Services This Week
Dear All,
Happy first day of spring! Services this week and next are taking place in person or via livestream through our YouTube Channel. Please find gathering times and this Sunday’s service sheet link below. Please also note that British Summer Time (BST) begins at 1am on Sunday 31 March, when the clocks will go forward 1 hour. (This is especially important to take into account for those of you who are planning to attend our Easter sunrise service.)
Friday 22 March
10.30am - BCP Holy Communion (Revd Dr Mark Scarlata)
Sunday 24 March / Palm Sunday
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘Life in the Spirit: Moving Towards the Cross’
Service Sheet: Here
Monday 25, Tuesday 26 & Wednesday 27 March
12.30pm - BCP Holy Communion
Thursday 28 March / Maundy Thursday
5.30pm - Holy Communion & Footwashing Service
Friday 29 March / Good Friday
12pm - Meditations on the Seven Last Sayings of Christ from the Cross
2pm - Good Friday Service
Sunday 31 March / Easter Sunday
6:15am (BST) - Sunrise Service
11am (BST) - Holy Communion Service
Sermon: ‘He is not here, He is risen!’
Other news:
SEI Online Journal: To coincide with the first day of (astronomical) spring, our Vicar-Chaplain, Revd Dr Mark Scarlata, has published a new article (on an appropriately agrarian theme!) with the St Edward’s Institute Online Journal, entitled ‘Wine and the Community of Creation’, which can be viewed here.
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 (Thursday 21 March):
Born in Aslockton in Nottinghamshire in 1489, Thomas Cranmer, from an unspectacular Cambridge academic career, was recruited for diplomatic service in 1527. Two years later he joined the team working to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 and duly pronounced the Aragon marriage annulled. By now a convinced Church reformer, he married in 1532 while clerical marriage was still illegal in England. He worked closely with Thomas Cromwell to further reformation, but survived Henry’s final, unpredictable years to become a chief architect of Edwardian religious change, constructing two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, in 1549 and 1552, the Ordinal in 1550 and the original version of the later Thirty-Nine Articles.
Cranmer acquiesced in the unsuccessful attempt to make Lady Jane Grey Queen of England. Queen Mary’s regime convicted him of treason in 1553 and of heresy in 1554. Demoralized by imprisonment, he signed six recantations, but was still condemned to the stake at Oxford. Struggling with his conscience, he made a final, bold statement of Protestant faith. Perhaps too fair-minded and cautious to be a ready-made hero in Reformation disputes, he was an impressively learned scholar, and his genius for formal prose has left a lasting mark on Anglican liturgy. He was burnt at the stake on this day in the year 1556.
Father of all mercies, who through the work of your servant Thomas Cranmer renewed the worship of your Church and through his death revealed your strength in human weakness: by your grace strengthen us to worship you in spirit and in truth and so to come to the joys of your everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Advocate, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
