Welcome back to our mid-week celebration of all the great things happening in Leesfield Parish and beyond.
Our Sunday service details will be here as usual at weekend, but there's so much more that we would love to share with you in the meantime.
There's no "Worship for all Generations" this evening at St Agnes' - it's only the first three Wednesdays of each month, but we'll be back next week with our own celebration of Harvest.
Everybody is welcome to our Parish Harvest Eucharist on Sunday. We do have some spare seating available for this special service, and can also accommodate a few small family groups in the gallery if we run out of space, or if families prefer to be seated there. Donations of non-perishable food items will be gratefully accepted, and after a suitable quarantine period they will be taken to Impact Community Church in Hollinwood, which provides essential relief for people in need in the Oldham area.
With Harvest in mind, this song is a firm favourite with many of our younger congregation members. This version is home made by a family, and I'm sure you'll agree it's delightful -
October starts tomorrow, and we're really pleased to share this months calendar from Action for Happiness - Optimistic October
For this week's nature item, here are a few ideas for how to make our gardens attractive to wildlife.
It would be wonderful if we could create some areas like this in our own churchyards, and any help you are able to offer would be greatly appreciated.
We never use pesticides, and already leave areas uncut and untended to encourage wildflowers.
Lavender and Foxgloves abound, as do other plants to encourage birds, butterflies and bees.
There is still so much more that we could do to create safe habitats for wildlife, and we could possibly make a start during the winter months if we can get a few volunteers.
St Thomas' Church welcomes you to a Parish Eucharist at 10 am. Presiding and preaching today is Revd John Faraday, a retired Priest living in our parish.
We follow all of the advice from the Government, the Church of England and Manchester Diocese to ensure your safety. The wearing of face coverings is mandatory unless you are exempt from this requirement. Please do bring your own if you can, but we do have a limited supply of disposable face masks if you need one - so don't let that stop you from joining us.
The latest restrictions do not affect the numbers of people we are able to seat at our service, as we already have enough space to allow safe distancing. Please do remember though that socialising with people from outside your household before and after the service is not permitted at present.
Your own home is still the safest place to worship, particularly if you are shielding or in a vulnerable group, and you'll find everything you need here on this page.
This morning's first hymn is "Be Still For The Presence Of The Lord"
Today's Gospel Reading -
Reflection -
It would be fair to say that the chief priest and elders were not the best fans of Jesus. Time and again ihey had tried to expose him and trap him so they could have him arrested. Yet, time and again Jesus had turned the tables on them by catching them out in their own words.
Jesus had a way of showing them up for what they were and as such, he was a threat to them. The chief priests and elders were important people who had power and expected to be revered and looked up to. They had wealth and demanded to be respected both inside and outside the temple. Yet, here was this uneducated upstart from a fishing village who repeatedly left them lost for words and rubbed their noses in their own ignorance. How infuriating was Jesus to them? He had no right to do the things he was doing.
So they decide to openly challenge him and ask, “ By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus responds with a question knowing that whatever they answer they will be caught out again.
After arguing between themselves they choose not to answer. Despite their self-importance, knowledge and power, they are worried about how their answer will be perceived by the crowd and were afraid their answer that may anger them. They were unwilling to commit to a response and are effectively ‘powerless’.
It’s a bit like the politician who is interviewed and repeatedly tries to answer a question they would have liked to have been asked rather than the one they have been.
The elders' lack of power stems from their fear of losing power itself. Power can sometimes be assumed by virtue, social status, wealth or learning. In some instances it can be taken, for example in a military coup.
On the other hand, authority is always given. It can be conferred from above or given by those below who empower others by their willingness to trust and follow them. Jesus’ authority comes directly from God and also comes from his followers who seek to do his will and recognise him as our Lord.
Throughout his life, Jesus has taught us that authority and obedience are closely linked. With authority comes a responsibility to serve those who give you the authority, as Jesus showed us when he repeatedly humbled himself and made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us upon the cross.
Jesus goes further with his parable about the two sons who were asked by their father to work in the vineyard. The first one refuses but then has a change of heart, whereas the second son, wanting to please his father, readily agrees knowing all the time he has no intention of working. Jesus challenges, asks them, which son has done the will of the father? Yet again he has lured them into his own trap – because the answer is clear.
The answer is not about just ‘saying’ yes to God. It’s about ‘doing’ what we know God expects of us. To use one of those awful management course phrases, it’s about, “walking the walk not just talking the talk”.
It’s not just about saying the right things to demonstrate that we know about Jesus and to look good, it’s not just about coming to church, (when it’s safe to do so).
It’s about what we commit to each and every day of the week. It’s about openly confessing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Redeemer. It’s about how we actively make a difference to others, no matter how small. It’s about being a true disciple and walking in the way of Jesus.
Today's Prayers -
And our final hymn for today is "Shout To The Lord"
Yes, I know it's nearly weekend, but there's a lot going on in our parish at the moment, and I wanted to share as much of it as possible with you all. Our Sunday service will be here at weekend, but in the meantime you're most welcome to have a look at what we're up to.
This week's "Worship for all Generations" was a really special occasion, as it's a whole year since this service started on Thursday evenings at St Thomas' Church. Since then we had to move it to our facebook page whilst our church buildings were closed, and we've been really glad to be back now on Wednesday evenings at St Agnes' Church.
The service is still on our facebook page on Thursdays though, to make sure that anybody who isn't able to come along can join in, along with all our new friends from further afield. You'll find this week's special service on our facebook page - Leesfield Parish
Neil suggested that we might want to sing "Shine Jesus Shine" as we celebrate at home, so here's a really rousing version for you -
Most of our planned fundraising events for this year have had to be cancelled, but instead of our usual sponsored Parish Boundary Walk we had a little competition instead. Paul and I set off from Grotton in the anti-clockwise direction, and Kingsley clockwise, at 10.17 am. A map of the route (with the walk in green) is shown below, so a bit like Spot the Ball, just put a cross where you think we met, and write on what time you think it was. For any of you who may not know Kingsley, he has a good 15 year age advantage on us, MUCH longer legs, and didn’t take a picnic lunch. The competition is open until Wednesday 30th September and the result will be announced at our Harvest service on the 4th October. If you're able to copy the picture and complete your entry please send it back as a message to our Blogspot. Donations to church funds are most welcome, and there is a prize of a Thornton's Chocolate Hamper for the lucky winner.
Last Sunday's Songs of Praise featured Revd Aaron Jackson, Curate at Holy Trinity Dobcross, and his family (and lots of animals). If you missed it you can catch up on BBC iplayer by clicking on this link - BBC iplayer -songs-of-praise
And finally, here's some news about the Parish Electoral Roll. What's joyous about that? Well, everybody's so glad to be back in our churches that we're hoping you'll all help to sustain them for the future. Here are a couple of bits about it, with the obligatory legal notice at the end. The Electoral Roll opens this weekend, and if you would like a registration form please use the Contact Form on this page (just below the Safeguarding Information)
St Thomas' Church welcomes you to a Parish Eucharist at 10 am. Presiding and preaching today is Revd John Faraday, a retired Priest living in our parish.
We follow all of the advice from the Government, the Church of England and Manchester Diocese to ensure your safety. The wearing of face coverings is mandatory unless you are exempt from this requirement. Please do bring your own if you can, but we do have a limited supply of disposable face masks if you need one - so don't let that stop you from joining us.
The latest restrictions do not affect the numbers of people we are able to seat at our service, as we already have enough space to allow safe distancing. Please do remember though that socialising with people from outside your household before and after the service is not permitted at present.
Your own home is still the safest place to worship, particularly if you are shielding or in a vulnerable group, and you'll find everything you need here on this page.
This morning's first hymn is "Will You Let Me Be Your Servant" -
Today's Gospel Reading:
Reflection:
That’s not fair!! At first glance this is what many would say when looking at this Gospel passage. I guess we can all relate to the workers who have been paid the minimum wage of 1 denarius for a full day’s work whilst the next man gets the same for 1 hour. Would you be happy if you found out that your colleague was paid ten times more that you for doing exactly the same job?
How relevant is this to our present circumstances where we have people working full time on reduced wages, whilst others have been paid to stay at home on a furlough scheme? Or the person who toils long and hard for a modest wage whilst the CEO gets paid millions. Is it unfair or are we just being envious? What about all the people in our community who gladly volunteer and give their time for free?
When you are unemployed and looking for a job what motivates you? For most of us it’s a basic need to earn enough to look after our loved ones and provide for our future. Provided we can meet our essential needs and the rate of pay is deemed to be reasonable we are genuinely grateful that we have a job. So, when the workers who were employed at early in the morning got a job, did they cry out, ‘that’s not fair” because not everyone has a job. I suspect not, the instinct of every man for himself might have played a part.
Once our basic needs are met, we look for other things, what will make us more comfortable in life, the bigger house, the nicer car, holidays or meals out. How many of us put the need to help others and give to charities at the top of that list? How many of us would happily go to the government and suggest they put taxes up to pay the nurses and carers more money? Do we think we are worth more?
It could be argued that the owner of the vineyard was not being unfair to the earlier workers but that he was showing compassion for the families of the later worker that needed to be fed. He had the resources to be generous and did what he thought was right. So why should the earlier workers feel aggrieved – is there truly injustice in what has been done? Or is it their own jealousy and selfishness.
God gives his love, all of his love, to every person without exception if they open themselves to this love. It does not matter whether that happens early or late in life as this love can never be earned, only accepted. The fact that the latecomers were only employed at the last hour does not make their needs any less than those who came earlier. How big is my need for God today?
Today's Prayers:
And our final hymn for today is "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing" -
Welcome back to our mid-week celebration of all the great things happening in Leesfield Parish and beyond.
Our Sunday service details will be here as usual at weekend, but there's so much more that we would love to share with you in the meantime.
Last week we were pleased to announce that "Worship for all Generations" was returning to church - on Wednesdays, 6.30 pm at St Agnes' Church. For everyone who wasn't able to make it, you can still watch the service on our facebook page from 6.30 pm on Thursday, just click here - Leesfield Parish
This week's musical item comes from the Britain's Got Talent auditions earier this year. "Sign Along With Us" was David Walliams' Golden Buzzer Act, and we're sure you'll agree that it was brilliant. Why is this relevant to Leesfield Parish? Because the group is led by Jamie-Lee, who is a brand new teaching assistant at St Hugh's school! The act will be in this Saturday's semi-final, so even if you don't usually watch BGT please do tune in and cheer them on.
Staying with the theme of TV programmes and our local area, this week's Songs of Praise includes a feature on Harvest in Saddleworth. Presented by Revd Kate Bottley, the programme airs on BBC1 TV at 1.15 pm on Sunday.
Our own Harvest service will be at St Thomas' Church at 10 am on Sunday 4th October. Of course, it won't be anything like what we would usually do - no Harvest hymns, or tasty Harvest brunch after the service - but donations of non-perishable food items are still most welcome. Donations can be brought into church, and will be left untouched until Wednesday, when they will be taken down to Impact Community Church in Hollinwood. Impact Community Church does amazing work with homeless people and others in need in the Oldham area, and any donations we can make are extremely helpful in these difficult times.
St Thomas' Church welcomes you to a Parish Eucharist at 10 am. Presiding and preaching today is our Area Dean and Vicar of St John the Baptist Hey, Reverend Lyn Woodall.
We follow all of the advice from the Government, the Church of England and Manchester Diocese to ensure your safety. The wearing of face coverings is mandatory unless you are exempt from this requirement. Please do bring your own if you can, but we do have a limited supply of disposable face masks if you need one - so don't let that stop you from joining us.
The latest restrictions do not affect the numbers of people we are able to seat at our service, as we already have enough space to allow safe distancing. Please do remember though that socialising with people from outside your household before and after the service is not permitted at present.
Your own home is still the safest place to worship, particularly if you are shielding or in a vulnerable group, and you'll find everything you need here on this page.
This morning's first hymn is "Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind" -
Today's Gospel Reading -
Reflection:
In last week’s newsletter we looked at how we should respond when someone has wronged us. How we should take some time to point out the error of their ways to the offender, explain the pain and impact of their actions and give them a chance to hopefully say ‘sorry’.
In today’s Gospel passage we take things to the next level. We are asked to forgive someone who has transgressed against us, not once, not seven times, but seventy seven times. This is not Jesus showing us how clever a mathematician he is, it’s how Jesus explains by exaggeration that to love our neighbour we have to be prepared to extend forgiveness time and again. God’s ability to forgive shows no limits.
That is not to say we should repeatedly put ourselves in a vulnerable position or danger. We have a responsibility to call out what is wrong, name the offence and prevent it from happening again. If we are burgled, we would naturally look to improve the security of our property.
Forgiveness is not about just moving on and putting things behind us. Similarly it’s not about making excuses and perhaps taking the blame ourselves, for example by saying, “it might never have happened if I’d locked the door”.
Forgiveness is much more than that. It’s about putting the resentment and hurt away. If we are repeatedly replaying events, feeling angry deep down about what has happened and those who have hurt us, then our hearts are not yet ready to forgive.
That’s what often makes forgiving so hard. We are human and often our first reaction is of anger, bitterness and revenge. Often, we are surrounded by people who feel their own outrage and seek recrimination, saying things like – “They should have their hands chopped off!”.
All of this makes us relive the experience and makes it so much harder to let go of our own feelings of hurt.
Forgiveness calls for us to release the feelings that are causing us pain, to let go of resentment and relinquish our grudges. It requires us to open our hearts to hope and to think about what purpose God has for us going forward in our lives.
Jesus tells us that God’s forgiveness knows no bounds. He will be there to help us heal, and part of that process is to experience God’s grace through forgiving others in the hope that we are also forgiven when the time comes.
“…….Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
Welcome back to our mid-week celebration of all the great things happening in Leesfield Parish and beyond.
Our Sunday service details will be here as usual at weekend, but there's so much more that we would love to share with you in the meantime.
Please do join us tomorrow on our facebook page for important news about "Worship for all Generations" - just click on this link - Leesfield Parish. Full details will follow here after tomorrow's on-line service.
This week's musical item comes from The Greater Manchester Virtual Voices, and is a lovely rendition of "Make Your Own Kind Of Music". Those of us of a certain age will remember the version made famous by Mama Cass Elliott quite a few years ago.
After a well-deserved break for the summer holidays, our Sunday schools are back - not in our school halls yet, but on their facebook pages. There will be stories from the Bible, prayers, and lots of activities for children of all ages. We're really looking forward to seeing more of their brilliant artwork.
Harvest Queen Annie and her retinue would normally be holding lots of fundraising events, but unfortunately many of these can't happen this year (although they did manage to have a lovely Cream Tea Event just before our churches had to close). They have now set up a special fundraising facebook page, starting with a "New To You" Sale. To find out more please click on this link - Harvest Queen Annie FUNdraiser
And finally for this week - lots of people are quite understandably concerned about whether churches will be recording attendance for school admissions. We're keeping a close eye on any updates, but certainly for now the advice from the Diocese of Manchester is that we do not keep records for this purpose. Please see the notice below for more information.
St Thomas' Church welcomes you to a Parish Eucharist at 10 am. Presiding and preaching today is our own Associate Priest, Reverend David Halford.
We follow all of the advice from the Government, the Church of England and Manchester Diocese to ensure your safety. The wearing of face coverings is mandatory unless you are exempt from this requirement. Please do bring your own if you can, but we do have a limited supply of disposable face masks if you need one - so don't let that stop you from joining us.
The latest local restrictions do not affect the numbers of people we are able to seat at our service, as we already have enough space to allow safe distancing. Please do remember though that socialising with people from outside your household before and after the service is not permitted at present.
Your own home is still the safest place to worship, particularly if you are shielding or in a vulnerable group, and you'll find everything you need here on this page.
This morning's first hymn is "Do Not Be Afraid" -
Today's Gospel Reading -
Reflection:
There are many messages in this Gospel passage but let us not overlook the obvious.
Firstly, we are asked that when we have been wronged, be that by word of mouth or by a more serious crime being committed against us, we should pause and try and give the person who has offended us the benefit of the doubt. Love calls us to show patience and consideration.
That may sound easy, but of course when someone has upset us, it is not necessarily easy to do. In fact, our first reaction may well be to moan to our friends and neighbours or anyone who will listen. In these times we may even turn to social media, to Facebook or Twitter. Before we know it, due to our anger things have escalated out of all proportion and there is harm done on all sides.
However, Jesus expects us to love our neighbour and to be charitable towards them. Moreover, we have a responsibility to our neighbour to point out the perceived error of their ways with kindness and compassion. We need to create a space for them to think about what they have said or done and how it has caused us pain. Most importantly, we need to give them the chance to say “I’m sorry”.
Where this doesn’t seem to work, we can come together in prayer with a person or persons we trust. We can have confidence that when we ask Jesus for guidance and wisdom, he will be with us help shape our thoughts and actions. He will give us the direction we need and where necessary help us to show mercy and forgiveness.
Secondly, Jesus tells us, that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
At first glance, this is sometimes taken quite literally in that we think of occasions where we are physically present in church or other location. However, by the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus is constantly with each and every one of us every minute and everywhere. We can, therefore, be confident that even when we are on our own when we pray in our homes, at work or anywhere, he hears our thoughts and concerns and through his divine grace we are spiritually gathered together.
Our Prayers for today -
And our final hymn is "10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)" -
Welcome back to our mid-week celebration of all the great things happening in Leesfield Parish and beyond.
Our Sunday service details will be here as usual at weekend, but there's so much more that we would love to share with you in the meantime.
Please do join us tomorrow for the last in our series exploring the books of the Old Testament - just click on this link - Leesfield Parish
This week is very special for one of the longest serving members of St Thomas' congreation. Vivienne is celebrating her 90th birthday, but of course the celebrations will not be what she and her family would have wished for because of all the COVID restrictions. So the Ladies of Leesfield decided to surprise her at church last Sunday with a cake and some gifts. Vivienne was allowed to take her mask off for the photo below, and unfortunately the cutting of the cake had already started before we found somebody with a camera, but it was such a lovely occasion!
The return of children and staff to school this week is a really challenging but exciting time for everyone.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all at our three church schools - St Thomas' Leesfield, St Agnes' Knolls Lane, St Hugh Holts, and with our former pupils who have now moved on to their new secondary schools.
This week's musical item is a little different to what we usually share in Mid-week Joy. Firstly, I don't usually choose a hymn for this spot, and secondly, the occasion where it was sung was not exactly joyful.
If you regularly follow this page you'll know that we always share a couple of YouTube hymns with on-screen lyrics in our Sunday Worship so that folks at home can sing along. Sometimes it feels like a bit of a chore sifting through all the different versions of hymns, but every now and then I come across one that's rather special.
This is "I Watch The Sunrise" from the Hillsborough Memorial Service in 2013.
As we start another new month, here's a calendar from Action for Happiness, packed with ways to look after yourself this month.
Creationtide or the Season of Creation is the period in the annual church calendar, from 1st September to 4th October, dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of all life. The theme for the Season of Creation 2020 is Jubilee for the Earth. Jubilee is a time of rest for the land from exploitation, and to restore ecosystems and people. The Season of Creation is a great time to encourage children and young people to take part in the Letters for Creation project. This is a way for them to reflect on what caring for creation means to them, and how they want their voice to be heard in the climate justice conversation. To find out more click on the following link - Church of England creationtide/get-your-voice-heard
