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.
Friday 17 May
10.30am - BCP Holy Communion (Revd Dr Jeremy Morris)
Sunday 19 May / Day of Pentecost (Whit Sunday)
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘Dry Bones and the Spirit of Truth’
Service Sheet: Here
Other notices:
APCM & Church Lunch: Our annual meeting of the parish church and church lunch will be held this Sunday (19 May) after the 11am service. Printed booklets containing the agenda, annual reports, and financial summaries will be provided on the day. For lunch, both a meat and a vegetarian main will be provided, so we would welcome members bringing sides, salads, desserts, or drinks to share. Thank you!
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 (Tuesday 14 May):
After the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, the apostles brought their number back to twelve by choosing Matthias to replace him. He was chosen by lot from amongst the disciples. The author of the Acts of the Apostles sees apostleship differently from Paul’s interpretation of the role and seems to reflect the understanding of the gospel of Luke. The number had to be restored so that they might ‘sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel’. It was conditional that they had to have been with Jesus during his earthly ministry and witnesses to the resurrection. The point of being chosen by lot, rather than by some democratic method, indicated the election or choosing by God, rather than by mortals. Symbolically, Matthias is an archetype of every Christian throughout history in his being added to the number of those called to bear quiet and faithful witness to Christ in the world.
Almighty God, who in the place of the traitor Judas chose your faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the Twelve: preserve your Church from false apostles and, by the ministry of faithful pastors and teachers, keep us steadfast in your truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
