Looking forward to our first zoom service being broadcast live at St. Mary’s Wilshaw.
You have the option to join at home or come to church.
See you in the morning
Topic: Service of the word
Time: Jul 26, 2020 11:00 AM London
Click the link below to join the Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86361266209?pwd=VjdFOHU2NklnK3RxVkpwVElhMDlPUT09
Meeting ID: 863 6126 6209
Passcode: 734091
Hello Everyone
A TIME OF TRANSITION
Isaiah 26: 7-9,12,16-19
The way of the righteous is level ; O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.
In the path of your judgements, O Lord we wait on you;
your name and your renown are the soul’s desire.
My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you
For when your judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness…
O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us ….. O Lord, in distress they sought you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
Like a woman with a child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near her time,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
we were with child, we writhed, but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth, and no one is born to inhabit the world.
Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a radiant dew, and earth will give birth to those long dead.
The message from Isaiah was written during a time of transition when people were struggling in the gap between what had happened and what was yet to come. The people cry out a lament as they seek God –holding on to faith and trusting that God’s promises will be fulfilled, even though the present time is difficult.
We need to ask ourselves in what ways are we yearning for God to be revealed?
Where do we see the Holy Spirit working in our world?
This time of pandemic has been– and still is—incredibly challenging for many.
What do you long to see change in your life?
What do you hope the future will look like?
Speak now to God about your hopes.
Thinking about the level path what does your path look and feels like?
Make time to ask the Lord Jesus for strength and courage to let go of the past, and journey with you as you move into God’s future.
PRAYER- St Francis de Sales.
Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow; the same Everlasting Father who cares for you today, will take care of you tomorrow and every day.
Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace then and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings. Amen
Thank you Val White for sharing this prayer with us.
Keep Safe, Keep Praying
Peter
Join us for the online #Meltham Parish Communion for Sunday 19th July at 10:30am. This weeks service is a said Holy Communion from the side chapel at St Bartholomew’s. As usual this can be viewed online at any time.
https://youtu.be/IWli6rP4-nE
Please find below the link for our service with Rev Judy:
Topic: Service of the word
Time: Jul 19, 2020 11:00 AM London
To join our Zoom Meeting click on the link below (from 11am 19th July):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88161599641?pwd=a0M4TjNuUlhYL2RUVy9JeVRScUtHUT09
Meeting ID: 881 6159 9641
Password: 799503
Hello everyone,
Very quickly after the Coronavirus hit the UK, there were two books written about God and the Pandemic. Theologian John C Lennox – “Where is God in a Coronavirus world” & a book of prayers by Nick Fawcett from which we have been selecting, using, and benefitting over the weeks – “For Such a Time as This”
More recently Tom Wright, wrote ‘God and the Pandemic.’ Tom Wright is a Research Professor of New Testament & Early Christianity at St Andrews & Wycliffe Hall Oxford, prior to which he was Bishop 0f Durham (2003-2010) and will be known by those of us who attended the York Course MCT Lent Groups as over the years he was a contributor.
In the final chapter – Where do we go from here? Tom Wright tells us that roughly one-third of the psalms are complaints that things are not as they ought to be. The words they use question why, – Sorrow, Anger, Regret, Frustration, Expressing grief, Mourning, Bitterness. Perhaps you have experienced your own feelings and have your own questions.
Some Christians have been turning to the book of Revelations looking for signs of the End Times but in these uncertain times Tom Wright cites the Lord’s Prayer as our ‘Norm’
Are we looking for signs of the end times?
No. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray ”Thy Kingdom come on Earth as in Heaven” and we know that this prayer will be answered because of what we know about Jesus.
Are we looking for fresh, sudden calls to repent?
No. We pray every day, ‘Forgive us our Trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us’. We know that this prayer will be answered because of what we know about Jesus.
Tom Wright goes on to say : ‘We need Jesus – His Kingdom-bringing life, death and resurrection; his ascended sovereignty, the promise of his coming to bring heaven & earth together in glorious final renewal. Any attempt to add new ‘signs’ to this narrative diminishes it.
For this week :- may I suggest praying for your concerns and for the uncertainties that relaxing the lockdown brings and spend some time praying the Lord’s Prayer.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.
Keep Safe -Keep Praying.
Peter
Topic: evening service
Time: Jul 12, 2020 06:00 PM London
Click the link below to Join Zoom Meeting (from 5.45pm):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83800849531?pwd=endibEcveXV4UjAyK2NFb1V5eXlRdz09
Meeting ID: 838 0084 9531
Password: 372535
Our Bishop Nick has written a letter of thanks and encouragement to all worshippers in our diocese for being the Body of Christ in the wider world throughout the COVID-19 crisis. You can watch his video recording of the letter also see the text of the letter below.
Friday 10 July 2020
To all parishes in the Diocese of Leeds
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We are living through challenging and extraordinary times. The church, committed to the real world and the communities in which we are set, has continued to worship and serve despite the restrictions. Given the nature of the virus, it will be some time before we emerge into something resembling ‘normality’. We have to be clear and honest about that.
Thank you for both the remarkable ways you have continued to be the church … in the world … even if the buildings had to be closed for a long time. I want to say one or two things to encourage you, building on material you might have seen on the diocesan website or had passed to you from letters I have written to the clergy.
Inhabiting the Scriptures
Lockdown and our attempts to innovate ways of worshipping together have been experienced by many as a sort of ‘exile’. In the Old Testament prophets (such as Isaiah) we see people exiled to a strange land where nothing is familiar. All that shaped their life and worship had been stripped away. They lamented the loss of their familiar life (and what this said about God and them); they tried to come to terms with the present realities; and they then began to look forward to shaping a different future.
This time in our life enables us to re-read the biblical experience afresh – so much of the Bible was written by and for people whose normality was uncertainty and fragility. This also accords with the daily experience of most Christians around the world, including those in our link dioceses in Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania and Pakistan. Let’s not waste the opportunity to learn anew how to live with uncertainty, aware of our own limitations and fragility.
Being the church
The Church of England has a unique vocation in and for England: we are committed to particular places. We are called to pray for those in our parishes, to be the answer to our prayers when appropriate, to love and serve those in need, to care for the sick and to support those who mourn, and reach out with the good news of God’s grace. We have been doing all this – and will continue to do so into the future. We know we are not always strong, but God is and we trust in him … whatever comes our way.
Emergence
We don’t know what the future church might look like in every place, but we do have a role in shaping it. There will be things we need to let go of and new ways of being that are being discovered or yet to be discovered. We will emerge at different paces over the coming months and care needs to be taken over how and when we open our buildings and hold onto the new forms we have learned recently. Church House is providing detailed and digested guidance at every step, but your archdeacon and area bishop are there to be consulted for any support as we move forward.
Encouragement and challenge
I mainly want to thank and encourage you. We will face big questions – nationally as well as in our diocese – about finance and buildings, threats and opportunities. But, as a diocese we are confident and well set up to face these. Indeed, we have been doing just this since our creation in April 2014; so, this isn’t a new challenge. You can be confident that we will deal with the challenges of the months ahead with confidence in God, confidence in the Gospel, confidence in our clergy and lay leaders, confidence in our unique vocation as a church to worship and serve God together.
So, be encouraged. Use the resources available to you in the diocese and parish. Pray simply and hopefully, knowing that God is never surprised.
And please be assured of the prayers of your bishops and archdeacons, the deans and area deans, our lay staff at Church House and all who are committed to you. May God bless you in all you are and do. I look forward to the time when we can be together again, physically and in person.
In Christ.
Rt Revd Nick Baines
Bishop of Leeds
The service of thanksgiving for Doreen is now available to view here via YouTube: https://youtu.be/un7cLVpDQio
It will be available for 14 days from Friday 10th July.
May she rest in peace and rise in glory and may light perpetual shine upon her.
