Bowland Benefice
Pews News 23 March 2025
Third Sunday of Lent-Collect
Eternal God, give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This week in the Benefice
Saturday
22 March 10.30am

Coffee Morning
for Broughton
Hackett

Sunday
23 March

9.30am

Holy
Communion in
White Ladies
Aston

10.30am

Songs of Praise
in Upton
Snodsbury

11.00am

Late Breakfast
Café Church in
Peopleton

Monday
24 March 7.30pm

Talk on Richard
111 in The
Parish Room,
White Ladies
Aston

Thursday
27 March

7.00pm WLA APCM in
The Parish Room

Sunday 30
March
Mothering
Sunday
(also 5 th
Sunday of
the Month)

10.30am

Mothering
Sunday Service
in Upton
Snodsbury

10.30am

Mothering
Sunday Service
in White Ladies
Aston

11.00am

Benefice
Communion
Service for
Mothering
Sunday in
Peopleton

4.00pm

Joyful Mothering
Sunday in
Broughton
Hackett
Please do support the Broughton Hackett Coffee
Morning this Saturday at 6 Manor Court.
Come along to Peopleton on Sunday for Café Church
with coffee and Croissant and a talk about the charity

Onwards and Upwards.

Next Thursday 27 at 7.00pm St John the Baptist,
White Ladies Aston will hold its Annual Parochial
Church Meeting in The Parish Room. If you are on the
Electoral Roll you are entitled to attend and take part.
APCMs for Peopleton will be on 1 April, for Broughton
Hackett on 7 April and Upton Snodsbury on 9 April.

Lent is a time of preparation, waiting and penitence
and the five weeks of Lent leading up to Holy Week
make for an appropriate time to reflect upon our own
lives - our struggles, our goals, our prayers - in light of
Christ’s life, death and resurrection. We continue to
follow Stuart Townend through our Lenten journey.
The third week’s theme is God speaks, God calls us

and God is with us

The reading for this week is Luke 1: 26-38 (the angel

Gabriel’s message to Mary)

Next Wednesday 25th is the official calendar day for
the Annunciation, so this Sunday is a great time to
consider this incredible moment in the Bible.
Mary, an unmarried teenager, is visited by an angel
and told that she will carry God himself inside her and

deliver him into the world.
This has to be the most dramatic and shocking
message anyone has ever received!
There are three things we can consider from this

story.
Firstly, God speaks:
Before He arrived in flesh, He spoke to Mary and
called her to a very specific mission. Are we expectant
that God will speak to us? Do we give enough time to
the practice of listening to His voice? When we read
the Bible, are we doing it passively or are we doing it
prayerfully, understanding that God’s word is indeed

his word?
Secondly, God calls us.
Mary literally carried Jesus in her womb for a time.
Her reaction was one of amazing faith, humility and
trust. As Christians we also have Christ dwelling inside
of us; what is our response to this? Are we excited
enough by this miracle? Do we have the same faith
and trust that Mary did to go forth and live a life that
explores the magnitude of the fact that God Himself
lives in us and speaks and acts through us?
Thirdly, God is with us.
When he calls us to something specific, in whatever
sense that might be, he does so with the firm and
unfailing promise that he is with us always.
We should live, therefore, with an attitude of trust,

expectancy and excitement.

…………….things for us all to think about and take on
board as we continue towards the Glory of Easter Day.

A prayer

God, thank you that the life of worship and service
you call us to is so much greater and fulfilling than any
lifeplan we devise for ourselves. We ask you to fill us
with a spiritual peace and confidence to trust in your
calling upon us. Help us to be more diligent listeners,
seeking your voice daily and in every area of our lives.
Thank you for the ultimate assurance that wherever
we tread, whatever we do, and however faithful or
not we have been in the past, your love and might will

be with us always. Amen.