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There are many religions and philospohies which have special writings to which great authority and reverence is given. We have our Bible, of which the New Testament is particularly special to us, but of which the Old Testament is of awesome antiquity great significance, too. Many branches of the Christian Church also have their own less-authoritative material which expresses the gospel for the age and comes and goes as time goes by. Anglicans have their service books, for example, and Methodists their hymn books. Anglican worship books are heavily scripture-based and many, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer being the best example, have therefore stood the test of time remarkably well.
When Common Worship came in 2000 there was a move away from a single book containing authorized service material for everything and our liturgy became more of a selection of material which different congregations could use differently and which one congregation could vary according to season, and so we as a local church have developed our own service orders which suit our own purposes and tradition and which enable us to fit the mood of our worship to that of the changing seasons.
One consequence of this change is that we are unlikely to commit a whole service to memory as we might with the 1662 or 1980 services and so are more dependent upon the booklets we have.
As president at many services I look at the people and see a lot of hair, for faces are often buried in booklets, following every word with great precision. I say, "The Lord be with you," or whatever, and, without looking away from its booklets the hair replies, "And also with you," or as the occasion may require! May I humbly suggest that most of us will not lose our places if we look up from time to time? I think you'll find worship more meaningful, more inspiring and more joyful if the booklet takes a less significant part in it. When the officiating minister is saying words that are not said by the whole congregation, there is no need to follow them in the booklet unless we are hard of hearing or the minister is mumbling (please tell them if they are, for that is a fault they must correct), so we can raise our eyes, if not to heaven then at least to the person who is speaking.
Sections like the opening dialogue to the Eucharistic Prayer, for example, do require us to read the words so that we are all singing the same thing, but these words are the same every week so when we've been a few times most of us will find ourselves carried along by the music and singing joyfully the correct words without having to read them. What we are saying in this prayer is so significant, recalling all that God has done in giving us life and in saving us by Christ's sacrifice, that it would be great to gather round his table with our minds and eyes fixed on the action, enthusiastically proclaiming God's praise in the congregational parts of the prayer and affirming it all with a great "Amen!" at the end.
Do give it a try: if you feel lost, then by all means go back to the booklet, for I should not wish anyone to be uncomfortable, but if you're anything like me you'll just feel free and even more involved in the worship.
oremus bible browser to prepare your readingFor our June and July sessions we explored the theme 'God and His Church'.
Teddy Horsley and Betsy Bear helped the younger children to understand Trinity, Baptism and Heaven whilst the older children continued to be excellent 'Bible Detectives' and discover the relevent references for these topics.
As part of their contribution to the Rose and Sweet Pea Show the children enthusiastically prepared paintings and models on the topic of 'trophies' in order to link in with the Olympic/Ancient Greece theme. A wide variety of interpretations was displayed in Church to add to the exhibition.
Our Sunday School year ended on the 11th July with the now traditional making and consuming of Knickerbocker Glories during our session followed by the presenting of prizes to each Explorer, Climber and Scrambler in Church.
Our summer break ends on Sunday 5th September when we start off in Church with the Commissioning of the Leaders, Assistants and Helpers and then retire to the Church Hall for normal activities.
Explorers (7 - 11), Climbers (5 - 7) and Scramblers (under 5) meet every Sunday morning (except during the Summer holiday period) at 9.50am in the Church Hall. They join older worshippers in Church for their blessing, final hymn and refreshments. New members are always welcome. Please contact Andrea (Climbers and Scramblers) on 344926 or Alison (Explorers) on 345890 for more details.
You may have noticed some criminal damage around the church building recently, and the dry rot growing in a roof beam above the north side of the nave. Remedies are in hand for all of these items.
Hamblin Building Conservation, who did all the work to restore the floors a few years ago, have acted quickly to get the dry rot stopped and once a Faculty has been granted will proceed to do any necessary restoration work on the roof. We are in the process of obtaining quotes for the repair of the stained-glass leaded window over the sacristy and again will have to take advice from the diocesan experts in order to know how to proceed with this important piece of restoration work. Finally, the Fabric Committee is looking into prices for the construction and installation of steel cages for the ground-level floodlights, the lamps from which are stolen within days of being replaced, so there is little point in spending money on new lamps until either the cages are in place or the thieves caught and prevented from re-offending.
If you have any suspicions at all who might be responsible for any of the damage or thefts, please tell the Police straight away, and if you see any such crimes being committed in future, please, please do not hesitate to dial 999 and report it immediately: if there is a Police Officer in the vicinity there may be a chance of stopping the perpetrators there and then. These crimes do not just cost the Church money which we should much rather spend in service to our community, they also take up huge amounts of time and energy which again I should be spending in other ways.
In the last year or so we have lost several members of our church who have passed on into God's closer presence in the next world. We have expressed at their funerals our gratitude for having known them in this life and our confident hope for their eternal life. Among them were May Procter and Hilda Jackson and as a church we can continue to rejoice in their generosity as a result of bequests each of them has made to God's work here in Deeping St James.
Each has left many thousands of pounds which can be used to move forward the work of the church, and the PCC has begun to think about how it might be used. While it would, of course, be short-sighted to try to use this money for day-to-day expenses, we have been able to pay our shortfall in parish share for the last financial year and to ensure that this year's share is met. For the future we trust that the improvement in income as a result of the funding renewal campaign last year will mean that further use of these ladies' bequests will be unnecessary. We are hoping to use some of the funds in some way for the mission work which has had to be put on hold for a while because of shortage of funds: the PCC is still considering exactly what it might do.
The PCC hopes that by dedicating a large part of it to a major project to improve the facilities of our church building and the church hall we shall be able to attract additional community funding to make a substantial improvement to what we are able to offer our community both for worship and for events such as concerts, plays and shows etc.. In addition there should be money available for repairs, and for the little improvements which make such a difference to the worship we offer God and the welcome we offer people but which we have hitherto been unable to afford.
Please pray about these matters, give thanks to God, and if you have any suggestions, then members of the PCC would be glad to hear from you.
Preheat the grill to medium. To make the dressing, place garlic, oil, Parmesan, lemon juice, Worcester sauce, mustard and pepper in a liquidizer and process until well blended.
Grill the chicken for around 15 minutes, or until the juices run clear when the meat is pierced with a knife. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
Rinse lettuce leaves and shake to dry, tear lettuce into large pieces and place in a large salad bowl. Squeeze lemon juice over the top and toss lightly.
Peel and chop eggs. Add eggs, chicken, and dressing to salad bowl and toss lightly. Sprinkle shredded Parmesan and croutons over salad and serve.
Over the last few year Margaret Flegg has contributed a lot of recipes to this magazine, all of them very attractive. Whether you have carefully filed them or not, it is possible to find Margaret's recipes using the archived Internet edition of Priory News and searching for a recipe name or an ingredient. If you look at the left-hand side of this page you will see the Priory News Archive with a simple search engine: type in what you're looking for and click "Go". You will be presented with a list of the issues that mention that word, with the context in which it is mentioned.
we welcome to the Lord's family:
We congratulate:
This is only an extract from some of our magazine. Residents of Deeping St James can subscribe to the printed version.
Copyright © 2004 Deeping St James PCC