Sunday 18^th October 2020:  Saint Luke’s Day

 

• Please remember in your prayers those who are sick: Janette Saunders, Ann Hensby, Belinda Forbes and Derek Barker.
• Zoom services continue throughout the week, including today, 11am.
• Next week, the service will be Holy Communion at Barrowden Church with Zoom at 11am.
• 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
• Next Sunday, 25^th October, the clocks go back at 2am.
• Stop Press! 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.

 

SOUTH LUFFENHAM:

Our Church is open 10-4 daily. The flower arrangements are still looking fantastic!

 

The Foodbank tubs will be collected on Wednesday morning this week and there is still space for a few more offerings. Thank you.         

 

MEDITATION

Wherever we look at the moment there seems to be chaos. “Chaos” means “a state of total confusion with no order” according to the Cambridge dictionary. There is dissension amongst politicians, businesses are in jeopardy and people are fearful of the future. To add to all that the nights will soon be longer and there is the winter looming. It appears to be a very bleak outlook. And it can be if we let it!

 

We can be overwhelmed by the situation in which we find ourselves and it is perhaps the uncertainty which is the most frightening aspect of our present circumstances. We are not keen on change and we certainly don’t like being unable to plan and make decisions which we know will be honoured at the right time. One of the areas which I am studiously ignoring is Christmas. What will it be like? We don’t know and will have to wait, another thing which we are often not very good at!

 

So what is there that can ease the overwhelming problems? There are all the clichés which are trotted out but which are not of any great help. But there are sights around us which defeat the chaos. I have watched in awe the tree outside my window come into bud, flower, berries redden and now the leaves falling. And the seasons will be around next year in due time.

 

Even if everything changes there is one sure constant. The hymn states, “Thou, whose almighty word, chaos and darkness heard and took their flight.” God knows the chaos and darkness which exists and weeps with us in the hours of loneliness and uncertainty and is there for each one of us if we take him at his word. The prayer I gave in September but which is still so relevant.

 

Prayer: Walk with us, Lord, as we journey through the darkness of uncertainty. May we find light and joy and love to guide us in your path. Amen.  

 

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