News

Message from our Curate in Charge,
The Revd James Marston

Remembrance Sunday  

A reminder that there will be a Holy Communion using the Book of Common Prayer at Aldeburgh church at 8am. This ensures canon law is satisfied and the benefice has a communion service for those who wish to receive the sacrament.  

Remembrance Sunday services are happening across the benefice with services at Aldeburgh Moot Hall, Aldringham, Knodishall and Friston. All begin by gathering at the respective war memorials – the Alde Sandlings villages all have memorials in the churchyards.  

Lest we forget  

James  

 

Collect
Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading
Daniel 12.1-3
At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

Second Reading
Hebrews 10.11-14 [15-18] 19-25
And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God’, and since then has been waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.[And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds’, he also adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.] Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Gospel Reading
Mark 13.1-8
As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’  Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’ When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’ Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

Post Communion
Gracious Lord,
in this holy sacrament
you give substance to our hope:
bring us at the last
to that fullness of life for which we long;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

 

Sermon By The Revd Johanna Mabey preached on
Sunday 7^th November 2021 – 3^rd Sunday before Advent

Jonah 3:1-5,10 – Hebrews 9:24 to end – Mark 1: 14-20

“May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our rock and our redeemer”

It’s said that a change is as good as a rest, but we look at all the changes that we’ve been through over the last 18 months or so, and the changes that are still to come to us as a community both locally and globally, and it doesn’t feel very restful, does it?

For some people, the prospect of change is terrifying, while others find it stimulating, but I suppose all of us know – change has to happen!

Whilst none of us want change for change’s sake, we can’t fail to notice that all life involves change – it’s as natural as the God-given rhythm of the seasons.

Jesus promised change to those four disciples who were simply sitting, mending their nets. They probably didn’t set out that morning thinking ‘I need a new job’. But Jesus turned up and simply said ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And they did – without question, without knowing where they were going, seemingly without even stopping to think about it.

Jesus had launched onto the scene following the arrest of John the Baptist.

He’d come to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was near, and he had a very simple message – ‘Follow me’, and ‘fish for people’. In that message he declared himself a very different style of teacher.

In ancient times it was never the responsibility of a Rabbi to call people to follow – it was the responsibility of any prospective disciples to seek out their chosen Rabbi and ask for permission to follow. In this case, Jesus did the seeking out.

In those days, to follow a Rabbi was to follow a particular set of teachings.

But to follow Jesus was to follow a person, something which we all are still called to do today.

For the four disciples, the call to follow Jesus meant literally walking in his footsteps. They followed him throughout Galilee and Samaria for three years.

They followed Jesus with no idea of where it would lead. They were truly fishermen in the wilderness – but something made them stay with Jesus.

They were called to follow at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and they chose to stay – until it all got too dangerous for them and then, after the events of Good Friday and Easter Day, they went back to what they knew.

In John’s Gospel we’re told that Peter said ‘I am going fishing’. Jesus met them on the shore for breakfast – and Jesus’s last words to Simon Peter were ‘Follow me! At the low points and the high points of our lives, Jesus says ‘Follow me’.

The disciples’ calling, and the calling of every single person here is the same – Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Follow me and feed my sheep.

As disciples, our first calling is to enter into a relationship with Jesus, a relationship that’s one of complete and utter trust. We follow by developing that relationship through Prayer, Bible Study and fellowship with other followers.

Our calling to a relationship with Jesus is a calling to give him our burdens and worries and to receive from him the gifts he longs to share with us peace, hope, grace, joy, truth, love, strength, wisdom.

As disciples we’re also called to action. We’re called to be people who go out and live as Christ in the world.

We’re called to be people who allow Jesus to speak through us,
offering challenge and rebuke as well as encouragement and love.
We’re called to minister God’s reconciling love to the world…
all the world, not just to people like us.
We’re called to bring God’s word of forgiveness and of hope to all who need it.
Our calling to follow demands total commitment.
That’s not easy, because it’s counter cultural in our instant society.
It’s not easy because it demands something which most of us are not
willing to give. It demands discipline, single-mindedness, and a determination to make Jesus the centre of our lives.

Jesus says ‘Follow me’.

May we all hear those words, follow in His footsteps and never be the same.

Amen.

Almighty and eternal God, from whose love in Christ we cannot be parted, either by death or life: hear our prayers and thanksgivings for all whom we remember this day; fulfil in them the purpose of your love; and bring us all, with them, to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Do take a look at the Royal British Legion website with useful information and links: https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/remembrance/what-were-remembering-this-year Next week – Sunday 21st November Christ the King

NOTICES

Church of England and Diocese Online Worship There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland.org/ prayer-and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thechurchofengland/ Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCLecK8GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral

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.

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 welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list. Zoom Quiz night: Saturday 27th November.   Please email Sue and Richard. Please contact pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com for the links or more information.

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/

BANK HOLIDAY & STAFF TRAINING CLOSURE DATES The surgery will be closed for staff training on Thursday 08.12.21 from 13.00. The surgery will be closed 27th December 2021 and 28th December 2021 and 3rd January 2022 When the surgery is closed, please call NHS 111 Covid Boosters and Flu vaccinations The practice continues to administer our Covid boosters and flu vaccinations. If you are due, please call the surgery to book your appointment or visit our website for further information.

Message from our Curate in Charge,
The Revd James Marston

From the celebrations of All Saints, we turn our attention to a period of reflection as we mark All Souls this week and Remembrance Sunday later this month. This week, in my message, I include my reflection at this week’s service as we remembered the loved.

Let us pray
Support us, O Lord,
all the day long of this troublesome life,
until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes,
the busy world is hushed,
the fever of life is over
and our work is done.
Then, Lord, in your mercy grant us a safe lodging,
a holy rest, and peace at the last;
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

I think this is perhaps one of the greatest of prayers. It is said at one of the most poignant parts of the funeral service – the final prayer said not for the person we have just said goodbye to but for those of us left behind. Written by Cardinal John Henry Newman, I think it distils into a few powerful words the hope found in the Christian faith – the hope of a holy rest and peace at the last with the God of love.

I feel the last two years for many of us has been a time of uncertainty, change and loss. Loss of freedom, loss of confidence, loss of certainties, and loss, for some, of loved ones.

All Souls is as much a time to remember as a moment in which to rest in God’s love. God knows your heart. God does know how you feel. 

And as we lament, reflect, and remember in the stillness of our hearts, I am constantly reminded, how in difficult times, relying on God, turning to the consolation of our faith – however fragile that may sometimes be – and remembering the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the comfort of God’s love for each and every one of us can help and support us all through this troublesome life.

May you find consolation in God’s love, may you find refuge and strength in the light of God’s presence, and may all souls, all our loved ones we remember tonight, rest in peace and rise in glory.

Amen

Candles from the Remembering the Loved service on 2^nd November

 

Collect
Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading
Jonah 3.1-5, 10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, ‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Second Reading
Hebrews 9.24-end
For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Gospel Reading
Mark 1.14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’  As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Sermon by The Revd James Marston
Preached at Aldeburgh on October 27^th, 2021
All Saints’ Day

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

As some of you know for my master’s degree in theology I studied Dorothy Day, a woman who, even in her lifetime, was touted as a saint.

Day was the founder of the catholic worker movement, a peace activist, a prisoner of conscience, a devout roman catholic, a journalist, a political and prophetic voice who challenged the church to which she belonged, a woman who fed the poor and housed the homeless, a champion of social justice and an exemplar of radical Christianity.

Dorothy Day lived her life according to the manifesto of the Sermon on the Mount.

She was an extraordinary woman and a hard act to follow, but Dorothy Day was also human, she was awkward, sarcastic, impatient and, as I read her letters and diaries, could be, on occasion, somewhat blunt, kurt and downright rude.

As her progress to sainthood continues, and she is now deemed a servant of God in the Roman Catholic Church, I suspect she would be utterly appalled at being sucked into the powerful patriarchy she challenged and to which she proved such a thorn in the side. She didn’t like the idea of sainthood famously remarking she didn’t wish to be dismissed so easily.

What Dorothy meant was she was no submissive lady of virginal virtue, no mere friend of God, no saccharine drenched devotional Christian. Dorothy Day acted, did, and followed Jesus in a way that upset almost everyone she encountered.

St Lawrence, the patron saint of Knodishall, was a second century roman, a deacon in the church, who defied the emperor and was martyred, roasted alive on a grid iron according to legend. A man whose faith compelled him to speak and act.

St Mary, a popular patron saint of many Suffolk medieval churches, was the overarching witness of the Christian faith, the woman chosen by God to bear his son and witness Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

The patron saint of fishmongers as well as Scotland, St Andrew, was a simple fisherman, a brother of St Peter, and one of the first apostles called by Jesus. A martyr whose experience of Jesus and the resurrection compelled him to die on an upside down cross.

And St Peter and St Paul, fathers of the church who witnessed first-hand, and in different ways, the risen Christ. St Paul. The rather laborious theologian and letter writer, St Peter the famous denier of Jesus and yet also a man who helped found his church and went to his death for his Lord.

All these men and women were humans compelled by their faith to be who they were. To do extraordinary things in the name of their faith.

We do not worship the saints. We may ask them to intercede for us, but the communion of saints is not the object of our worship or praise. Instead, they all point us towards God and, I think, learning about them, allowing ourselves to be inspired by them points us towards the holiest part of ourselves, the place in our hearts where we allow God in.

With a patron saint for each church in our benefice we are also reminded of the distinct character and attributes of our worshipping communities.

The passions, traditions, and missions of each of our churches are slightly different. Indeed, I often wonder as I preside at each if they may even reflect in some ways the characters and personalities of the patron saints themselves.

Nuanced though they may be, the differences in each need not and are not diluted nor diffused by Church of England structure or incumbent’s whim. On the contrary I would suggest each and every church in our benefice has much to offer its own parish and community.

Nonetheless, we must not lose sight of that which binds us together, that which brings Dorothy Day, Lawrence the deacon, Mary the virgin, Andrew the fisherman, and Peter and Paul, into communion – the faith we and they share.

And that is a faith that demands not only that we love our neighbour but that we pull on the same rope, pull together, as we are doing, in times of uncertainty or change.

My challenge to you as a benefice, as people of four separate and one combined worshipping community, is to be inspired by your patron saint and the faith they held; to follow his or her example as best you can. To speak out, to care for others, to ask questions, to learn, to retell the story, to be prophetic, to challenge injustice, and to follow Christ in all you do.

It is an old adage but together we are greater than the sum of our parts – Peter, Paul, Lawrence, Andrew, Mary and Dorothy all knew this and that is why we can make the effort to celebrate them, and the churches of which they are patron, and all that our benefice churches are, and can be, and will be, together.

Amen

Post Communion
God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Texts from Coventry Cathedral’s Tablets of the Word Part Eight by John Giles Fear not I am the first and the last I am alive for evermore amen And have the keys of hell and death       Revelation 1.18  How does the Christian story end? On the Cross? Certainly not. Christianity proclaims a victory, of Christ risen, ascended and glorified. If you look up “Christ in Majesty – images” on Google, you will find pages of representations in art, mosaics, stained glass, and sculpture. Somewhere in that glorious procession you will come across Graham Sutherland’s great tapestry of Christ in Majesty which hangs from seventy feet high behind the altar in Coventry Cathedral and relates to the last verse in this series (see the words above) Unlike the other verses from The Tablets of the Word, the saying above comes not from the gospels, but from the Book of Revelation. The book appears to have been written by a Jewish Christian called John, sometimes called John the Elder (to distinguish him from the Apostle John) for seven churches in what is now western Turkey, inland from Ephesus. All the churches were under the threat of persecution by the Roman Emperors Nero (54 – 68 AD) and Domitian (81 – 96 AD), in whose later time the book probably found its present form. John was in prison on the island of Patmos thirty miles off the Turkish coast. He writes with an almost episcopal concern for his readers, but there is no evidence of his being ordained, let alone a bishop. His is a lay voice. The battle between good and evil for him was clear cut. He sees “war in heaven”, surely a contradiction in terms, yet true to experience – Michael and his angels are fighting against the dragon and his angels. He opens his message with a vision of the glorified Christ speaking the words above. He urges his readers to remain faithful, assuring them of ultimate victory in his promise of a new heaven and a new earth. Meanwhile the threat of persecution was real. There had been and would continue to be martyrs, Christians who died for their faith. The martyrs gained a special recognition in the life and worship of the church. The Te Deum tells of “the noble army of martyrs” who join their praises to those of the Apostles and Prophets. In the mosaics of Ravenna, the martyrs are shown with palm branches in their hands. Stephen the Deacon (Acts ch.7) had been the first martyr. Peter, Paul, and Andrew, not unknown to our Benefice, would follow not many years later. Lawrence, deacon and patron saint of Knodishall, arrested for not handing over his church’s treasures, would die in 258 AD, saying “the jewels of the church are the lives of the poor” – reminding us of Archbishop Helder Camara’s words: “When I give bread to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no bread, they call me a communist.” We today in the west are faced not so much by persecution as by indifference if not scorn. It is very hard to imagine the challenge faced by churches called upon to recognise the divinity of emperors with their gods. But then the Book of Revelation was not written for comfortable western Christians. It was written for those who, at the time, and in the centuries that would follow, would face death for loyalty to Christ.  It must also be said that the church’s own history contains much that is lamentable – with wars of religion; putting down of so-called heresies; witch-hunting; burnings; the Inquisition etc. The Book of Revelation itself exhibits in places a thirst for revenge far from the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. Yet behind all is the higher example and authority of Christ in Majesty. “Fear not” he says, echoing his words to the disciples caught out in the storm. “I am the first and the last – the Alpha and the Omega”: I am the beginning of the search for love and meaning in our universe, and I am also the fulfilment and final answer to such questions.  Judgement and justice, hell, and death, are finally and only judged themselves in relation to the Cross, where Christ carries the weight of the world’s cruelty and evil. In the light of the cross, and by the teaching of Jesus in his lifetime, grace and forgiveness, mercy, and love, turn out to be supreme. Forgiveness, reconciliation, fresh starts are possible. We don’t have to kill our enemies. Ending this series, that was surely the conviction driving Provost Howard to give the Tablets of the Word such prominence in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral. As Advent approaches, we prepare ourselves to hear that story all over again. Next week – Sunday 14th November Remembrance Day

NOTICES

Church of England and Diocese Online Worship There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland.org/ prayer-and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ thechurchofengland/ Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCLecK8GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral

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.

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 welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list and for Zoom links. Zoom Quiz night: Saturday 27th November.   Please email Sue and Richard if you can provide a round: pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com

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/

Christmas Cards have Arrived You will find a great festive selection of Christmas cards  (inc hand made by Titch Driscoll) at the visitors’ corner at Aldeburgh Parish Church. Do pop in and have a look. A huge thank you to Titch for all her efforts in making the visitors’ corner look so welcoming.

Message from our Curate in Charge,
The Revd James Marston

As we come together tomorrow as a benefice and celebrate the lives of the saints, I cannot help but think that even in this time of vacancy and pause the Holy Spirit isn’t idle.

Indeed, at an elders meeting this week – which included elders from across the benefice – I was struck not only by the laughter and fun and energy, but also the wealth of pastoral sensitivity, experience and knowledge we hold in our ministry team and, indeed, in our congregations.

We may be in a time of reflection and “holding the fort” but I am confident, as the time draws near to welcome a new incumbent and new chapter in the life of our churches, we will hand over a benefice keen, willing, and able to minister to the needs of those souls under our care.

These may not have been the easiest couple of years. Covid, uncertainty, change, have all taken their toll, as well as for some, grief at the loss of loved ones. The church marks the remembering of the loved at this time of year with All Souls and I would commend to you this years’ service held on Tuesday night at 6pm at Aldeburgh church.

This is prayerful and reflective service, a moment to remember to be thankful and, I hope, find some peace and comfort along the journey of grief. We not only mark the passing of time but also, as a worshipping community, support those in our parishes who have lost loved ones and those closest to them during difficult times.

All are invited to take part and take the opportunity to still ourselves, light and candle, and remember.

James

Collect
God of holiness,
your glory is proclaimed in every age:
as we rejoice in the faith of your saints,
inspire us to follow their example
with boldness and joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

First Reading
Isaiah 25.6-9
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. 
And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death for ever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.  It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Second Reading
Revelation 21.1-6a
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Gospel Reading
John 11.32-44
When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’  So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

 

Sermon by The Revd James Marston
Preached at Friston 24^th October 2021
Bible Sunday

May I speak in the name of the Living God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This is my third Bible Sunday sermon in the benefice. – I have to admit I thought about repeating the 2019 version partly because not only was it a corker but also because I thought that by now no one will remember hearing my well-crafted words.

Sometimes writing a sermon is a bit like pouring treacle and I can’t help but admit my views on the bible haven’t changed much in the last two and a bit years – it is still a book of books, the bible still contains history, theology, stories and even poetry, and still gives us an insight into the character of God and the life of Jesus Christ.

The bible is still a series of ancient documents that speak to us today and point us towards the God we worship and whom shapes our faith and our lives.

So, as I was trying to pour this treacle my mind wandered – I found myself looking for inspiration and found myself thumbing through a book given to me this week by a parishioner.

“Records of the Borough of Aldeburgh – The Church” by Arthur T Winn not only lists the vicars of the parish but deals with the church records from roughly the first Elizabeth to the mid-1920s.

I found inside a plethora of intriguing stories-

-The remarriage of John and Agnes Arnold – deemed necessary after John, a fisherman, was captured and imprisoned by “Dunkirkers” –a type of pirate I assume – and found on his release his wife had consoled herself with another partner.

-The proposed marriage of Thomas Jinning and Susan Mitchell which after the banns had been read the “said Thomas forsook Susan and did not marry her”

And the story of a previous curate a Mr Maxtid Violette who in March 1644 found himself in hot water after being found “scandously overseen in drink in Orford, Saxmundham and elsewhere” and despite some musical gifts was taken to performing in various bar parlours songs which were “not always of a sacred character, and nor was his conversation of an improving nature.”

Added to which a lady staying at one of the town’s inns reported a reverend gentleman, whose eyes and ears were polluted by ribald songs and deportment, who visited her at midnight with a jug of beer which he vainly induced her to share.

Making me think it’s worth pointing out to the Alde Sandlings Benefice that although I may like the odd cheese straw and have been known to indulge in the occasional partaking of tobacco, you ought to grateful for what you’ve got.

As well as these intriguing stories there is some mention of bibles not least the expensive cost of binding of a Tudor one, which Mr Winn suggests, would have been sumptuously bound in leather, tooled with gold work, decorated with metal clasps, portcullis and rose and matches one discovered in Friston church just a few years before.

These mentions of the bible and the costs and care taken to ensure they look their best remind us the bible is a constant of the Christian faith.

Two years ago, I preached on what the bible is and last year on how Holy Scripture the bible is the living word of the living God. And that when we read it and think about it we are, in a sense praying, not with our head bowed and eyes shut but with our eyes open and with the intent to learn in order to satisfy the curiosity about God our faith demands.

To read the bible is to think about God and to think about God is prayer.

We use in the Anglican communion, of which this church is part, scripture, tradition, and reason, and probably experience, to reveal the Christian faith. And scripture is thought to play the most important part in this.

So this year I would remind you that how we interpret scripture is often quite fluid. It depends on who we are at any time. How we interpret scripture today will reflect who we are today.

Yet our faith requires of us, as Jesus himself did, to engage with the bible, at a deeper level than just the small snippets and few minutes of explanation we get on a Sunday morning. We are asked to hear, read, inwardly digest, and apply patience and time in order to learn, understand and react and thus the bible as a constant and a source of comfort is also a book of challenge.

Paying attention to the bible and wisdom within, allowing it to inspire our natural curiosity, being patient, asking questions, putting in some effort ourselves, draws is into deeper understanding of the character and mystery of God, and that, as Christians, is how we find out about and deepen our faith and then retell the story of faith to others.

And by deepening our faith and retelling the story outside of the church walls, we are taking part in a process that changes us and transforms our lives, as well as those of others, and brings us, in the end, into closer relationship with each other and the God we worship here today.
Amen

Post Communion
God, the source of all holiness and giver of all good things:
may we who have shared at this table
as strangers and pilgrims here on earth
be welcomed with all your saints 
to the heavenly feast on the day of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Texts from Coventry Cathedral’s Tablets of the Word Part Seven by John Giles When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of Me and ye also shall bear witness                  John 15.26 The Comforter, i.e., one who strengthens (Latin con-fort – with force, strength – there are no easy chairs here!). The word in Greek is that strange word from our Pentecost hymns: Paraclete. It means an advocate, one who can speak on our behalf and help us to say what we need and want to say better than we could just on our own. There is a hint here of the first persecutions that were inflicted upon the church. Christians might need to defend themselves before the authorities if arrested. Emperor Nero had used the Christians as scapegoats for the great fire in Rome in 64AD. Many were killed.  Peter and Paul had both been executed in Rome about that time, while St. John’s Gospel was not set down in writing till about 75 AD, a decade later. The experience of persecution already lay behind the Gospels, Paul’s Letters, and many other writings lost to us today. It was hard to find the right words to say what had been experienced and discovered in the time spent with Jesus and/or his first followers on the Way. New words were needed, first of course for Mission, telling others about the Good News of the Gospel; secondly to answer false accusations before the magistrates. That’s only the start.  Belief in the Holy Spirit also reflects the experience of the first Christians that when, in faith, God, Jesus and Disciples were all in a true relationship to one another, as was presumably the case on that first Pentecost, it would be just like getting the right tuning on a radio. Twiddle the knob to the right position and all sorts of good things could appear from nowhere – this was divine inspiration. And it produced results. Paul could speak of the Fruits of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians (5.22)- things like love, joy, peace, fellowship between pretty unlikely people, mutual forgiveness, energy to put discipleship into practice, which might mean whole changes of direction in life. As for many it still does. In today’s terms a local church might decide to build a daughter church and hall on a housing estate, to start a youth club, to run a Mission, to fight crooked financiers, and so on. It is going on today however little attention such things get from the media. The possibilities are endless. It is called building the Kingdom of God. Behind all is the Holy Spirit, the Strengthener, the Comforter. Many would agree that in Christian worship one of the holiest moments of all comes at times of intense dedication: at Confirmation, at Ordination, at a Queen’s Coronation, as those truly iconic words of prayer rise up in the ancient hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus”, “Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire” – surely a vital prayer for the church today. Here is my second favourite Holy Spirit prayer: O Holy Spirit, giver of light and life, impart to us thoughts higher than our own thoughts, and prayers better than our own prayers, and powers beyond our own powers, that we may spend and be spent in the ways of love and goodness, after the perfect image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.   Next week – Sunday 7th November Third Sunday Before Advent

NOTICES

Church of England and Diocese Online Worship There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland.org/ prayer-and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thechurchofengland/ Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCLecK8GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral

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.

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 welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy, or be added to our mailing list, or for more information. Pilgrims Quiz on Zoom – Saturday 27th October (not 20th) Please email Sue and Richard if you can provide a round: pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  Our next Pilgrim Breakfast and Ramble is on  Saturday 6th November starting at the Parrot for breakfast from 9.30am. As before, a delicious breakfast bap and coffee / tea combo for £5 is on offer…definitely not to be missed!

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/

Message from Ken Smith – Aldeburgh During the summer months we were able to keep the church doors open but now that the weather has changed and the leaves are falling, please keep the church doors closed. This will help with the heating cost and reduce the amount of leaves and debris collecting in the porch.

Message from our Curate in Charge,
The Revd James Marston

Quite a long message this week but please read so you know what’s going on!

Mourners

This week I buried the ashes of a lady called Joan Farrington. Her remains were laid to rest in our churchyard with her parents who died in the 1970s. The service only took a few moments and I’m rather sad to say was attended by just me and the undertaker. We did the service properly, I dressed up in my robes and we said the appropriate prayers and sad though it is, occasionally this happens – a burial of ashes with no mourners. I wondered, if this happens in the future, if any among you might like to spare a few moments and join me and represent our worshipping community at this simple yet important service. If you would be happy to be called upon in these circumstances, please let me know. It only takes a few minutes and I think having an extra person or two would be a kind and respectful thing to do when this happens.

Benefice Service October 31 – All Saints

I draw your attention to the Alde Sandlings Benefice Service on October 31^st at 10.30am at Aldeburgh Church as we mark All Saints Day. The benefice choir, under the guidance of Mish Kelly, has been rehearsing and are planning to use the Alde Sandlings Mass setting and people from across our parishes are taking part in all aspects of the service. I’m looking forward to seeing us come together again as we celebrate our church communities.

I’ll be preaching on the saints of the benefice for which I have just begun research. So far, I have discovered that St Andrew (Aldringham) is also the patron saint of Russia, St Lawrence (Knodishall) is the patron saint of chefs, and the Virgin Mary (Friston) is among the most common parish church dedications in England. And a question I’ve always wondered about, the joint dedication of St Peter and St Paul (Aldeburgh) reflects church tradition that the two saints were martyred on the same day, though maybe not the same year.

Remembrance Day

This year there unfortunately won’t be a civic Remembrance Service in Aldeburgh church. This is because the town council have decided to decline the invitation to come up to church following the Act of Remembrance at the war memorial. I think they wish to follow last year’s precedent of an outdoor ceremony in which people can be spaced apart, in the fresh air and as covid secure as possible.

Obviously, I have to participate in the act of remembrance in the town and can’t be in two places at once, so the town council have invited our congregation to join them and the rest of the community as we remember those fallen in conflict. I would urge you, as a worshipping community, to accept this invitation and join the wider community on this occasion.

Remembrance Sunday is an important part of the civic calendar and an opportunity for God’s people of Aldeburgh church to be seen amongst and join the wider community. The town council has offered to provide some covered seating.

For those who don’t wish to take part in the town ceremonies the church will remain open with some reflective music giving those the opportunity to be still, pray and remember from about 10.45am. Elsewhere in the benefice the Act of Remembrance will be observed from 10.50am at each church followed by a service. Furthermore, in line with Church law, I will be offering a simple said communion service using liturgy according to the Book of Common Prayer at 8am at Aldeburgh church for those that wish to receive the sacrament. 

James

 

Collect
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be
written for our learning: help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our 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
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
2 Timothy 3.14-4.5
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Gospel Reading
John 5.36b-end
But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. ‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’ 

 

Sermon by The Revd James Marston
Preached at Knodishall 17^th October 2021
Mark 10.35-41

“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve”

It’s not easy being a Christian. We work hard to keep our churches open and going – yet few come. We give up our time to fundraise and be part of the community and often it seems no one really cares if we are here or not.

We are taught to turn the other cheek and love our neighbours – even when we don’t want to.

We come to church to worship and to try harder and still we don’t get it right.

And we are often thought of by the outside world in less than favourable terms.

This may sound a bit of a gloomy opener for a Sunday morning sermon.

Instead of my usual light-hearted little story about my motor car or the rectory or some amusing anecdote, I’ve filled you with the depressing notion that faith is no picnic.

I’m afraid that sometimes it isn’t.

And in today’s gospel story we hear something of the cost of discipleship, as James and John demand a reward for following Jesus. The other disciples, we hear, are angry with James and John. As one biblical commentator puts it, “not because their own attitudes were any different but because the two brothers had stolen a march on them.”

Their reward, they are all told, is to suffer as Jesus suffers and if they want a hint of greatness, they have to be a slave to all.

Hardly an uplifting story, is it? Especially as just moments before Jesus has, for the third time in Mark, told them all about his forthcoming death and resurrection and they’ve clearly just ignored all that he’s just said.

Indeed, Jesus highlights the ignorance of these sons of Zebedee: “You do not know what you are asking” he says.

Son no wonder it’s a bit depressing we have ignorant disciples who have not listened and have, as a result, totally missed the point.

But perhaps we can sympathise a little bit. For many of us faith is something that comes to us later in life – it takes a while to recognise the presence of God in our lives, a while to work out that sense of the spiritual so many of us all seem to feel is about the God they talk about in the church we never went into. It takes a while for things to slip into place and even when they do we often hold back something of ourselves – we find it difficult, as do the first disciples, to commit our lives to the divine.

And let’s not forget, we know the end of the story, we know the joy of the resurrection. Easter was yet to come for those men who had given up their lives to follow a man who is banging on again about how he’s going to die.

So as much as today’s gospel reading is a reminder of the cost of discipleship – it is also a reminder of the joy of faith and the journey of faith that we are all on.

So my message today is not to lose heart, not to give up being the people of God, not to stop caring about your church or your community – just because other people might not get it yet and might not want to know. I urge you not to worry too much about how many people even come to church – having a faith is about sharing God’s love but that isn’t always the same as growing congregation numbers and paying into the system.

Just by keeping the faith, putting God in your lives, you are showing others the way as they journey through the spiritual journey we are all on. That means simply letting those know around you that you are lucky enough to know Him in your lives.

My job, as a priest is to encourage you and the communities of our parishes, to follow Jesus. And to execute my duties as a priest I am called, primarily, to pray for people’s souls.

My challenge to you this week is to join me in that task.

To think of those outside our church communities as the Sons of Zebedee and the other disciples who slightly miss the point and don’t know the full story.

To pray, not just in church on a Sunday, but during the week, and in your moments of stillness, for those around you, for those who don’t know Jesus, for those yet to know the joy of faith.

Because from prayer comes everything else and not least the deepening of your own faith and understanding of God.

It is as simple as that and it is how we, as his 21^st century followers, serve the Son of Man who came not to serve but to serve.
Amen.

 

Post Communion
God of all grace, your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Texts from Coventry Cathedral’s Tablets of the Word Part Six by John Giles Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life.                      John 6.54 Right from the start these words had Jesus’ hearers worried.  Chapter 6, verse 66, in St. John’s Gospel, reports “because of this (i.e. the debate that followed Jesus’ words in the verse above), many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.” Many people today find the same difficulty with the words of Holy Communion: “This is my body” and “This is my blood”. Yet these words are so central to the whole worshipping life of the Church, that Provost Howard dared to choose them as a key text for the rebuilt Cathedral to keep them ever in view for worshippers in the years ahead. How can we best try to understand them today? Think of those staples of life: bread and wine. We pray for “our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. Bread was given to the crowds on the hillside at the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The story is in all four gospels, so was clearly important to the first Christians.  Wine, as we have thought before, was also a staple of Jewish life, not only as a drink, but as a pledge of God’s blessing, bringing unity and joy. Think of the wedding at Cana in Galilee.  Then Jesus goes further: “I am the Bread of life” and after the Last Supper he says “I am the true Vine”. At that Last Supper, he had taken bread and wine, and given them to the disciples to be eaten and drunk as his very own body and blood. Why? Love one another he said, As I have loved you. And how did He love them (and us, and the world): he loved to the bitter end, in a titanic confrontation with evil, which we call the sin of the world (our sin too). The battle ended in his death. He gave his very life. He loved to the end, nor did He seek revenge.  I know it sounds banal, but He was the genuine article. He showed he had the right to claim to be the True Bread, the True Vine. There have been plenty of other leaders, religious or political or whatever, who have made claims for themselves that have never quite worked out. Heels of clay, and all that. But Christ was different – his bell rang true. The final victory was indeed physical. It was all to do with flesh and blood. We, receiving the Sacrament, receive the life He gave up for us, the grace that comes with it, and his living presence with us. Reinvigorated, we can go out again to “live and work to His praise and glory”.   Amen, thanks be to God!   PS It is one of the features of Coventry Cathedral that, because of the way the nave walls are angled, as you go up to the altar for Communion you can read the words of the Tablets of the Word to right and left, while only on your return to your place can you suddenly see the stained glass windows of the nave in all their glory.                            🎼 NADIA LASSERSON & FRIENDS 🎼 “A BIRTHDAY TEATIME CLASSICS CONCERT” PRESENTED BY HUMPHREY BURTON Will include works by Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Rossini & Schuman Wednesday 27th October 2021 at 4pm at Aldeburgh Parish Church ALL WELCOME Admission Free – A retiring collection for Save the Children Social distancing will be administered in the church for everyone’s safety Next week – Sunday 31st October Fourth Sunday Before Advent/All Saints’ Day

NOTICES

BENEFICE SERVICE FOR ALL SAINTS’ – 31ST OCTOBER We are offering designated seating, both socially distanced and non-socially distanced for the Benefice Holy Communion Service.  If you wish to attend the benefice service, please contact Claire at admin@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk or churchwarden Ken Smith and let us know how many will be in your party and if you wish socially distanced seating.  We support the government and Church of England guidance and “expect and recommend” people to wear a mask during the service.

Church of England and Diocese Online Worship  There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland. org/prayer-and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thechurchofengland/ Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCLecK8GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral

Bible Sunday – 24th October The collection at the Aldeburgh 10.30am service will be donated to the Bible Society.  https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/

All Souls’/Remembering the Loved Service An opportunity to call to mind those who we love but see no more. Say a gentle prayer and light a candle. Everyone will be most welcome. Aldeburgh Parish Church Tuesday November 2nd 6.00pm Please do join us after the service for refreshments and reflection

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.

Message from Ken Smith – Aldeburgh During the summer months we were able to keep the church doors open but now that the weather has changed and the leaves are falling, please keep the church doors closed. This will help with the heating cost and reduce the amount of leaves and debris collecting in the porch.

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. Pilgrims Quiz on Zoom – Saturday 27th October (not 20th) Please email Sue and Richard if you can provide a round: pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com   Our next Pilgrim Breakfast and Ramble is on  Saturday 6th November starting at the Parrot for breakfast from 9.30am. As before, a delicious breakfast bap and coffee / tea combo for £5 is on offer…definitely not to be missed!

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/

Message from our Curate in Charge,
The Revd James Marston

After a relax with some blue vinney cheese and a glass of port after a long day exploring the delights of Dorset, I remembered I’d better write the weekly newsletter.  

Not much news this week except to remind you we will be celebrating All Saints as a benefice at 10.30am at Aldeburgh church on October 31^st. I’ve begun my research for the sermon, and the benefice choir will be forming under the direction of Mish Kelly who is already working hard on the music. I hope to see you all there on the day. 

James 

Collect
God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ 
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
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 53.4-end
Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 
But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.  By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.  Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. 
Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. 

 

Second Reading
Hebrews 5.1-10
Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not presume to take this honour, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’; as he says also in another place, ‘You are a priest for ever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.’ In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Gospel Reading
Mark 10.35-45
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’ When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’ 

Sermon by The Revd James Marston

Preached at Aldeburgh 10^th October 2021

Mark 10.17-31

“He was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions”

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

We all like our own way, don’t we? I know I do. I like to be agreed with, I like to be proved right, I like my ego massaged and, dare I say it, I even like a little bit of attention. My little blue car – although I don’t like to admit it –draws admiring glances and comments that I rather enjoy. No wonder I like to keep it clean.

My sister tells me that if I get any more attention my head won’t fit through the west door –so enlarged is my ego that I barely meet the requirement of humility necessary in a priest.

I’m afraid we all like it when people agree with us, indeed we often chose to have people around us who are of a like mind. And we call people awkward or difficult if they propose a different stand point.

Most of us don’t like to be challenged at all and we often take the view that those who aren’t one of us must be ignored and avoided. It is a terrible trait and yet often part and parcel of our nature.

It is so easy to get wrapped up in the self and forget the bigger picture. Indeed, it’s often easy to exclude God entirely. In our secular and individualistic age, we often define our success in life by the paradigm of wealth and material gain – often leaving us, as the year’s progress, confused and lacking in understanding of others and lacking in spiritual health.

And in that sense today’s reading is also a challenge to us all.

We hear Jesus telling a wealthy man to give up his possessions, his material gain and wealth, in order to follow him. And, as is often the case, in Mark’s gospel, we hear of the consequences – the man was shocked and went away grieving, unable to exchange his comforts for the promise of eternal life.

Unable to trust in God.

We all fail to trust in God. We all think we are in control of our lives. We all assume we know best. We all have pride and ego that can often overwhelm us. And today’s reading highlights a difficult truth we may not want to hear – we are made weak by our human nature, our selfishness, and our focus on that which isn’t God.

And our New Testament reading from Hebrews reminds us that our weakness is seen and known by God and that one day, somehow, we will have to render account of ourselves to Him.

This might all sound a little bit depressing, a little too difficult for our Sunday morning ears, maybe even a little too much from the curate whose only been here five minutes. But let me assure you we have hope.

Jesus loved the wealthy man, he sympathises with our limitations, and with God all things are possible.

Our salvation, our journey to eternal life, isn’t easy and no Christian finds this an easy process – because as we get closer to God the worst excesses of ourselves are burnt away in the fire of faith.

Following Jesus, putting ourselves and our desires, low on the list of priorities forces us to wrestle with ourselves and our pride and ego, and forces us to realign our focus away from the self and towards God.

This is what trusting God is all about. And I think this is what Jesus is getting at, that faith is life changing and transforming as well as difficult and challenging.

I’m not going to give up my little blue car, or deceive myself that I am somehow without the sin of pride because I wear robes on a Sunday and people stand up when I enter a room, but that doesn’t mean challenging oneself in one’s faith isn’t necessary once in a while.

Allowing oneself to be burnt by faith, to accept following Jesus puts everything we measure ourselves by on its head, is how we get closer to God and therefore closer to our own salvation.

So, my challenge to myself and to you this week is twofold. To look at ourselves closely, to recognise we get it wrong and put things in the way and to do something about it – to admit our failings and to turn to God in our weakness.

How we all do that is up to us; prayer, worship, study, turning the other cheek a little bit more, may well be part of it but remember this deepening our faith is not always an easy or comfortable process.

If it is, we aren’t doing it right.

Amen

Post Communion
God our Father, whose Son, the light unfailing,
has come from heaven to deliver the world from the darkness of ignorance: let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding
that we may know the way of life, and walk in it without stumbling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

NADIA LASSERSON & FRIENDS  “A BIRTHDAY TEATIME CLASSICS CONCERT” PRESENTED BY HUMPHREY BURTON Will include works by Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Rossini & Schuman Wednesday 27th October 2021 at 4pm at Aldeburgh Parish Church ALL WELCOME Admission Free – A retiring collection for Save the Children Social distancing will be administered in the church for everyone’s safety

NOTICES

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.

✟ Church of England and Diocese Online Worship ✟ There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer -and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thechurchofengland/ Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCLecK8GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral

✞ 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 which includes links. Pilgrims Quiz on Zoom – Saturday 27th October (not 20th) Please email Sue and Richard if you can provide a round: email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com

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/

Rainbow Tots has Moved! We are delighted to inform you that the popular Rainbow Tots group have changed their venue to The Church Hall (Aldeburgh). This takes place every Tuesday morning (during term time) at 10am. All Mums and toddlers are welcome. Find them on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/rainbowtotsaldeburgh/

Next week – Sunday 24th October Last Sunday of Trinity/Bible Sunday

Message from our Curate in Charge,
The Revd James Marston

As I lit the fire the other evening and relaxed with Vera, and a small selection freshly baked sausage rolls in the spacious rectory here in Friston, I thought it myself that autumn is well and truly here and maybe it’s time for a bracing walk. 

With that in mind this week I found myself on Crag path in Aldeburgh – for more of a gentle stroll than a brace – when it struck me to remind you that prayer – the bedrock of our faith – can be done out and about as well.  

Praying – talking to God, and trying to listen to Him, is how we develop our relationship with Him, and that’s not just done in church on a Sunday morning but at other times too. As we see from our gospel reading this week Jesus was an itinerant preacher, Jesus walked everywhere.  

The exciting news this week is the addition of retired priest Rev’d Sheila Murray to our list of priests happy to help out with occasional services across the benefice. Some of you may recognise her from when she’s visited our churches. Rev’d Sheila introduces herself this week in the newsletter.  

Just so you all know I’m away for a few days next week – visiting Dorset – which I’m quite looking forward to. While I’m away Rev’d Jo is still around if there’s anything super urgent.

James

Collect
O God, for as much as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
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
Amos 5.6-7, 10-15
Seek the Lord and live, or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it. 
Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground!  They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.  For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate. Therefore, the prudent will keep silent in such a time;
for it is an evil time.  Seek good and not evil, that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. 
Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. 

Second Reading
Hebrews 4.12-end
Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Gospel Reading
Mark 10.17-31
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’ Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’ 

 

Reflection for Harvest Festival Service with
the baptism of Evelyn Nunn, by The Revd Johanna Mabey
Preached on Sunday 3^rd October 2021 Aldeburgh
Joel 2:21-27 and Matthew 6:25-33

May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
    
Harvest is a time when we think of the fruitfulness of the land and our church is filled with produce and beautiful flowers, when we give thanks for all God’s gifts, but at the same time we’re reminded how all isn’t right with the world.

In earlier times food production was life – when crops failed, the winter could be a battle for survival.

Despite current difficulties with transportation and shameful fisty cuffs at some petrol stations, we enjoy a good measure of food security, as do many across the world.

But there are still places where the dependence on nature for food production is absolute.

Kagera, our link diocese in Tanzania is one such place, and that’s where all the money in our collection is going to today.

Around the world eco-systems are suffering and our behaviour is making the planet uninhabitable.

There’s a well know phrase that says: live simply that others may simply live.

The truth is that we need to live with less and take less from our world.

The prophet Joel paints a terrifying picture of a devastated world in the wake of a plague – in this case a plague of locusts.

The devastation is total.
There’s no pasture.
Flames have burned all the trees.
The watercourses have dried up.
Even the ground mourns.
But in the extract we heard, we suddenly hear the command

‘Do not fear’ – addressed to all creation.
‘Do not fear, O soil’, Joel says.
‘Do not fear, you animals.’
‘Be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, O children of Zion.’

But the call not to be afraid doesn’t appear to make sense. Surely there’s rather a lot to be afraid of?

But read on and it does make sense. 

‘Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and mourning’, God says.

In other words, let your heart be broken
Find compassion.  Mourn what should not be.

So it’s all about a transformation of the heart.

We might say it’s our continued indifference or hardness of heart in our world, that stands between us and the restoration of God’s beautiful planet.

It’s striking that Jesus also urges us not to be afraid – in those beautiful words from Matthew’s gospel.

‘Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.’

‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.’
And yet, this isn’t a casual ‘head in the sand’ urging us not to worry, telling us to turn our back on the needs of the world.
Jesus is much more specific than that.

‘Strive first,’ He says, ‘for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’
So, it’s on this basis, striving for what God wants for all creation, that we’re encouraged not to be afraid.

But I wonder what this means for us in practice as we give thanks for God’s harvest in the full knowledge that creation is groaning.

The climate crisis won’t be averted simply by the actions of governments, new technologies, activists, and individuals – important though they are.

What I take from our bible readings is that the climate crisis will be averted when our hearts are melted.

When we mourn the loss of natural habitats.
When we feel compassion for our suffering neighbour – near or far.

And when, by God’s grace, we act in love.

Do you remember Kermit the frog from the Muppets?

Well, I think Kermit was right when he said ‘It’s not easy being green’

But we know, for the sake of Evelyn who is being baptised today, and for the sake of her young friends and family, and her whole generation, we all need to change the way we live, making less of an impact on our world, by respecting it and caring for it.

When we do this, we walk in the ways of what is right and just.

As we look to the UN climate change conference – COP26 – in Glasgow next month, when so much is at stake, join with me in praying for a rich harvest…
For humility
For a sense of urgency
For compassion and for love. Amen.

Post Communion
Holy and blessed God,
you have fed us with the body and blood of your Son
and filled us with your Holy Spirit:
may we honour you, not only with our lips
but in lives dedicated to the service of Jesus Christ our Lord.

NADIA LASSERSON & FRIENDS “A BIRTHDAY TEATIME CLASSICS CONCERT” PRESENTED BY HUMPHREY BURTON Will include works by Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Rossini & Schuman Wednesday 27th October 2021 at 4pm at Aldeburgh Parish Church ALL WELCOME Admission Free – A retiring collection for Save the Children Social distancing will be administered in the church for everyone’s safety

 

We welcome, The Revd Sheila Murray,
who will be leading occasional services within the Alde Sandlings Benefice

When my husband Andy and I came to Aldeburgh Church a few months ago, having moved to Saxmundham just before Christmas, we immediately felt at home. Despite us all having to sit socially distanced, and wearing masks we were made welcome and we just knew this was where we wanted to worship.

We have two children, Angus who is married to Sam and they have a little boy Ethen who is just 5 and Finn who was born in August this year. Currently they live near High Wycombe. Rebecca our daughter lives near Farnborough with her partner Kevin and his two teenage children. I was brought up in North London and have four siblings – 2 older and 1 younger brother and an older sister. During my early childhood we had a house on North Parade in Southwold, then my parents moved to Framlingham (by that time I had left home), then they moved to Saxmundham and Andy and I were married in Sternfield Church in 1983. Andy was new to Suffolk, having been brought up in Edinburgh. We met in 1981 in Oslo, Norway while we were both serving in the RAF, Andy as a pilot and I was a Finance/Personnel Officer. Having moved around a lot, we settled in Taunton in Somerset in 1994. We left in 2017 when I took a House for Duty Post in N Yorks, looking after two village churches near Ripon. We returned to Taunton in late 2019 and I had a few months off then sadly we were then into Lockdown 1.

I was ordained in 2011 in Wells Cathedral having studied for a year at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. I had six years as part of the ministry team at St Mary Magdalene Church in Taunton. I enjoy painting, and music, especially singing and have done a little bit of composing too. We both enjoy gardening, walking by the sea, and watching programmes such as Vera, Strictly, Bargain Hunt, Only Connect as well as watching cricket. (We were active members of Somerset County Cricket Team).

We are thrilled to be back in this part of Suffolk and are enjoying exploring new beaches, footpaths and country lanes, and getting to meet new people who also love this area.

I feel very privileged to be able to come and help out where I can, and I am looking forward to taking services throughout your Benefice over the coming months. Andy has also agreed to help out with playing the organ at Aldeburgh church when he can (he is also playing in Framlingham some Sundays). We both feel God has brought us here at just the right time, and we very much look forward to getting to know more of you in the future.

Sheila Murray

A LETTER FROM BIZE MINERVOIS

We’re here! The journey down went very smoothly apart from some heavy traffic near Paris, and we’ve been settling-in to the house that will be our home for the next year. It’s lovely, comfortable, and very well-equipped. Coco is beginning to realise that this is home too and has been enjoying walks out, exploring and sniffing (her favourite thing).

The last week or so in Aldeburgh was very busy, preparing for Revells to pack and store our furniture and then trying our best to keep one step ahead of them when they were in The Vicarage. They work fast! (And they’re very good.) I must apologise to those who I fully intended visiting before we left and in the end wasn’t able to – time just ran away with me.

Settling in for the year means that we have quite a bit to organise. Doctors, dentists etc need sorting (work in progress) and today we will be taking Coco to meet her new vet. We have already had one or two surprises. Only a few kilometres from our village there is a pick-your-own farm, run, I think, by English people (the PYO idea is a bit of a novelty in France) and, seasonally, you can pick peaches & nectarines, figs, cherries, aubergines, tomatoes …… We visited a couple of days ago and came back with figs and … strawberries. Picking your own strawberries in October – who’d have thought it. And they’re delicious!

With love, as ever, from Mark, Ro and Coco

Mark & Coco in Minerve – the village that gives the area its name. Note the colour of the sky!

Texts from Coventry Cathedral’s Tablets of the Word Part Five by John Giles I and the Father are one                                He that hath seen me  Hath seen the Father    John 10.30 and 14.9   This is a difficult one. How can we come (with St. Paul) to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”? (2 Corinthians 4.6) If we had been there, we might have seen the Father in the face of the infant Christ lying in the hay. If we had been there, we might have seen the Father in the face of twelve-year old Jesus talking with the doctors of the law in the Temple. If we had been there, we might have seen the Father in the face of the one standing by our side in the waters of the Jordan where, needing a fresh start in our lives, we had gone to be baptised by John. If we had been there, we might have seen the Father in the face of Jesus, teaching the people, healing the sick, calling Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree, accepting the offering of the woman anointing his feet. If we had been there – no, that is going too far – we cannot speculate, – we might have run away afraid. Put it again as a question, in the words of those later followers from the slave plantations of Virginia and Louisiana, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Were we? And would we have seen the Father in the face of Jesus Christ? Probably not – such discoveries take time. It took Thomas ten days.  Then “My Lord and my God”. John the Evangelist is called the Apostle of Love. He gives us today’s verses. He in old age sums up the whole Christian revelation: “God so loved the world that he gave . . .”   John 3.16.  “I and the Father are one. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”     Love is the key that unlocks the mystery.

NOTICES

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.

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.

Church of England and Diocese Online Worship There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thechurchofengland/ Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCLecK8GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral

Rainbow Tots has Moved! We are delighted to inform you that the popular Rainbow Tots group have changed their venue to The Church Hall (Aldeburgh). This takes place every Tuesday morning (during term time) at 10am. All Mums and toddlers are welcome. Find them on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/rainbowtotsaldeburgh/

The Alde Sandlings Celebrate God’s Generosity this Harvest     October 10th Aldringham Church 11.00am   Please remember that your Harvest gifts would be most welcomed at any of the food banks after the services. Of course, you may know of a group or someone that would be in need of a Harvest gift. 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/

Sacristan Training Sessions with Revd Johanna Mabey We are calling for all volunteers at Aldeburgh Parish Church, for Sacristans (Preparing the Holy Eucharist for the celebration of the mass. This includes readying the wine, water, and bread and putting them in place for the start of mass, and then removing and cleaning after the service). If you would be able to take part and assist with this role in our Holy Communion services, please speak to a member of the clergy or our church/deputy wardens. Revd Jo has created a printed guide and is offering training to anyone willing to join the team.

Next week – Sunday 17th October Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

On September the 19th we all gathered to celebrate the baptism of the lovely little Rose. It was such a joyous service and a great pleasure and privilege to witness the beginning of Rose’s journey within the Christian faith.

We welcome you into the fellowship of faith;
we are children of the same heavenly Father;
we welcome you.

Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me.  Do not stop them’.
We thank God for Rose who has come to be baptised today.
Christ loves her and welcomes her into his Church.

Here is The Revd Johanna Mabey baptising Rose, with the proud parents.

Thank you to Rose’s parents, Liz and Caesar, for sharing this photo with us.

Message from our Curate in Charge,
The Revd James Marston

I had to sit down with a soothing Cornetto this week after I realised my little blue sports car – a missional tool I told the Archdeacon – drank a little more petrol than I was at first prepared to admit. Thankfully I’ve got a fairly full tank and at the moment I’m riding out the crisis and able to panic buy toilet rolls instead.

I am, of course, despite my slight flippancy, reminded of 2 Thessalonians 3:16 “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” I think this applies to all worrying and difficult situations in which we all find ourselves in the course of life.

Good news – I heard from our much loved Rev’d Sheila Hart this week. She is on good form, and despite some personal health issues, she is hoping to return to ministry as soon as she can – I suspect she’s already frustrated – perhaps in the New Year.

Rev’d Sheila has asked me to thank you all for your prayers as they mean a great deal to her. In the meantime, she’s helping me with some bits and bobs and, I think, keeping a watchful eye on me from afar! We all wish her well.

In the meantime, Rev’d Jo and I are, I hope, doing our best to keep the ship steady-ish as we approach one of the benefice’s busiest times.

As, ever, we thank you for your support and encouragement.

James

 

Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments and win the crown of everlasting 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
Genesis 2.18-24
Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.’   Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Second Reading
Hebrews 1.1-4: 2.5-12
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.  Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, ‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? 
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honour, subjecting all things under their feet.’ Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, ‘I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.’

Gospel Reading
Mark 10.2-16
Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’ People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Sermon from the Revd James Marston
Matthew 6: 25-33 Harvest sermon
Preached at St Mary, Friston 26.09.21

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

It is at this time of year the church turns its collective attention to marking the change of season and the harvest. As we rejoice today at God’s gifts of the countryside, the seeds that grow, the crops and fruits, and land of plenty that sustains and feeds us in our lives we can reflect that the harvest process itself has changed. The steam engines, the wheat shocks, the threshing drums, the horse powered transport have all largely disappeared.

Wheat, for example, is much less tall than it used to be, and wheat is harvested earlier in the year than ever before. The harvest takes a matter of days rather than weeks. Far less people work on the land than they used to. Modern technology has changed everything.

What hasn’t changed, of course, is God and the thanks we offer to Him here today and in other churches across the land. Harvest Festival remains an important part of our calendar and is a way of thanking God for the world around us and for being in our lives.

We may change and develop during the course of our lives, we grow up, we stop being children and we move on through life, but God remains God. I find some comfort in this, that the God I worship is always there and a constant in my own life.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus urges his followers not to worry. Not to worry about what they eat, wear, or drink – to strive not for those things but for the Kingdom of God above all things. To put our faith first in our lives and see our lives through the lens of faith, to negate the material and self is not easy.

Indeed, this putting God first is the crux, of course, of the Christian struggle – to put self-second and God first. Yet to aspire to holiness, to live a life that trusts in God is very difficult – we might try but we fail again, and again, and again.

Jesus is not the daily bread made from the fruits of the harvest: wheat, flour, water, fat, and energy, but provides a spiritual food that we can rely on all the year long, for all the length of our lives.

And Jesus is God’s greatest gift.

It is, Jesus, as the son of God, who gives life and light to the world and transforms lives. That for followers of Jesus, there is more than just the physical bread to sustain us through life but, Jesus, the nourishing spiritual bread of life there to sustain us when we fail to live the faith we espouse. A counsellor and friend we can turn to in prayer that can calm and affirm us and replenish our souls to try again to put God first.

And for this, at this Harvest Festival, I believe we can be thankful people. We can express our gratitude to the God not only for the world around us and our community but for the gift of His son Jesus whose presence in our lives and in our community nourishes, sustains, and ultimately saves our souls.

We have come together today to bring thanks to God and to celebrate the safe gathering in of the harvest fed and watered by God’s almighty hand. We are giving thanks for the produce of our agricultural community and of our gardens. We are also here to remember and help others who live in other countries where food and resources are not so plentiful.

We come to church to pray, to sing and worship and spend time with God and each other. We also nourish our souls in the knowledge of the resurrected Jesus Christ in the process. And in this sense this Sunday is no different from any other.

But today, as we nourish our souls once more, Harvest Festival is, perhaps, a special time in which we can give thanks for the joy of faith. The marvellous knowledge and trust in the loving, generous and gracious God we worship.

We can rejoice in not only the harvest and the time of year but also in our faith itself. It is a faith that helps us live through the dry, difficult, and arid times as well as the good. It is a faith that also, when nourished and held in gratitude to God, gives us peace and keeps us going amid all the ups and downs of life.

And as we worship together today, we can think of this great gift of Jesus.

And for Jesus, as well as the other gifts of the harvest that we celebrate today, I believe, we can’t thank God enough.

Amen

 

Post Communion
We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast:
for here we receive you, here the memory of your passion is renewed,
here our minds are filled with grace, and here a pledge of future glory is given, when we shall feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.

 

Texts from Coventry Cathedral’s Tablets of the Word Part Four by John Giles Come unto Me All ye that labour and are heavy laden And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, For I am meek and lowly in heart, And ye shall find rest unto your souls                                                   Matthew 11.28   Apparently, Roger Bannister’s heart rate as an athlete was lower when he was gently running than when he was sitting down, suggesting that being active can be more restful than relaxing.  If Heaven is the Kingdom of God, then it too must be an active state, for the Kingdom speaks of Justice, Mercy, Love, and all these demand action. You can hardly add bricks to the walls of the Kingdom if you are sitting in an armchair. “Laziness”, once said an Oxford philosopher, in a thick continental accent, “is ze last remnant of Paradise” – well, maybe, but then perhaps not, for active service is the name of the Christian game. Nonetheless there comes a moment when we both need and long for rest. The Bible certainly speaks of rest. At the Creation God rested on the seventh day and called on his people not to work on the Sabbath Day. Christ called his disciples to “come apart and rest awhile” (Mark 6.31). We have the lovely promise of the Epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 4 that however fierce the battle of life and the challenges of discipleship, “There remains a rest for the people of God”. The precious promise of rest in our text today is given the other side of hard work and labour undertaken in the Lord’s service. It is spoken to those who have tried to take on Christ’s yoke and to learn his ways. These are deeply comforting, strengthening, words. George Frederic Handel, in 1741, out of favour with the fickle public of his day, took refuge in Dublin, and incredibly, in a fortnight, composed The Messiah, including the inspired aria using the words of our text above, specially chosen for Coventry’s rebuilt Cathedral.  To have such reassurance, in words and music, is a real blessing – a resource to keep at the back of our spiritual wardrobe, to be there when needed. More words to be learnt by heart and repeated again and again.

NOTICES

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 for more information on any Pilgrims events. Some dates for your diary: Pilgrim Breakfasts and Rambles: Saturday 6th November      Saturday 4th December Zoom Quiz:  Saturday 20th November The lovely Richard and Sue will be organising our next Zoom quiz.  Please contact the Pilgrims if you can offer a round of questions.

Mark, Ro, & Coco Just a quick note to let you know that Mark, Ro, and Coco, arrived safely in France yesterday afternoon. Beautiful warm sunshine greeted them, and they are settling in nicely for their gap year.

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.

Church of England and Diocese Online Worship There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer- and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thechurchofengland/ Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLecK8 GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral

The Alde Sandlings Celebrate God’s Generosity this Harvest October 3rd Aldeburgh Church 10.30am October 10th Aldringham Church 11.00am Please remember that your Harvest gifts would be most welcomed at any of the food banks after the services. Of course, you may know of a group or someone that would be in need of a Harvest gift. 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/

Sacristan Training Sessions with Revd Johanna Mabey We are calling for all volunteers at Aldeburgh Parish Church, for Sacristans (Preparing the Holy Eucharist for the celebration of the mass. This includes readying the wine, water, and bread and putting them in place for the start of mass, and then removing and cleaning after the service). If you would be able to take part and assist with this role in our Holy Communion services, please speak to a member of the clergy or our church/deputy wardens. Revd Jo has created a printed guide and is offering training to anyone willing to join the team.

Rainbow Tots has Moved! We are delighted to inform you that the popular Rainbow Tots group have changed their venue to The Church Hall (Aldeburgh). This takes place every Tuesday morning (during term time) at 10am. All Mums and toddlers are welcome. Find them on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/rainbowtotsaldeburgh/

Next week –
Sunday 10^th October
Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity