Dear friends,

A very warm welcome to this service, wherever you are worshipping across the Langtree Team Ministry area. May God’s peace and joy be with you.

Lent begins to draw to a close: Holy Week begins next Sunday (Palm Sunday) and Good Friday (14th April) and Easter Day (16th April)  services are all around the Team. You can check out what is available on the Festivals page of the Team Ministry website: www.langtreechurches.org

On Maundy Thursday (13th April) our Team Service will be held at St Leonard’s, Woodcote, at 7.30pm. Do make a note of this in your diary !

At Checkendon we have been enjoying the challenges of Archbishop Justin’s Lent Book “Dethroning Mammon”. Justin points out that one of the ways we resist the power of money and possessions is through extravagant worship; a celebration that is grateful, generous, and centred on Jesus. This is a big challenge for us in the Church of England as we have been brought up in a church that has been largely resourced by others. That is we worship in buildings paid for by others, and rely on historic resources provided by others to fund the costs of the ministry that we enjoy. All too often we are content to settle for worship that actually costs us next to nothing. Justin makes the point that our personal spending priorities actually reveal what we truly value.  We give God thanks with our lips, but the rest of our lifestyle says very little about our supposed priorities.    “Dethroning Mammon”, by Justin Welby, is published by Bloomsbury.

your Rector, and servant for Christ’s sake.                                            Revd Canon Kevin Davies