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. Please note that the Cambridge Town & Gown 10k run is taking place this coming Sunday (6 October) and may disrupt travel into and through town, so do allow yourself more time to get to church this week!

Friday 4 October
10.30am - BCP Holy Communion (Revd Dr Jeremy Morris)

Sunday 6 October / Harvest & Dedication Festival
9am - BCP Holy Communion
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘Job 42.7-9’
Service Sheet: Here

Other notices:

Harvest Donations: During our harvest festival this Sunday (6 October), we will be collecting for Jimmy’s Night Shelter in Cambridge and our . Jimmy’s provides emergency accommodation for those who have been made homeless, as well as supporting residents to transition into homes of their own. Last year, donations helped Jimmy’s provide 40,000 meals including breakfast, lunch and a well-balanced, nutritious evening meal, all of which is vital to helping its residents adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Harvest Lunch: After our 11am service of dedication & harvest celebration this Sunday (6 October), all are invited to a church-wide luncheon in the Clare side-chapel of the church. Pulled pork and buns will be provided, as well as a vegetarian sandwich option from Pret. Please bring a side, salad, or pudding to share.

Scriptorium: Scriptorium has reconvened for Michaelmas Term 2024. This is a structured time of prayer, study, and fellowship for postgraduate students and researchers meeting 9am-4:30pm Tuesdays and Wednesdays weekly during Cambridge University term times. For more information, please contact the Scriptorium convenor via email 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 (Friday 4 October):

St Francis was born in Assisi in central Italy either in 1181 or the following year. He was baptized Giovanni but given the name Francesco by his father, a cloth merchant who traded in France and had married a French wife. There was an expectation that he would eventually take over his father’s business but Francis had a rebellious youth and a difficult relationship with his father. After suffering the ignominy of imprisonment following capture whilst at war with the local city of Perugia, he returned a changed man. He took to caring for disused churches and for the poor, particularly those suffering from leprosy. Whilst praying in the semi-derelict church of St Damian, he distinctly heard the words: ‘Go and repair my church, which you see is falling down.’ Others joined him and he prepared a simple, gospel-based Rule for them all to live by. As the Order grew, it witnessed to Christ through preaching the gospel of repentance and emphasizing the poverty of Christ as an example for his followers. Two years before his death, his life being so closely linked with that of his crucified Saviour, he received the Stigmata, the marks of the wounds of Christ, on his body. At his death, on the evening of 3 October 1226, his Order had spread throughout western Christendom.

O God, you ever delight to reveal yourself to the childlike and lowly of heart: grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis, we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.