Bowland Benefice
19 May 2024 Pews News
The Day of Pentecost
Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire!

Collect for The Day of Pentecost!
Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This Week in the Benefice
Saturday
18 May 1.30pm

Wedding of
Andrew Lewis
and Kate
Roddy in White
Ladies Aston

Sunday
19 May

10.30am Holy
Communion in
Upton
Snodsbury

Monday
20 May

12.00noon Lunch in The
Parish Room,
White Ladies
Aston £5.00

Friday
24 May

7.30pm Film Night in
The Parish Room

Sunday
26 May
Trinity
Sunday

9.30am Holy
Communion in
White Ladies
Aston
10.30am Songs of Praise
in Upton
Snodsbury
11.00am Holy
Communion in
Peopleton
We send love and congratulations to Andrew
and Kate getting married in White Ladies Aston

on this Saturday.

Andrew was born in the village, loves the village and
its life and now begins, with Kate, the next stage of
life’s journey, as a married couple.
May their married life be blessed with happiness
and good health in all the years to come.
This Sunday, Whit Sunday, we commemorate the
coming of The Holy Spirit to the disciples - so often
pictured as tongues of fire or a dove. What a great
day to get together as a Benefice to celebrate with a
Benefice Service of Holy Communion in St Kenelm’s

Upton Snodsbury.

What joy music of all kinds brings …….
“Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s
transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years
back, to the very moment certain things happened in
your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s
strengthening.” (Aretha Franklin)
You may think it strange but Worcester Cathedral
quite often hosts ‘pop concerts’ – They have quite
recently held a Elvis concert and last week an ABBA
tribute band took to the ‘stage’!
The concert was very well supported with 800 or so
people enjoying the uplifting music that brings release
and joy in the most wonderful sacred and ancient
surroundings. It was the first time many of the
audience had set foot over the threshold, after all
church is not for them – it is unapproachable, formal
and the words impenetrable……..
Canon Stephen Edwards the Cathedral’s Acting Dean,
welcomed the assembled crowd amid a cacophony of
excited chatter, and explained how the cathedral had
hosted music for centuries, and that as well as music,
the cathedral was a place of prayer – and so the
concert would begin in prayer.
His prayer was based on ABBA songs and at the end
was met with loud and very enthusiastic applause –
the church in action reaching out and meeting
everyone through music. Here is his prayer. How
many ABBA songs do you recognise?.....
God of love in whose presence every hour,
every minute seems to last eternally,
the one whose shoulder we can cry on,
our best friend, the one we must rely on:
there is something in the air tonight,
the stars are bright,
with people everywhere;
a sense of expectation hanging in the air.
We thank you for the music, the songs we’re

singing,

thanks for all the joy they're bringing.
We believe in angels,
something good in everything I see.
And believing in angels, I have a dream, a song to

sing.
Bless us this night O Lord,
take us in your arms and hold us tight.
I know it's gonna mean so much tonight.

And dear God,
because of the love you gave me,
nothing else can save me,
so lay all your love on me.
Now and for ever. Amen.
…….Apparently ‘Elton John’ is coming next…..
We can’t always choose the music life plays for us…..
But we can choose how we dance to it.