February E-Magazine 2024
Please click below for a printable copy of the magazine:
Come and See
Occasionally you hear a sermon that really speaks to you. The thing with being a priest is that you don’t hear many sermons apart from your own. But ln vocation Sunday the sermon did speak to me. The Gospel reading was the call of Philip and Nathanael. Philip meets Jesus and answers his call to follow him. Later, Philip meets Nathanael and tells him that he has ‘found the one Moses had written about in the Law’. In other words, the messiah. Nathanael is sceptical and asks whether anything good can come out of Nazareth. Philip does not argue with Nathanael - he just says, ‘Come and See’.
We often think about our lives as individuals as isolated people. Christianity has devolved into a hyper individual faith for many. Each of us thinks about me personally accepting Jesus or my relationship with Jesus. There is even a song, ‘My Jesus my saviour’. I think this is more a reflection of our individualised world where it’s me at the centre rather than anything to do with Jesus and our faith. To follow Jesus means to be part of a family, to be adopted into the family of God. In the first few chapters of the Gospels Jesus begins his ministry by creating a small community, a family of disciples. He spends three years teaching this community far more than he teaches publicly. Jesus is creating the first Christian community which will begin the spread of the faith across the world and throughout time.
This first Christian community wasn’t perfect; in fact, they spent a lot of time arguing over who was the greatest. Jesus is often exasperated by them. In many ways this can feel familiar as today’s church is imperfect too. Nevertheless, Jesus chooses to express his love through his family by founding a community. It was his hope that through the love for each other expressed by his disciples, people would see Jesus. As Jesus said, ‘By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another’. This is our most basic calling: to be part of a community that loves one another. To be a community that makes Jesus visible in the way that we live together - not as isolated individuals but as a community together.
If we can create a community where we love each other, we will be proud to be part of that community. Philip is proud of being a follower of Jesus and of the small community that follows him. This sense of pride enables him to invite Nathanael with the words, ‘Come and See’.
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We each have a part to play in Church life, and working together as the family of God is where we find Jesus in our midst. If we work together and contribute our time and talent to Church, we can reflect that love of Jesus and make him visible. At our baptism we all received a call on our lives. The call like Nathanael to be the person we were created to be. That could be a member of the choir, a warden, a children’s worker, tech team or visitor. Each of us has a special calling that knits together to form a community we are proud of, a community we will naturally want others to ‘Come and See’. |
Lent 2024 Entering into the Easter Story
This Lent we will be learning about and entering into the Easter Story, perhaps for some in a new way. We will learn about the meaning behind each of the services during Holy Week and ask ourselves the difficult question: Who am I in the Easter story? Stories are the way in which we connect with our past, present and future. They are a way of creating community and a shared story which can transform our lives together.
There is no story greater than the Easter story, it has all the greatness and flaws of humanity on show. The courage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the cowardliness of Peter, and the indifference of Pilate. The Easter services on Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday re-enact this great story and enable us to ask ourselves: Who am I in this story? Each session will focus on one of the services, allowing us to enter the Easter story in a new way this year.
There are five sessions starting on 19th February. The course will be run by the home groups across the mission area; there are also sessions at 7:30pm on Mondays at St. Saviour’s and 2pm on Tuesdays at St. Nix.
1: Entering into a story 2: Palm Sunday: from hero to zero 3: Maundy Thursday: from celebration to despair 4: Good Friday: humanity at its best and worst 5: Easter: from creation to resurrection |
Services throughout the Parish
Sunday 4th February 2nd Sunday before Lent - Green Proverbs 8:1, 22-31 Colossians 1:15-20 John 1:1-14
St Mary 8.15am Communion 10.30am Morning Worship (Parade Service) 6.30pm 630 Praise
St Nix 10.30am Communion
St James 10.30am Communion
St Peter 4.00pm Evening Worship (Book of Common Prayer)
Sunday 11th February Sunday before Lent - Green 2 Kings 2:1-12 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9
St Mary 8.15am Communion 10.30am Communion 6.30pm 630 Praise
St Nix 10.30am Morning Worship
St James 10.30am Morning Worship
St Peter 4.00pm Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
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Sunday 18th February 1st Sunday of Lent - Purple Genesis 9:8-17 1 Peter 3:18-end Mark 1:9-15
St Mary 8.15am Communion 10.30am Morning Worship 6.30pm 630 Praise
St Nix 10.30am Communion
St James 10.30am Communion
St Peter 4.00pm Evening Worship (Book of Common Prayer)
Sunday 25th February 2nd Sunday of Lent - Purple Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Romans 4:13-end Mark 8:31-end
St Mary 8.15am Communion 10.30am Communion 6.30pm 630 Praise
St Nix 10.30am Morning Worship
St James 10.30am Morning Worship
St Peter 4.00pm Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
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SAVE THE DATE
¨ Sunday 28th January, 6.30pm at St Mary’s Church – Joint Churches Celebration Service
¨ Tuesday 13th February, 6-8pm at St James’ Church – Shrove Tuesday Pancakes. Come along to enjoy freshly-made pancakes. This is a drop-in event ending at 8pm.
¨ Wednesday 14th February - Ash Wednesday Services: 11am – Morning Worship Service at St James 7.30pm – Communion Service at St Mary’s
¨ Saturday 24th February, 6pm at St Mary’s Church — Ukraine Vigil marking the 2nd Anniversary. |
Mother’s Union February 2024
Thanks to everyone for joining together at St Nix for the AGM and to Rev Ian for chairing the meeting. This month is time for our annual Lunch Out at The Lawns at noon on Thursday 15th February. It’s a great time to catch up with all our members.
We have a full year lined up with speakers, festivals, and fun fundraisers! So please save the 3rd Thursday for your MU meetings!
Louisa Dent |
ARUK Eco-Tips of February:
Go green for Lent. The weeks leading up to Easter are a time for self reflection, repentance and emulating Jesus’ obedience to the Father. Is there something you’d like to give up or take up during Lent that will enable you to reflect on God, contribute to our planet’s well-being and enhance others’ lives through sustainable, ecofriendly living? Explore some of these changes at arocha.org.uk/go-green-for-lent/
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News from St James
With the very busy Christmas season behind us the congregation in Westerleigh are gearing up for a new series of social events starting with pancakes in church on Shrove Tuesday, 13th February between 6 and 8pm. Our next event will be the Lent Lunch on Saturday 16th March from 12-2pm, when you can enjoy a variety of home-made soups and donate to the Great Western Air Ambulance. The Friends of St James will then spring into action with their ever-popular village breakfasts on the second Saturday of each month starting on 13th April – come along and place your order any time between 9 and 11.45am.
All of these events are open to everyone, so please put them in your diary, and invite friends, neighbours and family to join you and enjoy good food and a very warm welcome in Westerleigh. |
Mothers’ Union Project Prayers February 2024
LOVE
At the heart of all our projects, everything done in the name of Mothers’ Union is done with love. We read in the Gospels how Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ and that the second is similarly ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.
Our focus on prayer and worship addresses the first and enables us to grow in faith and to come closer to God as we make those prayerful connections. The second underpins all our actions, sharing God’s love with our communities and with all those we serve in our projects, in the Bristol Diocese and around the world.
Through our prayers, generous giving, and service we reach out with the love of God to families of prisoners, families of sick and disabled children, families in need, refugees, women sheltering from abuse, and the homeless. We campaign for a fairer world, equal rights and an end to violence and abuse. Our thoughtful Mothers’ Union Prayer mentions love no less than four times. I include it now:
Loving Lord, we thank you for your love so freely given to us all. We pray for families around the world. Bless the work of the Mothers’ Union as we seek to share your love, through the encouragement, strengthening and support of marriage and family life. Empowered by your Spirit, may we be united in prayer and worship, and in love and service reach out as your hands across the world. In Jesus’ name. Amen
Find out more: mubristol.co.uk or: mothersunion.org Jacky Fredrickson MU DP Bristol |
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
A very big thank you from Cancer Research UK. A total of £50 was raised at Rita’s Mince Pie Day and Coffee @ 11.
This money may be used to buy 6 boxes of microscope slides. They are essential for the scientists studying the workings of our cells which in turn helps them to make breakthroughs in their research. |
Find out more
about The
Connection and Those Vicar Blokes on our website at yateparish,org
under the heading
Explore our Faith
A Weekly Group at St Nix Friday Re:fresh runs from 09:30 - 10:30 on a Friday during term-time held at St Nix.
A warm and welcoming group for adults and children (babies to school age) to spend time together chatting, playing, singing and pondering a spiritual thought of the day.
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Morning prayer in Yate Parish
Do you find prayer a little difficult? Would you like some inspiration? Go to the Yate Parish Facebook page to join in Morning Prayer led by our ministry team. You can watch live at 7.30am Monday to Saturday, or watch at any time later in the day. Many people have found it a great start to their day.
Weekly at St Mary’s
Thursday Communion at 10.00am
Compline @8pm
Before the lockdown happened, we had recorded the saying of Compline. We ask that each evening at 8pm we light a candle in our window and pray together for our nation using the words of the Compline service - it takes just over 5 minutes.
Visit the parish website and click on the recordings to listen; you will find the words of the service there too.