#527 Hot tips from the Rector
Fr Sam writes
I hope you are all keeping well in this hot weather. It is very hard going and I imagine you will, like me, be eagerly looking at the weather forecast hoping for cooler days to come soon. You may be amused by this article in the Church Times from seven years ago, where I accidentally got myself interviewed about keeping cool as an Anglo-Catholic priest. (I’m a bit more relaxed than I was in 2019…)
Image: Moses and the Burning Bush, Domenico Fetti
This Sunday: two apostles, both alike in dignity
This Sunday is the feast of St Peter & St Paul, the two greatest apostles of the early Church. At St Paul’s, it’s also our “lesser” patronal festival along with the Conversion of St Paul in January.
Our first reading is Zechariah’s vision of the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem and the two olive trees that give light to the Temple (Zechariah 4:1-6a, 10b-14).
Our Gospel reading is St Peter’s “confession”, where he declares for the first time that Jesus is the Messiah, and is told “You are Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my Church” (Matthew 16.13-19).
Image: A 4th-century etching of Peter & Paul from a catacomb in Rome
Services this Sunday
| 9.30am | St Paul’s | Parish Mass | Fr Sam Tanna-Korn |
| Organ preludes: Variations on ‘Westminster Abbey’ (nos. 1-5) – Denis Bédard Anthem: Locus iste – Anton Bruckner Variations on ‘Westminster Abbey’ (no. 6: Fanfare – Toccata – Grand Chorus) – Denis Bédard | |||
| 10am | Woosehill Church | Holy Communion | Revd Cara Smart |
| 11am | St Nicholas’ | Community Eucharist | Fr Sam Tanna-Korn |
No Coffee & Chat this week
Because of the high temperatures, there will be no Coffee and Chat this week. We will be back next Friday 3 July.
Jubilate Deo!
On Saturday 11 July at 7pm, we will be hosting “Jubilate Deo!”, a concert in celebration of 500 years of sacred music.
St Paul’s Choir, Louise and Christopher would like to invite you to an evening of popular choral anthems and organ music spanning the last 500 years. This promises to be a fantastic evening of music followed by fellowship and refreshments in true St Paul’s fashion! Please bring your friends and family. Donations will go towards the St Paul’s choral foundation and organ funds.
Flyers for this concert will be available at church on Sunday – do take one (or more) and put it up or distribute it to your friends!
Four Deadly Sins
We are four sins into our sermon series on the Seven Deadly Sins, with Fr Sam’s sermon on Envy from last week adding to Lust, Gluttony and Greed from previous months. Recordings of all the sermons can be found on the parish website and they are also available in hard copy at the back of St Paul’s.
Our next sin, on Sunday 19 July, will be Sloth. Revd Wes Hampton, the Methodist minister at Rose Street and at Woosehill will be preaching on Sloth (if he can be bothered).
This week’s calendar: the orthodox bishop
On 27 June, the Church celebrates St Cyril of Alexandria, a fifth-century bishop and theologian remembered especially for defending the Christian orthodoxy that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man. Cyril played a decisive role at the Council of Ephesus in 431, where the Church affirmed Mary as Theotokos, “God-bearer” or “Mother of God”.
After fierce controversy and even imprisonment, Cyril’s teaching prevailed. His feast invites us to renewed confidence in the Incarnation: in Jesus, God has truly come near, sharing our humanity so that we might share in his divine life.
