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
Happy Christmas, God bless,Samanthaservice text and sermon
Dear Friends,We have travelled through another Advent season which has brought unexpected pauses and the disruption of our best laid plans. Across our country now there are signs of strain and for so many people all that is not easy in life is at the forefront of their minds. In our world extremes of weather and the hostility of war make the headlinesYet, today is Christmas Eve. Across the world today and tomorrow people will still gather to pause and hear of the birth of a baby in a time of strain and challenge, in a nation under oppression; to pause at the image of a small family gathering visiting strangers; to pause perhaps long to hear that this birth is greeted in heaven by a chorus of heavenly joy, divine joy: the gift of God's son to offer love's healing in the world.I pray that as we pause, at home or in church to listen to the love song of the angels, our celebration of Christmas will renew our trust that love is stronger than all that opposes it, and that in the love of God, given to us in the birth of a child, lies the hope for a better world.May the joy of the angelsThe eagerness of the shepherdsThe perseverance of the wise menThe obedience of Mary and Joseph,And the peace of the Christ child be yours this Christmas May you know in your hearts, the love that comes down for you at ChristmasGod bless, Happy Christmas,SamanthaThank you for all your Chritsmas greetings and cards.I hope to see many of you at our services, and hold those of you I won't see in my prayers.Christmas Eve12 noon - 1pm St Mary's Lynton: informal time to light a candle and give thanks for those who have gone before us3pm St Mary's Lynton Candles at the Crib4pm Lee Abbey Nativity on the Farm11.30pm St John's Lynmouth Midnight MassChristmas Day9am Christchurch Parracombe Christmas Communion 11am Christmas Communion St Mary's Lynton Christmas Communion.
Dear Friends,I hope that you have been able to keep safe and warm through the extended cold and aftermath of last week's snow. I know the icy conditions in high and remote areas mean that there are a number of you who have not been able to get out. I've been keeping you in my thoughts and prayers and I hope neighbours have been supportive.As a result of the weather there are changes to the published services tomorrow:Cancelled Services:9am Lynmouth - there will be no 9am Holy Communion 3pm Trentishoe- the planned Carol Service will not take place due to icy conditions around the church and in routes towards it.Provisional:6pm Parracombe- currently we are hoping for the planned Parracombe Carol Service to go ahead but it is dependent on a continued thaw of the ice around the church. A final decision will be made tomorrow morning.As usual:11am Lynton: the Holy Communion for 4th Sunday in Advent will take place as usualThe message of this week's readings is that the child that Mary brings into the world is "Emmanuel" - God with is. We come to the final week of waiting and preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus who comes to reveal God's presence in all conditions of human life. Around us there are lots of reasons why life doesn't feel smooth - there are multiple disruptions around us locally, nationally and internationally and yet remarkably the Christmas story we tell connects with so much of that uncertainty and displacement. "God with us" travelled to make sure his family were registered and had nowhere to stay when they got there, were dependent on the kindness of strangers and then hustled away as refugees. God with us in all the places of disruption and displacement - all the places which are messy and imperfect. As we travel through whatever this week might bring let's pray to recognise God with us in all of it.God blessSamanthaThe Current Plan for Christmas ServicesDecember 24th12noon - 1pm St Mary's Lynton: informal time for visiting church to light candles in remembrance of all we love and see no longer.3pm St Mary's Lynton: Candles at the Crib: a family friendly Crib Service11.30pm St John's Lynmouth: Midnight MassDecember 25th9am Christchurch Parracombe Christmas Day Communion11am St Mary's Lynton Christmas Day Communion
