09 November 2025
10:30 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
Job 19:23-27a
A reading from the book of Job.
Job said to his companionsL
"O that my words were written down!
O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead
they were engraved on a rock forever!
For I know that my vindicator[a] lives
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another."
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Thessalonians.
As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our being gathered together to him,
we beg you, brothers and sisters,
not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed,
either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us,
to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.
Let no one deceive you in any way,
for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first
and the lawless one is revealed,
the one destined for destruction.
He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god
or object of worship,
so that he takes his seat in the temple of God,
declaring himself to be God.
Do you not remember that I told you these things
when I was still with you?
But we must always give thanks to God for you,
brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord,
because God chose you as the first fruits
for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit
and through belief in the truth.
For this purpose he called you
through the proclamation of the good news,
so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So then, brothers and sisters,
stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us,
either by word of mouth or by our letter.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God our Father, who loved us
and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope,
comfort your hearts
and strengthen them in every good work and word.
Luke 20:27-38
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection,
came to Jesus and asked him a question:
“Teacher,
Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies
leaving a wife but no children,
the man shall marry the widow
and raise up children for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman and died childless;
then the second
and the third married her,
and so in the same way all seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
In the resurrection, therefore,
whose wife will the woman be?
For the seven had married her.”
Jesus said to them,
“Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage,
but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age
and in the resurrection from the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
Indeed, they cannot die anymore,
because they are like angels and are children of God,
being children of the resurrection.
And the fact that the dead are raised
Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush,
where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Now he is God not of the dead but of the living,
for to him all of them are alive.”
02 November 2025
As we have done for many years, there was a service for the dead. The names of friends and relations who have passed as well as the many people whose names are know only to God. The choir, swollen by many friends sang the Requiem by Gabriel Faure, as an integral part of the communion service.
Requiem Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Gabriel Fauré, born in 1845, was appointed titular organist a La Madeleine, Paris, in 1896 and director of the Paris Conservatoire in 1905.
Fauré started to think about the composition of a requiem in 1885 after the death of his father. Unlike Berlioz and Verdi he removed the Dies Irae sequence, which he considered over theatrical. Hence the Offertorium comes up much sooner than is usual in a requiem mass setting. He permits himself only a brief reference to the “day of wrath” in the Libera me baritone solo.
Gabriel Fauré
Fauré’s Requiem happily lends itself to a liturgical performance by amateur choirs, being particularly popular with English choirs, with the organ taking the place of the orchestra. This seems to have been recognised early on its life, coinciding as it did with liturgical experimentation in the Church of England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – experiments now adopted and sanctioned for universal use with the introduction in 1980 of the Alternative Service Book and more recently the Common Worship services. These owe their formation to the proposed 1928 Prayer Book and the English Missal (1933) and their structure, including additions to the Book of Common Prayer, fit best with Fauré’s arrangement of sections. The 1928 Prayer Book and English Missal largely formalised a variety of liturgical practices which had been used in sung Communion services previously.
The service is an act of worship, to include remembrance of the departed, and may sound something like a similar service in an English church at about the time of Faurés death in November 1924, when sections of his requiem were sung at his funeral at La Madeleine.
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| Faure in 1907 from Wikipedia |
After torrential rain overnight, we went to church is beautiful autumnal sunshine.
Today we celebrated All Saints Day. The children had coloured in shoelds with the symbols of the various apostles and we had to name all twelve.
Join us for Evensong this afternoon at 3.30pm, the winter timing as the clocks went back last week. It also means we have tea and cake after the service.
A reading from the book of Daniel.
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon
Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed:
then he wrote the dream, .
I, Daniel saw in my vision by night,
the four winds of the heaven stirring up the great sea.
And four great beasts came up out the sea, different one from another.
As for me, Daniel my spirit was troubled within me,
and the visions of my head troubled me.
I approached one of the attendants,
to ask him the truth concerning this.
So he said that he would disclose to me the interpretation of the matter:
as for these four great beasts,
four kings shall arise out of the earth.
But the holy ones of the most High shall receive the kingdom,
and possess the kingdom for ever - for ever and ever.
Ephesians 1:11-23
A reading from the letterof Paul to the Ephesians.
In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance,
having been destined according to the purpose of him
who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,
so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ,
might live for the praise of his glory.
In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him,
were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;
this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people,
to the praise of his glory.
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus
and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason
I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation
as you come to know him,
so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened,
you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you,
what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power
for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.
God put this power to work in Christ
when he raised him from the dead
and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule and authority and power and dominion
and above every name that is named,
not only in this age but also in the age to come.
And he has put all things under his feet
and has made him the head over all things for the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Luke 6:20-31
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:
Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you
and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice on that day and leap for joy,
for surely your reward is great in heaven,
for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
But I say to you that listen,
Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you;
bless those who curse you;
pray for those who mistreat you.
If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also,
and from anyone who takes away your coat
do not withhold even your shirt.
Give to everyone who begs from you,
and if anyone takes away yur goods,
do not ask for it back again.
Do to others as you would have them do to you."
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