Services This Week
Vincent Van Gogh. (1888). The Sower. [Oil on canvas]. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands.
Dear All,
Please join us for services this week, which are taking place in person or via livestream through our YouTube Channel. You can find gathering times and service sheet links below.
Sunday 18 July
11.00pm — Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘All Creation Awaits With Eager Longing’ (Revd Dr Mark Scarlata)
Service Sheet: Here
Other notices:
Ladies & Men’s Groups: Our bi-weekly men’s and women’s study groups will be taking a break for the summer. Groups will return to regular meetings in the autumn.
Giving: We are grateful for all of your gifts! Offerings may be made via BACS (Sort: 20-17-19 / Acc. No.: 30851477 / Acc. Name: St Edwards Church), for standing orders, or the SumUp machine on the table by the door, for contactless giving. There is also a wall-mounted deposit box by the door for cash and/or cheques.
Exciting Holiness - Elizabeth Ferard
Elizabeth Catherine Ferard was encouraged by Bishop Tait of London to visit deaconess institutions in Germany and, in November 1861, she and a group of women dedicated themselves ‘to minister to the necessities of the Church’ as servants in the Church. On this day in 1862, Elizabeth Ferard received the first deaconess licence from Bishop Tait. She went on to found a community of deaconesses within a religious sisterhood, the Community of St Andrew, working first in a poor parish in the King’s Cross area of London and then moving to Notting Hill in 1873. When her health failed, she passed on the leadership to others and died on Easter Day 1883.
‘The Sower’ - William Cowper
Break up your fallow ground;
The sower is gone forth to sow,
And scatter blessings round.
The seed that finds a stony soil
Shoots forth a hasty blade;
But ill repays the sower's toil,
Soon wither'd, scorch'd, and dead.
The thorny ground is sure to balk
All hopes of harvest there;
We find a tall and sickly stalk,
But not the fruitful ear.
The beaten path and highway side,
Receive the trust in vain;
The watchful birds the spoil divide,
And pick up all the grain.
But where the Lord of grace and power
Has bless'd the happy field,
How plenteous is the golden store
The deep-wrought furrows yield!
Father of mercies, we have need
Of thy preparing grace;
Let the same Hand that give me seed
Provide a fruitful place!
Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
