Breaking Bridges

Dear friends,

We live in times of flux. The settlements of yesterday are not working anymore. Partnerships previously taken for granted are under question. The attack on the Kerch Bridge between Russia and the Crimea showed just how pasionately the Ukraine no longer wishes to be regarded as an adjunct of the Russian state. The Brexit decision was a cry for autonomy from the UK, a challenge and a novelty that, to date, our politicians have been unable to live up to. From concrete and steel to the machinery of government, infrastructure is a precious resource, and safety net, which we mess with at our peril. In my lifetime we have been the unwitting guinea pigs in a series of social experiments with cultural infrastructure, whether that be the meaning of marriage, or the patronising assumption that all cultures want to share liberal western values. The answer to the question “on what basis can we get along?” has never been more prescient.

Our worship is not only our giving glory to God, but also our holding on to one another in the love of Christ, and to share the love of Christ. The Church embodies all the brokenness of the world, where we come to offer our prayers, our pain and our grief. But it is also the place of light, hope, new birth, and resurrection. God’s response to our brokenness was not to destroy in rage, but to redeem in love.

Worship Services for Sunday 16th October

9.30am Informal Worship at St John’s, Stoke Row.

11am Family Baptism at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon.

Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm  410 935 129

Other service options for elsewhere in the Team can be found on the Langtree Team Ministry Churches website. Do join us for worship either in person, or online, or both. Don’t forget that you now can support both Checkendon  and  Stoke Row churches via dedicated and secure online card donation pages. Just click on the link. It is very easy! Thank you for your support.

New! Please also like and follow Checkendon Church on Facebook, and Instagram.

and building them…..Team news

I am pleased to let you know that Bishop Gavin has agreed that we can recruit a successor for Revd Linda (now safely in Plymouth!) so Woodcote PCC and I have begun work on a recruitment profile which we will be sharing with Diocesan officers shortly. This document will need several layers of approval, but I am hopeful that we will be able to be advertising sometime before Christmas. In the meantime, the Team staff, and the churchwardens and I will continue to make sure that as much as possible is covered in the growing ministry at St Leonards.

Please also make a note in your dairy that there is going to be a Team Songs of Praise at St Mary’s Ipsden, at 10.30am on Sunday 30th October, with guest speaker the Revd Katie Tupling. Do come along for a wonderful time of music and praise! It is a fifth Sunday, so there won’t be any other services on the Team area on that day. Let’s make the most of our chance to meet and share.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for:

Paul McCoughlan, in the burns unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital after a serious accident; Barbara and Martin, churchwardens at St Leonard’s, Woodcote, and all the PCC as we give thanks for Revd Linda’s ministry, and embark on our recruitment process; All those who are struggling with anxiety and despair; and for God’s blessing on your church! Choose someone you know in the congregation, and ask God to be close to them today.

Your Rector, and servant in our Lord Jesus

Kevin Davies.