Sunday 29<span style="font-size: 1rem;">th March</span>

Fifth Sunday of Lent – Passion Sunday

Dear Friends,

Well what a week! In fact, it feels so much longer, its hard already to realise that it was only

Monday night that the Prime Minister made his bombshell announcement. So, week 1 of

lockdown and a very different way of life for a while. In the Church year we are now

entering what is known as Passiontide, when we look towards Holy Week and Jesus’ entry

into Jerusalem, it’s a more sombre time as thoughts turn to all that happened during that

fateful visit. This year the mood of the whole world has taken a more sombre turn, and

many people are fearful and concerned for the future. When we are stuck at home, unable

to distract ourselves with the usual round of work, socialising, chat and gossip its hard to

stop our thoughts when they turn anxious. And please when I say the next bit, know I am

not in any way trying to minimise the situation, it is serious and we do need to take every

precaution if not for ourselves for others. But when listening to the news or reading stuff on

line its hard to get perspective. And when we hear of new cases or how many have died, to

be worried that its knocking at our door. But when you read the stats., here the daily tally of

cases, please remember one thing there are 66 million people in this country, and although

every death, every serious case is a tragedy for those concerned, taken as a percentage they

are still very small.

So please take every precaution we have been asked to, but then hand the rest of your fears

to God. For the Lord who took that journey to Jerusalem for us, knowing all that it would

mean, even when his disciples were still in denial, is walking this road with us and he will

never leave us. It is God who will see us through this, who will never tire of listening to our

fears and concerns, but who will also fill our souls with His still, small, voice of calm if we

just allow him to speak and not drown out his voice with our own panic. So please when you

feel fear and anxiety starting to take hold, turn off the TV or put down the paper (or its

online equivalent) and take a breath, or several, and allow yourself to feel Gods loving arms

surrounding you and keeping you safe.

Stay well, stay safe and stay Home,

God Bless,

Siân

Sunday Service and daily prayer

With this bulletin you will find a service to be used on Sunday, which includes a Homily for

Passiontide prepared by Rev Janet Stewart. Thank you to all who have let Liz or me know

how much you appreciated last week’s bulletin, I hope you find this Sunday’s just as useful.

The psalm (or canticle) and the references for the readings for use with the daily prayers are

also included with this mailing. I haven’t printed the readings in full this time, so you will

need a Bible. In case you are not used to looking up specific texts a bit of explanation. Each

book of the Bible (except the psalms) is divided into Chapters, (the large number), and each

chapter into verses, (the little number). References are given as the name of the book, the

Chapter and the verses eg. John 8: 1 -11 refers to Johns Gospel chapter 8, verses 1 -11. I

hope that makes sense, please do ask if you are still unsure.

The daily prayer sheet is being resent in case you can’t find the one that came out earlier

this week but it is the same. I’ll update this for Holy Week.

Prayer Chain

Prayer for individuals is an important part of our intercessions each week, and to help with

this a “Prayer Chain” has been formed. The prayer chain is comprised of a small number of

members of the Ministry Team who will pray for individuals and situations confidentially

each day.

Please email (or phone) prayer requests to me. Its helpful to give some details as to why you

want the person prayed for, but not essential, likewise names are helpful but may be first

names only, or you may wish to not give a name at all.

Please be assured that those in the prayer chain will adhere to all the normal safeguarding

and confidentially protocols.

Please email requests to [email protected] or phone 01263 833790 (please leave a

message if you get the answerphone)