The Welland-Fosse Benefice: Prayers and Notices

Sunday 1st August 2021: Trinity IX

 

• Please pray for the sick including Jane Williams, Judith Piggott, Sylvia Martin, Derek Barker and Sussie Clements. Pray too for the departed, including Jim Cunningham.
• Zoom Morning Prayer continues on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8.30am. Compline is on Thursday at 6pm.
• Next Sunday we are in church at South Luffenham at 9.30 am with Canon Tim Alban- Jones and at 11 am in Barrowden and on Zoom.
• Please remember in your prayers George Bradshaw who is to be baptised at 12 noon in Barrowden Church on 8th August. Remember too his parents and godparents.

 

SOUTH LUFFENHAM:

Sunday 8th August 9.30 Holy Communion (Canon Tim Alban-Jones).
Sunday 15th August 3pm Songs of Praise on Parish Field (behind village hall)- please note change of venue.

‘Still Time’ in Church Fridays 10.30-11am.  Anyone from the Benefice is welcome to join us for a time of silent prayer. 

 

 

MEDITATION:    Picking Gooseberries

 

There comes a time when we have to act. It’s now or never if anything is to be saved from a disappointing crop. The day is bright; the fruit is dry; the freezer is waiting so there can be no excuses. Gloves are useless in spite of the dangers. It’s a bare-handed job for all our sophistications.  Nevertheless, it is a daunting task. It’s not the backache so much as the attack from thorns. Is the harvest really worth it? To bloodied hands the bush surrenders its riches.

 

Am I doing the right thing or is this project too selfish? What else would benefit but the freezer for a while? The birds, certainly. The occasional beautifully hollowed-out fruits are the evidence but it’s few and far between. Perhaps the birds are feeding elsewhere on lower-hanging fruits. Nature has a way of safe-guarding itself. What a marvel it is!  Alleluia’s can be heard among the fruit-bushes, interspersed by calloused cursing.

 

The crop is small, poor. Has it not been fed sufficiently? Have I planted my bushes too close together to satisfy a summer greed? Has the pruning been deficient?

 

The larger fruits are to be found deep inside the bush, well protected by that crown of thorns. I aim for those, but they are not ideal as their weight brushes the floor to coat them in mud. Yet deep down, beyond the painful thorns there is glory. Has this harvest been worthwhile?

 

Another Crown of Thorns in a different season reminds us of His enduring value. Pain and glory intermingled. Picking gooseberries: a meditation for the undecided.

 

 

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

The Very Rev Christopher Armstrong and the churchwardens