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 5 September
10.30am - BCP Holy Communion (Revd Dr Matthias Grebe)
Sunday 7 September / Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘Giving Up Everything for Christ’
Order of Service: Here
Weekly Insert Sheet: Here
Other notices:
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!
Season of Creation: This is the period in the annual church calendar, from 1 September to 4 October, dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of all life. It is therefore a particularly appropriate time to give thanks for God’s gift of creation and renew our own commitment to caring for it and stewarding it well. Resources to help reflect further on this can be found here.
Music Recital Series: Next week, on Wednesday 10, Thursday 11, and Friday 12 September, at 7.30pm in St Edward’s church, Rachel Stroud and Andrew Arthur (Director of Music at Trinity Hall) will be performing the complete violin & obbligato harpsichord sonatas by J.S. Bach over the course of three evenings. Tickets are available to purchase online here.
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 (Wednesday 3 September):
St Gregory the Great was born in 540, the son of a Roman senator. As a young man he pursued a governmental career, and in 573 was made Prefect of the city of Rome. Following the death of his father, he resigned his office, sold his inheritance, and became a monk. In 579 he was sent by the pope to Constantinople to be his representative to the patriarch. He returned to Rome in 586, and was himself elected pope in 590. At a time of political turmoil, Gregory proved an astute administrator and diplomat, securing peace with the Lombards. He initiated the mission to England, sending Augustine and forty monks from his own monastery to refound the English Church. His writings were pastorally orientated. His spirituality was animated by a dynamic of love and desire for God. Indeed, he is sometimes called the ‘Doctor of desire’. For Gregory, desire was a metaphor for the journey into God. As pope, he styled himself ‘Servant of the servants of God’ – a title which typified both his personality and ministry. He died in 604.
Merciful Father, who chose your bishop Gregory to be a servant of the servants of God: grant that, like him, we may ever long to serve you by proclaiming your gospel to the nations, and may ever rejoice to sing your praises; 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. Amen.
