Author: Claire

Message from our Rector, The Revd Mark Lowther

It’s July! It’s the summer, though there are days when that is rather hard to believe. But in the hope that summer will arrive properly very soon we are beginning some outdoor worship. From this Sunday Aldringham’s 11.00am services will take place outdoors if at all possible. My BBC Weather app. is currently (Friday morning) saying ‘light rain showers and a gentle breeze’. The forecast will probably change several times before Sunday morning, and we all know of the existence of our local ‘microclimates’ but whatever happens we will give it our best shot. And if we are outdoors we can sing – and we will!

I am also going to experiment by making this service the recorded one that will, all being well, be available online from 3pm on Sunday. Recording outdoors is slightly more hazardous than indoors so I apologise in advance if things don’t quite work as well as we would hope – but ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’!

This is also the weekend when ordinations take place in our cathedral, both to the diaconate and the priesthood. Emma and Martin Steadman, from Friston, and I have been lucky enough to sing (and in Emma’s case play the harp too) at the Compline services that have been held over the last few evenings in our cathedral for the ordinands as part of their pre-ordination retreat. It has been a real privilege and we should all hold the 13 ordinands, and the 17 deacons about to be priested, in our prayers.

We had a wonderful benefice service last Sunday in Aldeburgh church as we welcomed Archdeacon Jeanette and celebrated with Jo and James. Once again, my thanks to everyone who contributed in any way to the service and to the refreshments afterwards. I know that both Jo and James were thrilled with the day and extend their thanks too.

Finally, I head to Cornwall once again this coming week to take my brother’s funeral at the crematorium in Bodmin. It is on Wednesday afternoon at 2.30 and your prayers would be very much appreciated.

With my love and prayers, as ever

Mark

 

Collect
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is
governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry they may serve you
in holiness and truth to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading
Ezekiel 2.1-5
Jesus said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

Second Reading
2 Corinthians 12.2-10
I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.  Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Gospel Reading
Mark 6.1-13
Jesus left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.  Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Sermon for 4^th July – Fifth Sunday after Trinity,
by The Revd Johanna Mabey

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

I was spoilt for choice on what to talk about this morning…and I ummed and ahhed about it for a long time, but our second reading from 2 Corinthians stood out to me – and most especially the image of strength out of weakness.

I’m giving away my age now, but as Max Bygraves used to say, ‘I wanna tell you a story’…

ONCE upon a time, in the far, far east – lived a great emperor, in a great palace, which was gorgeously stocked with the richest of goods. It was early spring, and the season of royal visits, when kings and princes called on one another and admired each other’s choicest possessions, gave wonderful gifts, and enjoyed bountiful banquets. And this year was special, because the visitors would see the investiture of the emperor’s beloved son, Kintsukuroi, as Crown Prince of the empire.

The emperor was excited because he had a new and beautiful bowl to show to his friends, specially made for him by the finest of craftsmen. Imagine, then, his horror when, on going to his cabinet, he discovered that the bowl was broken apart into a hundred pieces. How could it have happened? No one knew. What could be done about it before the first visitors arrived? No one could offer any idea; for the time was too short to start again and make another one.

The emperor was dismayed, sad that he couldn’t show off his beautiful bowl, but even sadder that something so beautiful should have broken. He retired into his private apartments with only his beloved son to share his sorrow, and they talked long into the night together.

NEXT morning, the emperor woke to the sound of a great commotion. His senior ministers demanded to see him urgently. The cabinet of treasures had been broken into, and this time the great new golden diadem that had been made for his beloved son, ready for the investiture, was quite simply gone — along with the pieces of the broken bowl, although who cared about those, now?

What’s more, the thief had been seen, but not recognised, since he was covered in dirt and scars, with nothing to distinguish him from a thousand other down-and-outs who hung around the palace; for the emperor — to the annoyance of his ministers — refused to turn them out, but shared his food with them.

No one knew for sure where the thief had gone, but he had, they thought, run off towards the prince’s apartments. There, the doors were most unusually locked, and there was no answer to the ministers’ knocking, although they could hear sounds inside. Would the emperor give his permission for them to break down the door?

They dare not act without it.

The emperor was silent for many minutes. On his face, his ministers saw sadness, but not anger; lament, but also love. What was going on? Eventually the emperor spoke. “Leave the prince and his apartments alone. If he is ready to rule, he must be allowed to act. His will and my will are as one.”

The ministers were not at all sure what this meant, but the message was clear: they were to do precisely nothing.

So the day passed. The emperor remained in his private apartments.

Those of the prince remained locked, although smoke could be seen coming out of the chimney, and a fire had obviously been lit. Eventually, the ministers tired of their waiting, and went to bed. The important guests were expected the very next day.

IMAGINE their surprise in the morning, when they went to the treasure cabinet to prepare its items for display and found the precious bowl back in its place, whole again, but glistening with veins of gold where the cracks had been.

Its beauty seemed all the greater. And, beside it, the prince’s crown: a slim band, now, but speaking in its simplicity of a strength, an authority all the more striking because it had given itself away, and given glory to another, but was itself the greater for it. The investiture could go ahead.

A smile of secret understanding passed between the emperor and the son, whose newly scarred hands had shown him worthy to come into the kingdom.

“Kintsukuroi” means “to repair with gold” in Japanese,

It’s the art of repairing pottery with gold and understanding that the piece is the more beautiful for having been broken.

I have real an example of this here today – please do come and look at it more closely after the service … it was gifted to my parents by a complete stranger in a rather wonderful and completely unexpected way when we visited Japan in 2009… but that’s another story!

Beauty and strength in broken places…

We heard that in St Paul’s words just now – as he reflected on his own brokenness.

Three times Paul petitioned God to relieve him of the issues that plagued him, and three times God reminded His servant that he had been gifted with all he needed to cope.

On this 4^th of July, perhaps it’s appropriate to quote the famous American author, Ernest Hemingway who said, ‘life breaks all of us, but some of us are strong in the broken places.’

That’s the paradox…

strength often comes from great sacrifice, tragedy, and pain.

God knows us all so well; he knows our weaknesses.

Paul tells us that it’s in these periods of suffering that we’re drawn to God and reminded of His promises.

God will supply our needs; and His grace will always be sufficient.

Life can break us all, but then God makes us stronger and more beautiful in the broken places.

Amen.

The Fable of Kintsukuroi taken from The Church Times (04.08.17)
As told by The Rt Revd David Thomson (retired Bishop of Huntingdon).

 

Post Communion
Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably
ordered by your governance, that your Church may
joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Next week
Sunday 11^th July
Sixth Sunday after Trinity

 

Benefice Holy Communion with Revd Johanna Mabey’s Licensing to Priest – 27^th June

Here are a few photos of Jo’s special day. Don’t forget you can watch the service on the Alde Sandlings Youtube Channel.

NOTICES

Sorry, cancelled on the 6th July Tuesday Coffee Morning with Mark & Friends Our regular Zoom coffee morning will be from 10.30am – 11.30am every Tuesday. All are very welcome. Grab your favourite morning beverage and let’s have a good ole chat – just like we used to. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82256956551?pwd=Q1BkMzdOQitHaWJUaDlOcTFEdzJ6QT09 Meeting ID: 822 5695 6551 – Passcode: 112626

Weekly Benefice Newsletter  If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week.

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last year due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. Please check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

✞ Friston Sunday Services on Zoom ✞ Friston will be holding a live Zoom service for all those who wish to join on Sunday starting at 9.45am.  It will be a Common Worship Morning Prayer.  All are welcome! The meetings start from 9.40am every Sunday morning Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for more info

✞ Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays ✞ The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for more info

On Sunday the 27th June we were able to have a belated Benefice Holy Communion service to mark Revd Jo’s Licensing to priest, and Revd James ordination to priesthood. We welcomed our Archdeacon, The Ven. Jeanette Gosney who led the service.

It was a joyous occasion where members of all the benefice congregations could come together to celebrate these milestones in Jo and James ministry lives.

You can watch the service on the Alde Sandlings Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM3YVz
DVIlYmnpVFSdOOTvQ?view_as=subscriber

Message from our Rector, The Revd Mark Lowther

First off, an apology. Last Sunday morning I set up the video recording equipment in Aldeburgh Church before the service, checked that everything was OK – and then forgot to press the ‘go’ button at the crucial moment. So, I’m so sorry that there wasn’t an online service last week. I’ll try my very best to do better this week!

And this week we welcome our Archdeacon, The Ven. Jeanette Gosney, to preside and preach at our benefice Holy Communion service as we celebrate with Jo and James significant moments in their ministry, albeit rather late. Moving on from her curacy Jo will be licensed as Assistant Priest in the benefice and we will be remembering James’s ordination to the priesthood a year ago. It will be good to be together, and to have Jeanette with us, to mark these special occasions for Jo and James and, hopefully, to raise a glass afterwards. Many thanks to all who have worked so hard to prepare for the celebrations.

A word about sermons. All clergy prepare their sermons in different ways. Some (like me) write out more or less every word in advance. Some write ‘headline notes’ and improvise around them on the day and some, very lucky, people can preach without anything written down at all. I remember once, back in London, finding myself sitting very close to Dr Rowan Williams as he preached. The sermon was extraordinary, beautifully constructed, delivered without a single ‘um’ or ‘er’ – and all he had in front of him was a tiny piece of paper about the size of a £5 note with a few words scribbled on it. Amazing – but he was the Archbishop of Canterbury! Why am I telling you this? Partly because Archdeacon Jeanette is a ‘notes’ and not ‘script’ preacher, so I can’t put her sermon into this pew-sheet. And partly because I have included my sermon from last week. With the recent death of my brother, I couldn’t help being personal to some extent and several people commented favourably afterwards, a couple asking for a copy. So please forgive the indulgence but I thought I would share it with you all. It is, of course, inspired not by this week’s Gospel reading but by last week’s – the story of Jesus stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Next week we begin to move into ‘summer mode’ and the first sign is that the 11.00am services in Aldringham will, as long as the weather is kind, move outdoors. Aldringham churchyard is a beautiful and peaceful place and last year we discovered just how suitable it was for worship. The services will be short, informal and, being outdoors, we can sing! Bring something to sit on and pray for a fine day.

With my love and prayers, as ever

Mark

Many Congratulations Revd Johanna Mabey and Revd James Marston on all your hard work and achievements within your ministry roles

Collect
Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul
glorified you in their death as in their life:
grant that your Church, inspired by their teaching and example,
and made one by your Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, 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
Zechariah 4.1-6a, 10b-end
The angel who talked with me came again, and wakened me, as one is wakened from sleep. He said to me, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it; there are seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And by it there are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.’ I said to the angel who talked with me, ‘What are these, my lord?’ Then the angel who talked with me answered me, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ I said, ‘No, my lord.’ He said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. ‘These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth.’ Then I said to him, ‘What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?’ And a second time I said to him, ‘What are these two branches of the olive trees, which pour out the oil through the two golden pipes?’ He said to me, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ I said, ‘No, my lord.’ Then he said, ‘These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.’

Second Reading
Acts 12.1-11
About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the festival of Unleavened Bread.) When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him. The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his wrists. The angel said to him, ‘Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.’ He did so. Then he said to him, ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.’ Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.’

Gospel Reading
Matthew 16.13-19
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’

Sermon for 27^th June – Fourth Sunday after Trinity,
by our Rector, The Revd Mark Lowther

‘An earthly story with a heavenly meaning’. That’s one definition of a parable – ‘an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.’ The culture of 1^st-century Palestine was, primarily, an oral one. The ability to read and write wasn’t common among the ordinary people, the people with whom Jesus spent so much of his time. But storytelling was vital. That’s how you passed on the wisdom of life. Here’s the former Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks:

… Storytelling has been central to the Jewish tradition. Every culture has its stories. (The late Elie Wiesel once said, “God created man because God loves stories.”) Almost certainly, the tradition goes back to the days when our ancestors were hunter-gatherers telling stories around the campfire at night. We are the storytelling animal.

Jesus, the Jewish teacher, rabbi, knew this supremely well. He told stories that contained great truths. And the words in Mark’s gospel that immediately precede the story about Jesus stilling the storm, ending a parable-filled chapter, are these:

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables …..

I wonder if the writer of Mark’s gospel is doing something similar. Might this, in fact, itself be a parable? The story about Jesus, asleep in the back of the boat, being woken up by the disciples with a cry of ‘We’re perishing, do something!’, calming the sea and then saying to the disciples ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ Because that, of course is the whole point of the story. The disciples are put in some kind of peril so that Jesus can say ‘why are you afraid? Don’t you believe?’ That’s the heavenly meaning of the earthly story – and it’s as relevant for any of us as it was for its first audience 2 000 years ago.

Storms come in all sorts of shapes and sizes in our lives – and I reckon there isn’t anyone here who hasn’t had some kind of experience into which Jesus might speak those words. ‘Why are you afraid? Don’t you believe?’

To be personal for a moment, I’ve just spent a week sitting each day with my brother as his body gradually failed and he died. And it feels as if those words could have been just for him – and for me. ‘Why am I afraid? Don’t I believe?’ If I truly believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, that death has no dominion, that ‘the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there can no torment touch them’ (as it says in the Wisdom of Solomon) then what is there to be afraid of? Phil’s body may have packed up, but his soul has returned to the loving God who created him.

I try and say something like that whenever I take a funeral service and I truly believe it.

There’s an important truth that needs recognising and spelling out in all of this though. Storms do happen. Hard things do happen – the life of faith doesn’t stop them. It just gives us a different way of looking at them. The Scottish philosopher John Macmurray pointed out the difference between what he called ‘real’ religion and ‘illusory’ religion’ like this:

The maxim of illusory religion is: “Fear not; trust in God, and He will see that none of the things you fear will happen to you.” Real religion has a different maxim: “Fear not; the things that you are afraid of are quite likely to happen to you, but they are nothing to be afraid of.”

There’s a reading often quoted at funerals that actually comes from a sermon given by Canon Henry Scott Holland at the lying-in-state of King Edward VII. It’s the one that begins ‘Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away to the next room.’ The problem with taking words out of context is that the original point that the speaker or writer intended is so often missed – and this is a classic example. What Scott Holland was actually preaching about was the way we hover between two ways of regarding death which, as he put it, seem to be in hopeless contradiction with each other – and he explained them by using extreme examples.

One was that death was regarded as an insurmountable barrier – a ‘supreme and irrevocable disaster’ which ‘makes all we do here meaningless and empty’. The other is the friendly ‘death is nothing at all – I have only slipped away into the next room’ point of view – the oft-quoted passage. His point was that our task is to reconcile those two views. If we concentrate too much on the first we paint an ultimately nihilistic view – too much on the second and, apart from anything else, we deny the reality of what we feel when we grieve – then we don’t feel that death is nothing at all – we’ve probably lost someone we love – it hurts. It really hurts.

Scott Holland’s point in his sermon is that there is a way of holding together the tension between those two views of death. This is his key passage (and the sermon was preached at Pentecost …):

‘Why are we afraid? Have we not the gift of the Spirit? Has it not swept in upon us with a mighty wind? Is it not in our heart as a fire? ….. And the Spirit which we now possess is itself the Life of all Life, the Life of the Life beyond death. It is the Eternal Life of God. …… What will follow we know not. Why should we? We must wait until we experience it in order to know. But whatever it is, it will be the outcome of what we are. It will be the work of the same Spirit who works in us today.’

And, we might add, that spirit, the spirit of the living God – has given us a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There really is nothing to fear. Which is just what Jesus was saying in the back of that little storm-tossed boat. And so the telling and the hearing of that earthly story really does have a heavenly meaning, doesn’t it?

Amen

Post Communion
Lord God, the source of truth and love, 
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, 
united in prayer and the breaking of bread, 
and one in joy and simplicity of heart, 
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

NOTICES

Tuesday Coffee Morning with Mark & Friends Our regular Zoom coffee morning will be from 10.30am – 11.30am every Tuesday. All are very welcome. Grab your favourite morning beverage and let’s have a good ole chat – just like we used to. Please contact admin@adleburghparishchurch.org.uk for more information

Weekly Benefice Newsletter  If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week.

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last year due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. Please check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

✞ Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays ✞ The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Please contact admin@adleburghparishchurch.org.uk for more information

Next Week
Sunday 4^th July
Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Message from our Rector, The Revd Mark Lowther

I must begin with a huge thank-you for all of the kind messages and cards I have received after the death of my brother, Phil, last weekend. While I was away in Cornwall I was very conscious of the fact that both he and I were being prayed for and I couldn’t be more grateful. I spent just over a week visiting Truro hospital every day, where he was receiving end-of-life care from the wonderfully devoted NHS staff there. The certificate will give his cause-of-death as Emphysema, though it was rather more complicated than that. He died the day after his 62^nd birthday and his funeral will be in Cornwall in the first week of July. Rest in peace Phil.

Huge thanks too to my wonderful colleagues, lay and ordained, for keeping the show on the road. As some of you will know, James is currently on holiday, will be back next weekend for our celebrations, and then will be spending a short time on placement at our Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds. This is an opportunity offered to all curates in our diocese and I know that James is very much looking forward to his time with Dean Joe and the team there.

A reminder that next Sunday there will be a single service in the benefice, at 10.30 in Aldeburgh. Our Archdeacon, The Ven. Jeanette Gosney, will preside and preach at a service of Holy Communion at which The Revd Johanna Mabey will be licensed as an Assistant Priest in the benefice, and we will (a year late!) celebrate The Revd James Marston’s ordination to the priesthood. Jo and James have had to wait a while for these celebrations because of … you-know-what – but it will be wonderful to be with them as we mark these key moments in their lives of ministry, and to have Jeanette with us. Please could you let me, Claire or Ken Smith know if you intend to be there – just so we can plan the seating. And afterwards? Bring some food and drink and we’ll share the time together, even if we can’t share the food!

A couple of Aldeburgh domestic notices to end with. Claire is trying to make sure that we have an up-to-date list of keyholders, so if you have any church or church-hall keys in your possession please could you make sure that Claire knows. And we are also on the look-out for more cleaners. The task is not an onerous one – you would be given a particular part of the church to look after, or a particular task to do, so that no-one has to take on the whole building. The commitment need not be more than for an hour or so. If you could help please have a word with Ken Smith, with one of the clergy or with Julian Worster.

With my love and prayers, as ever

Mark

Collect
Almighty God, you have broken the tyranny of sin
and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts
whereby we call you Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that we and all creation may be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of God; 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
Job 38.1-11
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: 
‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 
Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall
declare to me.  ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 
On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?  ‘Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? — when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped”?

Second Reading
Corinthians 6.1-13
As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’ See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything. We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also. 

Gospel Reading
Mark 4.35-41
On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

 

Sermon for 20^th June – Third Sunday after Trinity,
by The Revd Johanna Mabey

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

If we ever wanted to make a complaint against Jesus that would stick, not caring would be a hard one to justify!  The gospels are full of Jesus’ care and compassion for others. But twice in the gospels Jesus is asked ‘Don’t you care?’ On both occasions the question is put to him by close friends who really should have known better. In Luke’s gospel an exasperated Martha says to him: ‘Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work? Tell her to help me.’ The other complaint against Jesus is in today’s reading: ‘Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?’ say his disciples.

The panic-stricken disciples are terrified that they’ll die in a storm while Jesus sleeps through it. For experienced fishermen, the fact that they’re so scared tells us that this was no mere gust of wind, but one of those very strong storms that blow up without warning on the land-locked Sea of Galilee…. in desperation they wake Jesus up.

Mark tells us that Jesus was absolutely exhausted. He’d been taken into the boat ‘just as he was’, sound asleep on a cushion, too tired to be woken even by a storm. No wonder his reply was rather terse!

Although the disciples’ question, ‘don’t you care that we are perishing?’ was irrational – Jesus was asleep and oblivious of the storm – it shows the depth of the disciples’ fear, not only about drowning but about whether Jesus cares for their safety and well-being. It’s very human to fear that you’re being abandoned to your fate. Once woken, Jesus did the necessary. He stilled the storm, and then asked his disciples ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ In other words, ‘Whatever is the matter with you?’

He had expected better of them. 

In our second reading, St Paul finds himself in a tricky place with the church in Corinth.  He’s having to tell them some unwelcome home truths.

We may rattle the list off without thinking about it – ‘afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger’ – but think for a moment about what Paul had been through… the fact that he’d kept faith with God through all this becomes remarkable. How did Paul keep faith? There must have been times when he too asked the same question the disciples put to Jesus, ‘don’t you care?’ It’s a healthy question to ask at times of distress; and it brings God into the conversation.

Today’s readings tell us that we don’t have to pretend to sail serenely through difficulty.  It’s ok to say we’re not ok, and there are times when some vigorous and probing conversation with God is called for. We only have to look at the psalms or the book of Job to realise how much a deep questioning of God is central to the Jewish faith.
Paul tells the Corinthians to ‘open wide their hearts to God’ as he has; ‘by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech and the power of God.’ But it’s easy to be kind and truthful when all’s going well – it’s much harder when you’re in crisis.  ‘Purity and holiness of spirit’ might also sound rather pious, but I remember reading that after Mother Teresa died, her journals revealed that she’d struggled daily with doubts. Her ‘holiness of spirit’ was hard-won, shaped by the daily challenges she faced in the slums of Calcutta.

Perhaps Jesus’ sharp question to the disciples in the boat is partly annoyance at being woken up but also frustration at their failure to trust him. They’ve panicked and fear that Jesus doesn’t really care about them after all.  But what was it that enabled Paul, with a few years’ experience of following Jesus, to be more secure in his response to hardship and fear, than the disciples in the boat?  Perhaps it was it the ‘cantus firmus’ in his life. Cantus Firmus means fixed or firm melody. It’s the deep-seated song that’s at the core of who we are and enables us to live with fear and change.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German priest executed by the Nazis during the Second World War, wrote from prison of, ‘a kind of cantus firmus to which the other melodies of life provide the counterpoint’.

He wrote:
‘Where the ground bass is firm and clear, there is nothing to stop the counterpoint from being developed to the utmost of its limits. Only a polyphony of this kind can give life a wholeness and assure us that nothing can go wrong so long as the bass line is kept going…put your faith in the cantus firmus.’

Some of you reading/hearing this might feel you’re being buffeted by forces beyond your control – forces which threaten to overwhelm you. I think it’s very natural and human to sometimes feel that God is asleep on the case, and that Jesus is taking a nap in the hold.  Today’s readings reassure us that God is wide awake, and that he does care for us!  In every storm God calls us to greater trust and greater faith in him.
President John F Kennedy had a small wooden block on his desk in the Oval Office. On it was inscribed the Prayer of a Breton Fisherman. It’s a memorable, simple one to cherish:

Dear God, be good to me;
the sea is so wide,
and my boat is so small.
Amen

Post Communion 
O God, whose beauty is beyond our imagining
and whose power we cannot comprehend:
show us your glory as far as we can grasp it,
and shield us from knowing more than we can bear
until we may look upon you without fear;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

NOTICES

PLEASE NOTE – Benefice Service on the 27th If you are hoping to attend this Benefice service on the 27th, could you please let your church warden know, or email Claire admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk. It is really important that we know how many to expect, so you can all be seated safely. We do have limited seating due to the current precautions that have to be made. The last thing we want to do is to have to turn people away on the day. Your cooperation is very much appreciated.

Benefice Service – 27th June at Aldeburgh Church We hope to have get together lunch after the Benefice Service on the 27th of June to celebrate Jo and James significant milestones in their ministries. Providing everything goes to plan with the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, after much discussion with church members within the benefice, the general feel is that we should perhaps think about a bring and NOT share lunch and bring our own picnics, as Covid is still very much in our minds. Perhaps each church could put together two picnic pack ups for our visitors on the day?

Weekly Benefice Newsletter  If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week.

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last year due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. Please check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays  The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links

☕️ Tuesday Coffee Morning with Mark & Friends☕️ Our regular Zoom coffee morning will be from 10.30am – 11.30am every Tuesday. All are very welcome. Grab your favourite morning beverage and let’s have a good ole chat – just like we used to. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links

Next Week
Sunday 27^th June
Fourth Sunday after Trinity

Message from The Revd James Marston

With our thoughts still with Ro and Mark, as he remains in Cornwall, we have seen the benefice pulling together in order that the life of the church continue as best it can. I know Mark is grateful and thanks goes to all the churchwardens, PCC members and congregations for their understanding and support. 

This week I point you to the notice about the benefice service later this month. If you are hoping to attend this celebration do let your churchwarden know or email our parish administrator Claire at admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk  as it is imperative we know the numbers to be able to seat you all safely.

It has been jointly agreed by all of the churches that the best way forward is to bring your own picnic for the bring and share (if we are allowed to go ahead).  Each church will also bring two pack up picnics for our guests. It will be more of a “bring and don’t share” but we think we have a plan!

We won’t be holding the zoom coffee morning next week but don’t forget there is Holy Communion each Wednesday in Aldeburgh church if you would like to see a member of the clergy team. Sunday services continue as does midweek online compline and the online fellowship of Pilgrims Together. 

Just to remind you I am on leave next week and the following week, though suspect I’ll be looking at emails once in a while. Then I start my cathedral placement for most of July. 

James 

Collect
Lord, you have taught us that all our doings
without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts 
that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading
Ezekiel 17.22-end
Thus says the Lord God: I myself will take a sprig
from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out.
I will break off a tender one from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 
On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will live;
in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. 
All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.
I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.

Second Reading
2 Corinthians 5.6-10 [11-13] 14-17
So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Gospel Reading
Mark 4.26-34
Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. 

 

Sermon for 13^th June – Second Sunday after Trinity,
The Revd James Marston

May speak in the name of the living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

“He did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.”

I sometimes think, that for all of us, a quick word with Jesus in private would make all the difference when it comes to biblical interpretation of what he was getting at. Not least because we all learn in different ways – some of us like to read things, others hear, some like a visual explanation or a practical one demonstration.

I’m not going to throw mustard seeds around the church, or draw you a picture, but I do remember hearing a sermon on this text which left me none the wiser, partly because the scientific analysis provided by the speaker in question covered in such forensic detail the relative size of seed to bush alongside a dense treatise on agricultural practices in first century Palestine that I tuned out and started thinking about my lunch and the likelihood of whether mustard would feature in it.

Archbishop Michael Ramsey wrote, in his book The Christian Priest Today, that “First the priest is the teacher and preacher, and as such he is the man of theology…his study need not be vast in extent, but it will be deep in integrity not in order that he be erudite but that he be simple.”

So, in that spirit and in my simple view Jesus is only saying that from small acorns mighty oaks grow. And he’s saying the Kingdom of God shares this characteristic.

Which begs the obvious question what the Kingdom is Of God. Well, we know that it is central to much of Jesus’ teaching, we know it is not Kingdom in a political sense but the spiritual realm over which God reigns, we know that it is now and not yet, and we know it’s something which we strive for and hope for and build together here in community and that we’d like to see it and be part of. It is, of course, something of a mystery, perhaps best described as the reunion of mankind with God or the fulfilment of God’s will.

From which further obvious questions arise – what is God’s will? How will we know? How do we find out?

These questions, this curiosity we all have about God are part and parcel of our journey of faith. The answers may not always be as forthcoming or as clear as we expect or as we might like them. But asking questions, developing our curiosity, is one of the crucial ways in which we get to know God and his place in our lives, as well as discerning His will for us.

And we can, as St Paul says be confident as we walk in faith rather than with sight and that the love of Christ urges us on as we journey together.

Today we welcome young Freddie, through his baptism, into not only our church family here in Aldeburgh and our benefice but also into that journey of faith. Today is the beginning of his fellowship of Jesus. And we can be confident of God’s grace in Freddie’s life in the years to come.

As we baptise Freddie, with the water as well as the loud and joyful responses the liturgy requires, we are reminded of our own journey of faith, our own baptism in the fellowship of Jesus and, indeed, our own ability, through prayer, to speak to him in private whenever we need to.

From small acorns mighty oaks grow and it is delight and honour for us to be sowing the seed of faith today.

Amen

 

Post Communion
Loving Father, we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit, that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven, and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Next Week
Sunday 20^th June
Third Sunday after Trinity

 

NOTICES

PLEASE NOTE – Benefice Service on the 27th If you are hoping to attend this Benefice service on the 27th, could you please let your church warden know, or email Claire admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk. It is really important that we know how many to expect, so you can all be seated safely. We do have limited seating due to the current precautions that have to be made. The last thing we want to do is to have to turn people away on the day. Your cooperation is very much appreciated.

Benefice Service – 27th June at Aldeburgh Church We hope to have get together lunch after the Benefice Service on the 27th of June to celebrate Jo and James significant milestones in their ministries. Providing everything goes to plan with the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, after much discussion with church members within the benefice, the general feel is that we should perhaps think about a bring and NOT share lunch and bring our own picnics, as Covid is still very much in our minds. Perhaps each church could put together two picnic pack ups for our visitors on the day?

Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week.

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op  Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

✞ Friston Sunday Services on Zoom ✞ Friston will be holding a live Zoom service for all those who wish to join on Sunday starting at 9.45am.  It will be a Common Worship Morning Prayer.  All are welcome! The meetings start from 9.40am every Sunday morning Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last year due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. Please check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

✞ Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays ✞ The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links Postponed until Autumn Date for your diary – Next Zoom Pilgrim Quiz: Saturday 12th June from 7pm

Message from The Rev James Marston

With all our thoughts and prayers with Rev Mark at the moment, as he dashes to Cornwall to be with his family at a difficult time, I am reminded of how valuable our church community and our love for one another becomes when one of us faces tough times. 

Unfortunately, there will be no zoom coffee morning this week but if you feel like a chat do give me a call on 01728 688451.  I will also be in church most days for Morning Prayer. 

As part of my ongoing curacy training, I’m able to announce this week that I’ll be away for some of June and July as I take up a placement at our cathedral in Bury St Edmunds. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing just yet, but I’ll let you know how I get on. 

And a reminder too of our forthcoming chamber-music concerts in Aldringham and Aldeburgh. ‘Chamber Music Box’ visit Aldringham church this Sunday (June 6^th) at 6pm and if you wish to attend you will need to book online – details further down this document. 

The Fitzwilliam Quartet concerts in Aldeburgh on Monday and Tuesday (June 7^thand 8^th) at 7pm are ‘pay at the door’ – cash only. 

And finally, there will not be an Alde Sandlings online service on Youtube this week, but for those who wish to worship online there is, as always, the live Friston Zoom services (see further down this pew sheet) or of course our cathedral online services can be found here:

https://stedscathedral.org/worship

James

 

Collect
O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness 
of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace, that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed;
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
Genesis 3.8-15
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’

Second Reading
2 Corinthians 4.13-5.1
But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—‘I believed, and so I spoke’—we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Gospel Reading
Mark 3.20-end
Then Jesus entered a house, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’ Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’ 

Post Communion
Eternal Father, we thank you for nourishing us
with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith,
build us up in hope, and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sermon for 6^th June – First Sunday after Trinity,
The Revd Sheila Hart

As I read the Bible Readings for this week, I couldn’t help being drawn to look at the familiar story – because it is only a story – a myth – of the results of the Fall in Genesis chapter 3. It may only be a myth but my goodness how true to reality it is. God the Father, the Creator searching out His naughty children to discover why they had chosen to disobey Him.

It hadn’t started like that though, for Humans were the crowning glory of the creation. They had been given authority over the creation – both vegetation and creatures – by the Creator, to nourish, tend and look after their needs on His behalf. It was a position of trust and they had been allowed to eat of any fruit of any tree in the garden apart from the one in the centre and its fruit, which they were also forbidden to touch ‘or they would die.’ Death was a concept not thought of during the creation process. Life was the central theme and this life appeared to have no end so something which could ultimately cause death was a serious consideration. We have since come to realise that life in this sense reflects a continuing relationship with the Creator and death, separation from the same.

The portion of the story which we are to read today is set after the couple had not only touched, but eaten the forbidden fruit. God had been going about doing His own thing and had decided to go for a stroll in the garden in the cool of the evening and to catch up, we assume, with the man and the woman as to how things had been in the garden that day. All was not as God had left it, however, and the man and the woman were not there to greet Him. They had heard Him coming and had hidden themselves for they had disobeyed His instructions and guilt had begun to swell up within them, not least because they were beginning to know more about their condition. Their innocence had begun to disappear, and they were afraid of how He might react to them in their changed condition.

As I reflected more on the account and their reaction to hearing God in the garden, it brought into my mind a memory of my teenage years and my reaction to my father. It was early morning after he had left for work. I was feeling stressed because I had four consecutive History A level lessons that morning and I was tired from completing homework the night before. My mother said something to me which I cannot exactly remember but it caused me to kick shut the door of my bedroom and I managed to make a hole in the hardboard which made the insert of the door. When I discovered what I had done my main thought was that my father would be livid when he found out. So I made a pact with my mother that I would let her tell him what I had done and make my excuses for me when he came home from work and I would hide in the bathroom until the dust had settled. Just what the first man and woman did when they heard God in the garden that evening.

Then they started making their excuses for their disobedience – all of which were true in their own way – but none of which would have been necessary if they had faced God and accepted responsibility for the choices they had made and apologised for their disobedience.

I still find it amazing that a story written so long ago is pertinent, not only to our relationship with God, but also to our relationships with our parents, friends, work colleagues and neighbours. And above all that we still haven’t really learned that acceptance of our sin and our confession of it and asking for forgiveness from the victims of it, reforms our relationships, both with God and fellow humans.

It’s not that we should deliberately sin so that we can experience the grace and forgiveness of God and others for we should learn from our mistakes, be thankful for their love and grace and try not to do it again. As a friend from my early childhood who was learning the Catechism as a Roman Catholic, said to me after I had upset her for the umpteenth time, ’It’s no good saying sorry, Sheila, if you don’t do something about it!’ We would have been about 4 or 5 at the time but ‘Out of the mouths of babes!’

In the passage we read from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians – a church which constantly failed to get it right and needed their founder’s correction – being a Christian is a Work in Progress. A Work which starts when we turn to Christ and ends when we meet Him face to face having passed through death for ‘Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.’ We are being changed into the likeness of Christ from one degree of glory to another through the work of the Holy Spirit. So, life is not without hope. In His letter to the Philippians Paul writes that ‘He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.’

So, let’s move on, accept that there will be setbacks, but that we are a work in progress, keep short accounts with God and others and not be disappointed if we don’t reach perfection this side of heaven.

Next Week
Sunday 13^th June
Second Sunday after Trinity

NOTICES

Benefice Service – 27th June at Aldeburgh Church We hope to have get together lunch after the Benefice Service on the 27th of June to celebrate Jo and James significant milestones in their ministries. Providing everything goes to plan with the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, after much discussion with church members within the benefice, the general feel is that we should perhaps think about a bring and NOT share lunch and bring our own picnics, as Covid is still very much in our minds. Perhaps each church could put together two picnic pack ups for our visitors on the day? There will be more news next week as further discussions take place. Please do pass on any suggestions to Claire.

Chamber Music Box at Aldringham Church this Sunday June 6th at 6pm Some of you may remember the visit that we enjoyed from the young players of ‘Chamber Music Box’ last year. This time they bring a programme of music for flute and string trio including works by Schubert, Mozart and two leading 20th-century composers, Aaron Copland and Bohuslav Martinu. Tickets must be booked in advance – head for http://www.chambermusicbox.com/concerts for more information and the opportunity to book.

The Fitzwilliam Quartet Concerts 7th & 8th June 7pm at Aldeburgh Parish Church We are delighted to welcome the return of music into Aldeburgh Parish Church. The Fitzwilliam Quartet will be performing two nights of music. Monday – Haydn and Beethoven Tuesday – Hugo Wolf, Haydn, and Schumann Tickets at the door £10 (cash only). First come first seated, as we are limited with seating for everyone’s safety.

Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week.

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last year due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. Please check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

✞ Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays ✞ The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Please contact Claire for the links at admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk Date for your diary – Next Zoom Pilgrim Quiz: Saturday 12th June from 7pm Please contact Claire for more information admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk

Message from The Rector

Our lectionary – the booklet listing the readings appropriate for each Sunday – also helps us by telling us what colour we should use for our church altar-cloth and other matching pieces of material, including the priest’s stole – purple (for penitential times – Advent and Lent), red (for solemn times such as Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Pentecost), white (for celebratory times such as Christmas and Easter) or green (for ‘Ordinary Time’). This Sunday will be white, as we mark Trinity Sunday. But thereafter we begin our long green season, right through until October. But green has its own special significance – the colour of fertility and growth. The times may seem less special than the great feast days but on each occasion that we meet to worship together we need to remember the abundance of God’s gifts to us as well as our duty to care for the earth. The green altar may become a familiar sight, but its deep meaning should not be forgotten.

This week, however, we celebrate one of the underlying truths of our Christian faith – that God is one but in ‘three persons’, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Famously it is a Sunday when incumbents find an excuse to hand the sermon over to a colleague or guest preacher – the Trinity isn’t always the easiest concept to explain. Our four parishes will each have the joy of hearing a different ‘take’ on the meaning of the Trinity – from Jo in Aldeburgh, Sheila in Aldringham, James in Friston and myself in Knodishall (and on this pew-sheet – where you may notice that I have taken avoiding action!). I’m sure that they will all be different but, I hope, also complimentary. We will compare notes afterwards!

A reminder that our final benefice Annual Parochial Church Meeting of the season, in Knodishall, will follow the 9.30 service in church. And a reminder too of our forthcoming chamber-music concerts in Aldringham and Aldeburgh. ‘Chamber Music Box’ visit Aldringham church on Sunday June 6^th at 6pm and if you wish to attend you will need to book online – details further down this document. The Fitzwilliam Quartet concerts in Aldeburgh on the June 7^th and 8^th at 7pm are ‘pay at the door’ – cash only. Again, details further down. And another reminder of our Benefice Service on Sunday June 27^th in Aldeburgh church at 10.30. Archdeacon Jeanette joins us to preside and preach and we celebrate significant turning points in the ministries of Jo and James. And it is Aldeburgh’s Patronal Festival too – lots to celebrate.

Enjoy the anticipated warmth and sunshine (rare for a Bank Holiday Weekend)!

With my love and prayers, as ever

Mark

 

Collect
Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
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
Isaiah 6.1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’  The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’

Second Reading
Romans 8.12-17
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Gospel Reading
John 3.1-17
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Post Communion
Almighty and eternal God,
you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:
hold us firm in this faith,
that we may know you in all your ways
and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory,
who are three Persons yet one God,
now and for ever.

 

Sermon for 30^th May – Trinity Sunday,
by our Rector, The Revd Mark Lowther

There are times when I have to confess that I feel a bit sorry for snakes. They are truly amazing creatures, all 3 400-odd species of them and they’ve been around for something like 60 million years (humans have been around for about a quarter of a million years …). Did you know that, to accommodate their internal organs in their long thin bodies the paired ones, like kidneys, are one in front of the other rather than side-by-side? That the vast majority of them are non-venomous? They’re not such bad things, snakes – and a gloriously diverse representation of the richness of God’s creation. But the bible paints a very particular picture of snakes – serpents – doesn’t it?

When it all went wrong for Adam and Eve, he blamed her and she blamed the snake – and so God made sure that the snake (more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made, we’re told) was going to have to wriggle on its belly forever and eat dust.

When Moses was unsure of how he might have power over the Israelites to lead them to the promised land, God told Moses to throw his staff on the ground and it became a snake (something that Moses recoiled from), and then God told Moses to grab the snake by the tail and it became his staff again. God had that kind of power, to turn good into evil and back again, and that power would be with the Israelites as they journeyed. As long as they behaved themselves everything would turn out fine. Which turned out to be a long story …..

But then there’s the incident that Jesus refers to in our reading from John’s Gospel – Moses ‘lifting up the serpent in the wilderness’. It’s a story in the Book of Numbers. The Israelites, far from behaving themselves, had been complaining about Moses’ leadership, and indeed complaining about God, getting impatient to get to this land flowing with milk and honey. They hadn’t seen much evidence of it so far …. And so God ‘sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many of them died’. But then, after Moses had prayed to God, God told Moses to make an image of a serpent and put it on a pole and, said God, everyone who looks at the image will live. So Moses did exactly that, made a bronze serpent, put it on a pole and it has the desired effect – everyone who looked at it was cured. And, by the way, the image of a serpent twined around a pole is still used to symbolise healing – it’s known as the ‘Rod of Asclepius’ and actually derives from a Greek myth – but the parallels with the OT story are pretty clear. You’ll see the symbol on lots of Ambulances ….

So why does Jesus say ‘just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up’? What’s that about? Well try this. In the wilderness God had Moses show something horrible, something feared, something cruel to the people. But through God’s power that evil thing had the power to heal. Now the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus shows human beings at their most evil, their most cruel. Humans had been willing to have God in human form tortured and nailed to a cross. But God used that evil to throw goodness back at us. That image which seems in many ways to be so negative, such a symbol of hate and pain, becomes an image of God’s love for us all. Believe in the God who would go to those lengths for us and you believe in the source of love and hope. ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’

Or, as the theologian Tom Wright puts it, ‘…. You don’t have to be condemned. You don’t have to let the snake kill you. God’s action in the crucifixion of Jesus has planted a sign in the middle of history. And the sign says: believe and live.

Amen

NOTICES

Chamber Music Box at Aldringham Church Sunday June 6th at 6pm Some of you may remember the visit that we enjoyed from the young players of ‘Chamber Music Box’ last year. This time they bring a programme of music for flute and string trio including works by Schubert, Mozart and two leading 20th-century composers, Aaron Copland and Bohuslav Martinu. Tickets must be booked in advance – head for http://www.chambermusicbox.com/concerts for more information and the opportunity to book.

The Fitzwilliam Quartet Concerts 7th & 8th June 7pm at Aldeburgh Parish Church We are delighted to welcome the return of music into Aldeburgh Parish Church. The Fitzwilliam Quartet will be performing two nights of music. Monday – Haydn and Beethoven Tuesday – Hugo Wolf, Haydn, and Schumann Tickets at the door £10 (cash only). First come first seated, as we are limited with seating for everyone’s safety.

Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week. Whether it be a story to tell, or tips or recipes or a notice to be added to spread the word.

Tuesday Coffee Morning with Mark & Friends Our regular Zoom coffee morning will be from 10.30am – 11.30am every Tuesday. All are very welcome. Grab your favourite morning beverage and let’s have a good ole chat – just like we used to. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for more info

✞ Friston Sunday Services on Zoom ✞ Friston will be holding a live Zoom service for all those who wish to join on Sunday starting at 9.45am.  It will be a Common Worship Morning Prayer.  All are welcome! The meetings start from 9.40am every Sunday morning Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for more info

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op  Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last year due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. Please check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays  The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for more info Date for your diary – Next Zoom Pilgrim Quiz: Saturday 12th June from 7pm Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for more info

Next Week
Sunday 6^th June
First Sunday of Trinity

Message from The Rector

Pentecost blows in this week – the last of the great storytelling Festivals of the church year before we move into so-called ‘Ordinary Time’ from next week onwards. Ordinary time, with its ‘Sundays after Trinity’ will take us right through to the end of October and All Saints Day. At Advent we anticipated Christ’s birth, celebrated it at Christmas and marked the fact that he was born for the whole world with the visit of the Magi at Epiphany. Then we anticipated Christ’s crucifixion at Lent, marked its happening on Good Friday and celebrated his rising from the dead at Easter. The final chapter sees him return to his Father on Ascension Day who then sends the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to be his gift to humankind for all time. We celebrate the presence of the Holy Spirit with us this week and ask for its guidance and inspiration. From Advent to Pentecost this is our story, and everything that we do, and how we do it, results from that story and what we learn from it.

This week it is Aldringham’s turn for an Annual Parochial Church Meeting, which will happen after the 11.00 service in church. Next week Knodishall rounds off the sequence and its meeting follows the 9.30 service. Thanks to all who work so hard to prepare for these meetings and ensure their smooth running. There is a lot of work that needs to be done behind the scenes and I couldn’t be more grateful for the help I receive.

And so to reminders. Firstly, about the chamber-music concert in Aldringham on June 6^th at 6pm and those in Aldeburgh on the 7^th and 8^th at 7pm. Excellent live music-making in two of our churches, not to be missed – more details further down this pew-sheet. Then don’t forget our Benefice Service on Sunday June 27^th in Aldeburgh church at 10.30. Archdeacon Jeanette joins us to preside and preach and we celebrate significant turning points in the ministries of Jo and James. And it is Aldeburgh’s Patronal Festival too – lots to celebrate.

But at Pentecost we remember that the coming of the Holy Spirit marked the beginning of what came to be known as the Christian Church – the enabling of human beings to become Christ’s hands and feet, eyes and ears in the world. It’s the church’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

With my love and prayers, as ever

Mark

 

Collect
God, who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading
Ezekiel 37.1-14
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.’ 

Second Reading
Acts 2.1-21 
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 
And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Gospel Reading
John 15.26-27; 16.4b-15
‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.  You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. ‘I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

 

Post Communion
Faithful God, who fulfilled the promises of Easter
by sending us your Holy Spirit
and opening to every race and nation
the way of life eternal:
open our lips by your Spirit,
that every tongue may tell of your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Sermon for 23^rd May – Pentecost,
by The Revd Johanna Mabey

May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

I heard about a priest who was asked by a church member, literally moments before the service he was leading was about to start, if he could please explain the Holy Spirit to him. Not great timing, but this was an important question for the person who asked, and the priest could see it was truly weighing on the man’s heart.

What did the priest answer? – “Wind and breath” was his hasty reply, and I think that was pretty tidy thinking under the circumstances, although the priest later mused that he’d summed up one of God’s greatest qualities with two things that came out of different ends of his infant son on a daily basis!

It’s hard to answer questions about the Holy Spirit. It’s one of those beloved mysteries.

If we did some word study, we would see that both the Hebrew word ruâch (which is female, by the way) and the Greek word ‘pneuma’ translate similarly as: wind, breath and spirit. And so, it’s not a stretch to say the Holy Spirit is the breath of God, the wind that whips around us, and the air we breathe in.

The wind is easy to explain… we feel it on our faces, we hear it rustling through leaves, we see it whip up the sandy soil in local fields and cause the waves to roll and crash along our coastline.

Breath is also easily understood – we see it on cold days, we smell it – especially after too much garlic bread… and we hear it when we’ve had to dash somewhere. Breath is a part of every human being, so much so that we rarely even think about it until it becomes difficult.

But Spirit is something unique. It has no scent, shape or form. It’s invisible and hard to grasp. Perhaps like our own breath, we don’t think about it until we need it. When we’re troubled, we often pray for the spirit to come.

But like our own breath, the Spirit is already with us.

The Spirit is there even though we may not feel it. On days when there isn’t any wind, and at times when we’re truly out of breath, the Spirit encircles us, because the Spirit is God, and God has never left us.

Through the Spirit, God breathed all creation to life. It was the first thing to BE, and it has never ceased to BE.

A favourite theologian of mine offers this wonderful illustration: Think about it as our earth’s atmosphere. This invisible layer of gases surrounds our beautiful blue planet. It keeps the air we breathe here on Earth from being sucked out into the cold and consuming vacuum of outer space. And inside this layer is all the air that ever was, is and ever will be. The same air of the ancients keeps recirculating, passing from one generation to the next.

God’s first breath is still blowing through this world, filling our lungs with life. This is the same breath inhaled by dinosaurs, Pharaohs, and Greek philosophers. When Jesus exhaled his last breath on the cross, it re-joined with Abraham’s, Jacob’s and all of our ancestors.

But God took that breath, that last sacrifice and strengthened it into a mighty wind that shook throughout creation. Like a holy hurricane, it blew through the upper room on the Day of Pentecost; igniting sparks that burst into flames about the disciple’s heads.

Picture them standing there in awe, all the disciples inhaling God’s breath, filling themselves to the gills with God’s Spirit.

They began to speak in tongues – in different languages. They created such a racket that they attracted others who were just passing-by. By the end of the day the church had grown to more than three thousand.

The good news is that the Spirit is still moving. Pentecost isn’t a onetime event. The Spirit is the heartbeat of the Church today as we celebrate our ‘birthday’ and the Gospel is interpreted for a third millennium.

And faced with so much change and uncertainty: so many worrying and difficult situations, the Holy Spirit remains an ongoing gift, filling us with hope and purpose.

The Spirit stretches us and pushes us to uncomfortable places. It challenges us to cast aside our prejudices and listen to its truth. The Spirit reminds us of the teachings of Jesus and encourages us to apply them. To love our neighbour as ourselves.

In the unity of the Holy Spirit, we are one body, the Body of Christ. Young, old, male, female, from every culture, every background, all dreaming the same dream together; each of us living and worshiping side-by-side for one common purpose.

So welcome to Pentecost! It’s the season of the Holy Spirit… totally dependable and utterly unpredictable; gentle and wild; challenging and comforting – the Spirit that can’t be described or contained…

Let’s rejoice together in the gift of it!

Amen.

 

 

Pentecost  Who or what is the Holy Spirit?  –  Just an Idea. Take a piece of wood, a foot long. Shape it and drill it the right way and suddenly, with a bit of luck, it can become a recorder. Blow on it and you can get a tune, possibly a very beautiful one – new music is heard, the music of the Holy Spirit. Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire.    John Giles

Next Week
Sunday 30^th May
Trinity Sunday

 

 

NOTICES

Chamber Music Box at Aldringham Church Sunday June 6th at 6pm Some of you may remember the visit that we enjoyed from the young players of ‘Chamber Music Box’ last year. This time they bring a programme of music for flute and string trio including works by Schubert, Mozart and two leading 20th-century composers, Aaron Copland and Bohuslav Martinu. Tickets must be booked in advance – head for http://www.chambermusicbox.com/concerts for more information and the opportunity to book.

The Fitzwilliam Quartet Concerts 7th & 8th June 7pm at Aldeburgh Parish Church We are delighted to welcome the return of music into Aldeburgh Parish Church. The Fitzwilliam Quartet will be performing two nights of music. Monday – Haydn and Beethoven Tuesday – Hugo Wolf, Haydn, and Schumann Tickets at the door £10 (cash only). First come first seated, as we are limited with seating for everyone’s safety.

Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week. Whether it be a story to tell, or tips or recipes or a notice to be added to spread the word. Deadline – Thursday 4pm Please

Tuesday Coffee Morning with Mark & Friends Our regular Zoom coffee morning will be from 10.30am – 11.30am every Tuesday. All are very welcome. Grab your favourite morning beverage and let’s have a good ole chat. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for details

✞ Friston Sunday Services on Zoom ✞ Friston will be holding a live Zoom service for all those who wish to join on Sunday starting at 9.45am.  It will be a Common Worship Morning Prayer.  All are welcome! The meetings start from 9.40am every Sunday morning Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for details

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op  Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities and have an even more vital role to play as we navigate our way through these unprecedented times. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last few months due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. You should also check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

✞ Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays ✞ The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for details

Message from The Rector

‘Ascension Day to Pentecost’ is a sort-of ‘mini-season’ in the church year, lasting barely more than a week. But it has its own liturgy (for example, Common Worship’s Morning and Evening Prayer services have special material) and nowadays it is also the ‘Thy Kingdom Come season’. I wrote about it last week but would point you once again to its special website:

https://www.thykingdomcome.global/

… that contains a wealth of good stuff. And there should be relevant printed material available in all of our churches including a thoughtful Prayer Journal – more excellent food for thought. Incidentally, if you would like to pick up a copy and you find yourself in Aldeburgh the church will, once again, be open every day from Monday onwards. The Prayer Journals and some special material for children are on the chest at the back of church.

Some advance information. I have already mentioned the concerts by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet in Aldeburgh church on Monday and Tuesday evenings, June 7^th and 8^th – highly recommended. We can now add news that the day beforehand, Sunday June 6^th, at 6pm, will see another concert of chamber music, this time in Aldringham church. Some of you may remember the visit that we enjoyed from the young players of ‘Chamber Music Box’ last year. This time they bring a programme of music for flute and string trio including works by Schubert, Mozart and two leading 20^th-century composers, Aaron Copland and Bohuslav Martinu. Tickets must be booked in advance – head for www.chambermusicbox.com/concerts for more information and the opportunity to book.

At the end of June, we mark Petertide – St Peter’s Day falls on June 29^th – and on Sunday June 27^th there will be a special service for the whole of our benefice in Aldeburgh church at 10.30. Not only is it Aldeburgh’s Patronal Festival but last year’s lockdown meant that we missed the chance to celebrate with two members of our clergy team. At Petertide 2020 James Marston was ordained Priest (a great day in anyone’s ordained ministry). At the same time Jo Mabey marked three years of ordained ministry and came to the formal end of her time ‘in training’, moving from being an Assistant Curate to an Assistant Priest. That may not sound like a massive change but is a very significant stage in her ordained life – she’s ditched the ‘L’ plates! On June 27^th we will welcome Archdeacon Jeanette to preside and preach at Holy Communion, we will present Jo with her new license and belatedly celebrate James’s priesting. And James is very quick to point out that no church celebration is worthy of the name without a bring and share lunch!

With my love and prayers, as ever

Mark

Collect
O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading
Ezekiel 36.24-28
I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Second Reading
Acts 1.15-17, 21-end 
In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred and twenty people) and said, ‘Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus— for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.’ 
So one of the men who have accompanied us throughout the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.’ So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, ‘Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Gospel Reading
John 17.6-19
‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

 

Post Communion
Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Sermon for 16^th May – Seventh Sunday of Easter,
by our Rector, The Revd Mark Lowther

Here’s a challenging thought. When you relax, when you don’t have anything particular on your mind – what do you think about? Where does your freewheeling consciousness take you? Do you think about, say, your family? Your holiday plans? Stuff to do with work? What needs doing to the house? Well, argues the American Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr, wherever you go at such moments, that is what he calls your ‘momentary God’. And, he argues, as Christians what we should be working towards is replacing those thoughts with the true God. God should always come first – ahead of husband, wife, children, job …. And then, reassuringly, he says ‘Fortunately, God is prepared to wait ……’

It is a challenging thought – and one that it would be all too easy to dismiss as being all right for a theologian to say (all right for a priest to preach ….) but, come on, life isn’t like that, is it?

We all have concerns about family, career, our health, our own futures – that’s only natural, isn’t it? Of course it is – it’s part of our humanity – of our being human.

In Ascension-tide we mark the time when God in human form is called back to the Father who sent him into the world – sent him to show us what God is – sent him to show us what love truly is. To show us what ‘eternal life’ really means. John’s gospel has Jesus praying the words we’ve just heard in the Gospel immediately before Judas turns up with the ‘police’ from the chief priests and Pharisees and he is arrested. The passage is part of the final section of what is often called the ‘Farewell Discourse’ and the words we’ve just heard are sometimes called the ‘Farewell Prayer’ or the ‘High Priestly Prayer’. There’s some interesting scholarly debate as to whether or not this whole passage, this whole ‘discourse’ – chapters 15, 16 and 17 – may have been inserted into John’s gospel at a later date than the surrounding material. Chapter 14 ends with Jesus saying to the disciples ‘Rise, let us be on our way’ and that would certainly segue very neatly into the opening of Chapter 18 – ‘After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden ….’.

But the Farewell Discourse includes passages that we think of as central to our understanding of Jesus … ‘I am the true vine’, ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you’, ‘You did not choose me but I chose you’ ‘I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now.’

‘A little while and you will no longer see me’ ….. All of these passages come from the Farewell Discourse. It’s, if you like, a summary of Jesus’s ministry and what it was for.

And we read part of its conclusion today. As Jesus’s time on earth comes to an end we’re reminded of why God lived among us in human form – what the whole purpose of it was. Jesus says that he has made God’s name known – and, given eternal life to all who have heard his words and believed.

Eternal life! Something that, uniquely, John’s Gospel teaches us isn’t just something that lies in the beyond but is for the here and now. ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly’ says Jesus in Chapter 10. Abundant life in the here and now. ‘Inaugurated eschatology’ to use the theological jargon. Or, to be a bit more simplistic, ‘this is it’! We’re not about pie in the sky for some indeterminate future we’re about May 16^th 2021.

‘Show us a sign’, the disciples kept saying. ‘Show us a sign and we’ll believe.’ Do something. And Jesus did, of course, do lots of things. And many believed. But we all too often seem to be in the same place as the psalmist:

“God, are you avoiding me? Where are you when I need you? …. Time to get up, God — get moving.” Words from Psalm 10 in the racy translation called ‘The Message”. Show us something, now!

But … ‘Si monumentum requires, circumspice’. The epitaph of Christopher Wren in St. Paul’s Cathedral. ‘If you seek his memorial, look around you.’ Gently to return to that challenge thrown down by Richard Rohr about God coming ahead of loved ones and job and home and everything, try this one for size. All is gift. Everything around you – including loved ones and job and home and everything. All is gift. All. The only way to make sense of it, of life, the universe and everything, of love and death, of the highs and the lows, is to put God first and to realise that all of the rest is contained within the love of God – Eternal Father, risen and ascended Son and (more of this anon) Pentecostal Holy Spirit.

Another thought. If we really do put God first then it’s going to change our perspective on ourselves. We are, at one and the same time, uniquely special to God (the God who knows us better than we know ourselves) but we also shouldn’t worry about ourselves too much. We are called by God to be servants, not to put others at our service. I think that’s what Jesus meant when he told us not to worry about food or clothing. ‘Seek the Kingdom of God first’ he said, ‘and everything else will follow.’
Ultimately, it’s not about what we want for ourselves but about what God wants for us and for the world. And, of course, if we can learn how to put things in that order then we have God’s promise of nothing short of eternal life. Are we prepared to do that?

A little poem by Ann Lewin called
‘Perspective’

Ascension means a
God-like view of things,
Rising above our usual
Limitations.
Rise, then, and know
The glory of a life
Set free from fear.

Amen

Next Week
Sunday 23^rd May
Pentecost

 

NOTICES

The Fitzwilliam Quartet Concerts 7th & 8th June 7pm at Aldeburgh Parish Church We are delighted to welcome the return of music into Aldeburgh Parish Church. The Fitzwilliam Quartet will be performing two nights of music. Monday – Haydn and Beethoven Tuesday – Hugo Wolf, Haydn, and Schumann Tickets at the door £10 (cash only). First come first seated, as we are limited with seating for everyone’s safety.

✟ Alpha Course ✟ Starting on Sunday Evening (9th May) on Zoom at 7pm to 8.30pm hosted by St John’s Church, Saxmundham. Zoom Link: https://us02webzoom.us/j/2907979571 – no password. ALL WELCOME For more information, please contact The Revd Sheila Hart sheila.hart49@gmail.com

Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week. Whether it be a story to tell, or tips or recipes or a notice to be added to spread the word. Deadline – Thursday 4pm Please

✞ Friston Sunday Services on Zoom ✞ Friston will be holding a live Zoom service for all those who wish to join on Sunday starting at 9.45am.  It will be a Common Worship Morning Prayer.  All are welcome! The meetings start from 9.40am every Sunday morning For more information, please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk

Tuesday Coffee Morning with Mark & Friends Our regular Zoom coffee morning will be from 10.30am – 11.30am every Tuesday. All are very welcome. Grab your favourite morning beverage and let’s have a good ole chat. For more information please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op  Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities and have an even more vital role to play as we navigate our way through these unprecedented times. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last few months due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. You should also check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

✞ Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays ✞ The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. For more information please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk

Message from The Rector

Next Thursday is one of the great ‘red-letter days’ in the church year – Ascension Day. Because it always falls midweek it is often forgotten, but it forms a vital part of the post-Easter story and is one of the principle feast-days of the church. 40 days after Easter, the Ascension ends the risen Christ’s appearances to his disciples as he is reunited with God, beyond any specific time and place. Our Ascension Day celebrations begin at 7.00am as one or two brave souls climb to the top of Aldeburgh church tower and attempt a little co-ordinated hymn-singing with those below in the car park, before we all gather in church for a service of Holy Communion. And on Thursday evening, at 6pm, there will be a Zoom service for Ascension Day from Friston and to which everyone is invited. Details of how to join in are elsewhere on this pew-sheet.

Ascension Day marks the beginning of what has become a regular fixture in the international church calendar – Thy Kingdom Come. It’s website https://www.thykingdomcome.global/
says:

Since its start in May 2016 God has grown Thy Kingdom Come from a dream of possibility into a movement. Christians from 172 countries have taken part in praying ‘Come Holy Spirit’, so that friends and family, neighbours and colleagues might come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Thy Kingdom Come lasts just over a week, running until Pentecost (Sunday May 23^rd), when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. The website contains lots of good things and some printed material has also been put together which, thanks to Emma and Martin Steadman, is now available in all of our churches. The main thing is a ‘Prayer Journal’, of which Archbishop Stephen Cottrell, who has compiled it, says:

Each day there are a few things to read, a prayer to offer and then an invitation for you to make your own reflections on what it means to follow in the way of Christ.

Do pick up a copy if you are in church on Sunday – but if you are unable to and would like to read the ‘Prayer Journal’ it is here:

https://www.thykingdomcome.
global/sites/default/files/2021-03/TKC%20Prayer%20Journa
l%202021%20DOWNLOAD.pdf

(That’s one long link!)

Finally, a reminder that the round of Annual Parochial Church Meetings begins this week in Friston. The full APCM timetable goes:

Friston	Sunday May 9th at 10.45am
Aldeburgh	Sunday May 16th at 11.45am
Aldringham	Sunday May 23rd at 12 noon
Knodishall	Sunday May 30th at 10.30am

Each follows immediately after the morning’s service.

With love – and (for one final time!) continued Easter Greetings

Mark

Collect
God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy;
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
Isaiah 55.1-11
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food. 
Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David. 
See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples. 
See, you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.  Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 

Second Reading
Acts 10.44-end
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’  So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

Gospel Reading
John 15.9-17
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Post Communion
God our Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life:
may we thirst for you,
the spring of life and source of goodness,
through him who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Next Week
Sunday 16^th May
The Seventh Sunday of Easter

 

Sermon for 9^th May – Sixth Sunday of Easter,
by, The Revd Sheila Hart

May I speak to you in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

All our readings this morning have a gospel theme – theme which explains clearly the steps of coming to faith in God through Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah is a prophecy to the Israelites in exile. They have turned away from God and are suffering for it in Babylon and the prophet is declaring God’s desire that they should return to a relationship with Him. It is a very clear message and there are certain key words in the passage which highlight the steps through which God woos us and brings us to himself in faith.

The readings from Acts and the Gospel of John build on the prophecy of Isaiah and show us how we can maintain that initial response to God’s love in bringing us to Himself.

So, let’s begin with Isaiah.

The first key word is in the first verse and it is Thirst. We all know what it is to be thirsty on a hot day in midsummer and we feel that unless we have a drink soon, we will not last the day. In a sense, although we may not recognise it, in order to begin our journey of faith we need to be thirsty – thirsty for something more in our life than we have at the present time.

The prophet encourages the thirsty to Come, buy and eat. Water is essential for life to be sustained, and in our journey of faith we need to come to Jesus, who will give us living water to satisfy our thirst for it is only through Him that our thirst for something more in life will be truly satisfied.

In verse 3 we are encouraged to Listen ‘Incline your ear and listen to me, so that you may live.’ And what we hear as we listen to God is that He loves us unconditionally with an everlasting love.

There is an urgency in the prophet’s message in relation to our next key word, Seek. ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.’ God takes the initiative in the message of salvation and bringing us to faith, but we need to respond and part of that response is to seek God – to look for His activity and presence in our overall journey of life, not merely in our journey of faith.

In verse 7 the prophet gives us the next step – as Christians, we call it repentance and forgiveness, but the prophet says, ‘Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts, let them Return to the Lord, that He may have mercy on them and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.’ We cannot change the direction of our life by ourselves, but we do have to be active in turning to God who will show us His mercy and His Grace – His unconditional love and forgiveness.

In the passage we heard from Acts we have an account of the end of the story of Peter’s change of heart around the Gospel being preached to the gentiles as well as the Jews. The key here is that God wants us all to come to Him. We don’t have to be ‘special’ for we are all special to God for he made us as we are, unique and for His purpose with our own unique personality and gifts. But in order to sustain our new life in Jesus we need two more things.

The first is to be found in our Gospel reading from John in verses 9 and 10 ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.’ So, we need to be obedient to God to abide in His love. What are His commandments? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself.

But, according to verse 16, we did not choose to come to Christ, He chose us and appointed us to go and bear fruit – fruit which will last.

We cannot do this in our own strength. We will fail and so we need the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to, not only remain in relationship with God through Christ, but also to grow in faith and bear fruit so that the joy of Christ might remain in us and our joy may be complete.
Amen

If anything you have heard this morning, has unsettled you or questions have arisen for you, please speak to me afterwards. There is an Online Alpha course beginning this evening on zoom, hosted by St John’s Church, Saxmundham and it could be instrumental in enabling you to explore some of your questions. The link is on the pew sheet and I have it too.

NOTICES

The Fitzwilliam Quartet Concerts 7th & 8th June 7pm at Aldeburgh Parish Church We are delighted to welcome the return of music into Aldeburgh Parish Church. The Fitzwilliam Quartet will be performing two nights of music. Monday – Haydn and Beethoven Tuesday – Hugo Wolf, Haydn, and Schumann Tickets at the door £10 (cash only). First come first seated, as we are limited with seating for everyone’s safety.

✟ Alpha Course ✟ Starting on Sunday Evening (9th May) on Zoom at 7pm to 8.30pm hosted by St John’s Church, Saxmundham. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links.

Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week. Whether it be a story to tell, or tips or recipes or a notice to be added to spread the word. Deadline – Thursday 4pm Please

✞ Friston Sunday Services on Zoom ✞ Friston will be holding a live Zoom service for all those who wish to join on Sunday starting at 9.45am.  It will be a Common Worship Morning Prayer.  All are welcome! The meetings start from 9.40am every Sunday morning Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links.

Tuesday Coffee Morning with Mark & Friends Our regular Zoom coffee morning will be from 10.30am – 11.30am every Tuesday. All are very welcome. Grab your favourite morning beverage and let’s have a good ole chat – just like we used to. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links.

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op  Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities and have an even more vital role to play as we navigate our way through these unprecedented times. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets.

The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last few months due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ By clicking on the food bank’s name, you can also find out where to drop off your donations. You should also check the food banks website or social media pages for any changes to opening hours or operations as a result of the Coronavirus before dropping off donations – If you would prefer to make a financial donation, then please visit the food bank’s website (under ‘Give help’) or you can donate to the Trussell Trust centrally by contacting our Supporter Care team on 01722 580 178 or emailing supportercare@trusselltrust.org

✞ Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays ✞ The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are more than welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links. Pilgrims – Local Storytelling Ceilidh on Zoom Saturday 8th May from 7pm The first half will focus on sharing stories, memories and experiences since March 2020: What has given us hope?  What have we been released from / let go of?  What are we looking forward to experiencing again?   What new experiences have we had that we shall carry forward? The second half will continue our sharing of local stories. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links.

Ascension Day – Thursday May 13th All are invited to join in a special Zoom service at 6pm, led by The Revd Sheila Hart. Please contact admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk for the links.