This morning, the first Sunday in September,  was our Family Service. It was lovely to see so many families and children back with us after the holidays. We were fortunate to have the Arch Deacon with us as the celebrant, and it was also a special day because we celebrate our Patronal Festival. St Mary our Lady has quite a few feast days, but we have chosen the celebration of her birth as our special Festival.

We had a lovely reading of a poem about St Mary and the Archdeacon preached, picking up the Gospel from Luke where Mary sings the poem we call the Magnificat. We learned that Magna means big and animus means our soul or essence. So by being magnanimous we expand our souls in the glory of God, and as we go out this week, back to school and work we should be magnanimous in all we do!

The Choir is back in session so as well as singing some well known hymns about St Mary, the ladies sang a setting of the Ave Verum by Faure as the anthem.

We had Coffee after the service!!! For the first time in over 18 months we were able to meet and chat after the service with suitable precautions. We left Church on a beautiful late summer morning refreshed and renewed for the week ahead.

 

A reading from the letter of Paul to the Galatians.

When the fullness of time had come, 

God sent his Son, 

born of a woman, born under the law, 

in order to redeem those who were under the law, 

so that we might receive adoption as children. 

And because you are children, 

God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 

crying, “Abba! Father!” 

So you are no longer a slave but a child,

 and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.