Author: stjohnstmarkchurchbury

Our December 2025 and January 2026 magazine includes information about all the many upcoming events plus a letter from our Vicar, Harvie

Our December 2025 Bible readings include prophecies from Isaiah, repentance from the Baptist, instructions from angels, poetry from John – and the killing of innocents.

Let’s lift our eyes to the King that we did not expect. Not to the thrones of this world, but to the King who reigns from the cross. The Shepherd who gathers the scattered. The Saviour who remembers the forgotten. The Lord in whom all things hold together.

Malachi ends with hope so gentle it almost feels fragile: “The sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” God’s justice is not cold. God’s truth is not cruel. God’s light is not violent. It is the rising sun – the warmth that thaws the frozen, the light that reveals the path, the dawn that says, “There is a future, and it is full of healing.”

Their sacrifice, like Job’s words, is written in stone – a testimony not only to death, but to something deeper: to love that would not be erased.

We are reminded of shared love and companionship that united in God’s love, we continue to love and be loved by those who are enfolded in his presence.

The November 2025 Bible readings include Jesus sharing some blessings and woes, then the Sadducees trying entrapment, warnings and reassurance about the future, the crucifixion – and a reading about the end times.

The Bible does all of that, but something more mysterious happens as well: when we open the Bible, the Bible opens us too. It’s the Book that reads us.

This November 2025 magazine includes reflections on Remembrance, a study on Psalm 24, poems, prayers and updates from our groups.

Sometimes, perhaps, we need to wrestle with God’s identity and our own – and we might just get hurt, damaged, cracked in the process.

The mustard seed of faith is already planted within us. It’s Christ himself. He has withheld from us nothing. We already have enough. We already are enough.

Let’s not leave Lazarus lying outside our gates. Let’s mind the gap —of wealth, race, indifference, division—with the love of Christ. For in the end, it will not be our comfort that defines us, but our compassion.

The October 2025 magazine includes an article on joy in Psalm 126 – and a reflection about a talk given by the Diocesan Director of Mission and Ministry, Phil Cansdale.

In the October 2025 Bible readings, we’re still journeying to Jerusalem with Jesus (are we nearly there yet?) Jesus tells stories of mustard seeds and mulberry trees and of widows wearing out judges. In the Old Testament, we have a prophet on look-out duty and Jacob holding-on till day-break for a blessing.

In the year 2000, adverts had to grab a persons’ attention within 12 seconds. By 2013 that had dropped to 8 seconds. The attention span of a goldfish is said to be 9 seconds. So, longer than humans now. And if you’re Gen Z, then your attention needs grabbing in 1.3 seconds.