Pew Sheet for the Third Sunday After Trinity

Headline Parish news this week is the advance notice that Mark Woodrow, our new curate, who has moved in, will be ordained as ‘deacon’ in St Edmundsbury Cathedral on Sun 30th at 10am. We hope you can attend and support him.

All are invited to the Benefice Parish Lunch in the Village Hall at 12.30 to welcome him. And we need your help, please! From 10am onwards we need people to prepare the food and set tables for Benefice Parish Lunch. We are also hosts to a coach of folk from Mark’s sending parish in Ipswich. Helpers also needed to serve on the day. Offers of help will be much appreciated, please contact Vickie Weaver on 247957.

Please click here to see the Pew Sheet for the 16th of June

Pew Sheet for 12th May

This Sunday is the start of Christian Aid Week 2013. Christian Aid are focusing this year’s campaign on  help some of the world’s poorest families get enough to eat. The theme in 2013 is Bite Back At Hunger. Please click here to see the details of their campaign page.

Feeding the hungry remains as pertinent to Christian life as it did when Christ fed the thousands with loaves and fishes. We hope you will be able to participate in Christian Aid week and, of course, attend church!

Please click here to see the Pew sheet for the 12th May

 

Pew Sheet for Easter Sunday

Good Friday and Easter form the core of a major tenet of our faith: that Christ was crucified on the cross, died and rose again from the tomb and in doing so, redeemed mankind. The symbolism of death and rebirth is reflected in the timing of the festival, held at a time of year when we bid farewell to Winter and welcome the Spring. This year’s relatively early Easter and the vagaries of the gulf stream mean that we may be waiting a while longer for Spring to burst forth but the weekend should give us a chance to shake the metaphorical snow from our boots and look forward with gladness to the Summer to come. We hope you will join us in church on this most important feast in the christian year.

Please click here to see the Pew Sheet for 31.3.13

Pew Sheet for Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday recalls Christ’s last entry into Jerusalem. The laying of cloaks and casting of palm fronds under the feet of Jesus and his mount denotes the  arrival of a King or great leader. The celebration of this event mixes joy – our recollection of this most triumphant of acts in Christ’s life – with sadness – the knowledge (our and his) of the betrayal and cruxifiction to follow. Fitting then that traditionally churches in Holy Week are robed in red, symbolising victory and blood. We hope you will be able to join us for worship during this important Festival in the Christian year. 

Please click here to see the Pew Sheet for 24.3.13

Please note too… a volunteer is needed to organise the weekly Lesson Readings (a computer is required) needed urgently by end April Please contact Vickie Weaver (247957).

Pew Sheet for Passion Sunday

The Pew Sheet for Passion Sunday has been published.

Please note also that there a large number of notices ‘For your attention’ on the sheet.

Please click here to see the Pew sheet for 17.3.13

Pew Sheet for the Second Sunday in Lent

Many calls for volunteers on this week’s Pew Sheet. We hope you might put yourself forward to be a lesson reader for Passion Sunday, or, for the longer term, we are looking for people to join the rota for the (robed) altar party. I can speak from experience in saying that taking part in worship in this way is an interesting and rewarding role to play in the church community.

Click here to see the pew sheet for 24.02.13

Pew Sheet for the last Sunday before Lent

The final Sunday before Lent marks the beginning of a very busy week. Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday fall on the 12th and 13th, respectively. Each feast calls us to be mindful of God’s wish that we celebrate the bounties of creation and that we take time to step aside from material things and spend Lent reflecting on the life of Christ, his death on the Cross and the cycle of life, death and rebirth implicit in the liturgical calendar.

Click here to open the Pew sheet for 10th Feb

Notice of Services for Lavenham Benefice for March 2013

Easter falls early this year, at the end of March. Will we still see snow on the ground in the Benefice on Eater Day? The Vernal Equinox, first day of Spring in the solar calendar, will only have passed 8 days beforehand. This feels like a happy coincidence with the Easter festival, heavy with the sybolism of new life.

In preparation for Easter, the Lent Course will be running, as in February, on Monday evenings at 9.45am in Lavenham Village Hall. We hope you can join us in our study, prayer and celebration.

Click here to open the Services sheet for March 2013

Notice of Services for Lavenham Benefice for January 2013

The Twelve Days of Christmas extend into January. We celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. Epiphany marks the culmination of the Christmas period for Christians in the Eastern churches and it is fitting that Lavenham Benefice is participating in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity soon after, from the 18th to the 25th of January. Christians across the world from Egypt, Syria and Palestine to Nigeria and China suffer discrimination and harassment, even violence. Please bear these brothers and sisters in your hearts and prayers.

Click here to see the Lavenham Benefice Services in January 2013

Notice of Services for Lavenham Benefice for December 2012

As ever, Lavenham and Preston St Mary are gearing-up for a very busy Advent and Christmastide. Advent Sunday falls on the 2nd of December this year and we’ll be straight into the caroling at 6pm for the Benefice Advent Carol Service.

Please note that we will be adding to the seasonal festivities a very special celebration of Rev. Stephen Earl’s institution and Induction, at which Bishop Nigel and Archdeacon David will be in attendance.

Lavenham Church hopes you can join us (in full voice) at worship at this most happy time in our calendar.

Click here to see the Lavenham Benefice Services during December 2012