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Thankfully Storm Bert hasn't damaged the church, although the strong wind kept opening the south door during the service. The Sunday Sch...
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1 Corinthians 11.23-26 A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, Beloved: I received from the Lord what I also hand...
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For our third Sunday in Advent we had the option of two services at 10 am In Church there was sung Mattins taken by Father Roger, while in t...
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***Tickets for the Selsey performances are sold out **** David Flint – Actor David toured with The National Youth Theatre in Coriolanus an...
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For Remembrance Sunday we had a 10 am Eucharist celebrated by Father Chris and observed the 2 minutes silence at 11 in Church, and read the ...
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Another busy weekend at St Mary our Lady. On Saturday night we had a Eucharist for All Souls Day with the Faure Requiem sung liturgically in...
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We had a lovely sunny morning to greet us today. Crafty church was held in the Church Hall whilst in church we had sung Matins. Fr Roger who...
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Father Chris had help to light the second Advent Candle, before celebrating the Eucharist at 10 am. This Sunday our thoughts were with the s...
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The first Sunday in the month our 10 am service was a family eucharist. The weather has returned to the glorious sunshine so the church was ...
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Father Chris is back, and we had a parish Eucharist today at 10 am The choir sang 'Tantum Ergo' in the setting by Deodat de Severac ...
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
Service Times
First Sunday in the Month:
08:00am Holy Communion
10:00am Family Service
Second Sunday in the Month
Third Sunday in the Month
08:00am Holy Communion
10:00am Family Service
Second Sunday in the Month
08:00am Holy Communion
10:00am Parish Eucharist
10:00am Parish Eucharist
Third Sunday in the Month
08:00am Holy Communion
10:00am Sung Matins in the Church or Crafty Communion in Church Hall
Fourth Sunday in the Month
08:00am Holy Communion
08:00am Holy Communion
10:00am Parish Eucharist
Variations can be found in the Parish Magazine or the Calendar at the bottom of this page.
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