Rector's View - November 2010

Dear friends,

All Souls’ Tide 2010

Every life, including our own, is precious to God. Christians have always believed that there is hope and trust in death as in life, and that there is new life in Christ after death.

Even those who share such faith find that there is a terrible sense of loss and emptiness at the death of a loved one. We will each have had our own experiences of their life and death, with different memories and different feelings of love, grief and respect. To acknowledge this should help us to use All Souls’ Tide – the first Sunday in November, to express our faith and our feelings as we remember before God those who have been close to us during their earthly lives, whose presence we miss, but who have only passed from our sight not from our hearts. In faith and trust, we pray that we will be re-united with them one day in God’s Kingdom.

At 3.30pm on Sunday 7th November 2010 at All Saints’ Church, Wickhambrook we will be holding a service for the whole Benefice to remember and pray for our departed loved ones. Everyone is warmly invited to this service, which we hope you will find helpful and comforting.

During the service, the names of the departed will be read out and there will be an opportunity, for those who wish to, to light candles in memory of them. The candles serve as a symbol – both of the prayers we offer for our loved ones, and of Jesus Christ the light of the world, in whom we place our hope and who leads us from death to life. If you would like the names of departed loved ones to be included in the prayers at the service, please write them on one of the lists at the back of each church.

Would you like to find out more?

This month we are holding a short informal series of meetings for anyone who would like to find out more about the Christian faith. The meetings will be relaxed and friendly and there is no pressure or expectations. Details of the meetings, which will last no more than an hour each, are as follows:

Monday evenings at 7.30pm in the Benefice Hall, next to All Saints Church, Wickhambrook:

1. 1st November – Why have faith?
2. 8th November – Why the Christian Faith?
3. 15th November – Why the Church?
4. 22nd November – Why attend and get involved in the local church?
5. 29th November – “Why me?

Everyone will be very welcome. It would help us to know likely numbers so if you, or someone you know, might be interested in attending the course, please let me or a Churchwarden know.

With every blessing,

Stephen

Revd Stephen Abbott

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