Services This Week
Dear All,
Services this week are taking place in person or via livestream through our YouTube Channel. Please find gathering times and service sheet links below. Congregants are warmly invited to bring any candles that they wish to have blessed to this Sunday’s 11am Candlemas service.
Friday 31 January
10.30am - BCP Holy Communion (Revd Dr Mark Scarlata)
Sunday 2 February / The Presentation of Christ (Candlemas)
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘Candlemas and the Light of Christ’
Service Sheet: Here
Other notices:
Volunteer Rota: In addition to the sign-up sheet in church, we are making it easier to volunteer by attaching an online rota with the weekly email here. (N.B. There will be an initial delay before access is granted to the form, in order that only church members can see and edit it.) Please do consider if you are able to help out in any of the ways listed – we are particularly in need of regular volunteers to set-up tea and coffee and stay a little longer after each service to wash-up/leave away. Many thanks!
Giving: As always we are grateful for all of your gifts! Offerings may still be given during this time via a basket collection during live services, Standing Orders, or one time bank transfer, via BACS (Sort Code: 20-17-19 / Account Number: 30851477 / Account Name: St Edwards Church). There is now also a SumUp machine by the door of the church, for those of you who wish to give contactlessly: Simply power on, enter the amount you wish to give on the screen, and then tap your card.
Exciting Holiness (Saturday 1 February):
St Brigid (also known as Bride) was a contemporary of St Patrick who founded a religious community at Kildare in Ireland. Little else is known about her for sure. Her spirituality strongly influenced the formation of the Church throughout Ireland immediately after Patrick’s time. The Church developed through communities of monks and nuns, and her pre-eminence led to her being regarded as a second patron saint. There are no contemporary writings about Brigid, and the stories about her include pagan elements, for there was a Celtic pagan mother-goddess who had a similar name. But we can be sure that Brigid was a remarkable person and through the grace of God gave unique leadership in her own troubled times. The list of the saints of the Celtic church in Ireland is so male-dominated that the revered place given to Brigid of Kildare is itself a testimony to her leadership and holiness.
Almighty Father, whose Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world: just as your servant Brigid bore witness to that light amongst a pagan people, so too may all we your servants, illumined by your word and sacraments, shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through him, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
