St Mary's Episcopal Church

Palm Sunday

wonderfulexchange — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:23:03 +0000

after the service, candles out...

We had a double start to Palm Sunday: first in the hall, for those who wanted to walk around the neighbourhood; then in the church, for those who preferred a less strenuous start. We came back together to sing hosanna,and turned our thoughts to the cross.

Palm Sunday asks us to engage very publicly with the contradictions of our faith. At first we are eager to follow Christ and give him everything. But then, we get a glimpse of what that really means, and run the other way: yielding to the pressure of the crowd, giving in to our fear, betraying love, friendship and all our best dreams and visions.

So today, as we moved from ‘Hosanna’ to ‘Crucify’ we thought about how we all have a hand in the cross — how we are complicit in the cycles of violence that led to Jesus’ death. We traced round our hands, and the children cut out hand prints. We placed them at the altar, and committed ourselves again to walk with Jesus through death and into life.

preparing the way: paper for palms

Pancake Day

wonderfulexchange — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:58:37 +0000

Pancake Day means celbration time at the rectory. At first we wondered if anyone would come. Mountains of lemons, vats of batter, and just the chef and rector… Then after a while, the doorbell rang. One person. Four. Then everyone all at once, till we could hardly keep up with the pancakes.

No chance for photos then, so these come from afterwards: pancakes done and most people gone. Just a few of us lingering, talking, napping, reading. It was a good night. Thanks to everyone who took part — most especially our best dressed and most encouraging chef.

O Root of Jesse

wonderfulexchange — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:09:50 +0000

O root of Jesse, you stand as an ensign for the peoples:
kings shall fall silent before you and the nations shall seek you.
Come and deliver us; Delay no more.

O Adonai

wonderfulexchange — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:55:38 +0000

O Adonai, Ruler of the house of Israel,
you appeared to Moses in a flame of fire,
and gave him the law on Sinai:
come and deliver us with an outstretched arm.

O Sapientia

wonderfulexchange — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:00:47 +0000

O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High,
filling all the world and ordering all things
with your strength and gentleness:
Come and teach us the way of truth.

All Saint’s Lunch

wonderfulexchange — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:30:14 +0000

Thanks to everyone who helped make the All Saint’s lunch such a success.

… and for humouring the rector by joining in the Pumpkin Carving.

School Harvest

wonderfulexchange — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:04:20 +0000

This year, Primary 2 & 3 helped to prepare the school’s Harvest Service by writing poems and drawing pictures. It was the squirrel’s harvest, mainly, and we spared a thought for the birds too.

Cherries

tree tops filled with berries
but the squirrel wants cherries
but wait! here he comes
give him cherries
yum, yum!

Little Squirrel

Little squirrel, little squirrel
sitting in a tree.
He sees a nut. What do I see?
Twirly squirrel, grabs it
munch munch munch.
It tastes so lovely,
he eats it all up.

Surprised by Angels

wonderfulexchange — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:29:03 +0000

Hugh Grant shares his experience of our Celebration of Angels:

I went to church on 26 September – the Sunday before Michaelmas Day, which apparently has a lot to do with angels. As a fallen Presbyterian myself, I’m not so sure about these saints days. It seems that Michael is an archangel, a kind of higher level angel, in fact he’s the top archangel. With his day coming up the following week, St Mary’s had a day of celebrating angels in the hall on the Saturday. Crafts I thought. The children making models of angels, that sort of thing.

I’d heard the service was going to be an “all age” service about angels and was kind of expecting it would be really a children’s service and maybe not what I needed that day.

Well, I was surprised. The hymns were all related to angels, some of them familiar hymns but I’d just never picked up on the angelic references. The sermon was given by Rosemary Hannah, a church historian, whom Kimberley had invited because she knows a lot about angels (and dragons too, but that’s another story.) The sermon was good – about the infinite greatness of God but communicated through a story based on one of the readings, about Isaiah seeing the Lord and finding that just the hem of his robe filled the whole temple – and maybe not only the temple. This was intriguing stuff. And quite a lot on angels, about which I wasn’t so familiar. Nerys’ intercessions reminded us about the angels we’ve encountered at various stages of our life, which was pretty thought provoking. It seems maybe I do know some angels after all.

Then to coffee. The hall was transformed! It had been set up for the angels day on Saturday and indeed did have craft tables, but much more besides. A storytelling tent, no less, where apparently visitors to the angels day were treated to gripping stories about angels. Lots of displays too including one with cards each of which told the story of an angel. The one that caught my eye was about the driver who fell asleep at the wheel, woke a few seconds later to find an angel beside him holding the wheel. Didn’t hang around, just went on his way. All in a day’s work for angels. Made me think of some angels I’ve encountered in life, just never recognised at the time.

Something else I read seemed to give cherubim a bit of a hard time. Funny, you’d think cherubim should be cherubic. But they are guardians of sanctuaries, apparently, so maybe as long as you are not intruding into the sanctuary they are OK – but don’t test them, they might turn nasty …. And seraphim? Well they seem to be custodians of divine principles – a bit like government whips? Or big brother maybe (the one who is watching you, not the TV lot). Take care ….

Up on the stage, curtained off, was the quiet area. I went behind to take a look, found some children enjoying a quiet time up there, one of whom took me in confidence to one of the rooms with cushions and restful slides projected on the walls and told me confidentially, “this is the prayer room”. Wow.

Impressive. A lot of work put in by lots of people to make that transformation. Just for one day, unfortunately – the hall had to be changed back again to its everyday self because of the number of other groups who use the hall during the week. So it couldn’t stay up till Michaelmas Day itself, 29 September. But hopefully some of the material will be around for a bit longer. I’d love to read some more of the displays ….

Hugh Grant

A Celebration of Angels

wonderfulexchange — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:26:09 +0000

For Michaelmas, we gathered in the church hall for crafts, prayer stations, story telling, and tea. Days like this are always a risk: a small group of people do a huge amount of work, and then sit back and wonder, ‘will anyone come??’.

We needn’t have worried. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and to meet new friends — not least, Rosemary Hannah, who enchanted us with angels and dragons and the vast wonder of God.

Summer Fair

wonderfulexchange — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:32:57 +0000

The Summer Fair was blessed with good weather, much creativity and hard work, and lots of people who were willing to linger in the sun.

To read John Hamilton’s full report, see below.

This year we set out to do something different. So it was, out with some of the old favourites and in with some new attractions. Other stalls were presented differently. For children’s games, prizes were collected from a central Wishing Well. This meant that not long after the Fair started there was a steady stream of winners diving in to claim their prizes. For the organisers, the day turned out to be as good as or better than the vision.

Before the day Jonathon Hanlon helped with publicity.

The people who attended “voted” for the charity by placing their bean in one of three bottles. After the bean counters had done their job the chosen charity was

Strathcarron Hospice with 69 beans. The runners up were CHAS with 61? beans and the Systema project with 21? beans

Starting at the main hall there was food and drink. Traidcraft and the Baking stalls were the first stalls you met. Overlooking them was the Cafe which was busy all afternoon. The Tombola and Teddy were next to catch your eye. The craft stall had a wide range of goods available. The committee room had books, toys cupcakes and beading – something for everyone who entered. Before entering the world of pirates and assault courses there was yet another food stall in the form of the ice cream cart.

Nerys marshalled a hard working group of teenagers from Frequency who ran many of the children’s stalls, alongside Sue and Rodger, Sandy and David. Again there was something for everyone – beat the goalie, fold and fly your own aeroplane, Lucky Dip, find the sweetie, pirate game, hoopla, and an obstacle course.

And there was more – time and resources on the day meant that a few new ideas will have to wait until next year.

Behind the scenes Colin Storrar stepped in to act of banker for the day. After help with counting from Matt the total sum raised was £1061. The day finished with a leisurely meal of green salad, macaroni cheese and shepherd’s pie.