Prayer for Bible Sunday

‘This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.’ Joshua 1.8 (ESV)

Our Lord God, thank you for your guidance through the Scriptures.

Help us to regularly search your word to gain more insight as to who you are and more understanding of your will for each one of us. 

Give us an increasing desire to read, obey, and find nourishment through the Bible. Amen.

Lectionary Readings – Sunday 25^th October 2020

Leviticus 19.1-2,15-18; Psalm 1; Matthew 22.34-46; 1 Thessalonians 2.1-8

 

GENERAL NOTICES

Circuit Service

For those unable to access the circuit service on Youtube at home, the service is being shown at Cornerstone Methodist Church on Sundays at 11am on Marshside Road.  Please book with Sarah McDonald-Howard on  07444 149684 or  email sarah@southportmethodist.org.uk

Please book in case the church needs to shut at short notice in these strange times!

Foodbank

The Ainsdale Foodbank is short of the following items and would be grateful for any donations of, Chocolate treats, tinned fruit or fruit juice (either cartons or bottles of cordial).
Items can be left in the basket located in the entrance to the lounge
Monday – Friday 10.00am to 12 noon and 1.00 – 3.00pm on Thursday.
Many thanks Brian Davey

Bible Reading Notes

The IBRA Bible Reading notes are available to order now.

If anyone would like a copy please let me know either by phone at 579710 or e-mail at mcbride.sue@gmail.com. The price will be £10.00.

Many Thanks, Sue McBride.

All Saints Day

Next Sunday, 1st November 2020 is All Saints Day, when the focus in many churches is to remember those who have died who in love continue to remain precious to us.

Whilst we are not gathering in our buildings, our online Circuit Service next week will focus on remembering, and has been carefully crafted and prepared for the wider community by the hospital chaplaincy team, led by Rev Martin Abrams and Rev Jan Fraser.  This will include contributions from some professional musicians, a local choir, the hospital chaplains, Dr Karen Groves (Consultant in Palliative Medicine) and Dr. Dominic Bray (Consultant Clinical Health Psychologist) who will be reflecting on grief in a pandemic.

Attached to these notices is a leaflet prepared by the hospital chaplaincy team titled “A Time to Remember”.  You will be able to access the service via the normal link.

Rev Patrick Evans – Annual Leave

Patrick is on leave from Friday 23rd October for a week.  If you need to contact a minister during this time, please contact Rev Peter Lyth on 01704 211919 or peterjlyth@gmail.com.

Taketime Together – Christian Mindfulness Meditation

Join us on a five week journey to discover the power of Christian mindfulness meditation. Taketime meditations use your imagination to provide a calm, comfortable space in which to meet God through encountering Jesus in the Gospels and find peace. All are welcomed to enjoy these meditations, which are intentionally inclusive, non-directive and experiential. No faith background or knowledge is needed to attend, enjoy and benefit from this Taketime introduction.

Tuesday 27th October 19.00-19.45

You can join via the internet at at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5336295419?pwd=VWpPdVVKREVYN0dWN20vU1N1RGVuUT09 or by phone on one of the following numbers (0203 051 2874, 0203 481 5237, 0203 481 5240, 0203 901 7895. If phoning in, you will ask for the Meeting ID – key in “5336295419#”, it will then ask for your participant number, key in “196957#” and wait a few moments to be admitted into the meeting.

Wednesday 28th October 14.00-14.45 (repeat of the Tuesday session)

You can join via the internet at https://zoom.us/j/94584836277 or by phone on one of the following numbers (0330 088 5830, 0131 460 1196, 0203 481 5237, 0203 481 5240). If phoning in, you will ask for the Meeting ID – key in “94584836277#”, it will then ask for your participant number and there isn’t one so just press “#” again and wait a few moments to be admitted into the meeting.

Please contact Sally Eyes on 07743660155 if you would like more details or join us on any of the weeks or times that you can make.

Further details are available at https://southportmethodist.org.uk/take-time-together.

Bible Study

The bible study group is on Tuesdays at 10.30am. Everyone is welcome so feel free to drop in any week. 

You can join via the internet at https://zoom.us/j/93783730691 or by phone on one of the following numbers (0203 481 5237, 0203 481 5240, 0208 080 6591, 0208 080 6592, 0330 088 5830, 0131 460 1196).  If phoning in, you will ask for the Meeting ID – key in “93783730691#”, it will then ask for your participant number and there isn’t one so just press “#” again and wait a few moments to be admitted into the meeting.

Coffee after Church

Join the congregations of Ainsdale & Liverpool Road Methodist Churches for a virtual coffee after the online service from 12 noon each Sunday at https://zoom.us/j/99269870450. 

Church Notices

If you have any items you want including in the notices for the next week, please let Lucy Lloyd-Disley know by Tuesday 27^th October on 07484 608675 or lucy@southportmethodist.org.uk.

 

PATRICK’S PAGE

Dear Friends

What is your passion?

How would you answer that question?  This is a question that was posed to a group of people I was with this week.  The context was a Zoom meeting where the person hosting had introduced himself and given a presentation on the work of his organisations (a Christian Charity).  It was then open to the floor to ask questions and make comments about how they may be able to use the services of the charity.  Silence.  Perhaps people where weary of being the first to talk, that they may say something wrong or that others thought was stupid.    

“OK” said our host, “let me ask you a question…“what is your passion?””  This was a wonderful question to unlock the hearts of the people as they then quickly, freely and enthusiastically contributed.

In this weeks Gospel encounter (Matthew Ch 22 vs 34-45), various people were trying to catch Jesus out, presumably because they saw him as a threat to their position of esteem, privilege and power that they had built up over many years.  They chose not to embrace Jesus but to belittle and demean him, and thus maintain their power.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matthew Ch 22 vs 34-36).

I wonder what went through Jesus’ mind in that moment.  How do I answer this technically fraught question and navigate the law to ensure I’m not caught out by a technicality?  If so I think what he may have decided to do was not to answer the intent of their question, but to reframe it with one of his own…”what is my passion?”

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” (Matthew Ch 22 vs 37-39).

He chooses not one but two commandments that are conjoined, inseparable. In answering this way he was releasing himself, and in so doing us, from the shackles of the Sadducees and Pharisees, and telling us what his passion is and allowing us to say “me too, yes, yes and again yes”. 

How our love for God and for others manifests itself will be different for each one of us, as we are all unique with different gifts and graces.  Let the passion within each one of us not be bound up, rather may it be released for the glory of God.

So…what is your passion?

God bless

Patrick

 

WORSHIP

With Sunday approaching I am reminding us of the services available via the Methodist Church online, as well as some others on TV & Radio.  Please see below.

Online Circuit Service – Sunday 11.00am

The link to our services is http://southportmethodist.org.uk/sundayservice This Sunday is Bible Sunday when our service will be led by Jean McKenna, Local Preacher at Leyland Road Methodist Church. 

You can listen to a recording of our weekly online Circuit Service via your telephone by calling 01704 335755.  Calls will be charged as a local rate call via landlines, although costs will vary for mobile users.  Services are typically up to 50 minutes long.  You can listen to the service from 11am each Sunday, up until the following Sunday.                     

On a general note you can link to the Circuit website at https://southportmethodist.org.uk/ and the Circuit Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZg2IIrYONyumWsHCbRcFaA.                                                     

How can I get involved?…If in future weeks you would be able to record yourself reading the bible, sharing some testimony, singing or playing music etc, or writing a prayer or sharing a photo, or have any other ideas, please let Patrick know on 07813 211501 or at patrick.evans@methodist.org.uk.

Other worship resources and on line services from the Methodist Church can be found at https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/worship/singing-the-faith-plus/seasons-and-themes/worship-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/.

BBC Local Radio (incl Radio Merseyside)

At 8.00 am this Sunday, all 39 BBC local radio stations will be joining together for worship.

 

BBC Radio 4

Sunday 8.10am – Sunday Worship – Bible Sunday

Join Revd Dr Sam Wells and St Martin’s Voices, directed by Andrew Earis, as they explore the difference between reading the Bible, thinking we know what it’s saying, and letting the Bible read us, allowing our idea of ourselves and the world to be turned upside-down. They look closely at the Old Testament story of Israel in slavery in Egypt, and the way the story transforms our hearts and our lives. Live from St Martin-in-the-Fields. Producer: Katharine Longworth.

BBC1 TV

Sunday 1.15pm Songs of Praise – Remembering Black History

For Black History Month, guest presenter Mark De-Lisser visits the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. He meets the director, Dr Richard Benjamin, to find out about Britain’s involvement in the slave trade and the role the church played at the time. Mark meets the museum’s historian-in-residence, Laurence Westgaph, to hear about his ambition to create what could become the country’s first memorial to the enslaved. The rector of Liverpool, Rev Canon Dr Crispin Pailing, shares why he is passionate about offering the grounds of St Nicholas’ Church, which was once the city’s main burial ground, as a home for the memorial.

Classical pianist Alexis Ffrench tells YolanDa Brown about his love of music and how he felt as a child being Britain’s youngest black church organist. We also have a special performance of Alexis’s own composition inspired by the faith poem Footprints in the Sand. The daughter of Christian peacemaker Nelson Mandela shares what she feels her father would have thought about the Liverpool garden being built in his honour, and we hear about the vision for the garden from two members of the community, Sonia Bassey and Stephen Nze, who help run the charity behind the project, Mandela8.

Music comes from across the UK, including poignant hymns written during the period of the slave trade, including Wade in the Water and Amazing Grace.

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