Author: stjohnstmarkchurchbury

Malcolm is starting a new Latino and Latin dance class on a Thursday.

Give him a call on 01706 872129 to mark your card.

As the name of the group suggests the evening is open to all. We meet on the second Wednesday of each month. It starts at 7.30pm and normally lasts just over an hour with a brew and a chat at the end.

One of the sessions is a Craft Night, hence the photo above. But most evenings are listening to speakers, either visitors or people from our own congregation.

If you’ve not been before, go on, give it a try!

Our next Sunday@Seven service will be on September 30th. The theme is ‘Then sings my soul’.

This is our (slightly delayed) chance to sing some of your favourite hymns, songs and choruses. Nigel already has a very full list but please let him know in advance of any special requests.

This time we’ll be in The Barritt Room at St John with St Mark. And yes, surprisingly, it starts at 7pm.

Immortality & eternal life might seem to mean the same thing, but they don’t – even tho’ they both describe something that won’t ever end.  What matters is to look at the start of what they describe rather than the end. 

Creation Season runs from September 1st, the start of the Orthodox year, through to St Francis day on October 4th.

Churches and congregations are called to pay special attention to the responsibility of humanity for the Earth and for all that lives upon it.

Its start and end dates reflect that it is a shared idea between Western and Eastern Christianity.

Here are the Bible readings for September. So if you can’t get to Church and want to follow the same scripture passages then here you go. Or if you just want to read up in advance for the Sunday to come, then please make use of below.

This icon, ‘written’ by Andrei Rublev, is a familiar one to many. It’s often used on Trinity Sunday to explain the relationship between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I’m struck by something else though. But you’ll need to read on…

Wisdom says, “lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”  That implies getting up and leaving the table, going back to where you were called from and sharing the invitation.  The seats at this table will never be full!  This is a perfect party from which no-one will be turned away once they respond. 

Church is a school for freedom. We are free to do as we will, but we have to do that in community. So we have to learn to be free and love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Church is the community where we learn this. This means that sometimes church is boring, tedious, other times it is bursting with excitement.

On 4 August 1918, the fourth anniversary of the declaration of war, King George V and Queen Mary joined members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords for a special service at the Church of Saint Margaret, Westminster. The King had asked that 4 August 1918 should be observed as a National Day of Prayer: 100 days later the war ended.

On 4 August 2018 churches across the country, across the spectrum of denominations, started 100 days of prayer, peace and reconciliation. We are calling this Remembrance 100

Meditation can be incorporated into one’s daily life for its health benefits of reducing stress and producing a sense of well-being.

It is also a spiritual practice found in all religious traditions.

If you’re interested in finding out more then we warmly invite you to this free, six part series.

We’ve heard about gluten intolerance but I think some people suffer from ‘church intolerance’. They may be very spiritually aware and seeking – but don’t come anywhere near a church. I believe there are parallels between the two conditions.

Miracles are hard to believe, hard to understand and impossible to explain rationally.  We can’t explain them because, well because they are miracles and by their very nature defy natural and physical laws and go beyond our understanding: ‘far more than all we can ask or imagine’

We have a new sermon archive section on the website! We’ll still add the sermons as posts to the home page but after a while they’ll get removed to give space for other new posts. So the archive allows us to keep the sermons accessible for longer.

The main reason for remembering Mary Magdalen is her presence in the garden where Our Lord was buried; her recognition at last of the risen Jesus and her errand to tell the others of what had happened. Mary Magdalen, the apostle to the apostles and 1st witness to the Resurrection.