Mothering Sunday Fourth Sunday of Lent 2nd March 2008
Welcome to all the family and friends of Miles Geoffrey Theodore Cooper who is to be baptised this morning during our service. We keep all the family in our prayers at this time of celebration.
Collect
God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
First reading - Exodus 2.1-10
1) A man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.
2) The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months.
3) When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.
4) His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
5) The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while
her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it.
6) When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said.
7) Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’
8) Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother.
9) Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it.
1) When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water
The Gospel
Gospel - Luke 2.33-35
33) The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about Jesus.
34) Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed
35) so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed - and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’
Post-communion
Loving God,
as a mother feeds her children at the breast
you feed us in this sacrament with the food and drink of eternal life:
help us who have tasted your goodness
to grow in grace within the household of faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Next week’s readings
Ezekiel 37. 1-14, Romans 8. 6-11, John 11. 1-45.
Services this week
Sunday 10.00am Parish Mass
6.30pm Evensong
Monday 10.00am Mums and Toddlers
Tuesday 10.00-12.00am Coffee Morning
11.00-12.00am Fruit and Veg. Co-op
Wednesday 8.30am BCP Holy Communion
7.00pm Stations of the Cross
Thursday 7.00pm Mass
Friday 5.00pm Children’s Choir
Saturday 12.00-2pm St Andrew's Project
Morning and Evening Prayer, Monday to Thursday 8.00am and 5.00pm respectively.
EVENSONG TONIGHT AT 6.30PM
First Holy Communion:
The course for children between the ages of 7 and 10 will run up to Easter Day in preparation for the reception of Holy Communion for the first time. The sessions will be on Sunday mornings before Mass at 8.45am for half an hour on Sundays Feb 17th, 24th, 2nd and 9th March.
For donations to the St Andrew's project, please see the notice board in the church. A list of what is needed will be posted each week. Thank you
Bishop Michael’s Installation
The congregation of St Andrew’s has been invited to the Installation of Bishop Michael on 20th April at St Paul’s Cathedral. If we are a largish group I would suggest that we make the service our evening prayers for the day.Please see the sign up sheet at the back of the church if you wish to attend.
GIFT AID ENVELOPES
If you are filling in the yellow Gift Aid envelopes please fill your name and details on the front of the envelope. Envelopes we received without names and a signature are of no use to us. Please encourage children not to write on the envelopes.
Standing Order Cards available today. If you give by Standing Order please take a card as you enter church and put it in the collection plate as it comes around. This allows the gift to be acknowledged. The more of these the collection plate has (and the less un-gift-aided cash) the better.
Lent observances:
Confession If you would like to make your confession before Lent please arrange a time with Fr Martin.
Ash Wednesday 6th February: Mass with imposition of Ashes 8.30am and 7.00pm
Lent Course Please sign up for Peter’s Lent Course ‘The Lord’s Prayer’meets Wednesday evenings
The Litany will be sung at the start of next week’s Parish Mass to mark the beginning of Lent
Lent Book Fr Martin will be leading a reading group through ‘Life Conquers Death: Meditation on the Garden, the Cross and the Tree of Life’ by John Arnold. Please sign up at the back and dates for meeting will be fixed by email/telephone
Stations of the Cross Every Wednesday in Lent 7.00pm (using Aishan’s pictures).
Holy Week details to follow.
I hope all of you have now received a letter giving an introduction to the Stewardship Campaign which will run for four Sundays in Lent (10th, 17th, 24th, Feb and 2nd March). Each Sunday will have a particular focus around themes which will gradually explore how we think about supporting the life of the church. The four themes are
1: Motives: why should support for the church be a priority?
2: Priorities: where does the money go now and what is missing?
3: Looking ahead: if the campaign is successful, what are the prospects for the future.
4: Working together: a model for our working as one body.
The sermons will reflect these themes as well as the Lenten season (and two baptisms!). There will also be displays out for people to pick up more information and print outs for people to take away. Each week a small prayer and thoughts card will be given out to be used at home. The way we support the church is both a theological matter and a practical matter and I hope that through a mixture of preaching and of practical advice and the sharing of information we can all come to a more realistic vision for our financial future. Over the next year we will have Fr Marcel join us, our plans for the development of the buildings should move forward dramatically, and several new projects are in the pipeline. We need to make sure that we have a very secure financial base in order to expand further our activities and continue to grow as Christian people. Please pray for the campaign and ponder seriously your own role in keeping the Christian message alive and healthy in the place.
The response to the Stewardship campaign has been very encouraging, but there are several people I am hoping to hear from shortly! We have received several new standing order and gift aid forms, and several existing regular givers have increased the amount by which they are supporting the church. If you have done this but do not give by standing order could you please drop me a note of the increase that you have made and your name. The final day for responding to the campaign is Easter Day. In the weeks after Easter the team will be carefully analyzing the success of the campaign and we will report back on how the situation has been changed by increased commitment in this crucial area of our church life together. Please respond now to the campaign if you haven’t done so already and please continue to pray for the campaign up until Easter.
Fr Martin
Items for the pew-sheet to Shelley by Thursday morning please, admin@standrewsfulham.com
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