Church - Family Worship
Date and Time :
3rd April 2011
-
11:00am
- 12:15pm
What’s happening in Church today?
Content of Worship
The Rev Jack Holt, parish minister, will conduct the service.
Norman Taylor will read the Bible passages.
Susan Zappert will provide our musical accompaniment.
It is the Fourth Sunday of Lent. The theme is: Now I See! The reading is John 9: 1-17 and 30-41. As it is the first Sunday of the month the service includes the Sacrament of Communion. To mark his final time celebrating the Sacrament as our minister Jack wishes to serve the bread to everyone personally. The service is an audio-visual presentation throughout with hymns, readings, responses all appearing on the screen.
What’s happening in Church this week?
The Ladies’ Fitness Class
This takes place on Monday evenings at a new time of 7.30pm and lasts an hour, which the organisers hope might make it feasible for new members to join the group.
Lent Lectures
On Wednesday at 7.30pm in the Meeting Room, Jack will conclude a series of talks about the Passion of Jesus as told in Matthew’s Gospel.
Lent Table Talk
The fourth of the Lenten lunches takes place on Thursday in the Meeting Room at 12.30pm with COMMUNITY as the topic of conversation around the table, and the short act of closing worship. Everyone is asked to bring their own packed lunch but tea and coffee will be provided.
Next Sunday
Next Sunday the service at 11am will be conducted by the minister. It will be the Fifth Sunday of Lent. The theme will be: Raising the Dead.
Intimation
Sing and See
To give the joyous celebration of Palm Sunday a resounding climax, Jack and Susan invite everyone to an evening of praise on Sunday 17 April at 7.30pm in the Church. The gathered congregation will be invited to choose what we sing from Mission Praise be that an old hymn or a new chorus. The theme of music will be carried into a short (10min) reflective film before we share in refreshments and take our leave.
With lighter nights and Dancing on Ice finished it is hoped that on the eve of Holy Week the congregation will welcome this opportunity to celebrate the faith we share together in Jesus Christ.
Fireside reflections
The LORD be with you…And also with you. Jack writes: Good morning! Last Sunday I said farewell to the congregation of Mid Deeside and this week received notice from Presbytery that the business of my translation to Polwarth will be taken up at the Induction of the new minister for Aboyne-Dinnet linked with Cromar on Thursday, 14 April. Polwarth has also been in touch as they start to think about the forthcoming Induction. And so as we enter the month of April the sense of transition builds.
As I write this page during the week before I cannot say how the final concert I organised for last Friday went in terms of attendance and money raised for the church. But I can say I will have enjoyed entertaining. One of the pleasures of ministering in this parish has been using my natural abilities and interests in a way that I NEVER did all the time I was in Kilmarnock. Having 10 happy years in the Deeside Musical Society where I was fully accepted as Jack rather than tolerated as the Rev Holt. Not being asked by many groups to be a speaker (I don’t think in 16 years I ever addressed a branch of the Women’s Guild!), but asked by many groups to entertain has given me great joy. Being able to share my love of movies, musical theatre and music because they are an integral part of who I am has been such a liberating thing and part of the healing I needed when I came here.
Today is the Fourth Sunday in Lent, but across history and Christian tradition it is known by many other names. It is known as Refreshment Sunday. In historical times when the austerity of Lent was practised the mid-point came on the Thursday of the third week and so, as a reward and help to continue keeping Lent for the full forty days, the fourth Sunday was relaxed and a different note was sounded; the vestment colours changed from purple to rose, the colour for hope and joy, and simnel cakes – rich fruit cakes made with fine flour were eaten.
For this reason it was also called Rose Sunday. In the Middle Ages it became the custom of popes to have created an ornament shaped as a golden rose which was blessed and sent to the Catholic kings and queens across Europe, a tradition that continues to this day but in a very different form. In history Henry VIII received 3 Golden Roses from three different popes.
It is also called Laetare Sunday. ‘laetare’ is the Latin word for ‘rejoice’. On this Sunday the introit to the Roman Catholic mass was taken from Isaiah 66:10-11 which begins with the word: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.â€
In the infancy of Christianity Jerusalem was the Mother Church and as the epistles of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles make clear, the Gentile churches across Asia and Europe recognised their debt by sending gifts to the original church when its members faced hardship.
The imagery associated with Jerusalem in these verses is distinctly feminine, in fact, maternal. From the Middle Ages onwards when the adoration of the Virgin Mary grew in popularity it was only a step towards thinking on this day not about the Mother Church but the Mother of Christ (or God, as became the doctrinal positioning the Roman Catholic Church) and from there to all mothers.
And so to the final and most familiar other name for this day: Mothering Sunday. Originally an opportunity for young people and children in service to return home to their ‘mother church’, it soon became regarded as a time to go home and see mum. And many made a simnel cake to take home and so the tradition of bringing gifts home to mothers began, now greatly enhanced by advertising in our consumer society. It should not be confused with Mothers’ Day which originated in USA and which is held at a different time of the year.
I have not been able to go home to my mum for Mothering Sunday for many years for obvious reasons, but for the past 5 years my mum makes her annual pilgrimage here to Birse and Feughside for Easter. I know she is champing at the bit, frustrated by Easter’s lateness this year, with her bus ticket already purchased.
To all mothers in the congregation, whatever you age or circumstances, a prayer that God will bless you and watch over your children. Until next week…The Lord Bless You and Keep You.
Content of Worship
The Rev Jack Holt, parish minister, will conduct the service.
Norman Taylor will read the Bible passages.
Susan Zappert will provide our musical accompaniment.
It is the Fourth Sunday of Lent. The theme is: Now I See! The reading is John 9: 1-17 and 30-41. As it is the first Sunday of the month the service includes the Sacrament of Communion. To mark his final time celebrating the Sacrament as our minister Jack wishes to serve the bread to everyone personally. The service is an audio-visual presentation throughout with hymns, readings, responses all appearing on the screen.
What’s happening in Church this week?
The Ladies’ Fitness Class
This takes place on Monday evenings at a new time of 7.30pm and lasts an hour, which the organisers hope might make it feasible for new members to join the group.
Lent Lectures
On Wednesday at 7.30pm in the Meeting Room, Jack will conclude a series of talks about the Passion of Jesus as told in Matthew’s Gospel.
Lent Table Talk
The fourth of the Lenten lunches takes place on Thursday in the Meeting Room at 12.30pm with COMMUNITY as the topic of conversation around the table, and the short act of closing worship. Everyone is asked to bring their own packed lunch but tea and coffee will be provided.
Next Sunday
Next Sunday the service at 11am will be conducted by the minister. It will be the Fifth Sunday of Lent. The theme will be: Raising the Dead.
Intimation
Sing and See
To give the joyous celebration of Palm Sunday a resounding climax, Jack and Susan invite everyone to an evening of praise on Sunday 17 April at 7.30pm in the Church. The gathered congregation will be invited to choose what we sing from Mission Praise be that an old hymn or a new chorus. The theme of music will be carried into a short (10min) reflective film before we share in refreshments and take our leave.
With lighter nights and Dancing on Ice finished it is hoped that on the eve of Holy Week the congregation will welcome this opportunity to celebrate the faith we share together in Jesus Christ.
Fireside reflections
The LORD be with you…And also with you. Jack writes: Good morning! Last Sunday I said farewell to the congregation of Mid Deeside and this week received notice from Presbytery that the business of my translation to Polwarth will be taken up at the Induction of the new minister for Aboyne-Dinnet linked with Cromar on Thursday, 14 April. Polwarth has also been in touch as they start to think about the forthcoming Induction. And so as we enter the month of April the sense of transition builds.
As I write this page during the week before I cannot say how the final concert I organised for last Friday went in terms of attendance and money raised for the church. But I can say I will have enjoyed entertaining. One of the pleasures of ministering in this parish has been using my natural abilities and interests in a way that I NEVER did all the time I was in Kilmarnock. Having 10 happy years in the Deeside Musical Society where I was fully accepted as Jack rather than tolerated as the Rev Holt. Not being asked by many groups to be a speaker (I don’t think in 16 years I ever addressed a branch of the Women’s Guild!), but asked by many groups to entertain has given me great joy. Being able to share my love of movies, musical theatre and music because they are an integral part of who I am has been such a liberating thing and part of the healing I needed when I came here.
Today is the Fourth Sunday in Lent, but across history and Christian tradition it is known by many other names. It is known as Refreshment Sunday. In historical times when the austerity of Lent was practised the mid-point came on the Thursday of the third week and so, as a reward and help to continue keeping Lent for the full forty days, the fourth Sunday was relaxed and a different note was sounded; the vestment colours changed from purple to rose, the colour for hope and joy, and simnel cakes – rich fruit cakes made with fine flour were eaten.
For this reason it was also called Rose Sunday. In the Middle Ages it became the custom of popes to have created an ornament shaped as a golden rose which was blessed and sent to the Catholic kings and queens across Europe, a tradition that continues to this day but in a very different form. In history Henry VIII received 3 Golden Roses from three different popes.
It is also called Laetare Sunday. ‘laetare’ is the Latin word for ‘rejoice’. On this Sunday the introit to the Roman Catholic mass was taken from Isaiah 66:10-11 which begins with the word: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.â€
In the infancy of Christianity Jerusalem was the Mother Church and as the epistles of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles make clear, the Gentile churches across Asia and Europe recognised their debt by sending gifts to the original church when its members faced hardship.
The imagery associated with Jerusalem in these verses is distinctly feminine, in fact, maternal. From the Middle Ages onwards when the adoration of the Virgin Mary grew in popularity it was only a step towards thinking on this day not about the Mother Church but the Mother of Christ (or God, as became the doctrinal positioning the Roman Catholic Church) and from there to all mothers.
And so to the final and most familiar other name for this day: Mothering Sunday. Originally an opportunity for young people and children in service to return home to their ‘mother church’, it soon became regarded as a time to go home and see mum. And many made a simnel cake to take home and so the tradition of bringing gifts home to mothers began, now greatly enhanced by advertising in our consumer society. It should not be confused with Mothers’ Day which originated in USA and which is held at a different time of the year.
I have not been able to go home to my mum for Mothering Sunday for many years for obvious reasons, but for the past 5 years my mum makes her annual pilgrimage here to Birse and Feughside for Easter. I know she is champing at the bit, frustrated by Easter’s lateness this year, with her bus ticket already purchased.
To all mothers in the congregation, whatever you age or circumstances, a prayer that God will bless you and watch over your children. Until next week…The Lord Bless You and Keep You.