The Welland-Fosse Benefice: Prayers and Notices

 Sunday 23rd May 2021:  Pentecost

 

• Please remember in your prayers those who are sick: Ray Bailey, Sylvia Martin, Margaret and Derek Barker, Suzie Clements, Judith Piggott and Jane Williams. Pray too for the departed.
• Pray too for our PCC’s preparing for their Annual Meetings.
• Zoom Morning Prayer continues on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8.30 am.
• Next Sunday, 30th May, we are in church at Morcott for the Benefice Communion Service at 10am. There will be no Zoom service on that day.

 

SOUTH LUFFENHAM:

Sunday 23rd May 9.30am Communion by Extension (AR).

Sunday 13th June 9.30am Morning Worship (AR).

Sunday 27th June 9.30am Holy Communion (CA).

‘Still Time’ (a time for silent prayer) will resume in South Luffenham Church on Fridays from 10.30-11am starting on 4th June. All are welcome to pop in for a few moments of stillness. 

 

MEDITATION: ‘A Terrible Week’

We all have ‘um, terrible weeks, but I was seriously afflicted last week.

 

First it was the computer – the bane of my life.  It was poorly and I had been warned but on Wednesday it gave up the ghost. Yes, I was expecting it but it died maliciously, knowing that there was urgent work on board for the magazine editor – she who must be obeyed.  I scampered to the computer shop only to find that yes, they could help but at significant cost.  Never mind, it had to be done.  However, the transfer of my urgent data would take 10 days – in Germany! I could already hear the editor screaming!  

There was a way around the problem of course: compose the whole lot again. So that is what I did, inching my way around the new and baffling recesses of the new computer networks and at the same time having a mega-sulk at all the free time for the garden which I was missing.  At least it kept the editor off my neck.

 

So that took until Friday. At 10 am, having put away all malicious thoughts about hammers and laptops, I resolved to do the washing-up, basking in a glow of generosity.  Unfortunately, no hot water came from the relevant tap on demand. Frantic calls to the landlord eventually resulted in a boiler man who came late on Friday but the problem was beyond him. So, we were destined to have a weekend with no hot water.  It felt like the end of the world or at least the hight of the blitz. Oh, the agonies of greasy dishes and shaving in cold! Luckily Zoom worship insulates us from odd smells and non-designer-stubble so, with huge relief I made it to Sunday night and a glass of wine.

 

On Monday at 8am another boiler expert arrived, this time a woman who instantly fixed the problem to a round of undiluted gratitude and utility-alleluias. Life could return to near-normal again – after the obligatory lock-up in the bathroom to re-gain the sensual effects of hot water.

 

Why do I tell you this – and whyever did you get this far? It struck me that my misfortunes were a small parable of redemption – being re-united with those things which we yearn for and have painfully missed. That is why we Christians celebrate the Eucharist, giving thanks for the opportunity of being re-united with God – and mysteriously one another – whatever our circumstances might be.

 

Our forebears managed without computers and hot water, but we have grown used to these luxuries. Acceptable as they are, computers or hot water are not essential to our humanity and neither, as a human race, can we expect them. With God however, we find our fulfilment in Him. He is our creator and to be separated from him makes us slightly less than fully human. That is why we celebrate The Eucharist: the thanksgiving for unity with God through Christ.

 

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

The Very Rev Christopher Armstrong and the churchwardens