Dear Friends,This weekend we are celebrating the feast of the Presentation of Christ, traditionally known as Candlemas. By date it falls on 2nd February but as with some other feasts we are able to move it to a Sunday to celebrate it more fully. The gospel account tells us of the |Holy Family meeting the prophets Simeon and Anna, prophets in the Temple at Jerusalem, who recognise in this tiny baby being dedicated to God, the fulfillment of God's promises. Simeon calls him the light to the nations and the glory of God's people Israel.The one who reveals God's love for all people.It is deeply poignant that our reading takes us to the heart of Jerusalem, where the faithful Anna and Simeon are waiting for God's consoling of their community, at a weekend when the "Holy City", the "Holy Land" is once more in the news as a place where there is still deep pain. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that the light of peace may shine once more in all the places of war and division in this world.The feast of Candlemas marks the end of the Epiphany season and turns us towards preparation for Lent and Easter. It is a good time for me to ask people to bring back Palm Crosses to church over the next couple of weeks in preparation for creating the ashes we will use for Ash Wednesday (Feb 22nd). Also to give advance notice that I will be running a Lent Group on most of the Mondays of Lent at 3.30pm based at the Rectory - more details to come.God blessSamantha
Dear Friends,We are mid way through the week of prayer for Christian unity so I encourage you to hold in your prayers all our neighbours in Christ - the churches of the Mission Community and Deanery, our ecumenical partners in Lynton and further afield and all with whom we share faith across all denominations. Over Christian history we have not always been good at recognising and loving our brothers and sisters in faith - yet in the early church it was the quality of love in the community of believers that drew others to joining them. Let's pray to grow in faith and love together so as to be better instruments of reconciliation of love in the world in which God sends us.On Wednesday 25th January we have been invited to join the Sisters of Mary Morning Star in the Vespers for Christian Unity - a half hour service of singing hymns and psalms beginning at 6pm at the Catholic Church in Lynton.At 7pm the same evening the Deanery Synod AGM takes place at St Mary's Lynton, and opportunity to gather with churches across the locality in support of one another.And on Saturday there is an opportunity to enjoy each other's company with the resuming of the fortnightly coffee meetings - this time from 10.30 at the Exmoor Escape in Lynton. Plenty to help us get to know each other better, and to share what we have in common!God blessSamantha
Dear Friends,Traditionally the Sunday after Epiphany was the time that ploughs were blessed as communities prayed for the land and its fertility at the turning of the new year. We continue that tradition with the Plough Service at Parracombe church at 3pm on Sunday - all are welcome. This is a good way to give thanks for the land around us, and for those who farm here and to dedicate ourselves to our own closer connection with the natural world God has created. God's commitment to the creation as a mission of his love is revealed in Jesus and this Epiphany season we are offered readings which show us how those around Jesus came to understand him as the one in whom all God's love for us in shown.In the reading from John's gospel weekend we see Jesus making friends and sharing hospitality. For me this is a story which demystifies a word we use a lot - the word "mission". At its heart mission is the way God shows love to us, and invites us to draw others into receiving that love. Jesus asks what those curious about him are looking for and simply encourages them to spend time in his company. That's enough to inspire them to bring others to meet him too. I wonder what the simple ways of showing love to others might be for each of us? How might our hospitality or friendship give others a glimpse of who Jesus is?One way to open ourselves to the way God wants us to share God's mission is to pray. This week we are launching a simple pack of seven cards which you might like to use or give to others to begin a daily prayer habit. Watch out for them arriving in your church.God blessSamantha
Dear Friends,Happy New Year!Many thanks to all who enabled my period of annual leave after Christmas to be restful. I hope your Christmas celebrations were joyful; and I hope any of you who have been unwell through this time recover good health quickly.This Sunday we are celebrating the Epiphany - the coming of the wise ones to the Christ child. Throughout Chritsian history these mysterious figures have been understood to represent all peoples, so Epiphany becomes a celebration that Chrits reveals God's love for every person - universal love, for each unique individual. That is a beautiful message but it is also one that as human beings we find it so difficult to receive and live out. God loves me more than I can even imagine, God loves you more than I can imagine, God loves the person I find it difficult to understand more than I can imagine: the same love, for each of us in our difference. Yet what we see in human society is so often that to love one group of people involves not loving another - taking sides - and we see all around us where that takes us. On this feast of the Epiphany of God's love for the whole world let us pray for love to cast out fear where violence rages, where groups are oppressed or discriminated against, where the riches of the world are not evenly shared.Traditionally this is a time to pray for a blessing of GOd's love to reign in our homes too, by chalking the Epiphany blessing over the door. At the end of my sermon are some prayers you might like to say at home and if you aren't able to chalk the blessing there is a poster to print off and put up somewhere you will see it regularly.God blessSamantha
