Thoughts from The Vicarage with marks of mission, thanks and dates
Greetings
Greetings on another beautiful day! Please find attached Pews News for this Sunday with services and upcoming events.
More wonderful news is that not only was the cleaning and painting work in St Michael & All Angels completed but also, the scaffolders completed the huge job of dismantling the scaffolding on Friday with no hitches. There were four levels of scaffolding – quite an undertaking!
Hawke & Trowel (who actually did the job of lime painting) then cleaned, put the angelic reredos back together (!) and finally put everything back in their place. As I’m sure you will agree an excellent job. Thankfully, it was all ready for Barry Hills’s memorial service on Tuesday morning.
Thank you
Thank you very much to all those who supported the project financially and to those who practically got it under way- especially Ruth Honey our Churchwarden.
Following my piece on the season of Creationtide last week a reader was interested to know more about the place of the season within the Church of England. The CE has 5 Marks of Mission. The fifth mark states that as Christians, we are ‘to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth’. It recognises that environmental issues and the state of the earth are not just the responsibility of scientists, ecologists, conservationists or so-called ‘eco-warriors. Such environmental issues are part of what it means to be a Christian.
We are commanded to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves. To love God is to love all that he has made and created. And to love our neighbours as ourselves is to ensure that our actions and decisions are a force for good, not harm. We cannot show love to God and neighbour without acting for the good of creation. A creation breathed into being by the pneuma – the Holy Spirit of God. We are but stewards of God’s creation and the season of Creationtide will be dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of Life.
Dates for your diary
- July 13th Baptism of Poppy Hughes 10.30 St Michael’s
- July 15th PCC meeting 7pm All Saints
- July 16th St Michael’s coffee and chat 10.30 to school
- July 16th Living Well in The End Times 3pm The Vicarage
- July 19th Wedding of Emily & Archie 3pm All Saints
- July 20th Baptism of Jack Harley 11 St Michael’s
- July 21st Lambourn CE school Leavers’ service 1.30 pm St Michael’s
- July 23rd Living Well in The End Times 3pm The Vicarage
- July 27th Patronal Festival 10.30 St James
- July 27th Baptism of William Signy 12.30 St Michael’s
- August 2nd Wedding of Madeleine & William 2pm St Michael’s
- August 8th Wedding of Hope and Grant 3.30 St James
- August 9th Wedding of Rebecca & Karl 12.30 St Michael’s
- September 7th Beginning of Creationtide
- September 7th Baptism of Ivy Comyn 4pm All Saints
- September 14th Baptism of Billie Rose Smyly 12.30 All Saints
- September 28th St Michael & all Angels 10.30 Patronal Festival with 6pm Choral Evensong
- October 5th Feast Day of St Francis
A prayer for this coming week….
Spirit of the Living God,
at the beginning you moved over the face of the waters.
You brought life into being,
the teeming life that finds its way through earth and sea and air,
that makes its home around us, everywhere.
You know how living things flourish and grow How they co-exist;
how they feed and breed and change.
Help us to understand those delicate relationships,
value them,
and keep them from destruction.
Amen
God bless
Julie