Sunday 7th June – 10:30am Join Rev’d John Dracup for a special service of Holy Communion for Trinity Sunday. This can be viewed at any time but he will conduct the service from the vicarage at 10:30am so that the worship may be considered spiritually live. This week, the service features lots of ‘Holy Holy Holy’s’ in the hymns (30 to be exact!) led by our Virtual Parish Choir who have kindly recorded 2 well known hymns that we normally sing on Trinity Sunday as we didn’t have any previous recordings of these.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)
To say anything at all about the Holy Trinity is tricky, how can you compare the all powerful and eternal God to anything? But our Triune God is unquestionably the God of loving relationship. He did not start to look for relationship and love when he made creation, the oneness of God is eternally found in the perfect loving relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, within the Holy Trinity.
It is our God’s desire to share this love with all people and as Christians we are called to relationship with our God as both three in one, and with each person of the Trinity.
Most of us find it easier to imagine the idea of relationship with the Father and The Son than we do with the Holy Spirit. Too often we speak of the Holy Spirit as an it rather than as a who. The Holy Spirit becomes a power or gift to be received rather than a person with whom we are to develop a loving relationship.
The Holy Spirit is our councillor, comforter, and enabler. He is not a power to be mastered, but a person of the Trinity that we must receive into our lives if we are to be the people that our God calls us to be.
Reverend John (Vicar)
Social distancing, services and buildings.
I am aware that some of the recent anouncments from the government were not as clear as they may have been. However, the position of the Church of England and the diocese of Leeds remains to be that all of our buildings must remain closed for now. If any body feels that they need to access any of our buildings they must contact me so to see if it will be safe for them to do so, and so that I can maintain an accurate register of access.
Magazine The parish magazine is now available on our parish website.
Website Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be pre-recorded but Rev John will be repeating the service at 10:30am so that it may be considered spiritually live. Please join in if you are able.
Zoom There is a weekly service available at 11:15 via Zoom or sometimes in the evening. The link is available on our website. Help can be given if you haven’t used Zoom before.
#melthamprays Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39 (NIV)
On the day of Pentecost all the members of the very first Church were gathered together. We think of them as being a holy lot. They were certainly good; they were committed to Jesus’s teachings and to prayer, they shared in loving fellowship and were generous towards each other, but were they the perfect Church? Of course not; some of them like Peter, were still brash, and some like Thomas still had doubts, they all had imperfections.
So, why is it that God considered them ready to receive the Holy Spirit? They believed that Jesus was there Lord and saviour. They knew that Jesus was their king, enthrone for all eternity in heaven, and they knew that he had died on the cross to win forgiveness of sins for them.
The early Church didn’t receive the Holy Spirit because they were “good enough”. The Holy Spirit came to them because they needed help to become “good enough”.
Like the early Church we must be ready to acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and saviour, and to receive the Holy Spirit as a gift of grace. Only with the Holy Spirit’s help will we ever be the kind of Church that Jesus, our king, is calling us to be.
Reverend John (Vicar)
Social distancing, services and buildings. I am aware that some of the recent anouncments from the government were not as clear as they may have been. However, the position of the Church of England and the diocese of Leeds remains to be that all of our buildings must remain closed for now. If any body feels that they need to access any of our buildings they must contact me so to see if it will be safe for them to do so, and so that I can maintain an accurate register of access.
Website Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be pre-recorded but Rev John will be repeating the service at 10:30am so that it may be considered spiritually live. Please join in if you are able.
Zoom There is a weekly service available at 11:15 via Zoom. The link is available on our website. Help can be given if you haven’t used Zoom before.
#melthamprays
Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.
Apologies that this was not published last Sunday as originally intended.
Hello! Welcome to the June edition of the #Meltham Parish Magazine. Firstly apologies for the delay in getting this month’s magazine published. Family life in ‘lockdown’ is very busy in the vicarage! The main thing is, YOU are able to read this now so it all came good in the end!
I hope you enjoy this Lockdown edition, there are a number of updates from different groups, as well as many pictures taken for a number of different reasons.
If you would like to take part more in our future editions please do let me know, I am currently a team of one as Kirsten has had to step down. I personally want to say a big THANK YOU for all she has done for this magazine since taking over from Amelia. All ideas and articles are welcomed and you can contribute as much (or little) as you feel able.
On the day of Pentecost Jesus’ disciples experience being filled dramatically with God’s Holy Spirit, the culmination of many centuries of waiting for the fulfilment of God’s promise, made known through Old Testament prophets. Acts 2.1-21
Long before the Holy Spirit became an article of the creed, He was a living reality in the experience of the early Church. Edward Schweizer
The whole (ecumenical) enterprise is the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of love, working in us, uniting us in love and building us up in the truth. Those are the things that matter. We must avoid binding the Spirit by our stupidity and narrowness and lack of faith. Archbishop Michael Ramsey
On Sunday 31 May Christians all over the world celebrated the day of Pentecost.
Disappointed followers of Jesus were locked-down in an upper room filled with more perspiration, than inspiration. The disciples were afraid they would suffer the same fate as their master. They listened and prayed that no one would discover their hiding place and the world would leave them safe in their isolation. Yet the Holy Spirit is not stopped by locked doors or locked hearts. the Spirit comes, not like a spring breeze passing gently through a room, it is more like a hurricane, flattening all the protective barriers against it force. The Holy Spirit takes this group of disappointed followers and on the day of Pentecost completely transforms them.
Try and place yourself in this scene.
What similarities do you see in the short account of Pentecost with effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic in our world today?
Please allow the Holy Spirit a few minutes to guide your thoughts and knowledge to pray for our world.
Gaps are left for personal thought to be expressed and you can add to the list
Heavenly Father hear my intercession for ……..
All Nations of the world…. our own nation……our own communities …our township.
For our families ….friends….neighbours ….those alone….. giving thanks for them.
Giving thanks for those who are selflessly serving others at this time.
For those supporting the Crossroads project and its food bank….
Help us Lord in the midst of our own weakness and anxieties, to be able to help others….
This week marks the start of a rolling programme for getting staff and children back into school starting with Early Years, Reception and Year 6..….our leaders are also relaxing some of the measures in place in the world of business, commerce and manufacturing from 1st June.
We need to pray earnestly for our Leaders….. It will have not passed notice this week that there has been confusion and a great deal of anger from all quarters of leadership
A week after the celebration of Pentecost…. we give thanks for the virtual services…online.
We ask that the Holy Spirit will increase our trust in God’s presence and His same transforming power…. Alive and with us now AMEN
Sunday 31st May – Pentecost (Whit Sunday) Join us for a special on-line Parish Communion for Pentecost! – 31st May. This week, not wanting to miss out, Jack, the youngest member of the Dracup family gets in on the act following the appearance of his older brother and sister last week. This can be viewed at any time but Rev’d John will conduct the service from the vicarage at 10:30am so that the worship may be considered spiritually live. Today’s service again features our Virtual Parish Choir who have attempted singing 4 part harmony for the first time.
There are two special Sundays still to come before we enter the period in the church liturgical calendar that is known as ‘Ordinary Time’ – these being Pentecost (or Whit Sunday) and Trinity Sunday.
Rev’d John would like you to join him in some fun activities to co-incide with these special days and if you’re willing, he would like you to provide photos so he can use them in our online services:
“My hopes for the next few weeks are; Sun 31st May – Pentecost – make yourself a hat of flame(s) (not real ones) and wear on your head. Sun 7th June – Trinity – examples of the trinity i.e. things that come in Three’s or work in Three parts. Sun 14th June – 1st of Ordinary Time – examples of people being normal doing ordinary things (or not) requires personal interpretation 🙂
Please provide photos of yourself (doing) (flame / ordinary person stuff) or of your Three’s. In providing these photos you understand that you are agreeing for them to be used in the online Parish Communion services between the above dates and which may remain available through our Parish website for some time and the Parish YouTube channel”
Please include the following statement along with your photos in your email replies: I agree for these pictures to be used in the Parish Communion service for (date) and I do have the permission of all those who appear in the pictures.
Please email your photos to Leigh-Anne Willitts at parishofchristtheking@gmail.com before or on the preceding Friday for each of the Sunday services.
We hope you enter into the ‘SPIRIT’ of these ‘THREE IN ONE’ fun activities during these extra-ORDINARY times 🙂