Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.00 at St Thomas'. If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find resources below to worship at home.

Our first hymn this morning is "Be Still for the Presence of the Lord"

Today's Gospel

John 15:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples, ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 

Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Reflection

I really like today’s Gospel passage because it is so rich in imagery and meaning. It opens with the words, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower”.

This is one of the ‘‘I am’ statements that Jesus makes in His teachings. Other ‘I am’ statements include; “I am the Bread of Life’ [John 6:35], ‘I am the light of the world’, [John 8:12]  I am the resurrection and the life, [John 11:25].   

Jesus uses these statements to point His people towards the reality of His true identity as the Son of God the Father and He is also to point to His earthly mission.

Jesus also used the analogy of the vine. The vine carried significant symbolism to the Jewish people, and is mentioned in several places in the Hebrew scriptures, not least Psalm 80 where the Israelites are described as the vine that God brought out of Egypt, planted it and let it thrive so that their nation filled the lands.

 

But now, Jesus is describing Himself as the vine and His disciples are the branches of the vine. He is moving the narrative away from one where God will tend the vine and look after His people to one of building a deep and loving relationship with God through Jesus. 

God is still the vine grower but we are sustained and nourished by being connected through Jesus the True vine. Jesus is one with God, interconnected in every way, and Jesus’s message is that we can be just as connected to God when we follow Him and become true disciples.

The words that jump out this passage most for me are, ‘’Abide in me as I abide in you’ . There is a real sense of interdependency in this. Jesus wants to be as much a part of us as we want to be with Him. One scholar suggested we replace the word ‘abide’ with ‘believe’ to read; ‘Believe in me as I believe in you’. This emphasises a mutual love as we truly embrace Jesus by believing in Him as He believes in and loves us. 

 

It is though that loving relationship with Jesus that we can allow ourselves to be pruned by Him and bear the fruit He desires. 

But what does that pruning entail? For some it might sound quite scary. It obviously is not a physical pruning. No one is going to cut bits off our bodies. 

Rather it is a spiritual pruning and Jesus has already told His disciples how this is done. It’s done by abiding in Him and in His word. 

If we follow His example and teachings we will be shaped and pruned by the Word of God as spoken to us by Jesus. 

The shaping and the pruning may not always be easy or pain free. As we spend more time doing things that nourish and develop ourselves, it may mean that we have to put aside some of the busyness in our lives that distract us. Some of those things may be precious to us such as watching that favourite programme on TV but other things might be just junk that we allowed our lives to be filled up with.

 

To be honest, when I started on my path of training and the college told me how much studying and other commitments would be involved, I was convinced there would be no way of fitting it in alongside everything else I had going on. But after a fair bit of thinking I was surprised just how many things I was doing that were not as important as I thought they were.  Obviously, there are some things I miss, but on the other hand there are also many things that I’ve gained. For example I have a whole new cohort of friends through college and I am enjoying many of the new subjects I am studying, although some of them make my brain hurt. But that’s probably a good thing as well.

As we are pruned back by faith in Jesus and as we abide in Him, we allow Him to remove the bits of our lives that are not absolutely necessary and instead focus on what is good and right. We allow the new growth in our lives through Jesus as we let Him to make us more Christlike. 

As Christians we are called to be a fruitful presence in the world. We can do that by how we interact within that world and love one another, even those we don’t know. We can be fruitful when we pray to God, worship God and when we share the Good News of the risen Christ. 

As we grow and develop we are constantly expected to change, and part of that change is being pruned by the one who loves us. We are moulded into His image in ways that enable us to become the people we were created to be, as we put into practice how we obey Jesus’s commandment to love one another. 

For the followers of Jesus, fruitfulness relies on their dependence on the vine. We are the branches; we cannot bear fruit by ourselves - we have to rely on Jesus; listening to the words of the Gospel, putting them into practice in our daily lives. We also have to rely on each other - vine branches are all interconnected, part of each other, feeding off the same stem, out of the same soil, but growing in different and unique directions. We share a common life, and within that we become our own unique, distinctive selves.

Like a plant that always turns to face the light of the sun, we too are also expected to turn to the light of the Son – The Son of God. When we turn to Him, when we trust in Him and believe in Him, we will bear the fruit that God wants.  Bring on the sun!       Paul

Our Prayers

Father Almighty, we pray that we may follow the call of Jesus,

to be branches of His true vine and abide in Him.

Creator Lord,

We ask you to mould and shape us according to your will.

By your Spirit,

produce the fruit of love, joy, peace, 

and patience in us for others to taste and enjoy.

AMEN

Todays final hymn is "I am the Vine, You are the Branches"

Notices

Next Sunday we have just one service in Leesfield Parish - 10 am at St Thomas' Church. Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting follows immediately after the service. This is where we review the reports from the previous year and elect our new Churchwardens and Parish Officers for the coming year. There are several vacancies for PCC members and also a Churchwarden, so if you are interested in any of these (or other) posts in the Parish please collect nomination forms from the back of church.

Sunday Worship 21st April

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.00 at St Thomas'. If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find resources below to worship at home.

Our first hymn this morning is "As we are Gathered, Jesus is Here"

Today's Gospel

1 John 10: 11-18 The Good Shepherd

 “I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep.  When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 

The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep. 

I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them. 

There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

“The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. 

No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do.”

Reflection

If you were asked to describe a shepherd, I wonder what image might come into your minds eye?

Maybe you would think of a middle aged man in  green wax jacket and flat cap or a young man in jeans and a woolly jumper like the characters on Emmerdale. In the fields near where I live, I sometimes see a lady shepherd covered in tattoos, wearing a baseball cap and riding a quad bike. Perhaps some of you would picture a man in a long robe with a belt around the waist and shepherds crook in his hand. 

This is a sort of stereotypical image that I suspect most people associate with Jesus. 

However, the reality would have been somewhat different. The life of a shepherd would have been hard and rugged. They would have been out all night and day for weeks at a time and unable to go to the Temple to worship. 

Most of the grazing would be in harsh and dirty areas of the wilderness, in all weathers and conditions. So they certainly wouldn’t be wearing pristine white robes. 

Shepherds were considered to be unclean, low class and not the kind of folk you would want to associate with. 

You might wonder then why Jesus would choose to describe himself as a shepherd when those around him were debating whether He was the Son of God. 

If we look at the prophet Ezekiel, Jesus is making a direct comparison to where Ezekiel describes God’s promises to search for, look after, rescue, gather, and pasture the sheep in good grazing land. God says, “You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD”.

Therefore, by describing Himself as a shepherd, Jesus is also reminding us of God’s love and commitment to us, His beloved people. 

So, Jesus is not afraid to describe himself as a shepherd and moreover a shepherd who is committed, loyal and willing to sacrifice Himself for us. And He doesn’t just say it once, He repeatedly tells us that He is the Good Shepherd and each time He stresses a deeper level of His commitment to us.

In this short passage he tells us four times that He is willing to die for us.

 

Jesus isn’t just any old shepherd, He is the Good Shepherd. The one who is fully committed and willing to go the extra mile. 

I wonder how many of you have seen people at work who are not fully committed. Perhaps you’ve heard someone remark, “that’s above my pay grade” as an excuse to avoid doing something important. Or maybe they have an attitude of superiority and say something like, ‘’it’s not my job to clean up the mess”. That’s the attitude of the hired hand. 

In a previous job when I was a project manager, we often had tough deadlines to meet and at times the company would hire in contractors or consultants, often at really expensive rates of pay. They would come in, roll their sleeves up and get stuck in. But it was only when they left that we would realise that whilst they appeared to be totally committed and doing a great job, they had cut corners. 

Quite often they failed to document what they had done, so if something went wrong after they’d left, there was no way of working out how to fix things without going right back to the beginning. Often causing significant extra cost and delays and inconvenience for those who were impacted by whatever had gone wrong. 

There’s a pithy American phrase, ‘to have no skin in the game’. It describes an attitude where someone who doesn’t have to pick up the pieces afterwards if something goes wrong, doesn’t show the same level of diligence as someone who does have to sort out things that go wrong. It describes the attitude of the hired hand. 

But Jesus makes it abundantly clear that He is not the hired hand. 

But Jesus doesn’t just look out for the few. He knows each of us deeply and calls us by name. He asks for us listen to His voice and to follow Him. He is always looking to bring in others from outside the flock and He wants us to bring others into the fold who haven’t yet heard His wonderful Good News. 

Interestingly, today is Vocation Sunday. A day to reflect, thank God, and celebrate what God has called each of us to do as we follow Jesus as members of His flock. For most, that doesn’t mean training to become a lay or ordained minister. Rather it’s how, in our daily lives, we can repay with thankfulness and love what Jesus has done for us. How we help one another.

As we follow Jesus, we are not called to be passive sheep. We are called to be active disciples showing God’s love to others in our everyday life at work or school, or even in the pub and local shop.

 

In the reading from Acts 4 8-12, we hear how Peter, who had previously denied knowing Jesus three times, stood up to the leaders and elders and told how he and John had healed the lame man through the power of the risen Jesus. He was no longer scared and running away; he was no longer like a hired hand in the face of a wolf.  

So let us pray that we, like Peter, may be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of the risen Jesus and welcome others to His flock.      Paul

Our Prayers

Heavenly Father, thank You that sent your Son Jesus to be the Good Shepherd

and that He knows each of us that are the sheep of His pasture.

Thank You that in Your grace, Jesus sacrificed his life for us and was raised from the dead.

We pray that you will give us wisdom and confidence to follow Him as true disciples.

AMEN.

Today's final hymn is "Loving Shepherd of Thy Sheep"

Notices

Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting will be on Sunday 5th May, immediately after a 10 am Parish Eucharist here at St Thomas’. There will be no service at St Agnes’ on that day. This is where we review the reports from the previous year and elect our new Churchwardens and Parish Officers for the coming year. There are several vacancies for PCC members and also a Churchwarden, so if you are interested in any of these (or other) posts in the Parish please collect nomination forms from the back of church.

Sunday Worship 14th April

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Third Sunday of Easter. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.00 at St Thomas'. If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find resources below to worship at home.

Our first hymn this morning is "In Christ Alone"

Today's Gospel

1 John 3: 1-7 Children of God

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Reflection

In this extract from John’s first letter, there are two powerful phrases that jumped out at me.

The first is:  ‘No one who abides in him sins’.  That’s pretty scary at first glance. I think we all have to admit that we are not perfect. We all have our ‘off days’ and some days are worse than others. We all recognise that we sin from time to time. 

It’s perhaps easy to say that, ‘it’s in our nature; everybody tells a lie at times or cheats at something. When we do, we may try to make ourselves feel better by telling ourselves things like, ‘it was justified because….’ , or ‘Well no one got hurt because of what I did, so what’s the problem?’

But John is not saying we can never sin and he is not saying that as soon as we sin we are damned because we have let Satan take advantage of us. Rather, he is saying that our focus needs to be on being Christlike. 

Of course that means truly saying sorry when we have fallen short of expectations, and it also means we should look for righteous things to do. The more good things we do, the more we abide in Christ.

Here are a couple of examples: When was the last time you were praying or in church and it crossed your mind to do something wrong or dishonest? Or, if you are reading a piece of scripture, would you ever consider jealous or vengeful thoughts or actions? Hopefully not.

The reverse is also true, if you are feeling unrighteous and make time for Jesus, then you will find yourself being guided back along the right path and wanting to express your regret for your sins. 

I have to confess, a few hours before writing this I had been really angry about something. It doesn’t matter what it was, but it took quite a while to get my head back in gear, to calm down and pray and let Jesus do his stuff. It would’ve been impossible to begin to write this reflection whilst being even remotely angry. The reality is, the more we do to abide in Jesus, the more we become righteous. 

Which brings me nicely to the second phrase that struck me, ‘See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.’  That is how God see us - His beloved children. That is why He sent His son to die for the forgiveness of all our sins. The more times we do what we know is right, the more we abide in Jesus and live up to what it means to be a child of God.        Paul

Our Prayers

Loving Father,

Thank you that love each and every one of us as your children.

Help us to live our lives by following the example of your Son Jesus,

So that when He is revealed, we will be like him, 

and all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 

Amen

Today's final hymn is "I Danced in the Morning (Lord of the Dance)"

Generosity in Leesfield Parish

 GENEROSITY IN LEESFIELD PARISH

From the 25th February to the 3rd March we had a week of special services and events to celebrate and encourage thanksgiving and generosity here in Leesfield Parish. Everyone was involved, including our Worship for all Generations family and our Sunday School. Throughout the week we explored ways in which we can all help to keep our churches and schools growing, thriving and reaching out into our community. You can find out more below - 

OUR PARISH VISION 

“To grow as disciples of Christ and to share God’s love across the parish and beyond”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO RUN A PARISH?

Prayer and Faith – which we have in abundance in our churches and schools.

These are the firm foundations upon which we build our service to God here in this place.

Without them, everything we do is in vain.

Money – which maybe we don’t have quite so much of. 

It costs almost £1,000 per week to run our churches and everything we do in Leesfield Parish. We don’t receive any outside funding – All our income comes from donations and fundraising by our own congregation members.

The largest item of expenditure is our Parish Share, which pays towards the cost of clergy, training and all the support which we receive from the Diocese of Manchester. Below you can watch a really helpful YouTube video which explains Parish Share in detail -

Because our income is always lower than our costs, we rely heavily on unpaid Volunteers helping with administration, maintenance and fundraising.

People – of all ages, from all backgrounds, and with many different gifts. 

There are lots of people engaged in keeping our churches growing and thriving. Some of them you see every week at our services, helping to make everything run smoothly. There also others who are far less visible, but who are working quietly in the background in leadership, administrative, finance, maintenance  and communications roles.

Most of our volunteers have several different roles in our churches and schools, which puts them under a lot of pressure, so we are looking for additional helpers to share the workload. 

WHAT NEXT?

When you're next in church, meet the people who do some of the jobs in our parish – seen and unseen, find out what they do – how much time it takes and how often they do it.

Ask them how they became involved in the first place and what training and encouragement they received.

Take a look at the response form below, and think about what you and your family might want to help with. Some of the roles don't even exist yet - they are things we would love to do here in Leesfield Parish, but haven't yet got the volunteers we need to take them further.

You can hear from some of the people already volunteering in key roles in parishes around Manchester Diocese in this inspiring video -

There is much more information and description of individual roles on the Church Officers page of the Diocesan website, just click here - Church Officers Manchester Diocese 

Training and support is available from Manchester Diocese, Oldham and Ashton Deanery and our own parish.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS - WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU SOON! 

Sunday Worship 7th April

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Second Sunday of Easter. Our Church Services today are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes' and 11.00 am at St Thomas'. If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.

Our first hymn this morning is "God Forgave My Sin (Freely, Freely)"

Today's Gospel

John 20: 19-31 Jesus Appears to His Disciples

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Reflection

As we begin this week’s Gospel reading we are still on Easter Day. Mary has told the disciples that that she saw Jesus alive earlier in the morning but nonetheless they are keeping their heads down, frightened of the reactions of the Jews. So they lock themselves away in a room, probably talking about the sad events of the last few days and still mourning the death of their beloved Jesus.

 

Then suddenly, He is with them in their midst. No one knows how he entered the locked room - but this is Jesus, so anything is possible. He greets them with the Jewish greeting ‘Shalom’, which means Peace be with you. It would be nice to think that the disciples were immediately overjoyed but that is not what is described here. Even though they have heard the miraculous news that Jesus has been seen alive, they are still doubtful, and Luke tells us that they were frightened and they thought Jesus was a ghost before He showed them his wounds. Mark goes one stage further and says that Jesus rebuked the eleven for their stubborn refusal to believe.

For this reason I have real sympathy for St. Thomas, (our patron Saint), who is also overcome with both wonder and disbelief. It is perhaps unfair, that many refer to him as ‘doubting Thomas’, because his initial doubt was no different to the other disciples. However, unlike the rest, Thomas’s reaction when he recognised Jesus is to worship and give praise to God. His faith is totally renewed, and out of his initial reservations have emerged a far stronger faith and commitment to Jesus the Lord. 

What does this mean for us? As Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls us all to believe in Him.

 

We are truly blessed, even though we have not physically witnessed Jesus first-hand, we can feel His presence in our lives and believe in Him. Because we believe, we too can share the good news.     Paul

Our Prayers

Most merciful Father,

We thank you that by the power of the Holy Spirit,

We can believe and trust in your Son, our risen Christ

To transform our lives into His likeness

and like St. Thomas, worship your infinite glory.  

Amen

Our final hymn today is "Lift High the Cross"

Notices

We are now approaching the date of our Annual Parochial Church Meeting, which is where we review the reports from the previous year and elect our new Churchwardens and Parish Officers for the coming year. The Electoral Roll is now open for new additions, which is really important for the smooth running of the meeting. If you are not registered on the roll, you will not be able to vote at the meeting, stand for election to any posts, or nominate candidates. There is a list of members in each church, so please check whether you are registered, and complete the application form to be included.