The Welland-Fosse Benefice: Prayers and Notices.

 Sunday 11 April 2021:  Easter II.

 

• Please remember in your prayers those who are sick: Ray Bailey, Jean and Peter Bowser; Sylvia Martin and Jane Williams.
• We give thanks for the long life of Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: for his humour, energy and devotion to duty in the service of The Queen, country and Commonwealth.
• Pray too for our PCC’s preparing for their Annual Meetings and especially for potential wardens to emerge in Barrowden where the current wardens are due to retire after many years faithful service. A limit of 6 years maximum has now been placed on warden’s service in Barrowden.
• Zoom Morning Prayer continues on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8.30 am.
• Next Sunday we are in church at South Luffenham and Tixover at 9.30am and on Zoom at 11 am
• The Rev. Dr Sam Wells (Vicar of St. Martin in the Fields) is giving the first Peckard Lecture for Peterborough Cathedral on Zoom, 6 May at 7.30pm. Book via the Cathedral Website. He is very good and worth £7!

BARROWDEN: There is a Book of Condolence for the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in St. Peter’s Church, Barrowden available for messages of sympathy.   The Church is open from 10 am. to 4 pm. every day.  Please bring your own pen if possible.

SOUTH LUFFENHAM:
The next service in Church is on Sunday 18th April at 9.30am (Communion by Extension led by Ann).
Coffee Zoom Monday 12th April at 3.30pm.  Email sally@saltlane.com or phone 01780 tHE729515 if you would like the details. 
Our Church will be open for private prayer every day from 10am to 4pm. Please pop in to have a look at the Easter flower arrangements. (Thank you to the Flower Arrangers).

 

MORCOTT:  There is a Book of Condolence available for the Duke of Edinburgh in the church porch should anyone wish to sign. 

 

LOW SUNDAY MEDITATION:

The Anglican Lectionary calls this the Second Sunday of Easter. I’ve always known it as Low Sunday. There are many popular explanations for the name. A quick Google search will come up with a few.

For more than twenty years I sang in a church choir. Easter meant immersion at the heart of a rich pattern of liturgy. On Low Sunday we were given a rest. During that time, the Passion story always felt relevant, personal, profoundly real. Last year Easter disappeared. I was in a state of shock and can remember almost nothing about it.

 

For the following year, Government required us to abstain from the activity which makes us who we are; to accept that the virtual is a substitute for the material; to face the stark reality of grief.

 

As I reflect on Easter 2021, I’m struck by the similarity between restriction for the common good and the meaning of Christ’s passion. Easter confronts us with sacrifice. We begin to trust and hope in the things which we can’t actually experience. We believe that though night is a time for tears, joy comes in the morning.

 

Today’s lectionary’s readings offer both challenge and encouragement. Though I’m still exhausted by recent events, everything is possible if I follow the one who has already risen.

 

See wellandfosse.org for much more information, including contact details for

The Very Rev Christopher Armstrong and the churchwardens