Sunday 23 June 2013
Fourth Sunday after Trinity, Music Sunday
10.30 am Family Eucharist
10.30 am Sunday Club for children 5-12
4 pm Fellowship Meeting in the church
7Past7 midweek 15-minute reflective service, every Wednesday at 7.07 pm
Music, theatre and civic concerns, it’s all there on the Forthcoming events page.
I just learned of a new website launched by Chelmsford Diocese, called Our Offering
If you’re trying to attract volunteers or raise funds for a project, you can now publicise this by starting your own project.
If you want to volunteer for something you can browse the projects to see if there’s anything for you.
It’s quite easy to use; I’ve just put Wivenhoe Helping Hands on it- and was given a very speedy helping hand in the process!
Todays readings and sermon from St Mary’s are now on line- player on the right.
I don’t know who thought of calling the time in the liturgical calendar between significant festivals Ordinary Time; perhaps it’s meant to indicate the ‘low point’ between the Extra-Ordinary Times of Advent, Christmas, Easter and Penticost.
Whatever the explanation, we’re now in it and it will last about six months, of which the 24 Sundays in Trinity are the larger part.
Trinity Sunday’s sermon is on line- see the player on the right- despite Richard Hooker’s well-meant admonition to keep silent on the subject lest we fall into heresy. Well, it’s easily done, isn’t it:
Today’s sermon at St Mary’s, given by the University Chaplain Rev Julia Murphy, is now on line. Click on today’s date in the player to the right to hear it.
The weekend papers all had something about making a ‘Happy List’.
Writing about what you value before a task, they reported, reduces stress levels and improves problem solving ability. This was based on the findings of a research team at Carnegie Mellon University -who didn’t call it a ‘Happy List’ but referred to the writing exercise as a self-affirmation activity, a psychological theory first put forward in the late 1980s.
“People under high stress can foster better problem-solving simply by taking a moment beforehand to think about something that is important to them,” said David Creswell, assistant professor of psychology in CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “It’s an easy-to-use and portable strategy you can roll out before you enter that high pressure performance situation.”
For anyone who has trouble writing essays, or even thinking of something they value -for there are times when even that can be hard- I can recommend a couple of other easy-to-use and portable strategies to help cope with stressful situations.
There’s the Pray as You Go app for mobile phones. It is not a ‘Thought for the Day’, a sermon or a bible-study, but rather a framework for your own prayer.
Lasting between ten and thirteen minutes, it combines music, scripture and some questions for reflection.
One aim is to help you to become more aware of God’s presence in your life and this is the beauty of it: instead of engaging in a self-affirmation activity and trying to pull yourself up by your own boot straps you’ll discover that the Happy List has been written for you already, and that you are already affirmed as a desirable person, thought worthy of inexhaustible love by God.
“With my God I can leap over a wall” exclaims King David in Psalm 18:29.
In exuberant language, David ascribes his victory in battle to God. Read it to see how comfortably it fits the situation of anyone trying to overcome psychological obstacles.
Another very portable resource in printed pocket size format.
Or plug your ears into an MP3 of Händel’s emotionally stirring, beautiful soprano aria in The Messiah, taken from Matthew’s gospel 11:28-29. It’s an invitation to all who are burdened to find rest for their souls in Jesus. Listen to it now.
Confirmation bias? Me? Absolutely!
“Mrs Jones said to the vicar…”
It wasn’t a bad one though, as you can hear by clicking on the sermon for 28 April, in the player on the right.
And yes, we sang that hymn but no, it isn’t St Mary’s organ and choir; the rector switched on his lapel mike just before the end of the singing and kind of upset the balance of sound so to speak….
So this one is borrowed from St Paul’s cathedral- nothing but the best would have done!
