Weekly Bulletin for St Mary's and the Villages

Collect

Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities,  

through ….

Additional Collect

Holy God, faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.  

Today: TRINITY SUNDAY
Principal Readings 

Isaiah 40.12-17, 27-end Psalm 8 2 Corinthians 13.11-end Matthew 28.16-20  

Barton

8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist

6.00  Evening Eucharist with hymns

Villages

11.00 Holy Communion at Saxby (BCP)

Monday

9.30-11.30 Toddler Time (St Mary's Hall)

Wednesday

9.30 Eucharist (St Mary's)
7.30 Ladies’ Group AGM (St Mary's Hall)
Thursday

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

Friday
9.30 Funeral of Brenda Todd (St Mary's)

Next Sunday: The First Sunday after Trinity
Principal Readings 

Hosea 5.15 - 6.6 Psalm 50.7-15 Romans 4.13-end Matthew 9.9-13, 18-26  

Barton

8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist 

6.00  Evensong

Villages

11.00 Holy Communion at Bonby

Reflection: The Power Game

To be honest, getting killed on the battlefield takes a bit of getting used to (at one point I couldn’t’ swallow because my helmet strap was strangling me), but the guy with the big battle-axe who felled me was very nice about it all, nipping back later to make sure I’d not suffered any lasting damage. Manners are everything, and the re-enactment battlefield is, ultimately, a sham.

So, yes I’m going all Mediæval on you. However it  helps introduce that most difficult to understand Christian belief,  the Trinity, which, 50 years ago, we were being urged to throw over as an unnecessary complication, and traditionally the day when you wheel in a guest preacher.

Remember that when we were first exploring the way we understood God-in-Christ, back in the very earliest decades of the Christian faith, we were operating in an environment which gave plenty of ways of explaining it all. He was a prophet with knobs on, the Messiah, according to the Jewish background. However, that didn’t quite cut the proverbial mustard with the experience of Christians who were starting to see something of God in Christ above and beyond ‘a very nice man’.

Since by the time the NT is complete, the Church is operating in the Pagan world more than the Jewish one, there was no shortage of ways of explaining it all. There were plenty of gods to choose from, sone in alliance with one another, some busily scrapping it out. It’d have been easy to incorporate the Jesus story into that set-up of a constant power-struggle between various thunderbolt-hurling divinities.

But the Church refused to go along with that as well. Just as the Jews had turned their backs on the creations stories of Babylonia and their quarrelling, capricious gods, so the emerging Christian Church did the same to the Greek and Roman set-up. The realm of God was not to be one of factions and parties and division. It would have to be something else, a solution which didn’t cause division within the heavenly court, but which acknowledged that Christ and the work of the Spirit weren't later add-ons to God.

The Eastern Church has a wonderful picture of the Holy Trinity as the Three persons endlessly calling out to one another in love. Or – the one I really like – endlessly creating between them an intricate dance which weaves together something so exquisite that it can draw us into that same dance to make our contributions too. The Greeks call it something like entheosis– the biblical idea that, in Christ, we too somehow become part of the divine nature.

This intricate display of unity-in-difference, a dazzling display of creativity , each calling out of the others ever more glorious expressions of joy and love is probably the nearest I’m going to get to ‘getting’ the Trinity – but most important of all is that it’s something which draws us in too, whoever we are, entranced by the beauty of what we have glimpsed. There is room enough for difference – difference is what makes it more than a one-woman show – but none whatsoever for division, rancour or jockeying for power and advantage.

The best thing about good theology is how it holds up a sometimes disturbing mirror to the human race, and Trinity Sunday is one such occasion. Just as Good Friday told us much about human weakness and double-dealing, so today, so today places before us this vision at the heart of everything that is – a place of relationship, joy, difference and inclusion, a place where the celebration grows ever greater, the rejoicing ever louder, the dance ever more exuberant and the music more giddyingly complex as we all accept the call to join in. And then…?

And then -we hope – it encourages us to reflect on a world where difference is replaced by division, and exuberance with dour resentment and exclusion. One is charged with life, the other with -something else.  

Our battlefield was more choreography than Crécy. The teeth had been drawn from the dragon of centuries-past war and it was all a bit Horrible Histories, entertaining and educational. We'd helped one another back on our feet, and the ground ran (when the public had all gone home) with beer , not blood. We knew our divisions to be a fiction and behaved accordingly. 

What of those who invent divisions and know it, but do it to sow hatred and suspicion and reap a harvest of something bitter and dark?.

Trinity Sunday challenges us to contemplate that darkness, see it for what it is and name it. And if the sowers of hatred and division  can findcan a place in the endless dance of the Holy Trinity, it will be down to that dance’s ability to transform even the clumsiest of our human mis-steps and falls- something we Christians know as the mystery of salvation.

For our prayers

Church:

The Church in Rwanda

Christians in the Middle East. 

That the Church may be united in witness and in reconciling those who are divided.

World: 

Those in authority. 

Gaza, Lebanon, 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: 

Those taking important examinations.
Parish cycle of prayer: Our neighbouring towns.  

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.

Pentecost Praise: Thanks to Kathy and Alan for organising this, to the Sally Army Musicians for their support, and to all who came along and made this an ecumenical occasion.

The funeral of Brenda Todd will be at St Mary's this Friday 5th June at 9.30am.  

Important notice regarding receiving the chalice

We have received clear instructions from Lincoln that we must not "dip" the wafer into the chalice if we feel unable to drink from the common cup. The reason for this is to protect anybody who has a strong reaction to gluten, and who could suffer an allergic reaction if they drink wine which has been in contact with the wafer.

We recognise that there are a variety of reasons why some people feel they can't drink from the chalice, but if this applies to you, please just receive the wafer and don't attempt to dip it in the chalice. There are certain medical conditions  which mean that some people are unable to receive the wafer or the wine, and who therefore only receive one or the other. In that case you have still received Holy Communion fully. It's acceptable to receive just the wine, just the wafer, or both, so please don't feel you've been "short changed" or excluded.

When we come to the altar, we do so as guests at God's table, so please help us to make sure that all our brothers and sisters can share in this sacrament safely. If you have any worries about this, please speak to me or one of the other clergy, who will be happy to help.

Canon Liz