PRAY TOGETHER - We meet every Wednesday in the Vestry at 9.30am.  Please come along and join

in as we pray for our congregation, parish and nation. Even if you can't come along and join us is there someone for whom you would wish us to pray? Please submit your request by e-mail to Margaret, the Minister, at [email protected] for our weekly meeting.

Prayer is an important part of Christian worship. Do you have a favourite prayer which you would like to share with others? Please e-mail it to [email protected]  and we might publish it below.

On Sunday 29th August Margaret, the Minister,  used the following words from Ignatius of Loyola as a meditation in Church during the service where we were looking at the cost of being a Christian using Luke 14:25-35 to help us :-

" Hold my faith steady when I cannot see the road ahead.  May I always know I am loved.  Protect me this day from evils seen or unseen.  May I expect little and so be less prone to be disappointed.

It's a tough decision Lord.  Should I surrender completely to your will?  But what will I have to give up?  My commercial culture teaches me to think like this Lord.  I pay a price - and what do I get in return?  Is the value worth it all?

But then when I think of your love for me, it's not a question of giving up anything but rather of living a truly worthwhile life.  Any relationship involves surrender of some independence, in return for the great benefits of friendship, a listening ear, a reassuring touch when things go wrong, the promise of companionship into the future…

Help me Lord, to believe the testimony of thousands through the centuries: once we are really committed to you, sacrifice is not an issue.  No-one can outgive God.  And after all, when I gave myself to you, I promised you everything.  I promised to be yours to the end.

May I see the superficiality of merely being religious.  Help me to do what is right because I love you, not to earn your love.  Help me to serve you from gratitude of all you have given to me, rather than for any reward.  You sacrificed your life for me: may I learn to hate the things that cost you your life.  May I sacrifice whatever will hinder your grace operating through me.

Save me from the disillusionment of trusting anyone or anything but you.

Teach us good Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and to look for no reward save that of knowing that we do your will through Jesus Christ our Lord  - Amen."