Weekly letter from St Luke's - 16 February 2024

Dear Parish Friends

On Ash Wednesday this last week, I noted that this is a pivot point in the liturgical year, and in our gospel readings. We move from the season of Epiphany, where we focused on the question of who is Jesus, from the visit of the wise men, who saw something special, through the start of Jesus' ministry of preaching, teaching and healing, to the transfiguration, when Jesus as the Son of God was made clear to the disciples. Now the focus turns towards Holy Week and Good Friday, and narrativity in the gospels Jesus is turning towards Jerusalem. We begin to move into the question of not just who was Jesus, and what he came to do, but how he would do it through his death and resurrection.

Sunday morning's services are as usual at 7am (Holy Communion) and 9am (Family Communion with Zoom streaming). The notice paper and 9am service sheet are available via the links below. As we have done in previous years for Lent, to mark this as a more solemn season, I encourage you to arrive early for the services, Five minutes before the service starts I will ring the bell and read the sentence of the day and we will then sit in silence for prayer before the bell is rung again and we sing the opening hymn.

We have another working bee on Saturday morning (8am-12). The focus will be to move things into storage at the Rectory and Juliette's under-house. We have booked a two-men-and-a truck outfit to do the heavy lifting, but help is needed in coordinating this at all three locations.

A reminder that the Annual Meeting of the parish will be held this Sunday 18th February. The Annual Report book is available here and printed copies will be available in church. It will also be possible to attend and contribute to the meeting via Zoom, using the same details as for our Sunday services (see the 'how to Zoom' document linked below.

Yours in Christ

Rev'd Timothy