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Services 8.30 am Service; The type of service varies. Most use the Book of Common Prayer and the service lasts about 30 minutes and is conducted without hymns. Some services at Shereford instead use the booklet " Common Worship " ( indicated by an asterisk ). 10.30 am Morning Service; Uses liturgy with hymns, lasting up to an hour. 10.30 am Communion Service; Uses contemporary ( " Common Worship " ) liturgy, with hymns, lasting about one hour. At Communion, young and old, whatever religious conviction, are welcome to come to the altar rail for a blessing. Those already Confirmed or who receive Communion at another place of worship, are welcome to receive the bread and wine. If you wish to consider becoming Confirmed ( confirming the vows said for you as a child at your christening / infant baptism ), please contact the Rector. Family Service; Held occasionally at Whissonsett, lasts about 30 minutes with guitar - led hymns and songs, providing a good introduction for children, families and anyone who appreciates a touch of informality: Leadership of services is shared between the Rector Revd. Robin Stapleford, Benefice Reader Richard Hirst and local retired clergy, with lay involvement.
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Upper Wensum Services
January 2010
The Gate of the Year: quoted by King George VI, Christmas broadcast 1939 And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown!" And he replied: "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way." So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night And He led me toward the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East. So, heart, be still! What need our little life, Our human life, to know, if God hath comprehension? In all the dizzy strife of things both high and low God hideth His intention. from ‘The Desert’ (1908) by Marie Louise Haskins (1876-1957
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Upper Wensum Services
February 2010
‘Lencten’ *
Lord, may I follow the seasons of life Allow winter to follow fall; Lent-meaning-spring to arrive on the coat-tails of winter As flowers fragile and bare find their course Through the cold soil healed of its frost So may I be drawn by your Son’s light To new beginnings Leaving behind the debris of my hard lessons learned Cradle my soft roots Quenching their thirst on the life-giving moisture of your spirit.
Amen
[ * Anglo-Saxon origin of the word Lent = Spring ]
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Upper Wensum Services
March 2010
*History of Mothering Sunday: Most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or 'daughter church'. Centuries ago it was considered important for people to return to their home or 'mother' church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their 'mother' church - the main church or Cathedral of the area. Inevitably the return to the 'mother' church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away returned home. (It was quite common in those days for children to leave home for work once they were ten years old.) And most historians think that it was the return to the 'Mother' church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family. As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers or violets to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift. St Mary’s, Whissonsett is not our mother church! But it usually hosts a short Family Service on the second Sunday of the month, so the Family Service that day will be on the Mothering Sunday theme, suitable for all.
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