DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:
SEE NOTICES
Wold Women of Influence
Six new stories added to Market Rasen's award winning heritage tour and website, focusing on “Wolds Women of Influence”
Six new stories added to Market Rasen's award winning heritage tour and website, focusing on “Wolds Women of Influence”
Gracious God, we give thanks for the life of your servant Queen Elizabeth, for her faith and her dedication to duty
Bless our nation as we mourn her death, and may her example continue to inspire us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
For general enquiries, please contact the Rural Dean,
the Revd Marian Toyne: marian.toyne63@gmail.com
For specific parish enquiries, see the contact details on www.achurchnearyou.com
Getting married? Marrying in church is personal, meaningful and spiritual just as you want it to be. Churches are special and unique places to get married in - the prayers, promises and the whole service of celebration become part of your marriage, on the day itself and beyond.
'The Season of Creation'
The Season of Creation is an annual Christian celebration of listening and responding together. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common call, as custodians of the planet, to care for it and all the creatures that share it with us. We are part of all that God has made and our wellbeing is dependent on the wellbeing of the Earth. We should therefore take this opportunity to safeguard our common home by uniting in prayer to protect our planet and its environment. The Season of Creation began on 1st September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on 4th October, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology, and this year the theme is, “Listen to the Voice of Creation.”
But how should we listen? Some people, usually those with power, may use platforms such as the media or political discourse to voice their opinions but, they may not have the capacity to mute themselves. However, even more people do not even have access to any such platforms, and their voices are never heard. Many voices are muted regarding climate change and the ethics of protecting and nurturing the Earth, and these are the voices of those who suffer the impacts of climate change. These are the voices of those who hold generational wisdom about how to live gratefully within the limits of the land.
Psalm 19 tells us that, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of the world.”
So, during this Season of Creation, let our common prayer and action help us listen for the voices of those who are silenced. In prayer, let us lament the individuals, communities, species and ecosystems which are lost, and those whose livelihoods are threatened by habitat loss and climate change. May this 2022 Season of Creation renew our Christian unity, by our bond of peace in one Spirit, and our call to care for our common home. May our prayers and actions be a time to Listen to the Voice of Creation, so that our lives in words and deeds proclaim good news for all the Earth.
A Prayer for this Week
O God of the whole of creation.Hear our prayer
The Walesby Group, set into the north western edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, consists of 10 parishes, 10 worshipping communities and 11 church buildings. With a population of around 2100 we are a benefice of very small communities, living in the vast open spaces of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. As worshipping communities we aim to grow ourselves in our faith and discipleship, support and engage with our local communities and bring new people to Christ.
We are blessed with beautiful buildings and faithful commitment from our congregations. As the group continues to integrate together, we are being enabled to offer a variety of worship and outreach styles. Lay ministry and leadership is key to all we offer, and encouraged as we endeavour to open the Kingdom and its values to all.
The Christian faith is focused on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We also believe his death achieved something very special: the opportunity to reconnect with the God that we might believe in but might sometimes feel remote from.
We believe that Jesus was not just a human being but, in some way that we cannot fully understand, God as well. We believe in God the Father, the creator of the entire universe, and the Holy Spirit, who is the way we can experience Jesus today. Not three gods but one, who together are described as the ‘Trinity’ – a description not so much of philosophy but of the relationship at the heart of God.
In the most famous Christian prayer we pray ‘Our Father…’ This creator God wants a relationship with us, for us to be his children and to give us, as Jesus says, ‘life in all its fulness’ (John 10.10).
