This Week and Beyond at St Michael's

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Stay alert, save lives and protect the NHS - Hands, face, space!
The Vicar and the PCC (Parish Church Council) have decided not to open the building until the autumn and then only in a very cautious way. We are currently working through the actions on our Parish Risk Assessment.  
 

AUGUST 2020

  • Inclusive Church: we are now formally affiliated to the Inclusive Church Network - if you scroll to the bottom of this page you will find the logo - click on this and it will take you to a new website providing more details about this.
  • We have a resource for praying for the Departed which can be downloaded by clicking here.
  • We now have a section on how to donate to St Michael's. Use the Info tab above and you will find the entry on Stewardship and a big thank you to all those who support what we do. This has enabled us to carry on developing new ways of supporting and serving one another and our wider community during the lockdown.

 

Sunday 9th August  Trinity 9

  • 10 am Zoom Live Eucharist for the Trinity Season request an order of service via email if you would like one and are not already on our pastoral network. Our numbers have gone up once again this week.

 

Prayer for this week:

Gracious Father, revive your Church in our day, and make her holy, strong and faithful, for your glory’s sake in Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

No public Morning Prayer this week

Because we have rising numbers of cases of Covid-19 in our area we are not meeting up this week. 

 

Saints and Festivals for this Week:
  • Monday 10th Laurence, Deacon, martyr at Rome, 258 a very famous saint in his home city, as a Deacon he had a special care for the poor. When asked to produce the treasures of the Church he presented the civil authorities with a crowd of poor people. He was put to death by roasting on a grid iron. Pray for all deacons and those who work in diaconate centres today. Pray for all who work to eradicate poverty in our own day.
  • Tuesday 11th Clare of Assisi, founder of the Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253 joined the new movement begun by St Francis of Assisi and developed the contemplative prayer part of the Franciscan vision. We pray for all members of the Second Order especially our friends at the Convent in Freeland.
  • Thursday 13th Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Connor and Down, 1667 was not just another bishop but a writer of pastoral books for use by Anglican lay people. His most famous books are Holy Living and Holy Dying - one of the most intense outbreaks of the Plague occurred in his lifetime. We pray for all pastors today and for ourselves as we live through an historic pandemic. May we grow in holiness.
  • Also on Thursday we remember these three impressive women. Florence Nightingale who died in 1910 whose dedication and courage has saved many lives - not just in her own day but continues today. Let us also remember her lesser known colleague Mary Seacole who also worked alongside Florence Nightingale in establishing high standards of nursing care. And also today we remember Octavia Hill, social reformer, 1912 who used her comfortable social position to improve the lives of others, especially those crammed into cities without easy access to green spaces and who also helped found the National Trust to preserve our historic legacy for all to enjoy. Give thanks for the many women who, inspired by their Christian faith, worked to improve lives regardless of the discrimination and opposition they faced. Pray today for the work of women in public office, local government and many charitable agencies upholding high standards and working to improve the poor social conditions many live in today.
  • Friday 14th Maximilian Kolbe, 1941 a Polish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar who volunteered to die instead of a stranger in the death camp of Auschwitz. He is one of the ten modern martyrs commemorated on the West end of Westminster Abbey. His prayerful humility and his self sacrifice did not only help the 9 others who were condemned to die with him, it sent a wave of hope through the inmates of the camp. "Forget not love" has become his motto. Let us pray for all those who are risking their own lives to save others and all who are standing up against oppression and discrimination and have not forgotten the primary call to love.
  • Saturday 15th The Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary - most commonly known as the Feast of the Assumption. Today we remember the saint who most inspired Maximilian Kolbe and many other Christian saints. We know that Mary had a place of honour amongst the earliest followers of Jesus and according to legend she lived in the home of John, the beloved disciple after the Crucifixion in Ephesus. It was here her cult took root and spread across the Roman world. Let us give thanks for her example of following God's will rather than her own and discipleship. She had a unique role to play in our salvation history and she rose to the challenge - her song, known as the Magnificat, should be sung today with joy and a sense of dedicating ourselves once more to God's purposes in the world. "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you,"

 

Next Week 23rd August Trinity 10
  • Zoom live at 10 am Trinity Season Eucharist 
  • The order of service will be sent out to those on our pastoral email network. If you would like to be included please use the Contact tab above to contact us. NB we blind copy recipients in our messages so we protect your privacy.