22nd November 2020                                  

Dear All

Coronavirus – Covid – 19 – continues to change our lives.  No doubt by the time you read this, instructions could easily have changed!  This is inevitable because we have never been here before.

It’s as if the pause button has been pushed on our remote controls and life has been put on hold.  We have all been told to stay at home, except for a daily walk, run or cycle; work from home, as far as possible; keep our distance.  How important it is to follow this advice.

We can all play our part.  We thank God for the many, many people who have volunteered to assist the NHS in this crisis.

As you have no doubt heard, we have been requested by our bishops to close our churches.  This means, as we have started to do, is to share our worship differently.  On the Hempnall Group website there are thoughts and prayers to guide us and we are hoping in the future to add a morning and evening prayer so we can share and pray together.

There seems to be a network of practical help available in our villages.  Thank you to those who have arranged this.  We all have different needs and there are those who can assist.  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 07891 854219.

Let’s cope with this crisis with a spirit of kindness and loving service to those around us.

Remember SPS:  Stay at home; Protect the NHS; Save lives;

With love

Liz 

I lift my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2

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Thoughts and Prayers for the Week

Sunday 22nd November - Christ the King

Prayer of the Week

God the Father,

help us to hear the call of Christ the King

and to follow in his service,

whose kingdom has no end;

for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, one glory.

Amen.

Thought for the Week

This Sunday the church celebrates the feast of Christ the King. It marks the end of the churches year. We have journeyed together through the waiting and hopeful times of Advent to the joy and celebration of the birth of God’s Son at Christmas. Lent and Holy Week offers a time of inner reflection and penitence where we see the cost of God’s love revealed in the death of Jesus, through to the Easter joy Resurrection.

Throughout the year we have listened to stories of Jesus’s life and his encounters with the religious establishment and ordinary people. We have seen the way he valued and listened to each person he met as uniquely and unconditionally loved by God. He treated each with respect and compassion, offering them hope and a future.

The Christian year invites us to look again at the Jesus we seek to follow. How do we do this in the 21^st century? The same as in Jesus’s time.

Jesus in our gospel reading tells us clearly through the parable of sheep and goats.  He says,

for I was hungry and you gave me food,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

I was naked and you gave me clothing,

I was sick and you took care of me, I

was in prison and you visited me.’

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these

who are members of my family you did it to me.

In other words when we do these things, we are doing it not just for Jesus but to Jesus, he is truly present in every person we meet.

None of the things Jesus mentions are religious, they are simple actions either done or not done.  Jesus, the King we are called to serve, and the way he wants to be served, is for us to be filled with love, care and compassion for our brothers and sisters everywhere, especially those who are not experiencing the abundance with which he has filled the world. If we do we will find ourselves blessed. The blessing is in the giving. Then Jesus says to us,

Come, you that are blessed by my Father,

inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

Prayer

Help me, Lord, to find and respond to you in every person and in every experience of this day. Grant, Lord, that all my thoughts, intentions, actions and responses may be directed solely to your love and service. Amen.

Let us continue to remember each other:

• Daily, by saying The Lord’s Prayer together, morning and evening
• Lighting a candle on Sundays at 10.00am

Our Readings this week: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24, Psalm  95:1-7, Ephesians 1:15-end, Matthew 25:31-end