Last Sunday we held a Family Service led by our minister, the Rev’d Mark Lawrence and what a joy it was to see the church nicely filled and with children, young and older, sharing in such a blessed time. Mark was welcome by our chief steward, Bunty Hodgkins, and it was clear from the applause that the church was glad to welcome Mark back amongst us again. After his call to worship we sang the great traditional hymn “Praise my soul the King of heaven; to his feet they tribute bring”. Neil and Jill Barnett provided the music on organ and keyboard.
Mark led our prayers of praise and adoration before the Ashley Puppets led our worship with a lively song as the children’s puppets enacted a jungle scene dressed in animal costumes and offering us a meaningful message.. In our prayers for others, Mark enlarged on the whole raft of organisations within the Christian church who help the needy and deprived before we prayed for them. There was also time for us to offer payers for those known to us who are in need.
Neil Barnett read our mornings lesson from the bible taken from Matthew, chapter 13. This is the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast. Jesus used parables to speak to the crowd with his message and afterwards he explains what the parables mean.
Mark spoke on the first line of the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” He spoke about the importance of a name in particular the name given to Mary of her first born, Jesus. The name Father signifies kindness, warmth and affection and if we give our hearts to Jesus he shows his love for us. As the world gets darker Jesus shines more brightly.
We shared in the elements of bread and wine as we celebrated Holy Communion, our minister being assisted by Jill Harrison. “To God be the glory, great things he has done!” was our closing hymn to conclude a memorable act of worship enjoyed by us all.