We are a group of 8 rural parishes in the beautiful Norfolk countryside, who enjoy living, working and worshiping together.
The Group was founded in 1964. This was a pioneering and visionary step taken by Bishop Launcelot Fleming to revitalise and enrich the church in an area of thinly populated villages.
This has been our experience. Since then, the parishes have grown together and continue to share resources and benefit from opportunities for collaboration in numerous ways. We have discovered that can do more together than we can alone.
This is abundantly evident in these difficult times, where a network of practical support and help has emerged in our villages. Thank you to those who have a share in this. We all have different needs and there are those who can assist. Let’s continue to cope with this crisis with a spirit of kindness and loving service to those around us. Please don’t hesitate to contact someone to help or just for a chat.
If I can be of help, I am only a
phone call away - 01508 482366
The Reverend Liz Billett
Team Vicar
May your unfailing love be with us, LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.
Psalm 33:22
To contact us please call The Hempnall Group office, 9am-1pm Mon-Thurs 01508 498157
To receive Weekly Thoughts and Prayers please email: hempnallgroup.office@btinternet.com
To receive monthly Village News please email: hempnallgroup.office@btinternet.com
Thought for the Week - Sunday 16th January
“A wonderful human being… The world itself feels smaller without him1… A man of amazing faith… so rooted in Christ he feared nothing2…. He carried the trust of everyone… he was a giant.1” Rural Norfolk is a world away from those past horrors of apartheid, but Archbishop Tutu became a familiar, lovable friend to us all. Through every word that he spoke his whole presence conveyed just one word. Love.
Sad though his loss is it’s fitting that it should so closely have preceded the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (18-25 Jan). The irony would not have escaped him. News headlines remind us daily why the voice of Christ needs to be heard more than ever, unanimously, worldwide.
Tutu had no time for petty doctrinal distinctions. St Paul was similarly impatient. His recent converts in Corinth were squabbling childishly over who had the more important gift. Yet, says Paul (1 Cor 12:12-31), baptism unites us all, across denominations, and, equally, Christ died for us all. All of us, skilled or not, have something with which to enrich another.
Paul’s image of the early Christian community in Corinth as the body of the risen Christ has stood the test of time. He wanted to illustrate how the several gifts spread among all the members could work together harmoniously if each person fulfilled their specific function for the good of the whole. Just as each part of the human body is interdependent, so it is with people. The simplest analogy is the soccer or rugby team which owes its success to the cohesion with which each individual player fits with the rest.
And so, it is with the body of the Church. We all do our bit, and fit where we can, without undue pride or jealousy. We all have a role, however apparently insignificant, because each one of us is a vital member. And we all need each other.
Barbra Streisand sang “People who need people are the luckiest people.” Archbishop Tutu put it like this. “A person is a person through other persons; you can’t be human in isolation. You are human only in relationships.” We have all been privileged to be his contemporaries. In the words of Archbishop Welby, “He transformed the lives of politicians and priests, township dwellers and world leaders.”
~Michael Pennington~
[1Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York , 2John Sentamu, former Archbishop of York ]
Readings
Isaiah 62: 1-5
Psalm 36: 5-10
1 Corinthians 12: 1-11
John 2: 1-11
Let us continue to support and strengthen each other
- Daily by saying the Lord's Prayer together, morning and evening
- Lighting a candle at home 10.00am on Sunday
This week we pray for:
- In the morning: the day and its tasks; the world and its needs; the Church and her life
- The Unity of the Church
- The peace of the world
- The healing of the sick
- The revelation of Christ to those from who his glory is hidden
- All who travel
- In the evening: peace; individuals and their needs
