Dear Friends,As we reach the Sunday before Ascension, we enter the traditional agricultural festival of Rogation, a time when we are encouraged to pray for the land and see for those who work to harvest from it for us. Historically processions were made to beat the bounds, and the poet George Herbert suggested this was a good time for blessing the land, neighbourliness and for giving to the needy. I have included extended prayers for this season at the end of the printed reflection attached with this email.Over the last few years Ascension Day (this year – Thursday 13th May) to Pentecost has become a time for an international wave of Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come, and the thoughts I am sharing in this week’s sermon might be an encouragement to renew our vocation of prayer with and for our friends, communities and the wider world during this time. I have some prayer journals edited by the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cotterell, to give away, so if you would like one to support your prayer life, please do get in touch. We will celebrate Ascension in church on next Sunday.May 10th also marks the beginning of Christian Aid week, an opportunity to extend our concern for those in need across our world in Jesus’ name. Lyn White has provided these details for giving this year:"Dear all,Christian Aid Week falls this year between May 10th and 16th.Once again there are no paper envelopes to insert in parish magazines,so if you feel you could make a donation,please go to Christian Aid Week,and follow the prompt to GIVE,and then WAYS TO DONATE.The favoured method in online,but there is a phone line,(020 7523 2269) and if you are really stuck,please give me a call,and I will make sure a cheque or cash donation gets through to them.Thankyou ,Lyn WhiteChristian Aid Coordinator753760 " Remembering Jesus’ confidence in us: “You did not choose me, I chose you” may God bless our prayers and actions with lasting fruit this week,SamanthaThe Reverend Samantha StayteThe Lyn Valley Mission Community
Dear friends,As we travel deeper into the Easter mystery in these last weeks of the Eastertide, we are offered the images that Jesus gives us for himself, and our relationship with him – helping us to recognise that the resurrection is not just an historic event we say we believe, but the power of new life given to us so we can flourish and be fruitful now in the confidence that his life is stronger than death.Today’s image is that of Jesus the true vine, and us as branches bearing fruit which the Father prunes to bring greater abundance. As I will explore in my sermon, this image invites us to notice how we are kept in life by God and in relationship with Jesus: all is gift, we do not keep ourselves in being, and to notice that we are the glory of God when we bear fruit in our lives, and God is a pruning vinegrower for this purpose: sometimes there is a calling to let go of things in order for our energy to be carefully directed at what is essential for fruit. In this spirit, the virtues that shape the vision for the Church of England in the coming decade are that we become a: simpler, humbler, bolder church.As we turn towards the celebration of Pentecost, later this month, it is a good time to reflect on what each of us needs to let go of now, to make space for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, helping us to bear God’s fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God blessSamantha
<div>Dear friends,April 25<sup>th</sup> is Vocations Sunday, which encourages each of us to think about how our lives are a response to being known and called by God. As Christians we are all being called to focus our lives on the knowledge that we are created by God: for a relationship with God which is rooted in prayer and worship; for a relationship with others which shares that love, and the truth that all creation is made and held in being by God and our fullest flourishing can be experienced when we are conscious of that relationship; and to express that love in the service of other people and our planet. What that calling means for each one of us will be different – as each of us has our own role in the body of Christ – and as we mature and life changes, the way we express that calling may change too.As we begin to return to more outward activity in our churches it is a good time to review the activity and organisation of church life to enable us to be sustainable and to be fully focused on our reason for coming together: to worship God, draw others into our life together as Jesus’ disciples and to serve our communities. At a personal level it is also a good time to review your own contribution to the life of the Christian community which you enjoy. It is a time for each of us to listen for Jesus’ guidance about where we are called to give our time, talents, energy, money and prayer in the ways we are gifted now, presently, without anxiety that it might be different from the past. We need to pool our current talents, and vocations to be the churches of the Lyn Valley Jesus is calling us to be today. You might like to listen to a brief introduction to the courses to support varied church roles that the diocese now provides to give some ideas of the kind of things that are vocational tasks, and how you can be supported in pursuing them, or to come up with creative ideas of your own:https://exeter.anglican.org/ministry/lay-ministry/lay-learning/Because we have to complete our APCMs before it will be possible to gather in person in numbers, the APCM’s will be held online with only essential business, adjourning much to a date later in the summer when we can all meet in person (God willing). These later meetings will be a good opportunity to explore together how we shape our church life according to what each of us is called to share, so I really encourage everyone to spend some time wondering about how life in the church enables you to flourish as the person God made you to be, and how you in turn can encourage others to flourish in a church which values everyone’s gifts.God blessSamantha</div>
This week's recorded sermon for the Exeter Diocese is given by Reverend Samantha Stayte. Watch and listen here
