Honour your parents

Dear friends,

The days lengthen. Sunrise creeps before 6am. Lent progresses with the invigorated steps of the pilgrim who knows the destination is drawing nearer. (The word derives from the Anglo Saxon root “lencten”, meaning “get longer”.) The fourth Sunday of Lent this weekend brings not only the start of British Summer Time but also Mothering Sunday.  The fifth commandment places respect for one’s parents at the heart of God’s plan for his people. We are made to be in community across the generations. Exodus 20:12 says “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” The health of our intergenerational relationships and our sense of belonging (“rootedness”) are thus mutually dependent. However we live today in a society that, a generation ago, decided to dismantle the institution of marriage. It was done in the name of freedom and choice, but the unintended consequence was an axe to the roots of our identity as people made for community. Today, among the wreckage of our relationships we find that children are growing up in a context where they are twice as likely to own a smart phone as have a father living with them at home. Is it any wonder that our young people are “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming”? (Ephesians 4:14). For “teaching” you could perhaps read “viral trending” and for “men in their deceitful scheming” perhaps just the word “influencers” will suffice.

Worship Services for Mothering Sunday 30th March (Note the clocks go forward!)

9.30am Morning Prayer at St John’s Stoke Row with Mr Peter Ferguson

11am Holy Communion for Mothering Sunday at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Canon Kevin Davies. With spring flowers, and simnel cake to share.

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

Church Working Party this Saturday.

Your Lent challenge this week is to give up some time on Saturday morning (29th, 10am-12noon) to join a working party in Checkendon Church and Churchyard, to give everything a spring clean. Please bring tools and materials – for inside or outside, as you wish. This challenge is open to all ages. Your reward will be in heaven, and in the chatter and fellowship, or quiet reflection, in a sacred space.

Do join us – Saturday, Sunday, or both. It promises to be a hopeful weekend. We cannot rebuild what has been lost in our society, but we can re-imagine a community where all ages are welcome, and where Christ heals, and holds us all. The picture below says it all.

Your Rector, in His service, Canon Kevin.