Dear Friends,
Firstly, many thanks to all of you who have so kindly sponsored the run I will be doing to raise funds for the Felixstowe Mission Area on Bank Holiday Monday 31st August. Also, a reminder of the Open-Air Market taking place this Saturday 29th August between 11am and 4pm in the Manse Garden. Again, this is to raise much needed funds for the Felixstowe Mission Area churches. Please give generously, your churches need the funds. I will give you all an update on the money raised from these events as soon as possible.
The Annual Ride and Stride Bike run in aid of The Historic Churches Trust will go ahead in a limited way on Saturday 12th September. Both Kirton and Trinity will be open and riders will be able to sign their own forms at Trimley and Seaton Road. Thank you to all those who are offering their time to be on the rotas.
The Annual Covenant Service for both Trinity and Seaton Road will now take place in the New Year, this is to enable more people to attend.
Thanks again, to the team at Trinity who have been successfully running the Mini Hamper Scheme throughout the Summer Holidays.
Now to Worship options both currently available and those planned. Trinity will continue to offer prayer and/or worship on Sundays from 11-12 noon. Holy Communion will be offered monthly at 4pm Sunday, either in the Garden or the Chapel at Kirton. Additionally, as well as the weekly Thursday Prayer Meetings, from September, Seaton Road will now be open for Worship at 9.45am on the third Sunday of the Month.
Beginning Monday 7th September, I will be running a Zoom Bible Study on the book of James at 10.30 each Monday morning in September and from Tuesday 22nd September, Morning Prayer/Bible Study will be offered at the Manse every Tuesday (except October 6th). Hopefully we shall still be able to meet in the garden.
This programme is a gradual move back to some form of normality, whatever we perceive that to be!
I am now making a good number of pastoral visits (in compliance with social distancing rules) to people’s gardens or offering the Manse garden as a meeting place. Please do contact me if you would like a Pastoral Visit or if you wish to come to the Manse garden. The Local Nursing homes are now allowing me to visit with a booked appointment and so far, I have been able to make appointments at White Gables, Margery Girling House, Merrifield’s and Belstone House to catch up with some of our folk. Prior to Lockdown we were working in Partnership with Felixstowe URC and running a monthly act of Worship at Mill Lane Nursing home, sadly it will be sometime yet before we can resume this work.
John Gillett, one of our Walton Parish Mental Health Nurses, is busy preparing a risk assessment with the view to reopening the “No Labels” group held fortnightly at Seaton Road Methodist. Hopefully this group will restart in a limited way by the end of September. More details to follow.
In this week’s Gospel reading Matthew 16, v 21-28; Jesus rebukes Peter’s complete misunderstanding of the role and nature of God’s Messiah. Although Peter has been given the insight to see that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, he will be required to completely review and change his understanding of this role. It poses the question to me, and hopefully to us all…… “What aspects of my understanding of Jesus, needs to be challenged and changed in order to grow and mature in my discipleship?”
Enclosed in this week’s mailing is a short sermon from myself and Mike Pecks’ Bible study notes for this Sunday 30th August.
Finally, I have very much enjoyed writing to you all throughout Lockdown and intend to continue to write on a monthly basis. However, this will be the last weekly letter, as we now have in place a good number of Worship and Bible Study options, as I have highlighted above, for you to participate in. Thanks for all the positive feedback and gift of postage stamps, that I have received for these mailings.
A Prayer,
(Attributed to Richard of Chichester)
Day by day, dear Lord of thee, three things I prayer;
to see thee more clearly,
to love thee more dearly,
to follow thee more nearly, day by day.
Amen.