31 October 2021
10:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
This morning we met at 10 am for a Parish Eucharist, Having battled our way through torrential rain, once the service was underway the sun came out! Today we celebrated All Saints, so our hymns were those traditional for the feast, and Father Roger spoke about the Saints (Militant and Triumphant) in his address.
This also being a fifth Sunday. choir sang the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei in the setting by Darke in F, and the anthem was 'Give us the wings of Faith' setting by Bullock.
There was coffee after the service.
The year is turning and we are approaching Remembrance Sunday, Advent and Christmas, On Remembrance Sunday our service and act of Remembrance will start at 10:45 to encompass the two minutes silence, and will proceed to the War Memorial for the laying of wreaths.
The tickets are now available for the Christmas Grand Draw, If you receive the Parishioner you will have found some tickets inside, please do sell them, and if you can sell more contact Janet or Chris the Church Wardens. If you haven't had any, and would like to buy tickets, also contact Janet or Chris.
The Christmas Market will take place between 11 am and 3 pm on Saturday 4th of December, there will be stalls, plants and we are serving hot food such as you would find at a German Christmas Market, including mulled wine and spiced apple juice, Bratwurst, Kartoffelpuffers, and Raclette on bread. Come, buy, and try something new for lunch!!
There is a Christmas tree competition in association with the market, design a Christmas scene including small decorated tree (the whole to fit on a card table) these will be on display at the Market! Sign up at the back of the Church.
Finally the last Churchyard working party of the year will be on Saturday next the 6th of November, all are welcome to come along and help.
Revelations 21:1-6a
A reading from the book of Revelation.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
And the one who was seated on the throne said,
“See, I am making all things new.”
Also he said, “Write this,
for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Then he said to me,
“It is done!
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end.
John 11:32-44
Hear the gospel of or Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him,
she knelt at his feet and said to him,
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping,
and the Jews who came with her also weeping,
he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.
He said, “Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
Jesus began to weep.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
But some of them said,
“Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man
have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him,
“Lord, already there is a stench
because he has been dead four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believed,
you would see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus looked upward and said,
“Father, I thank you for having heard me.
I knew that you always hear me,
but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here,
so that they may believe that you sent me.”
When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth,
and his face wrapped in a cloth.
Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
24 October 2021
On Sunday 24 October we were asked to support Christ’s mission in our parish and ensure that our church remains open for future generations.
An additional system has been introduced that will allow the parish to raise funds.
It is through the easyfundraising website
You can shop with over 5,000 retailers including eBay, John Lewis, Argos, ASOS, Amazon and Booking.com. At no cost to you, the retailers themselves make a small donation which will be contributed to St Marys' Funds.
Please register using this unique link:
It is very easy to sign up and use. When you want to go to an online shop, you just select the easyfundraising website first. From the easyfundraising site you search or click on a link to select the shop that you want to go to. Then you just shop as normal. The difference is that the retailer will contribute to our funds if you make a purchase.
Please have a look at the following video for a fuller explanation.
The various ways that you can give are listed on the St Marys' website giving page.
Thank you.
This morning we met at 10 am for a Parish Eucharist, on a fine chilly October morning. It is half term so the Sunday School were not in session. Father Roger was the celebrant, and we were delighted to welcome Rev Martha, our Rural Dean to the service and she gave us a short homily. In this address she talked about the wonderful history of our church, and urged us to be generous in our loving and giving, not just of money (although it is always gratefully received) but giving of ourselves in support of the mision of the church, encouraging each other and of new Christians, as we want our church to still be thriving in 500 years! She was followed by Janet Harland who gave us some sobering figures on the cost of running our church, prepared by Kim and Gary our treasurers. It costs about 1000 pounds a week to keep our church going, so every little helps towards that total! Kim and Garry would like to encourage everyone to join the parish giving scheme which is run by the church, and uses a direct debit to pay directly to St Mary's every week even if you cannot attend. A second way of helping is described above the Easy Giving system, where by when you use on line retailers they will give a donation to the church, with on line shopping on the rise this looks like a good source of support, which doesnt cost you anything!
The choir sang 'Teach me Oh Lord' in the setting by Attwood as the anthem, and a communion hymn, 'All for Jesus' a most appropriate set of words after our considerations of the church finances.
There was coffee after the service in the rooms.
Some notices for this week
We will be having a Christmas Draw as we did last year, tickets will be distributed with the November parish magazine, please do try to sell them to your friends and family, there are some lovely prizes!
Our Christmas Market will be held on the 4th of December from11am to 2 pm. There will be stalls of books gifts, and plants, and in addition we are offering food in the Parish Rooms, following the Christmas Market theme we will be preparing Wurst, Kartoffelpuffer mit apel sause (potato pancakes with apple sauce) Raclette (cheese on toast) with or without peppers and mushrooms, you can have a glass of gluhwien, or non alcoholic spiced apple juice, if you would prefer something simpler we will also have Caffee mit lebkuken (coffee with German Christmas Biscuits) So a pleasant morning in store with Christmas shopping and a festive German lunch! We hope to see you all there!
We are also running a Christmas Tree decorating competition, but we are asking for a decorated miniature tree!! You can sign up for the competition and get all the details in the church.
2 Timothy 3:14- 4:5
A readiing from the second letter of Paul to Timothy.
Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed,
knowing from whom you learned it,
and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings
that are able to instruct you for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is inspired by God
and is useful for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient,
equipped for every good work.
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who is to judge the living and the dead,
#and in view of his appearing and his kingdom,
I solemnly urge you:
proclaim the message;
be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable;
convince, rebuke, and encourage,
with the utmost patience in teaching.
For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine,
but having itching ears,
they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires,
and will turn away from listening to the truth
and wander away to myths.
As for you, always be sober, endure suffering,
do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
John 5:36-47
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
I have a testimony greater than John’s.
The works that the Father has given me to complete,
the very works that I am doing,
testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.
And the Father who sent me
has himself testified on my behalf.
You have never heard his voice or seen his form,
and you do not have his word abiding in you,
because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
“You search the scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life;
and it is they that testify on my behalf.
Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
I do not accept glory from human beings.
But I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I have come in my Father’s name,
and you do not accept me;
if another comes in his own name,
you will accept him.
How can you believe
when you accept glory from one another
and do not seek the glory
that comes from the one who alone is God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father;
your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
If you believed Moses,
you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe what he wrote,
how will you believe what I say?”
17 October 2021
This morning our 10 am service was sung Mattins, as this was the third Sunday of October. Father Roger took the service, and the Choir sang the setting of the Benedictus by CV Stanford, and as the anthem 'Jesu Joy of Man's desiring' by JS Bach.
In his address Father Roger discused the reading from Luke, and you can read his interesting thoughts at the bottom of this post.
There was coffee after the service in the parish rooms. We left church to a mild and sunny October day.
Next Sunday, at our Eucharist service, we shall be celebrating Bible Sunday, and we are having a visit from our Rural Dean Rev Martha, as our guest preacher, we are looking forward to welcoming her.
Holy Communion
Hebrews 5:1-10
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews.
Every high priest chosen from among mortals
is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward,
since he himself is subject to weakness;
and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins
as well as for those of the people.
And one does not presume to take this honour,
but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest,
but was appointed by the one who said to him,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”;
as he says also in another place,
“You are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.”
In the days of his flesh,
Jesus offered up prayers and supplications,
with loud cries and tears,
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
Although he was a Son,
he learned obedience through what he suffered;
and having been made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,
having been designated by God a high priest
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Mark 10:35-45
Hear the gospel o our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
came forward to him and said to him,
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
And he said to them,
“What is it you want me to do for you?”
And they said to him,
“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand
and one at your left, in your glory.”
But Jesus said to them,
“You do not know what you are asking.
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink,
or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
They replied, “We are able.”
Then Jesus said to them,
“The cup that I drink you will drink;
and with the baptism with which I am baptized,
you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant,
but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this,
they began to be angry with James and John.
So Jesus called them and said to them,
“You know that among the Gentiles
those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them,
and their great ones are tyrants over them.
But it is not so among you;
but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,
and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.
For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Mattins
Isaiah 54:1-14
1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.
11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
Luke 13:31-35
31 The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.
32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Address
Tomorrow, 18th, is St Luke’s day. Advent Sunday in six weeks’ time will begin the year for our Communion gospel readings to major on Luke’s Gospel. For rather abstruse reasons, we also have St Luke as our second reading this morning and can pay attention to it.
In it, Jesus’ ministry is getting him into trouble. One of the favourite themes in the Old Testament was that, when the great day came, the Day of the Lord, perhaps the Messiah arriving, all sorts of people from everywhere will come to feast and to worship in Jerusalem. But by Jesus’ time, many of the Jews had rather forgotten about all sorts of people, and were focussing on themselves, their God, their nation, their land. But Luke, himself a gentile, has said early on in his Gospel that Jesus is ‘a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Israel’ – all people. The Jews needed to remember that when the Jewish faith began, with Abraham, Abraham’s family were to be a blessing to all nations.
When the Jews were fed up about the Romans controlling their Holy Land, they comforted themselves by thinking, ‘when the big banquet comes, we’ll be in, the rotten Romans and the other foreigners will be out. They will be looking in through the windows with envy.’
And then comes Jesus, saying, ‘The Kingdom is here, join up with me. You must make a decision about that, you can’t drift in any time, it’s a narrow gateway – you have to make a decision and an effort, to be with me. Or….. you Jews who think you’re safe, will miss the boat, you’ll be the envious ones looking in!’ Needless to say, Jesus’ message didn’t go down well with the Jewish establishment, but better with the common folk.
Jesus was, at the time, in the territory controlled by Herod. This is not Herod the Great who was around when Jesus was born, but Herod Antipas, one of his sons who had only a smaller territory. This Herod rather wants Jesus off his patch, he’s getting too popular, but Herod doesn’t want to be seen to be attacking Jesus. So, in our reading, some Pharisees approach Jesus in an apparently friendly way, ‘we’ve come to warn you that Herod wants to kill you, you’d better leave’. But Jesus realises that crafty Herod, ‘that fox’, as Jesus calls him, has put these Pharisees up to it, to trying to warn him off.
‘Tell Herod I’m carrying on with what I have to do,’ says Jesus. ‘Prophets get killed in Jerusalem, I’m off there soon, out of your territory, Herod. God has bigger things are afoot.’
And then comes the lament,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
Is it God pictured as speaking here, or does Jesus say these words? In any case, it is a very feminine, motherly sort of image, about a mother hen caring for chicks. There is another rather similar passage in the prophet Hosea.
When some of us were young, we learnt to walk using reins, which helped you to avoid falling. I think they have been in and out of fashion with mothers over the years, but I did see some only this week. We have this very feminine, motherly, image in Hosea, where God says:
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realise it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them. Hosea 11:3-4
A reminder, perhaps, not to make our image of God narrowly masculine.
And then Jesus, - or more likely,- the Almighty, says in our reading:
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
That is: those who reject Jesus cannot expect God to protect their city and their Temple, which might become desolate. They will, perhaps, only see God again when they are ready to welcome their Messiah, with the psalm used at festivals, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
This psalm was, in fact used at Palm Sunday, at Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem – but only by the limited number who had eyes to see, - not the whole nation.
In six weeks’, then, it is Advent Sunday, the new Church Year. In the old days we didn’t make use of a lot of scripture with our big three-year cycle of Communion readings, but had the same readings every year. But one thing we did do, was to start each new Church year at Advent, with that Palm Sunday story, as we looked hopefully towards another Christmas, Passiontide and Easter. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
And at just about every eucharist these days, just as the bread and wine are being blessed, we use the words to welcome Christ, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
Fr Roger
10 October 2021
On an autumnal morning we met at 10 am for a Parish Eucharist. Today we were delighted to welcome again the Archdeacon, Father Luke, who also preached.
The Gospel was from St Mark (see below) and Father Luke talked about how easy it is for us to become distracted by our possessions and loose sight of the way to the Kingdom, which we can only achieve through God's love. He gave us much food for thought!
The choir sang Tantum Ergo in the setting by Vierne as the anthem. The Sunday School children joined us for communion and our final hymn, Love Divine all Loves Excelling was a rousing send off from the service.
There was coffee in the rooms after the service.
We are lucky to still have our Harvest flowers in the church.
Hebrews 4:12-16
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews.
The word of God is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing until it divides soul from spirit,
joints from marrow;
it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And before him no creature is hidden,
but all are naked and laid bare
to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
Since, then, we have a great high priest
who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are,
yet without sin.
Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness,
so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
Mark 10:17-31
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
As Jesus was setting out on a journey,
a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him,
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments:
‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery;
You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;
You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’”
He said to Jesus,
“Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said,
“You lack one thing; go, sell what you own,
and give the money to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven;
then come, follow me.”
When he heard this,
he was shocked and went away grieving,
for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
“How hard it will be for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!”
And the disciples were perplexed at these words.
But Jesus said to them again,
“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
They were greatly astounded and said to one another,
“Then who can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said,
“For mortals it is impossible, but not for God;
for God all things are possible.”
Peter began to say to him,
“Look, we have left everything and followed you.”
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you,
there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or fields,
for my sake and for the sake of the good news,
who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—
houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields,
with persecutions—
and in the age to come eternal life.
But many who are first will be last,
and the last will be first.”
03 October 2021
We come to the first Sunday in October and our Harvest Festival, happily combined with our Family Service. The decorators had been hard at work and the church was resplendent with flowers and produce. The traditional Harvest hymns were sung and during the Offertory gifts were bought to the alter, starting with gifts from a farmer, a small holder and a gardener as shown in the photographs.
The children did a small presentation and Father Roger gave a short impromptu address.
During Communion the Choir sang 'Thou Visitest the Earth' by Maurice Green, Dr Platts sang the solo introduction beautifully.
After the service there was coffee in the rooms.
In the afternoon we had our Harvest Tea in the Church Hall. A traditional Sidlesham Tea, for which we are renound!! A fiendishly difficult quiz, set by Dr Platts, was won by the church warden's table. Father Roger said grace and after we had eaten sandwiches and cakes and drunk lots of tea, we sang some old favourites from the last night of the Proms accompanied on the flute by Dr Platts.
A splendid afternoon greatly appreciated!
We will have Father Luke, the Archdeacon with us again next week.
Harvest Tea
1 Timothy 6:6-10
A reading from the first letter of Paul to Timothy.
There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;
for we brought nothing into the world,
so that we can take nothing out of it;
but if we have food and clothing,
we will be content with these.
But those who want to be rich fall into temptation
and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires
that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,
and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith
and pierced themselves with many pains.
Matthew 6:25-33
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Jesus said to his disciples,
“Do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or what you will drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food,
and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air;
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
And can any of you by worrying
add a single hour to your span of life?
And why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you,
even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will he not much more clothe you—
you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry,
saying, ‘What will we eat?’
or ‘What will we drink?’
or ‘What will we wear?’
For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things;
and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
Address
Apologies as this is taken from notes during the address, not his actual words.
During the previous inter-regnum, some wit provided an "hour glass" which ran for 10 minutes as it was thought my sermons were too long. However, a server would quietly turn it over for me.
Today is Harvest Thanksgiving. Obviously we give thanks for crops, our food, but also other plants which we just enjoy looking at, our gardens. This is the same for animals, we have the source of our meat, but also out pets. My first parish was in Lancashire in the 70s. As well as the mountains of potatoes, there would also be coal and salt to remind us of things that come out of the ground. Fish are another gift from God from the sea. We wear wool, cotton, from God's bounty. The building over us is made from wood from trees and stone from the ground. If it wasn't for all of the natural stuff around us we would be here with no clothes, no food and no building.
We are not too different from the animals. God wants us to be a good crop. We are meant to be God's gift to each other.
Fr Roger
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