Rev Chris update for 15th & 22nd August

Dear all,

Last Sunday I talked about the principles of PROCESS and PRESENCE. Essentially, I was flagging the danger of the ‘process of church’ against the ‘presence’ of God in our lives. Keeping the show on the road requires a lot of ‘process’ but the starting point has to be ‘presence’ – no biblical story presents it better than with the characters of Mary & Martha;

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But all the preparations that had to be made distracted Martha. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha’, the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’ Luke 10:38-42

This story reminds me that however important ‘process’ is, if I lose touch with the ‘presence’ then I lose touch with the meaning and purpose. A salutary lesson to ensure that I address the imbalance.

Having said that, I need to let you know about some ‘process’, actually some changes to ‘process’. As many of you know I shall be licensed to St Paul’s, Boxley Road on Tuesday 24th August. From that point I will share my duties across the two parishes but to do so I have had to have conversations about the pattern of services for both churches. With that in mind there will be some minor changes to the St Nicholas Sunday morning pattern, from the beginning of October, as follows;

8am Holy Communion – will now be 2nd and 4th Sundays

10am services;

1st Sunday – Holy Communion

2nd Sunday – Oasis

3rd Sunday – Oasis Communion

4th Sunday – Morning Worship

5th Sunday – Holy Communion

I will send a reminder of the changes next month and they will, of course, be detailed on the weekly notices.

This coming Sunday will be an 8am Communion and then Oasis led by Fiona at 10am, and once again she has something different up her sleeve. At 6.30pm Jackie will present Encounter online – we had intended for there to be a physical service in church but ‘process’ got the better of us! Her song choice is WELLSPRING by Leeland.

And finally, HELP NEEDED – we are having a working party to de-weed the car park on Sunday 22nd August at 3pm. An hour of your time is all that is needed so please come along and you might even get a cup of tea!!

Every blessing,

Rev Chris

p.s. Please note the next update will be in a fortnight and Katie will re-issue the Services & Events page next Friday.