Services This Week
Dear All,
Services this week are taking place in person or via livestream through our YouTube Channel. Please find gathering times and service sheet links below.
Friday 3 May
10.30am - BCP Holy Communion (Revd Dr Jeremy Morris)
Sunday 5 May / Sixth Sunday of Easter
9am - BCP Holy Communion
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘So That Your Joy May Be Complete’
Service Sheet: Here
Other news:
APCM & Church Lunch: Our annual meeting of the parish church and church lunch will be held this year after the 11am service on Pentecost Sunday (19 May 2024). Pulled pork and vegetarian sandwiches will be provided but we would welcome members bringing sides, salads, desserts, or drinks. Please speak to Hosanna Greene or email stedwardsassistant@gmail.com if you intend to bring something. Thank you!
Volunteer Rota: In addition to the sign-up sheet in church, we are making it easier to volunteer by attaching an online rota with the weekly email here. (N.B. There will be an initial delay before access is granted to the form, in order that only church members can see and edit it.) Please do consider if you are able to help out in any of the ways listed – we are particularly in need of regular volunteers to set-up tea and coffee and stay a little longer after each service to wash-up/leave away. Many thanks!
Giving: As always we are grateful for all of your gifts! Offerings may still be given during this time via a basket collection during live services, Standing Orders, or one time bank transfer, via BACS (Sort Code: 20-17-19 / Account Number: 30851477 / Account Name: St Edwards Church). There is now also a SumUp machine by the door of the church, for those of you who wish to give contactlessly: Simply power on, enter the amount you wish to give on the screen, and then tap your card.
Exciting Holiness (Thursday 2 May):
Athanasius was born in about the year 296 of Christian parents and educated at the Catechetical school in Alexandria. He was present at the Council of Nicæa as a deacon, accompanying his bishop Alexander, whom he succeeded as Patriarch in the year 328. Athanasius held firmly to the doctrines of the Church as defined by that Council, and became the leader of those opposed to the teachings of Arius, who denied the divinity of Christ. He was deposed from – and restored to – his See several times because of his uncompromising faith. In or out of exile, Athanasius continued to write. Ever the proponent of orthodoxy over heterodoxy, he expounded the need for the Church to teach the true doctrines of the faith rather than watered-down versions of it. He was a strong believer in asceticism as a means of restoring the divine image in humanity and thus a supporter of monasticism, which was in its nascent state at that time. He was a friend of Pachomius and wrote the Life of Antony of Egypt, which showed the monastic life as holding a balance between things earthly and heavenly. He died on this day in the year 373.
Ever-living God, whose servant Athanasius testified to the mystery of the Word made flesh for our salvation: help us, with all your saints, to contend for the truth and to grow into the likeness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
