#270: Not a Bertie
Not a Bertie?
Not a Bertie email as Bertie is safely on holiday. Not sure what these should be called, Nertie? Nortie? Bert? Bot? Answers on a postcard…
Sunday 1st August
Below is all the information you’ll need for Sunday, namely that as Cara and her family are still isolating, Rev’d Philip Hobday from St Peter’s Earley will be presiding and preaching at the 9.30am Eucharist at St Paul’s, which will be a congregation of St Paul’s and St Nick’s together. Thank you to Philip for coming and to St Nick’s for joining with St Paul’s again, both are really appreciated.
Also, here’s a copy of the letter from Richard about the way things will look at St Paul’s with worship now, in case you didn’t read it earlier. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and made their thoughts known. We have tried to find a middle ground which allows everyone to feel as if they have been heard and respected while appreciating that it’s impossible to give every single person their complete list of preferences in a single service and a single building. Here is the letter- do please speak to the Office or to Cara or a member of the Wardens Team if you have any comments- praise will be accepted just as readily as criticism…
A message of thanks from Judi:
Judi and her family would like to express their deepest gratitude for all the love, prayers, cards, flowers, gifts, acts of kindness, help towards or in the funeral service, and at the tea afterwards, on Thursday 21st July at Mick’s funeral and reception.
We have been loved along the last few weeks, and without you all it would have been even harder than it already is.
Thank you again
Love and prayers
Judi, Ben, Laura, Becky, Suzy, Scott, Charlie, Elizabeth, Alex, Alice, and Laurence
Message from the Welcome Club:
Would anyone be available at about 1.30pm and then 4pm on Tuesday the 10th of August to help get out and then put away the furniture for the Welcome Club Cream Tea? We pay in scones and tea…
Morning Prayer and Ezekiel
Morning Prayer is currently taking us through readings from the Prophet Ezekiel, and for anyone interested in reading a bit more about the book to give context, this newsletter (which you can also subscribe to) is well worth a read.
Lastly, A Prayer for this World
O God, we thank thee for this universe, our great home;
for its vastness and its riches,
and for the manifoldness of the life which teems upon it
and of which we are part.
We praise thee for the arching sky and the blessed winds,
for the driving clouds and the constellations on high.
We praise thee for the salt sea and the running water,
for the everlasting hills, for the trees,
and for the grass under our feet.
We thank thee for our senses
by which we can see the splendour of the morning,
and hear the jubilant songs of love,
and smell the breath of the springtime.
Grant us, we pray thee,
a heart wide open to all this joy and beauty,
and save our souls from being so steeped in care
or so darkened by passion
that we pass heedless and unseeing
when even the thorn bush by the wayside
is aflame with the glory of God. Amen.
Walter Rauschenbusch, American theologian and Baptist pastor.
