Dear Friends,

The gospel for this Sunday is long. It gives us the full account from St John of Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at the well, its a rich and evocative story. As I was writing my sermon I received the weekly mailout from my former parish in Oxford, in which Revd Gavin Knight talked about it as one of his most valued accounts in the gospels. It is an indication of just how rich this story is that he gave emphasis to things that this year I didn't fully unpack in my sermon, so I've offered his view at the end of this letter. It may be a good Lenten discipline to wonder which Bible stories you would take to refresh you on a desert island!

This weekend begins the APCM season for our churches. I want to thank all those who have served as PCC members over the past year for the essential part you play in enabling churches to function. Please keep all who serve as PCC members and Church Officers in your prayers. It is the nature of small churches that in many cases most of the congregation are on the PCC, so in many ways this is a reminder for us all to pray for each other!

God Bless

Samantha

"If I had to choose a select group of stories from the gospels in a ‘Desert Island Disks’ fashion, I would have to take this text to my desert island. Not only is it about fresh, living water (an all too important commodity when surrounded by salt water) but the narrative displays a beautiful opening up to God’s providence and care. Jesus, the needy one, comes to the well to drink. Yet he seeks out the one who is in the greatest need. The Samaritan woman is in danger. Social and religious convention should tell her that it is not becoming of any woman, not least a Samaritan woman to hang around public places alone. Conversing with a man, a Jew, in that state was asking for trouble. Jesus rises above social convention. The woman’s life is at stake, her spiritual and personal identity is dislocated at best and her reputation is persona non grata. Jesus sees through her façade. Jesus sees her as God intended. Jesus gives her life back. This is a miracle story, one that has many different and distinct features. I will treasure this on my desert island! "

Revd Gavin Knight (St Michael and All Angels Summertown, Oxford)