday session, which I anticipate to be very busy, as usual.At 3.00 pm we will have our Alpha afternoon tea at the Rectory – all are invited who have taken part in one of our Alpha courses.I attach again for you the flyer for all our Easter services. These are shaping up nicely – a couple of highlights for your diary. Our service of Reflection at St Botolph’s, Eastwick on Good Friday from 2.00 – 3.00 pm is following on from our Holy Habits Lent study and we will be thinking of that first Good Friday, through art, through music, through reading the bible, through reflection and discussion. I hope you will be able to join us for this significant time.Also moving on to Holy Saturday we have our evening service of New Fire and Easter Vigil at St Mary’s, Gilston – this was a wonderful service last year – starting out last year around a firepit, sharing readings, poetry, food and drink before going into the church to bless the new Easter candles. I hope you will be able to join us for this, again a significant time during the celebration of Easter. This will start at 7.00pm.Easter is the most significant time in the Christian calendar – the attached flyer will show you all the information you need to join us.Every blessingAlison
Dear AllCan you believe that this Sunday is Palm Sunday? How quickly has Lent gone this year – or is this just me?The last few weeks have zipped by – it has been great exploring the Holy Habits through different media, with lots of great discussion and obviously food to share, we have one last session, in Holy Week on Wednesday and then we will be using this resource to guide our thoughts on Good Friday during the Last Hour 2.00 – 3.00 pm at St Botolph’s church, Eastwick.We also had our Alpha Afternoon Tea last Sunday, which was a really enjoyable afternoon, with a lovely group of people. We have enjoyed ourselves together so much we are continuing on from our last session looking at another few weeks of Bible exploration and discovery. If you have done the first 6 weeks of Alpha you will enjoy our further adventure – we plan to meet on Monday evenings as before and all the dates are on our Welcome sheet. If you would like to come please let me know. Our next session will be ‘How does God guide Us? On 19th May at 7.30 pm at the Rectory.So, the arrangements for Sunday 13th are as follows:-9.30 am service at St James. Meet in church as usual. The service itself will start with the Procession from the gate into the Church with the Palm Gospel and then the service will continue involving a Dramatized reading of the Gospel for which I will need 7 volunteers. There is no sermon on Palm Sunday, the dramatized reading forming a large part of this service.At 11.15 am we will be at St Mary’s, Gilston, and will follow the same pattern for worship as at St James.I hope you can join us for one of these services.At 2.30 pm we will have our Community Dog Walk again – this time from Terlings Park – meeting at the notice board. We always provide refreshments after the walk so hope you can join us – with, or without, a dog. It is just a great time to catch up with each other and also make new friends. Children are very welcome – can they come with an adult though please.Looking forward to starting Holy Week with you at some point on Sunday.Every blessing Alison
