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Sunday 29 March 2015

Footsteps

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


Thursday 26 March 2015

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.

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

TaizĂ© 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) 
12.15pm               Holy Baptism        LC(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.

Collect for Mothering Sunday

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: Colossians 3: 12- 17
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: Luke 2: 33- 35
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

TaizĂ© 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 for whom this has been a hard day;
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).



Thanks be that we are never fully grown. Each day, each month, each year gives time to be regenerated. God of creation and recreation, you planted in us the seeds of life and growth and challenged us to effort and to energy that they might grow in us. Enabling God, by your continuing challenge may we still grow in vision and in use of our gifts by your love and goodness enrich and deepen our commitment. By your gifts to those around us and the insights that we share, may we be instruments of your blessing to one another. Amen 


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’.