Dear Friends,Traditionally the Sunday after Epiphany was the time that ploughs were blessed as communities prayed for the land and its fertility at the turning of the new year. We continue that tradition with the Plough Service at Parracombe church at 3pm on Sunday - all are welcome. This is a good way to give thanks for the land around us, and for those who farm here and to dedicate ourselves to our own closer connection with the natural world God has created. God's commitment to the creation as a mission of his love is revealed in Jesus and this Epiphany season we are offered readings which show us how those around Jesus came to understand him as the one in whom all God's love for us in shown.In the reading from John's gospel weekend we see Jesus making friends and sharing hospitality. For me this is a story which demystifies a word we use a lot - the word "mission". At its heart mission is the way God shows love to us, and invites us to draw others into receiving that love. Jesus asks what those curious about him are looking for and simply encourages them to spend time in his company. That's enough to inspire them to bring others to meet him too. I wonder what the simple ways of showing love to others might be for each of us? How might our hospitality or friendship give others a glimpse of who Jesus is?One way to open ourselves to the way God wants us to share God's mission is to pray. This week we are launching a simple pack of seven cards which you might like to use or give to others to begin a daily prayer habit. Watch out for them arriving in your church.God blessSamantha
Dear Friends,Happy New Year!Many thanks to all who enabled my period of annual leave after Christmas to be restful. I hope your Christmas celebrations were joyful; and I hope any of you who have been unwell through this time recover good health quickly.This Sunday we are celebrating the Epiphany - the coming of the wise ones to the Christ child. Throughout Chritsian history these mysterious figures have been understood to represent all peoples, so Epiphany becomes a celebration that Chrits reveals God's love for every person - universal love, for each unique individual. That is a beautiful message but it is also one that as human beings we find it so difficult to receive and live out. God loves me more than I can even imagine, God loves you more than I can imagine, God loves the person I find it difficult to understand more than I can imagine: the same love, for each of us in our difference. Yet what we see in human society is so often that to love one group of people involves not loving another - taking sides - and we see all around us where that takes us. On this feast of the Epiphany of God's love for the whole world let us pray for love to cast out fear where violence rages, where groups are oppressed or discriminated against, where the riches of the world are not evenly shared.Traditionally this is a time to pray for a blessing of GOd's love to reign in our homes too, by chalking the Epiphany blessing over the door. At the end of my sermon are some prayers you might like to say at home and if you aren't able to chalk the blessing there is a poster to print off and put up somewhere you will see it regularly.God blessSamantha
Happy Christmas, God bless,Samanthaservice text and sermon
Dear Friends,We have travelled through another Advent season which has brought unexpected pauses and the disruption of our best laid plans. Across our country now there are signs of strain and for so many people all that is not easy in life is at the forefront of their minds. In our world extremes of weather and the hostility of war make the headlinesYet, today is Christmas Eve. Across the world today and tomorrow people will still gather to pause and hear of the birth of a baby in a time of strain and challenge, in a nation under oppression; to pause at the image of a small family gathering visiting strangers; to pause perhaps long to hear that this birth is greeted in heaven by a chorus of heavenly joy, divine joy: the gift of God's son to offer love's healing in the world.I pray that as we pause, at home or in church to listen to the love song of the angels, our celebration of Christmas will renew our trust that love is stronger than all that opposes it, and that in the love of God, given to us in the birth of a child, lies the hope for a better world.May the joy of the angelsThe eagerness of the shepherdsThe perseverance of the wise menThe obedience of Mary and Joseph,And the peace of the Christ child be yours this Christmas May you know in your hearts, the love that comes down for you at ChristmasGod bless, Happy Christmas,SamanthaThank you for all your Chritsmas greetings and cards.I hope to see many of you at our services, and hold those of you I won't see in my prayers.Christmas Eve12 noon - 1pm St Mary's Lynton: informal time to light a candle and give thanks for those who have gone before us3pm St Mary's Lynton Candles at the Crib4pm Lee Abbey Nativity on the Farm11.30pm St John's Lynmouth Midnight MassChristmas Day9am Christchurch Parracombe Christmas Communion 11am Christmas Communion St Mary's Lynton Christmas Communion.
