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
“My family is starving, and I have to sell my daughter.”
(Father in Afghanistan, front page headline, The Times 9.9.21)
Is this what God’s world — our God’s world — is reduced to? To be enslaved to the perverted interpretation of an ultra-extreme Islamist group? This week, on behalf of all who wish to share an expression of both outrage and apparent helplessness, I offer some personal reactions to events over there and what in our own way might be possible here. One thing is certain: we can’t turn the other cheek.
The Times report expresses the deadliness of the poison and will no doubt provoke disgust and anger from the whole western world — a world which knows through the words and sacrifice of Jesus Christ a very different truth from that perverted by the Taliban in the cause of their own evil ideology. Graphic TV images and press reports of the horrors disturb us in our domestic comfort. That is their purpose.
But we too are God’s creatures. We too share the responsibility to ensure and grow his goodness worldwide. So how can we — so remote from the terror, the brutality, the sheer denial of all that God is and represents through the life of his Son — how can we begin to respond adequately?
1. We are not world leaders or diplomats. But from our own backyard we must lend our weight to anyone from any shade of opinion who might offer a constructive solution to the current nightmare.
2. We can, and of course will, continue to support in our usual way, through financial aid and Food Bank, and within the Group we will receive with open arms any refugees who might come our way.
3. We believe in the power of prayer. The combined output from the Group might scarcely register on God’s “Prayerometer” …. surely you know that he has one?!!!!….. but he’ll know instantly from his 24-hr screen whether or not we are committed.
Hymn 548 says it on our behalf.
When I needed a neighbour, were you there? were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter.
Were you there?
PRAYERS FOR THE WEEK
Almighty God, ever-loving Father,
your care extends beyond the boundaries of race and nation
to the hearts of all who live.
May the walls, which prejudice raises between us,
crumble beneath the shadow of your outstretched arm.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen
(The Liturgy of the Hours)
O Lord Jesus,
stretch forth your wounded hands over your people, to heal and restore,
and to draw them to yourself and to one another in love.
(Unknown source, Middle East)
~Mike Pennington~
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 Queen, members of parliament and the armed forces
- Peace and justice in the world
- Those who work for reconciliation
- All whose lives are devastated by war and civil strife
- Prisoners, refugees and homeless people
- In the evening: peace; individuals and their needs
Readings for the week:
Isaiah 50: 4-9a
James 3: 1-12
Psalm 116: 1-8
Mark 8: 27-end
Our Services:
19th September 2021—16th Sunday after Trinity
9:30am | Harvest Communion at Bedingham Church
11:00am | Eucharist Shelton Church
26th September 2021—Harvest Thanksgiving
9:30am | Harvest Thanksgiving Hempnall Church
9:30am | Harvest Thanksgiving Woodton Church
9:30am | Harvest Thanksgiving Hardwick Church
11:00am | Harvest Thanksgiving Fritton Church
11:00am | Harvest Thanksgiving Topcroft Church
6:00pm | Evening Service via Zoom | “In Praise & Celebration of Creation with St. Francis”
