02 August 2020
11:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
The first Sunday in August brings us to our first family service since we have been able to have services. Although being August there were not many families around. The celebrant was Father Stephen, and Chris Field took this opportunity to tell us about the resources that the Sunday School leaders used when preparing the sessions, they have been continuing with the work in lockdown using the internet to provide activities for the children and parents to do together. A big thank you to all the sunday school staff, and to the parents and children for keeping going during these difficult times!
As has become our custom, social distancing and face masks were all in place, and the communion was given only as the bread. Once again Joanna provided music during the service, but still no singing. Good news from the Plant and Book Sale a splendid result, in total the two sales, Cakes and Jam the week before and Books and Plants this week have raised £900! a great help towards filling the gap left by not having a Fete this year.
If you would like to order a christmas cake, or pudding, Hilary Platts is taking orders now, please let her know.
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| Source Lesley Bromley |
‘THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK’ FROM THE REVEREND STEPHEN GUISE, PRIEST IN CHARGE – EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 2 AUGUST
Tintoretto, ‘The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes’,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Dear Friends
Today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 14:13-21) depicts Jesus wanting to be alone for a while to think: the execution of John the Baptist represents a turning-point in the narrative and Jesus needed to have some time to consider the implications. But neither the crowds following him, nor the disciples, could leave him alone – they were a ‘flock without a shepherd’.
How would Jesus deal with this situation? It was clear that people needed to eat and rest, so he delegates this need to his disciples, who are at a loss, and seem ill-equipped to meet its demands – let alone to understand its deeper meaning, whereby the basic human need to assuage hunger is symptomatic, also, of a spiritual hunger.
So Jesus, with the foreknowledge which had drawn them all out into the wilderness in the first place, turns things around through the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes. The subsequent twelve baskets-full of scraps point to the abundance of God’s mercy and are, at the same time, a sign and foretaste of the banquet of the kingdom. The story should also be interpreted as a pattern for the Holy Eucharist.
Fr Stephen
PS: The 10.00am service on the first Sunday of the month is usually a Family Communion, although at the moment it will not be possible to involve our Sunday School children in a presentation, so we are very grateful to Chris (Field) who will be providing a talk, as well as taking the intercessions, this week.
Collect for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity
Almighty Lord and everlasting God,
we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern
both our hearts and bodies
in the ways of your laws
and the works of your commandments;
that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever,
we may be preserved in body and soul;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans.
I am speaking the truth in Christ—
I am not lying;
my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit—
I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed
and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people,
my kindred according to the flesh.
They are Israelites,
and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
to them belong the patriarchs,
and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah,
who is over all,
God blessed forever. Amen.
Gospel Matthew 14:13-21
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
When Jesus heard that Herod had beheaded John the Baptist,
he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
But when the crowds heard it,
they followed him on foot from the towns.
When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd;
and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said,
"This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late;
send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages
and buy food for themselves."
Jesus said to them,
"They need not go away;
you give them something to eat."
They replied,
"We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish."
And he said, "Bring them here to me."
Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish,
he looked up to heaven,
and blessed and broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
And all ate and were filled;
and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces,
twelve baskets full.
And those who ate were about five thousand men,
besides women and children.
