A Morning Service for the Sunday before Lent 2022
Do you remember, the Beatles sang:
Help.I need somebody
(Help) not just anybody
(Help) you know I need someone, help .
A Morning Service for the 2nd Sunday before Lent 2022
Beware, beware, beware – there’s danger about. Danger from too much knowledge, and too little sense, too much learning and too little understanding, too much talk and too little thought. Danger from a thousand years of mistranslation and biased interpretation. Watch out there’s Genesis about.
A Morning Service for the 3rd Sunday before Lent 2022
St Luke’s gospel contains much the same material as Mark’s and Matthew’s. Luke and Matthew clearly added to Mark’s efforts material they found in another source, but on top of that they each seem to have their own material and each uses what they have in common in different ways, in different contexts and with differing ideas of what they mean. That is what makes the synoptic gospels so endlessly interesting – their similarities and their differences are a cause of endless fascination.
February 2022 Magazine letter
One way or another the last couple of years have given many of us a bit of a battering. So what restores you? What feeds your inner man or woman? What gives you the heart to face the new day? What energises you? What keeps you going?
Morning Service for Candlemas 2022
Why do we make a fuss of this passage in Luke’s gospel, why do we give it a special day, light lots of candles and keep the crib out till now? Because this is the last story of Jesus’ infancy and with it we turn from considering Jesus’ birth towards Lent and the journey to the cross. Simeon’s words were prophetic as he holds the baby he foresees the suffering to come, and so do we.
Choral Evensong
At St Matthew’s Otterbourne on the first Sunday of every month at 6.00pm, we hold a service of Book of Common Prayer Choral Evensong.
St Matthew’s, Otterbourne Coffee Morning
Monday 7th February in the church room from 10am-11.30am. Everyone welcome.
Morning Service for Epiphany 4 2022
In his first letter to the Corinthians, St Paul has just listed all the gifts that a group of Christians might possess, from healing and prophecy to tongues and teaching, but now he tells his friends of something he calls ‘a more excellent way’ – the way of love. A love not of desire but of gift, a love that seeks nothing in return, that flows in one direction freely, unconditionally, from the giver to the given. This, for Paul, is the highest expression of humanity.
Wisdom and Unity……….
“And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace” (Cecil Spring-Rice) “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)
Morning Service for Epiphany 3 2022
Someone from somewhere else. Someone different. What to do about it?
I spend quite a lot of time recently searching genealogy. From time to time in say 18th century parish registers there was someone buried who is described as a stranger – someone just passing through, who no one knew and who had died there in that village; even the name of the stranger might have been unknown, he or occasionally she, was someone who was not local.
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER 2022
All are invited to this year’s service which has been prepared by the Christian women of England, Wales & Northern Ireland. enjoy the full experience of the whole world praying with us on Friday 4th March.
St Edwards Catholic church, Winchester Road, Chandlers Ford at 1-30
New beginnings…..
“But you have kept the good wine until now.” John 2:10 “God gives the solitary a home” Psalm 68 v6
Morning Service for Epiphany 2 2022
John’s account of the marriage at Cana in Galilee is a problem. It obviously has huge symbolic significance for John – he calls it Jesus’s first sign – the serious theological markers are everywhere, but he makes it all so homely – disturbingly so.
Respond…….
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” Isaiah 60:1 “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.” Psalm 46:4
St Matthew’s Otterbourne Coffee Morning
Monday 10th January in the church room from 10am-11.30am. Everyone welcome.
Morning Service for Epiphany 1 – Baptism of Christ 2022
In Epiphany the church has traditionally remembered the great showings of the beginning of Jesus’ life and ministry. First, when he was shown to the Wise Men; then when he was shown as the Son of God, his Beloved, in his Baptism; next when at the wedding in Cana he was shown to be capable of miraculous signs; and last when he was shown to the Simeon and Anna in the Temple.
Trust……
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God” “How gently and lovinglyyou wake in my heart,where in secret you dwell alone;and in your sweet breathing,filled with good and glory,how tenderly you swell my heart with love.” (from “The Living Flame of Love” St John of the Cross)
After Christmas
When the song of the angel is stilled When the star in the sky is gone When the kings and the princes go home When the shepherds are back with their flock The work of Christmas begins:- To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, To bring […]
Morning Service for Epiphany 2022
Morning Service for Epiphany HYMN – Bethlehem, of noblest cities NEH48 – Stuttgart 1 Bethlehem, of noblest cities None can once with thee compare; Thou alone the Lord from heaven Didst for us incarnate bear. 2 Fairer than the sun at morning Was the star that told his birth; To the lands their God announcing, […]
Follow……
“You did not choose me, but I chose you…..” John 15:16