The Welland-Fosse Benefice: Prayers and Notices

 

 Sunday 1^st November 2020:  All Saints’ Day.

• Please remember in your prayers those who are sick: Janette Saunders, Ann Hensby, Belinda Forbes and Derek Barker.
• Zoom services continue today, 11am., with the sculptor Michael Moralee.
• Next week, Remembrance Sunday, the services will be at Barrowden (HC) at 8 am, South Luffenham at 9.30am, Duddington at 10am with Morcott and Barrowden at 10.55 am, including the Zoom Service.
• Monday 2^nd November is All Souls’ Day. There will be a short service in Barrowden Church at 2pm when we shall remember those who have gone before us in the faith.
• Zoom Morning Prayer continues on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8.30am. Compline will be suspended until Advent when it will be held on Sundays at 6pm starting 29^th
• The Rev’d Dr. Carys Walsh is coming to Barrowden Church at 2pm on 12 November to talk about the poet R.S.Thomas – the subject of her new book which is also a literary guide through Advent. Copies of the book will be on sale on the day, priced £12.99. Please let Kay Bagshaw (01572 748797) know if you wish to come. Please wear a face mask.

 

MORCOTT:

Our next service is Remembrance Sunday 8 November in church starting at 10.55hrs, led by the Churchwardens. Please ring Jane on 747157 to ‘book’ your place so we can ensure social distancing, though we hope to accommodate all who want to come. There will be music, but no singing.

 

SOUTH LUFFENHAM:

South Luffenham Church is open daily 10-4.

 

If you would like to decorate your window for our village Advent Calendar please email sally@saltane.com

Remembrance Sunday service in Church next Sunday at 9.30am – all available places have now been reserved.

The South Luffenham village collection box can be found outside the gate of 27, The Street. I thank you on behalf of the Foodbank for your continued support.

shopping list: ·         Coffee ·         Dried potato (smash type) ·         Jam ·         Small bags of sugar ( Due to the weight of items people have to carry) ·         Tinned potatoes ·         Small sponge puddings ·         UHT Juice ·         Tins of Custard ·         Shaving gel ·         washing up liquid ·         Non- Bio washing capsules (For families with young children) ·         Toilet rolls

MEDITATION

 

Who are the saints that we celebrate today?  In the famous Ghent Altarpiece painted by Van Eyck in 1432 we can see a wide range of worshippers gathered round the Lamb of God.  There are the usual suspects: hermits, virgins, angels, ordinary faithful men and women – even a few bishops.   But if we look carefully, there are also some surprises: crusaders, philosophers and Muslims. How wide can this category of saint be stretched?

 

I remember a very embarrassing moment during an earnest discussion among senior clergy in the northwest of England.  It was about providing support for the very poor, of which there are many in that area.  The priest presenting his ideas implied that even the Muslims were God’s people and thus deserving of support.  He then left the room.  The presiding bishop was shocked by his final throwaway remark and said so forcibly. 

 

The bishop was wrong.  He was a godly man, devoted to the scriptures but Jesus – in those very scriptures – told a parable about our wider vision.  In Matthew chapter 21, two brothers are told to go and work in the vineyard by their father.  One said he would and then didn’t. The other said he wouldn’t, then changed his mind and went. Which one did the will of the father, asks Jesus.

 

I prefer to interpret God’s call to follow him in the widest of ways.  The Beatitudes (Matthew Ch. 5. 1 – 12) suggests that those who are blessed are those who carry out God’s will and not those that merely pay lip-service to it. So philosophers, military and people of all creeds and none are to be found doing God’s will, knowingly or unknowingly.  That is what the Ghent Altarpiece suggests to us. And those who kneel in front of it – or any altar today – will, with God’s grace, see that we are not alone in paying homage to The Lamb of God in all spheres of life. Those are the saints; those who do the will of God; those who see the work of the Lord in the hands of others. May they all be encouraged, blessed, valued in their work.

 

See wellandfosse.org for much more information, including contact details for The Very Rev Christopher Armstrong and the churchwardens