LEXDEN METHODIST CHURCH

Notices for Week Commencing 17th March 2024

Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears.
Hebrews 5 v 7

We offer you all a very warm welcome especially if you are a visitor and to those who will be watching the DVD during the week and to Jonathan Sparkes who is leading our worship this morning.

PRAYER

Please pray for our Ministers – Rev Chris Preece and Rev Hannah Chun.

Continue to pray for all others who are in any way troubled, lonely, unwell or bereaved and anyone else who needs our prayers.

NOTICES

March Pastoral Letter from Rev Hannah Chun now available. Please see below.

Maundy Thursday – 28th March. We are holding an Agapé love feast here at 10am – straight after prayer time – led by Rev Hannah Chun. This will be a sharing of food and fellowship with a chance for the sharing of testimonies or a reading of favourite bible passages. Everyone is welcome.

Christians Together in Stanway
Good Friday Walk of Witness. Meet outside Starbucks at 12noon. The walk with hymns and drama will proceed to M&S and Sainsbury’s.
Easter Sunrise Service with Holy Communion at 6.30am on the Green Hill by the Church Lane Bridge, followed by breakfast at St Andrew’s Hall Church Lane.
Please join these events if you are able.

Easter Day Service – this will be Holy Communion led by Rev Hannah Chun and will take place at 3pm on Sunday 31st March. Please note there will not be a morning service on that day.

Circuit Summer Celebration. Following on from the successful Circuit Christmas Celebrations it has been agreed there will be a Circuit Summer Celebration. Further details to follow. If you are able to help, please contact Tony Trevers.

Sunday Services on DVD – If you, or anyone you know, would like a copy of our Sunday morning service on DVD please speak with Geoff or one of the stewards.

Midweek Prayer Time – every Thursday. A short service of prayer and reflection. Everyone welcome.

DIARY OF SERVICES AND EVENTS

Thursday 21st March
9:30am – Midweek Prayer Time

Thursday 28th March
9:30am – Midweek Prayer Time
10:00am – Agapé love feast

Next Sunday Service 31st March
Easter Day
3:00pm – Holy Communion led by Rev Hannah Chun

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If you need prayer or help in anyway, please contact your pastoral visitor or you can call Rev Hannah Chun on 07935 612414 or Alan Beesley on 766604.

Dear Friends,

I wonder how your Lenten journey is progressing for you. I went on a Regional Probationers Retreat a few weeks ago and found myself in the peaceful and tranquil countryside of Launde Abbey in Leicester. It was interesting to be surrounded by more sheep than people there. This retreat had in numerous ways forced me to stop, be still, become aware of my surroundings and simply be. It beckoned me to slow down. I say it ‘forced’ me because I find stopping and being still very hard. My mind is always working and I’m constantly thinking about what I ought to be doing next. One of the key themes for this retreat was about taking our sabbath, and how we might tarry on our life and ministry’s journey.

Lent is a time of journeying to the cross with Jesus to meet him at his resurrection. However, it is not defined by a journey we make with haste. It is a journey that can hopefully encourage us to slow down, be still and tarry. Jesus also took his time to walk to the cross. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus asks his friends to ‘Stay here and keep watch with me…keep watch and pray.’ (Matthew 26:38, 41). He encourages them to stop, notice, pray and be still a while with him. In our Lenten and life’s journey, there are times we may need to stop and tarry in solitude, but as Jesus spent a moment of stillness with his friends, we too need our church and community to be alongside us as we reflect, recharge and catch up with ourselves.

• Are you one of those who find it hard to stop and be still?
• Are you giving too much that you feel you have nothing to give at times?
• How do you take your sabbath? How might you stop and tarry with Jesus?
• What might you notice about yourself and those around you?
• How might it feel to rest and give all our anxious productivity to God? Can we have the confidence that God will hold things together when we take time to recharge?

We will be gathering on Maundy Thursday morning at 10am for a Love/Agape Feast to think about the way Jesus shared a meal with his disciples during his ministry and in particular the night before he went to the cross. There will also be a Churches Together in Stanway Good Friday Walk of Witness at 12 noon outside Starbucks if anyone is interested in joining. May these offer moments for us as a church and a community to reflect, slow down and be still together as we listen to Jesus’ call to ‘stay here a while and keep watch’.

As you continue this Lenten walk to the Easter resurrection, may you find rest when needed, find stillness and find your sabbath, for, even God rested on the seventh day, ‘rested from all his work’. (Genesis 2:2-3).

God bless, and may the joy of Easter be with you,
Hannah