oremus bible browser to prepare your reading| Editor: Sonia Marshall | Layout: Dave Merchant | Web version: Mark Warrick |
Photographs of some parish events are available in our Photograph Album elsewhere on the site
To:
Scripture readings for Sunday
Archive of past editions of Priory News
Cooking with Margaret
| Information Centre | Trades & Services | Notices |
| Diary | Groups & Societies | For Sale |
Dear Friends
As I write many are still keenly following the fortunes of our Olympic Team on television. As we greet people in the street or in the shops, the conversation is full of the successes or controversies arising from the previous day's events..........the reversal of fortunes following disqualifications ..........the evil of substance abuse,..........will a particular athlete be able to put behind the failure of a previous day to finish in the next event? While articles in the press reveal that the ancient Olympics far from being an amateur event, were intensely competitive and professional.
Too often we hear the suggestion that the New Testament put into writing almost 2000 years ago, are out of touch with 'today's modern world'. Anyone who has read St. Paul's letters to the Corinthians and Phillipians would find vivid references to the situations above. Human nature is still the same; Jesus Christ is the same 'yesterday, today and forever'. Rather it is we as Christians who need to take a keener interest in becoming familiar with the scriptures, to share them with others with equal enthusiasm and to reveal the 'gold' within them which is our reward after a comparatively little effort.
oremus bible browser to prepare your readingChurch Ladies' Fellowship opening service is on Thursday 2nd September at 19:45 in church, followed by a buffet supper in the church hall. Thereafter meetings are fortnightly as detailed in the programme card.
The Bible Study Group recommences on Friday 3rd September at 10:00 at the Vicarage with the study of the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament. All are welcome.
Our summer break ends on Sunday 5th September, starting off in Church at 10am. The first few minutes of the service will be used for the commissioning of the leaders, assistants and helpers of our Children's Groups and then the children will be taken to their groups for a shortened session in the Church Hall and return, as usual, for their blessing and refreshments after the service.
This is also the day of the Churches Together Family Picnic which takes place on the Vicarage Lawn at 12 noon. Bring your own picnic and any favorite garden games! More details to follow.
On Sunday 26th September we shall be holding another of our cake stalls after Church to raise funds for our Sunday morning activities. The children will be preparing in advance for this so if you have a particular favorite which you would like us to make please let Georgina, Hendriene or Alison know.
This year our programme will be enhanced with new materials which have been prepared by Scripture Union and are known as 'Light'. This scheme is very clearly Bible-focused with the aim of enabling children and young people to develop a personal relationship with God as well as helping them to understand the Bible and the Christian faith and to live for God in a dark world. It also addresses contemporary issues from a Biblical perspective so young people can see the Bible's relevance in today's world. If anyone is interested to know more about these materials please have a word with Alison.
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.
We shall be running the Alpha Course again this autumn, hopefully one evening course and one lunchtime course at the Vicarage. The Alpha Course is the an opportunity to explore the meaning of life.
If you've been an an Alpha Course you may like to invite someone to come with you to the Alpha Supper on Thursday 30th September at 7.30pm to see if they think they'd like to attend an Alpha Course. If you've not yet been on the Alpha Course yourself, then you may like to bring yourself along! No charge and no obligation to go on and attend the course: just a light supper and some information about what the course entails. The venue for the supper will depend upon how many wish to attend. Please let us know if you are thinking of coming so that we can ensure that we can cater for everyone.
Everyone is invited to pray for the effectiveness of the course. There will be prayer cards available in church from the beginning of September, and on 8th September at St George's Church, Stamford, at 8pm there will be a meeting to pray for local Alpha Courses and also the "Just 10" being run in Lincoln next year.
Those who are wanting to find out about God and what the Christian Church teaches may also be interested in our Sunday afternoon service on 12th September at 3pm, "Seeking God", and Alpha Course information will also be available then. Again, if you are a member of our congregation you may like to invite a friend to come along and see and hear.
On the 2nd of July ten of the members of Crossfire plus three leaders descended upon the Lincolnshire Showground for a weekend run by Lincoln Youth for Christ called 'Treacle'. The weekend is held over the first weekend of July every year and is designed to equip and empower young people for a life following God through worship and teaching but also provide an entertaining event featuring; sports, Christian bands and a range of other enjoyable activities.
After one car puncture, several emergency phone calls and over an hour of waiting for the RAC we finally managed to reach the showground on the Friday evening where the event started with a bang as local band 'Atlas' took the stage to rock the big top whilst proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. I have to say I was truly moved by Dave Bells testimony of his struggle against cancer and how God had completely healed him. The event continued with another group called '29th chapter' before the Treacle team took the stage for a late night show of music, laughs and games which were highly enjoyed by young and old alike. Finally, most of the group retired for the night to get some much needed rest in their tents while others thought it more constructive to play cards until the early hours of the morning-well, who would blame them?!
The Saturday morning started with worship from the treacle worship band and teaching from YWAM worker, Dan Hargreaves. Dan spoke some great words of wisdom as he encouraged people to get onboard with Gods plans for their lives and to put their trust in him. Lots of the people there responded to this and gave their lives to God, many of them for the first time. Worship has always been an important part of these sort of events to me and to see some of the people from our group who may not be used to the more charismatic form of worship entering into it with such passion and enthusiasm so early in the weekend can only be accredited to the powerful way God was moving in the lives of these young people.
The day continued with the choice of relaxing around the campsite, a movie dome or the extremely competitive sports competition before the afternoon's meeting which was much of the same format as the morning. Jon Burns (the director of evangelism for Youth for Christ) spoke about the parable of the sower and its relevance in our lives today and the response to his talk was staggering as almost every person in the tent responded to his call to deal with things in their lives whether it was mistakes or things that stopped them giving the time to God that they needed to. I know one of the guys at the event felt playing rugby for his local club stopped him from being able to attend church and in the future he intended to go to an early service at his church and there were many stories similar to this of ways in which God had been doing things in the lives of these teenagers. The rest of the day was amusingly spent having sleeping bag races around the muddy campsite as well as the evening concert and treacle show, which were simply fantastic and provided the right atmosphere to wind down from what had been a long but brilliant day.
On the final morning we packed up our tents and proceeded to the main meeting which was a true manifestation of the Holy Spirit as many people responded to the call to use their gifts for the glory of God whether they were musical, practical or anything else whilst others prayed for God to give them a new gift. I found this so moving as these young people were so fired up for God and so passionate to serve him with their lives and give everything to him.
The weekend had many high points for me but I don't think that any surpassed seeing other people in the group realise how much God loves them and seeing them realise that God has the perfect plan for their lives and that he can use them for his glory whatever their talents. The testimonies of how God is impacting the lives of the people who went to treacle but also their friends continue to amaze me and I pray that what was gained, experienced and learnt at the weekend won't be forgotten. We're all called to be history makers for God however young or old we are, so let's not cower or be hesitant but let us honour him in everything we do.
Russell Newton, 16
The bells were rung on Tuesday 3rd August in honour of Sonia on her ordination to the Priesthood. Well done Sonia.
The bell ringers annual barbecue was held on July 24 when some 22 ringers and friends had another fine enjoyable evening. We had a quick exit from the garden to cover indoors at about 11 o'clock when the fireworks from the Burghley music festival managed to perforate the clouds and caused a downpour.
We are still able to take on board one more novice ringer. INTERESTED? Then ring Richard on 01778 343498.
There is no recipe this month: sorry!
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