Relating to Those of Other Faiths

The visiting speaker at our service this morning was the Rev Tom Wilson of St Philip’s Centre, who spoke of the importance of respecting and getting to know those of other faiths, while holding onto and cherishing our own trust in Christ.

Mothering Sunday

Today was not only the day that the clocks went back (no one actually arrived late!), nor the 4^th Sunday in Lent, but it was also, and probably the best known, Mothering Sunday. During this morning’s service, the children were invited to take small flower plants (mainly pansies) to their mothers. Then they were invited to take them to all the ladies in church. Finally, people were also invited to take plants back to their mothers if they were not in church.

Whether or not our mothers are still alive, for most people there is a wonderful tender memory of them. However, this is not always so and the prayers included prayers for those who find Mothering Sunday difficult.

Hopefully, the meal that people went back to after church will have been prepared by someone other than the mother and the family.

 

Another feature of the service was that when we came to the Lord ’s Prayer, it was prayed by six different people in their own languages, before we said it together in English. It’s wonderful to be part of the worldwide church and see that reflected in a number of our congregation.

'Paper' Discipleship

Principal Services – April to June

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter! As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, his conquering of death and hell, we join with Christians the world over proclaiming Alleluia, Christ is Risen, He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!
 

The theme of Discipleship continues each month as we move into the summer months and share a sermon series across the parish based on St Paul’s letter to the Christians living at Philippi, ‘A life worth living.’

Every Blessing,
 

Steve.

 

Programme details

Litter Picking

Jesus gave us a new command: that we show our love to one another. In the latest of our series of sermons on discipleship, this week, we considered serving our community.

In practical application of this, after the service a group of worshippers went out into the local streets and the Green to pick up litter. It was amazing how much was found – and what the litter items were.

We have done this before and, sadly, will probably need to do it again. But for now, enjoy the clean streets!

A Lunch for Lent – and for Christian Aid

During Lent the Churches Together in Oadby organise lunches on Saturdays. Each church in turn lays on a simple meal of soup, rolls, cheese and tea or coffee for a suggested minimum donation of £3. It is a good time to get to know Christians from other churches a nd provides funds for Christian Aid as they seek to help in parts of the world where this modest lunch might seem a feast.

This Saturday the Lent lunch was at the United Reformed Church. Next time, it is at the Baptist Church, followed by the Catholic Church and then St Paul’s. Do come and join us.

The Body of Christ

Last Sunday at all All Age service we thought about the part we all have to play in the Body of Christ. No matter who we are there is something for all of us to contribute. We value our differences and need each other.

The Right to Believe

The charity on which we are focusing our thoughts and prayers this month is Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). We take for granted our freedom to worship, or not, as we like. This is not true in many parts of the world, where believers may not be allowed to congregate to worship, may be deprived of civil rights and may even be imprisoned or killed. CSW seeks to oppose this. As the website says: "CSW's team of specialist advocates work on over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, to ensure that the right to freedom of religion or belief is upheld and protected.

Our vision is a world free from religious persecution, where everyone can practise a religion or belief of their choice. The right to freedom of religion or belief is also known as the ‘first freedom’ given to humanity by God. It’s a touchstone human right, often serving as a ‘litmus test’ for whether other rights are at risk of being abused.

It's a right we must protect, defend and restore. CSW seeks to challenge and change the laws, behaviours and policies which lead to abuses of the right to freedom of religion and belief. We have over three decades of experience advocating for freedom of religion or belief around the world."

May we be grateful for our privileges, pray for those where it is very different,. And support CSW as it seeks to uphold their rights.

Plastic

For those who watched Blue Planet 2 you will not have failed to notice the presence of plastic in the oceans. The documentary makers never set out to highlight this issue but over the course of all their filming and the subsequent programmes it became obvious that waste plastic presents a huge problem to the environment today. I didn’t see Blue Planet but have recently read Lucy Siegle’s book Turning the Tide Against Plastic: How Humanity (And You) Can Make Our Globe Clean Again.

The first part of this excellent book details how plastic has become part of our everyday life in ever increasing measure. The author shares her own wake up call to the rise of plastic in society and the damage that plastic is causing to the planet that God has entrusted to us to steward. Most shocking of all is the ocean gyres, most noticeably the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which covers 600,000 square miles, it dwarfs France, is bigger than Texas, weighs in at 79,000 tonnes and contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of rubbish, 99.9 per cent of which is plastic.

Siegle suggests how we might keep track of the plastic we use and measures we can put in place to reduce our plastic footprint. She suggests the 8 R’s as follows, record, reduce, replace, refuse, reuse, refill, rethink and recycle. There are lots of very practical hints and tips here that we can all action so that we are doing our bit. I was struck by how little plastic is actually possible to recycle and often gets filtered out in the process. We think we are sending our used plastic to recycle so that is okay but it is far better not to use it in the first place.

Change is starting to happen; single use plastic straws have quickly disappeared from many places following recent campaigning. Hopefully the tide is beginning to turn. But it needs all of us to become aware of how much plastic has taken over our lives and to take all the actions we can to cut out its use from our lives. I encourage you to read this book but more importantly I encourage you to take action in the many ways it suggests. Or you could find the Church of England’s Lent Plastic Challenge and use that this Lent. As we approach Easter many of the eggs we buy contain a huge amount of single use plastic packaging. This year there is even more reason to buy The Real Easter Egg from the Meaningful Chocolate Company. Not only is the Chocolate Fairtrade and the egg include a booklet explaining the real Easter story but there is also no plastic packaging! Together our small actions can make a big difference; together we can turn the tide.