Bring…
…and share.
The Bring and Share lunch seems to be a uniquely Anglican experience. It’s not something I’d ever come across before coming to England and joining the Church of England.
It makes a great deal of practical sense… we want to share lunch on a given day, but we don’t really want to dictate what people must bring or what people must do – very Anglican indeed!
So, we mirror the Eucharist in each bringing something to the table – our offering – we give thanks for the offerings that have been brought and then we dig in.
A little of this, a lot of that. A sprinkle of this and a dollop of that. We pick and choose as we head down the buffet table.
This is great for lunches, but less good for our faith.
We each bring our own faith to church each Sunday. It’s made up of a little of this, a lot of that – a sprinkle of this and a dollop of that. We pick and choose depending on what we like and what we don’t like.
This is not a great way to live our life of faith.
We must not pick and choose from scripture those things that we like, or bend scripture to our will or our own desire.
This is why we come to church, this is why we have a lectionary (the order and list of what scripture we read on any given day), this is why we listen to sermons and teaching and this is why we receive Christ in the Sacrament.
Though these things we are given a rich diet of a bit of everything, even the bits we don’t like.
We are strengthened through the Sacrament to discern what is of the world and what is of God.
This gives us a strong faith. This is a good diet.
Fr. Matthew
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First Choir Practice – next Sunday (3rd October) we meet for the first time at 2pm for choir practice. We’ll be practising a simple Anthem to sing at mass on the 24th October. Everyone welcome to come and sing, no experience required!
We welcome our dear friend and Priest Fr. David Povall to cover mass this Sunday (26th September). Please give him the usual wonderful welcome.
Whilst Fr. Matthew is working in Rome this week do pay careful attention to the calendar. No midweek services, although parent and toddler group and foodbank are still happening. Sunday 3rd October as usual.
I’m still looking for volunteers to help with the Rosary Mission (keeping the church open, providing tea & coffee etc) 10th – 24th October and to help run the Sunday School – we can’t start a Sunday School until I have some volunteers. Nobody has yet been in touch to offer to help.