Do you love showing your children the Nativity Story at Christmas?
Well how about the Easter story too? Now is your chance.
Click for photos from previous Footsteps
Sunday, 29 March 2015
Thursday, 26 March 2015
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Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Pew Sheet - 29th March 2015
For the full pew sheet, please follow this link
MONDAY, TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY
OF HOLY WEEK
Compline will be said at 8.00pm with Meditations
Monday March 30th Nether Winchendon
Tuesday March 31st Chearsley
Wednesday April 1st Long Crendon
Compline is a quiet and exquisite late-night service that traditionally ends the day in convents and monasteries.
MAUNDY THURSDAY
April 2nd
Holy Communion 8.00pm Chearsley
This day commemorates two of the most significant actions of Jesus. It is the night on which Jesus had a last supper with his friends and commanded us to remember him each time we share bread and wine.
GOOD FRIDAY April 3rd
10.00 am Service for Good Friday Chearsley
11.00 am Family
Service Nether Winchendon
2.00-3.00pm A
Devotional Service Long
Crendon
A service of quiet reflection on the last
week of the life of Jesus.
GOOD FRIDAY WALK OF WITNESS
Meet at Baptist Church at 10.45am.
Walk along High Street via St. Mary’s along Chearsley Road past Pavilion
and the Square and back to the Baptist Church for Hot Cross Buns.
EASTER DAY April 5th
8.00am Holy Communion 1662 Long Crendon
10.30am Family Communion Long Crendon
10.00am* Easter Garden Service and Communion
*Note time Chearsley
10.00am
Family Communion
Nether Winchendon
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Welcome Ben
On Sunday we were very pleased to welcome Ben Jack Tuxworth into our church family.
Congratulations also to Pam and Richard and Ben's sisters Jemima and Millie.
Congratulations also to Pam and Richard and Ben's sisters Jemima and Millie.
Services this Sunday - 29th March
PALM SUNDAY
Please note,
there are two services:
10.00am United Benefice Service at Chearsley (Eucharist)
followed by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting at 11am
6.00pm Devotional Service at Long Crendon (See below)
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Services this Sunday - 22nd March
Lent 5: Passion Sunday
8.00 am Holy Communion LC (JW)
10.30am Sung
Eucharist LC(AB)
10.00am Family
Service with Baptism CH(JW)
3.00pm Holy
Baptism CH(JW)
5.00pm Evensong NW(JW)
Pew Sheet - 22nd March 2015
He was pierced for
our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that
brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53: 5
Pray
Transforming
God, turning our sorrow to joy,
doubt to
faith, despair to hope,
and death to
life, put your hand upon us,
and through
this time set apart for you
continue to
make us new.
Turn our
weakness into strength,
our pride
into humility, our anxiety into trust,
and our
faithfulness into obedience.
Take what we
are, and, by your resurrection power,
shape what
we shall be, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Collect for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Most merciful God, who by the death and resurrection of your
Son Jesus Christ delivered and saved the world: grant that by faith in him who
suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory; through Jesus
Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Readings for Today:
Introduction
Jeremiah knew that God would forgive the people and forget
their violations of the old covenant. Jeremiah knew that God loves humankind so
much that he would try again and again to show his love. Jeremiah did not know
exactly when or how God would enact a new covenant, he simply knew with
absolute certainty that God would bring them new hope.
The new covenant established by Jesus is the ultimate and
final covenant between God and human beings.
On God's side of the contract, he promises to love us,
forgive us, and guarantee us the hope of eternal life. On our side of the
covenant, we are expected to put our faith and trust in Jesus. We are called to
affirm our faith that Jesus is the Son of God and that
his life and teaching
and death and resurrection provides ultimate meaning for our lives and
salvation for our souls
Old Testament.
Jeremiah 31: 31 – 34
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be
like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was
their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within
them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each
other, ‘Know the LORD’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to
the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember
their sin no more.
New Testament Reading: Hebrew 5: 5 – 10
So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high
priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,
‘You are my Son,
today I have begotten you’;
as he says also in another place,
‘You are a priest for ever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.’
In the days of his
flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears,
to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his
reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what
he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal
salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Gospel Reading: John
12: 20 – 33
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were
some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said
to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew
and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the
Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat
falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies,
it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate
their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must
follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me,
the Father will honour.
‘Now my soul is
troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for
this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a
voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The
crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder.
Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered,
‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgement of this
world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted
up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate
the kind of death he was to die.
Post
Communion Prayer
Lord Jesus
Christ, that what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters
we do also
for you: give us the will to be the servant of others
as you were
the servant of all, and gave up your life and died for us,
but are
alive and reign, now and for ever. Amen.
THIS
WEEK: TAIZÉ SERVICE
for Passiontide
Wednesday, March 25th 8.00 pm
St. Mary’s Long Crendon
Taizé
worship is simple,
uses a lot of silence, short biblical readings for meditation, short meditative
prayers and prayerful chants that are easy to sing but penetrate deep into the
soul.
A Devotional
Service on Palm Sunday
A Service of Choral Music, Readings and Hymns.
Featuring the music of Byrd, Bach, Mozart and Walford-Davies.
The United Benefice Choir
St. Mary’s Church, Long Crendon, 6pm Sunday 29th
March.
Everyone welcome, retiring collection.
Annual Parochial Church Meetings
Sunday March 29th 11.00am Chearsley
Sunday, April
26th 12.00pm Long
Crendon
Sunday April 26th
6.00pm Nether W
Soul of Christ, sanctify us; Body of Christ, save us; Blood
of Christ, refresh us; Water from the side of Christ, wash us; Passion of
Christ, strengthen us; O good Jesus hear us; Within your arms, hide us; From
the power of darkness defend us. Bid us come to you that with your saints we
may praise you. Amen From the Anima Christi c 1300
O Christ,
the Master Carpenter of Nazareth,
on a cross
through wood and nails
you have
wrought man’s salvation;
wield well
your tools in the workshop of your world,
so that we,
who come to you rough-hewn,
may by you
be fashioned according to your will;
for the sake
of your tender mercy.
“Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be
compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to
go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and
broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire
most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure
for it.” Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Way of the
Heart
A Thought
A pig was lamenting his lack of popularity he complained to
the cow that people always talking about
the cows gentleness and kind eyes where his name was used as an insult. The pig
admitted that the cow milk and cream, but maintained the pics gave more. Why
the animal complained, complain we pigs give bacon and ham and bristles and
people even pickle our feet. I don't see why you cows are esteemed so much
more. The cow thought for a while and said gently ‘maybe it's because we give while
we are still living’.
Friday, 13 March 2015
Posy making
If you are available, please come along to Joy's at 2pm on Saturday to help make posies for Mothering Sunday.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Services this Sunday - 15th March
8.00 am Holy Communion LC (JW)
10.30am Family
Service LC (RC)
10.00am Family
Service CH(JS)
10.00am Family
Service NW(JW)
Pew Sheet - 15th March 2015
As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you. Isaiah 66.13
Pray
O Lord,
bless our household;
grant us
health and peacefulness,
fun and
friendship,
and a warm
and welcoming spirit.
Bless the
working, the relaxing,
the loving
and the sharing
and may the
Spirit of Christ rest on us
now and
always. Amen.
God of compassion, whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary, shared the life of a home in Nazareth, and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself: strengthen us in our daily living that in joy and in sorrow we may know the power of your presence to bind together and to heal; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Readings for Today: Exodus 2: 1 -10
New
Testament Reading
As
God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if
anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord
has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with
love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of
Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed
you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude
in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you
do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God the Father through him.
Gospel Reading
The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was
being said about Jesus. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary,
‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and
to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be
revealed - and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’
Post Communion Prayer
Loving God, as
a mother feeds her children at the breast, you feed us in this sacrament with
the food and drink of eternal life: help us who have tasted your goodness to
grow in grace within the household of faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
TAIZÉ
SERVICE
for Passiontide
Sunday, March 25th 8.00 pm
St. Mary’s Long Crendon
Taizé
worship is simple,
uses a lot of silence, short biblical readings for meditation, short meditative
prayers and prayerful chants that are easy to sing but penetrate deep into the
soul.
A Devotional
Service on
Palm Sunday
A Service of Choral Music, Readings and Hymns.
Featuring the music of Byrd, Bach, Mozart and Walford-Davies.
St. Mary’s Church, Long Crendon, 6pm Sunday 29th
March.
Everyone welcome, retiring collection.
Annual Parochial Church Meetings
Sunday March
29th 11.00am Chearsley
Sunday, April
26th 12.00pm Long Crendon
Sunday April
26th 6.00pm Nether Winchendon
How can you serve your church? By offering yourself for the
Parochial Church Council. Your presence could make all the difference. Leave it
to others or get involved?
Mothering Sunday
The fourth Sunday in Lent is called Mothering Sunday. There
are traditions associated with Mothering Sunday in England which date back as
long ago as the 16th century. It is told that this was the day when people were
encouraged to return to worship in their ‘mother church where they had been
baptised. People who usually attended the local parish church, would make a
longer journey to the ‘mother church’ or cathedral of the Diocese. Girls in
domestic service would bake to show their mothers their new skills in the form
of a gift, traditionally a simnel cake. On this day many girls who were in
service were allowed time off from domestic chores to visit their mothers and
their family.
Today Mothering Sunday is a popular day when Christians
choose to use the occasion to think about all things which concern motherhood.
We give thanks for the Church as Mother, the Virgin Mary as the mother of
Jesus, we remember that God cares for us like a mother and last but not least
we give thanks for our own mothers.
Prayer
God our Father, we ask you to bless all who live
alone, those who have lost their partner in marriage, those who have never
married, those whose families are grown up and away from home and those who
have outlived other members of their families and many of their friends: Be
with them to assure them of your love and of their value to you every moment of
their lives, and enable them to rejoice in the fellowship of your Church on
earth and in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
May God inspire all parents and grandparents, teachers and
carers who nurture our children. May we all by our Christian conduct provide
good examples which may lead them to follow Christ.
For any who have suddenly known fear;
For any suddenly covered with shame;
For any involved in an accident;
For any faced with a serious medical report;
For any in hospital for the first time;
For any so ill that recovery is in doubt;
For any with a disease that baffles the specialists;
For any who have sinned against society,
and are now before the court.
Hold all such needy ones in your love, O Lord.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thank you for the love of our mothers:
thank you God for their care and concern;
thank you God for the joys they have shared with us;
thank you God for the pains they have borne for us;
thank you God for all that they give us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Thought
In the fourteenth century Julian of Norwich, the first woman
to write in modern English, experienced and understood the motherhood of God in
her visions. Mothering Sunday is a good day to share her vision and recognise
that although we are distinguished by our gender, God is not. Instead God is
both mother and father to us. ‘As truly as God is Father, so just as truly is
she our mother.’ Julian of Norwich.
It is
important for parents to live the same things they teach.
Anyone who
sleeps like a baby hasn't got one.
In loco
parentis = Latin for ‘children drive their parents crazy’.
Parenthood
has two stages: when your children ask all the questions, and when they know
all the answers.
Exasperated
father: ‘When Winston Churchill was your age he worked hard all day and studied
his books at night’
Teenage son:
‘Yes, and when he was your age he was Prime Minister’.
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
Services this Sunday - 8th March
8.00 am Holy Communion LC (AB)
10.30am Sung
Eucharist LC (AB)
10.00am Matins NW (RSB)
10.00am Morning
Celebration CH (Lay)
6.00pm Evensong CH (JS)
Pew Sheet - 8th March 2015
On the holy
cross I see
Jesus’hands
nailed fast for me.
On the holy
cross I see.
Jesus’ feet
nailed fast for me.
Loving Jesus
let me be
Still and
quiet, close to thee,
Learning all
thy love for me
Giving all
my love to thee.
Collect for the Third Sunday of Lent
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but
first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none
other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now
and for ever. Amen
Readings for Today:
Old Testament.
Exodus 20: 1- 17
New Testament Reading: 1 Corinthians 1. 18 - 25
For the message about
the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment
of the discerning I will thwart.’
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For
since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God
decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who
believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ
crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those
who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s
weakness is stronger than human strength.
Introduction
The actions of Jesus in the story from John today are harsh
and aggressive. Jesus goes to the temple and makes it plain that he is angry.
When we remember just how important the temple was, we can understand that
people would not be happy when he used language about raising it to the ground.
Why was Jesus so angry ?
Why was he so motivated that he made a whip and used it to drive people
and their animals out of the temple? The event can only be understood against
the background of the understanding Jesus had about who he was and what he was
about to do. Jesus sees Judaism with its Passovers and sacrifices to be at an
end. Even the temple itself was of no more value. Instead it was his death
which would end all deaths, his body which would represent the visible
representation of God being with his people. There would be no more need of the
religious trappings, that was the old order and now a new order had come.
Make no mistake, Jesus did not have this zeal because he was
on a mission to stop corruption, he has a much bigger target than that. Jesus
is not involved in a clean up exercise, he wants nothing less than an end to
the Jewish religion itself.
The gospel reading today challenges us to look afresh at our
institutions and our personal lives. Perhaps we are being challenged to cleanse
what is stale and corrupt? What abuses have crept into the way we govern our
society, workplaces and lives? It is no good excusing ourselves simply because
things have become accepted as the norm. We too must be prepared to challenge
the status quo with the demands of the Kingdom.
When Jesus attacked the abuses which had grown up in the
Temple he was prepared to face unpopularity and the dangers of confronting the
powerful. He was willing to be disliked and misunderstood, in order to bring
about change. Are we as Christians prepared to be as courageous
Gospel Reading : John
2: 13 – 22
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and
the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all
of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out
the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who
were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s
house a market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for
your house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show
us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under
construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But
he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture
and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Post Communion Prayer
Merciful Lord, grant your people grace to withstand the
temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil, and with pure hearts and
minds to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Historians will note that the Jews said to Jesus "This
temple has been under construction for forty-six years" (v. 20).
Construction began under Herod the Great in 20 or 19 B.C., which means that
Jesus' cleansing of the temple takes place in 27 or 28 A.D. The majority of the
work on the temple has been completed by this time, but refinements will
continue until 63 A.D., only seven years before the Romans will destroy the
temple. Incidentally, John mentions three distinct Passovers in his Gospel,
which leads us to believe that the ministry of Jesus lasted three years. (
2:13, 6:4, 11:55).
A Devotional Service on Palm Sunday
A Service of Choral Music, Readings and Hymns.
Featuring the music of Byrd, Bach, Mozart and
Walford-Davies.
St. Mary’s Church, Long Crendon, 6pm Sunday 29th March.
Everyone welcome, retiring collection.
Annual Parochial Church Meetings
Sunday March
29th 11.00am Chearsley
Sunday April
26th 2.00pm Long Crendon
Sunday April
26th 6.00pm Nather Winchendon
"Christianity is no easy thing. Being moral or ethical
doesn't merely mean being good in the area of sexual morality. We are also
called to be just, and that is much harder. We are called to honour everyone
and to use no one. That is much harder" by the Rev. Anthony F.M. Clavier
Jesus did not come into the world to rub it in but to rub it
out
Jesus hung up for our hang-ups.
This church is for sinners only
Holy Father, keep us in your truth
Holy Son, protect us under your cross
Holy Spirit, make us temples and dwelling places for your
glory.
Grant us your peace all the days of our lives, Lord. Amen.
Maronite Church
‘Jesus Christ came to pay a debt he did not owe,
because we
owed a debt we could not pay’.
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