Weekly Bulletin for St Mary's and the Villages

Collect

Merciful Lord, absolve your people from their offences, 

that through your bountiful goodness
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins 

which by our frailty we have committed;
grant this, heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, 

our blessed Lord and Saviour, who is alive....

Additional Collect

Merciful Lord, you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid and turn us back to you again; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

A Mothering Sunday Collect

God of love, passionate and strong, tender and careful:
watch over us and hold us all the days of our life; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Today: Lent 4/Mothering Sunday 

Principal Readings 

Lent 4: 1 Samuel 16.1-13 Psalm 23 Ephesians 5.8-14 John 9.1-41  

Mothering Sunday: Exodus 2.1-10 or1 Samuel 1.20-end; 

2 Corinthians 1.3-7 or  Colossians 3.12-17; Luke 2.33-35 or John 19.25-27  

Barton

8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist

6.00  Evening Prayer 

Monday 

9.30-11.30 Toddler Time (St Mary's Hall)
7.00 Diocesan Strategy Meeting (St Mary's Hall)
Tuesday

2.00-4.00 Bereavement Group (St Mary's Hall)
Wednesday

9.30 Eucharist
2.00 Mothers’ Union Quiet Afternoon (St Mary's Hall)
7.30 Ladies’ Group(St Mary's Hall)
Thursday

2-4 Sewing Bee(St Mary's Hall)
Saturday

10.30-12 Study Session (St Mary's Hall) -see below

Next Sunday: Lent 5 (‘Passion Sunday’)
Principal Readings 

Ezekiel 37.1-14 Psalm 130 Romans 8.6-11 John 11.1-45   

Barton

8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist

6.00  Said Eucharist with hymns 

Reflection: ‘To descend is to ascend’

In the light of Mr Trump’s latest adventure, trading in my 35mpg petrol car for a 60mpg diesel seems to have been one of my better decisions, but my saving fourpence a mile isn’t what you’d call a compelling case for the latest crisis playing out all over the Middle East. However, there have been some telling moment over the last few days where powerful people have – perhaps without realising it – revealed how their minds work. 

The response of a senior member of the administration to a reporter asking about the thinking behind the war was on the lines of ‘that question was one which should not have been asked. How dare you?’  

It must rank among the worst nightmare of the powerful that someone points out that the Emperor has no clothes – that is, for all their posturing, there’s nothing behind it except bluster, stubbornness or ‘I know best’ arrogance, and there’s a lovely example of it at work in today’s Gospel.

Just as in the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes, the person who cuts through the nonsense isn’t some influential chap or chap-ess with clout. The little boy tells it like it is (that they’ve got a nudist for a ruler), and  the man born blind, just Joe Soap from down the road, points out the big hole in the logic of the Jewish authorities:

‘Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’   

It is the Question Which Must Not Be Asked. And if it is asked, it mustn’t be answered. It must be shouted down, or the questioner have their right to ask the question in the first place… err… questioned.  ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?’ And they drove him out. It strikes me there’s many a figure in public life taken their script from this bit of John’s Gospel over the years!

The Franciscan priest and writer on spirituality Richard Rohr wrote in his book ‘Falling upwards’ that we spend much of our lives laboriously climbing a ladder, and when finally we manage to get to the top, we discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall.  

How we respond to that unsettling discovery is critical to our future. Either we can insist that it’s the right wall we’ve climbed, even while knowing that it’s going to be a dead end, or we can bite the bullet, learn from the experience, climb down and reposition the ladder — and start all over again. (If the ladder-climbing image doesn’t work for us, well, maybe taking a wrong turning on a journey and pressing onwards regardless, or making a mistake in a piece of art or craftwork and pretending it’s not there.)  

The authorities in today’s reading have had someone point out that their ladder’s leaning up the wrong wall, and there’s a fundamental flaw in their thinking which means they’re believing two things at once which disagree, and rather than face the – admittedly rather humiliating and difficult – consequences of holding up their hands and saying ‘Hm, you’ve got a point’ go down the reliable and entirely futile route of pretending it’s not happened. History is littered with  people and governments which have failed to learn the lesson and eventually had it all come back to bite them on the bottom.

It’s not just something for Governments and Church Leaders and Broadcasters and so on. We all know the feeling of committing ourselves to a point of view which starts to show signs of coming apart – so what do we do? Do we drown out the creaking noises by shouting ‘I can’t hear you’ at anyone who points out we’ve got a problem? Do we try to belittle the person who’s exposed the flaws in what we stoutly maintain as truth and right (‘And who do you think you are to question me?’). Or do we, with a sigh and a spot of humility, start to climb down the ladder, unravel the knitting, retrace our steps – and in the old monastic saying discover that , sometimes, being prepared to descend actually means that, in the end we ascend. And in our willingness to listen to the Questioner, draw closer to the Answer.

For our prayers

Church:

Kenya.  

Christians in the Middle East. 

Our Lenten Journey. 

On Mothering Sunday:

families in all their variety and for the work of the Mothers’ Union.

World: 

Those in authority. 

Iran, and all the lands of the Middle East

Ukraine, Sudan. 

Peacekeepers and Peacemakers. 

Those leading in the protection of our planet 

and the resolution of the issues surrounding migrancy.

Our Community: 

Parish cycle of prayer: 

Our schools and colleges, their students and staff.
St. Peter’s School. Those studying away from home. 

Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: The Finance sector

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.

Diocesan Strategy Meeting is in St Mary’s Hall at 7 tomorrow, March 16th. A chance for you to ask any questions about the re-shaping of the diocese.

Mothers’ Union Quiet Afternoon: 

Wednesday 2.00 in St Mary’s Hall
Our annual Lenten time of quiet reflection with year will be led by the Rural Dean, Canon Liz. Non members are very welcome to attend, and arms will be twisted to make you join!

Lent Study Session: ‘The Odd One Out’ 

Saturday 21st, 10.30 in St Mary’s Hall.
One of the first things we learn when we begin to study the Bible is that three of the four Gospels clearly have a lot in common.  

Almost all of Mark’s Gospel appears in Matthew and Luke, while Matthew and Luke also seem to share a lot of stories between them. So similar are they that they’re often referred to as the ‘synoptic Gospels’ – telling the story from broadly similar angles.

John is the wild card. No birth story, no temptation in the wilderness, no account of the Institution of the Eucharist. Even the timescale is at odds with the other Gospels, for the cleansing of the Temple comes at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, not during its last few days, and the Crucifixion is 24 hours out of kilter with Matthew, Mark and Luke, and some of its details strikingly different.

So what is John up to, especially in his account of these final days of Jesus’ work? 

It’s a huge question, and we can only hope to scratch the surface – but if you fancy giving it a go and trying to untangle some of what we hear read out every Good Friday, come along to the Hall on Saturday at 10.30, armed with no more than a Bible if you want to bring one. No knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, Latin (or even Anglo-Saxon and Welsh)will be necessary!

Coffee morning March 28th

10-12 Come along and brace yourselves for the arrival of British Summer Time! 

Access to St Mary's Hall 

If you're a user, the electronic system for access is now live, and all group leaders have an access fob. 

The door will lock automatically behind someone going in or out. This greatly helps us with conforming to the requirements of Martin's Law in terms of keeping the building secure while it's in use. It also makes it easy to lock yourself out, so fob-holders, don't be tempted to put your fob down inside while you nip out to get something from the car!

To leave the building simply press the green exit button by the side of the door. Do not use the emergency button which has a plastic cover, since that would mean someone coming out to re-set the system before anything can lock again!

APCM Season

Just a heads-up that we're approaching the season of Elections of Churchwardens, Annual Parish Meetings and the like. Please keep a lookout for further details in the coming weeks.