Weekly Bulletin for St Mary's and the Villages

Collect for Candlemas
Almighty and ever–living God, clothed in majesty,
whose beloved Son was this day presented in the Temple,

in substance of our flesh:
grant that we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts,
by your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns….

Additional Collect for Candlemas
Lord Jesus Christ, light of the nations and glory of Israel:
make your home among us, and present us pure and holy
to your heavenly Father, your God, and our God.  

Collect (Epiphany 4)
God our creator, 

who in the beginning commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people, 

and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns...

Additional Collect(Epiphany 4)
God of heaven, you send the gospel to the ends of the earth
and your messengers to every nation: 

send your Holy Spirit to transform us
by the good news of everlasting life in Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Today: Epiphany 4/CANDLEMAS

Principal Readings: 

Malachi 3.1-5 Psalm 24.[1-6] 7-end Hebrews 2.14-end Luke 2.22-40

 
Barton  

Evening Services resume their normal 6.00 timeslot  from today, Sunday Feb 1st.
8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist & Candlemas ceremonies

2.00 Baptism

6.0 Sung Evensong

Monday

9.30 Toddler Time (St Mary's)

7.00 Saxby PCC

Wednesday

9.30 Eucharist (St Mary's)

7.30 Ladies' Group (St Mary's Hall)

Thursday

2.00 Sewing Bee (St Mary's Hall)

Next Sunday: 2 before Lent
Principal Readings: 

Genesis 1.1 - 2.3 Psalm 136 Romans 8.18-25 Matthew 6.25-34 

Barton
8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist

11.00 Together@11

6.0 Evening Prayer

Reflection: Longing for light

Today we meet Simeon and Anna, those extraordinary ordinary folk who feature in the Candlemas story, even though all they see is a human baby –‘a collection of orifices with no sense of self-control,’ as one weary mother observed. They appear briefly, never to be met with again, and yet they are some of the most exuberant and life-filled people we meet in the Gospel story.  Though they will not live to see the full light of Christ, nonetheless, they have seen the first hint of dawn in the sky and rejoice.  

Scripture is full of people like them, when you reflect on it, people who get a fleeting glimpse of the Good News, no more, and who often seem to offer hope and encouragement for those who come after them. Moses gets just a glimpse of the Promised Land; Jeremiah, fleeing to Egypt to die in exile, gets an inkling, no more, that God has more in mind than letting his people languish in a foreign land. John the Baptist, from his prison cell, asks of Jesus, ‘Are you the one?’ And amidst the throng of Temple visitors, Anna and Simeon just catch sight of what God’s up to next, though they’ll be long gone before Jesus’ work begins.

What binds these folk – and others – together is that they dared to hope, and were alive to the possibility that there was more of the story to be told than people imagined. God, for them, wasn’t some hobbyist who created the universe and then found a new interest to explore – stamp-collecting, maybe, or darts. God was in for the long haul with humanity, and that tiny flame of hope was one to be kept alive, and passed on to the next generation, and the one after that. I wonder whether that’s a message for us?

Hope isn’t the same as sunny optimism – ‘something will turn up’. Hope is what people do when we’re faced with a situation which only our most deeply-held beliefs will help us through. ‘If God is anything like we think,’ the Christian response goes, ‘there must be more to this than meets the eye.’ It’s not easy – we could be completely mistaken– but who ever said that being faithful was always just a pleasant walk in the park?  

Is this the calling of the Church in our day – our calling, that is – to keep that flame burning? Nothing spectacular or noisy, but simply to witness to a God who will not abandon his creation, and so we offer a different way of seeing the world – we proclaim it’s a place which is precious and loved, not doomed to darkness, even though we ourselves may well never see anything more than a hint of a faint streak of light in the night sky.

JRR Tolkien wrote ‘The Lord of the Rings’ against the backdrop of the nuclear arms race. As humanity worked feverishly to perfect the power of destruction, so we meet the hobbit Frodo, unlikely bearer of the Ring of Power – “One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.”  

The real story, above all the battles (why, in the films, is Legolas the elf always immaculately groomed when everyone else is covered in mud?), is Frodo’s struggle not to use the Ring, but to destroy it utterly. Tolkien, a committed RC, tells a story where an insignificant player may just be able to stand against the insanity of darkness and evil. It’s not an optimistic tale: instead Frodo embodies hope that light will overcome dark, though it’s a close-run thing in the end.

Our call isn’t to be successful. Was Jeremiah? Or John the Baptist? It’s to be faithful, awake for signs of the dawn, witnesses to a God who does not abandon his creation. It’s a risky calling (as Frodo found). But as we rejoice with Simeon and Anna, we also share in their hope.

For our prayers

Church:

The Church of England

The Churches of the Middle East. 

Archdeacon Eleanor; 

Bishop of Grimsby designate Jean Burgess. 

Archbishop Sarah Mulally.
Parish cycle of prayer: The mission of our parishes, Deanery and Diocese. 

World: 

Those in authority. 

Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan. 

Peacekeepers and Peacemakers. 

Those leading in the protection of our planet 

and the resolution of the issues surrounding migrancy.

Our Community: 

Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: Animal care.

The world’s half-forgotten troubled lands:

Afghanistan, Myanmar.

Those in need. 

All who are fleeing war, poverty or climate change. 

People living under the shadow of fear, deprivation or illness; 

the anxious, the lonely and mourners. 

Those struggling to make ends meet. The homeless. 

Those in hospital or who watch with them. 

Especially, please pray for: 

Those on our Parish prayer boards

The Departed. 

Notices.

Please note – there’ll be no notice sheets next Sunday: normal service resumes for February 15th. Details which may be useful are printed at the very bottom of the page.

Saxby PCC meets tomorrow, Feb 2nd, 7.00 at Saxby Hall

Barton Area Foodbank

Valerie Howitt from St Mary’s writes:

This month my shopping on behalf of the foodbank has totalled £1,700, and I’m not the only person doing the necessary purchasing of stock. It’s now a battle to keep the shelves at the warehouse sufficiently stocked for us to be able to support the large numbers of clients we are getting each week.

Any donations of tins or packets will help, or alternatively you might consider making a donation of money (either a one-off or a regular payment) to help us plug the gaps in our supplies. We are a registered charity, so donations may be gift-aided, which increases their purchasing power by 25%.  

If you’d like some information on how to make a regular donation, have a word with one of the members of the Foodbank team up at Tofts Road or email bartonareafoodbank@gmail.com

Ash Wednesday isn’t much more than a fortnight away, on February 18th.There’ll be more about Lent coming up, but one thing we do need is your last year’s palm crosses to make into ash. You can drop them at the back of St Mary's if you're passing, or whoever's taking your Sunday service can get them back here for the grand incineration. 

(This year your local liturgical pyromaniac will be using his woodburner, and he hopes its impressive chimney updraught won’t ash all the unsuspecting residents of West Acridge….)

Mission to Seafarers
Canon David Truby writes:
A huge thank you once again to all our partners, supporters and volunteers.   As a result of your generosity and effort we were able to deliver over 900 gifts to seafarers visiting the Humber Ports during Christmas 2025.    Christmas is a time when seafarers feel the distance from home and family especially keenly.   The gifts they receive are a reminder that even if they are out of sight, which is often the case, they are not out of mind and they too are included in the celebrations at Christmas time.  

Information for w/c February 8th: 2 before Lent

Collect 

Almighty God, 

you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works 

and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son....

Additional Collect

Almighty God, give us reverence for all creation and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness in Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Intercessions: 

The Church in Hong Kong:
Diocesan cycle of prayer: The Finance Sector.
Parish cycle of prayer: Christian stewardship.
Our treasurers and Gift Aid co-ordinators.
Christian Aid.  

Additional calendar notes:
Monday 10.00 Ministers' Diary meeting (Vicarage)
Tuesday 10.00-11.30 Funeral in St Mary's
Wednesday 7.00 Ladies’ Singing Group(St Mary's Hall)

Sunday 15th: Sunday Next before Lent
Principal Readings: 

Exodus 24.12-end Psalm 2 or Psalm 99 2 Peter 1.16-end Matthew 17.1-9 

Barton services:

8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist

6.0 Evening Prayer

Villages:

9.30 Morning Service at Bonby

11.00 Eucharist at Horkstow (BCP)