Community cooking classes provided by Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency. Contact Fay Livingstone: 0208 269 4886 or email [email protected]

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For young people aged 10½-14. For further details, please see the G46 Scout Group page in the menu.

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Holy Communion for the Sixth Sunday of Trinity: celebrant Revd Tola Badejo.
Junior Church takes place at the same time in the hall.

First reading: 2 Corinthians 12. 2 - 10
Gospel: Mark 6. 1 - 13

Paul's letters to the church at Corinth engage with all sorts of problems that might affect any kind of community, churches not excepted. Particular issues for the Corinthians seem to have included confusion about the doctrine they should follow, a tendency to be attracted by the wrong kind of leader, and an unattractive inclination to question the motives and integrity of anyone who disagreed with them. One particular attribute of the 'super apostles', as Paul calls them, was the habit of boasting about the superiority of their own religious experiences. Reading between the lines, it seems that in the cosmopolitan and prosperous city of Corinth, Christianity had a considerable attraction, but many people tried to accommodate their new-found faith to their existing way of life and the expectations of their society. But does this letter, probably written almost 2000 years ago, perhaps hold up a mirror for ourselves?

Paul's ideas tend to be complex and his arguments rigorous; it takes a degree of effort to work out what he's driving at. The Gospel, characteristically, makes its point through simple illustrations: Jesus himself experiences rejection from the very people we might have expected to trust him the most, to the point where they 'took offence' at him, and then asks his disciples to carry out their mission in a way that makes them vulnerable. Both of these readings are challenging; both underline the truth that God's grace enables us to cope with difficulties, and even to benefit from them, rather than to avoid them.

For boys and girls aged 5½ - 8 years old. For further information and contact details, please see the G46 Scout Group page in the menu.

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For boys and girls aged 8-10½. For further information and contact details, please see the G46 Scout Group page in the menu.

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Family Communion for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity: celebrant Revd Tola Badejo.

First reading: 2 Samuel 6. 1-5, 12b- 19
Gospel: Mark 6. 14 - 29

The first reading describes David's triumphant return to Jerusalem with the Ark of the Covenant. The verses selected emphasise the rejoicing that surrounded this event, and like much else in both the Old and New Testaments underlines the place of celebration, praise and thanksgiving in worship. Yet there is a more solemn side in the omitted passages: the Ark had only been captured in the first place because the Israelites had treated it as a magic talisman that would bring victory against the Philistines, and even now they initially ignored God's instructions by carrying it upon a cart instead of upon their shoulders. David's wife Michel rebukes him for his uninhibited rejoicing, as though she too could not understand the Ark's significance.

David, however, found his way in the end. Herod in the Gospel didn't: though he was intellectually intrigued by John the Baptist, he wasn't prepared to respond in his life to John's call for repentance. As a consequence, he gives way to one temptation after another until, rather than lose face with his guests and risk an argument with his wife, he does something he really does not want to do in ordering John's execution. The horrific events happen at a banquet, but unlike David's generous and universal celebration, Herod's is a private event for a corrupt and mutually distrustful elite.