Anticipation!
Summer! Empowered!
Well five months of the year have gone and we are still waiting for summer to
really begin. The promise of it is there with the occasional
warm sunny day and all the new growth together with the longer days, but
we are still
awaiting something better.
I wonder if this is how the apostles felt after Jesus death and resurrection.
The promise of something else was there but the reality seemed unbelievable
or unachievable. Then the Ascension of Jesus happened followed by the
day of Pentecost where they were all filled with the power that Jesus
had promised them.
The Feast of the Ascension took place on Thursday 13th May. I joined a group
of fellow Christians on Bidston Hill at 6.45 in the morning for
a communion service led by Bishop Keith. What a wonderful celebration
it
was. This
service has taken place for quite a few years and will next year
too. Put it in your diaries. We had a service for Ascension Day
at 8.00pm to
which few people came. This day was followed ten days later by
The Feast of Pentecost on the 23rd June. Pentecost was the outpouring
of the Holy
Spirit which was promised by Jesus to his disciples through which
they were empowered to continue to spread the Good News about
Jesus to this
day.
As the saying goes: – “Good things come to those who wait”. We
are God’s chosen people today commissioned by Jesus to continue to spread
the Gospel though our own actions and deeds. To this end we will have
our confirmation service later this month.
Confirmation 2010
Bishop Keith Sinclair, The Bishop of Birkenhead will be with
us for our Combined
Parish Communion and Confirmation Service on Sunday 13th June at 10.00am. There is a small group who have been meeting with
Carol Vague and me preparing for this very special day. We will also
be celebrating our Patronal Festival where we remember St Stephen (1st
Christian Martyr) and St Alban (1st British Martyr) on this day. The
service will be followed by a ‘Bring & Share’
meal in the Parish Hall. Please do come along and join in our celebrations.
Alpha 2010
Our next Alpha Course will begin in September this year. For
more information about this, please contact me. Final dates and times
will be published in the next magazine.
Building Project
As I said above, “Good things come to those who wait”! This is
how I feel about our building project. We should have reached the completion
of our new entrance to church but due to unforeseen circumstances with
obtaining the correct stone and a few other issues, this has been delayed
BUT we have been assured that the work will be completed by the end
of June. I do ask for your patience while this work is being done.
Final Word
As a community of Christians, we are called to proclaim the message
of Jesus through every avenue available to us, and to show people that
Jesus is as relevant to us today as he was 2000 years ago. My continued
prayer for us all is that we would put aside our own preferences and
together seek to be a blessing to those that we worship and live with
as well as those who are seeking to find a purpose for life that I believe
only Jesus can provide.
St Paul encouraged those in Ephesus with these words, and I use them today for
us all as a community here:-
“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven
and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that
you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with
all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is
the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that
you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him
who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according
to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
(Ephesians 3.14-21)
With love in Jesus
Wayne
