Sunday 4th May - Easter 7
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion (said), St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion baptism of Libby Hills + Junior Church, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
11.30 a.m. Blessing of John Pattison’s grave, Barley churchyard
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 5th May

Tuesday 6th May
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 7th May
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley

Thursday 8th May
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Friday 9th May

Saturday 10th May
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
all day Barkway Street Market
7.30 p.m. Concert by Ros Holbrow, John Witchell and friends, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 11th May - Pentecost
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion, St Mary’s, Reed, with sermon by Christina Rees
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday - Happy Birthday, Church - St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Tuesday 13th May
10.15 a.m. First Incumbents’ meeting, North Mymms
8.00 p.m. Barkway VA School governors meeting
8.00 p.m. Deanery Chapter, Great Hormead church

Thursday 15th May
7.45 p.m. Reed VCC

Saturday 17th May
11.30 a.m. Interment of ashes of Andrew Paddick, Reed churchyard

Sunday 18th May - Trinity Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
5.00 p.m. Spring Sing Service, with Royston Town Band, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Tuesday 20th May
8.00 p.m. Deanery Synod, Weston Church

Wednesday 21st May
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, Fern Cottage, Therfield

Thursday 22nd May
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Sunday 25th May - Trinity 1
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion + Junior Church, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Acts 1.6-14; 1 Peter 4.12-14; 5.6-11; John 17.1-11

Today’s Gospel reading comes from John’s account of the Last Supper. After the meal, Jesus first teaches his disciples and then moves into prayer to God his Father. Today’s words came from that prayer.

We need to take seriously the themes of that prayer - in some ways it is Jesus’s last testament to the world. In his conversation with the disciples he foretells his betrayal, gives the new commandment to love one another as he has loved them, he predicts Peter’s denial and talks of his forthcoming departure.

He then explains that when he goes he will not be leaving them on their own for the Holy Spirit will come, and moves on to a reflection on the vine and the disciples’ need to remain rooted in him.
After that he concentrates for a bit on the fact that they will face opposition, moves on to what the Holy Spirit will do and acknowledges that his disciples will feel pain and will suffer, but that joy will come again.

And then he moves into the prayer from which we heard this morning. At the end of today’s passage, Jesus ask for God’s protection for his disciples “So that they may be one, as we are one”. Jesus clearly recognised the threat to unity that existed for the first disciples and has exited throughout history for Christian.

Christians frequently disagree with each other. We only have to look through the pages of the New Testament to see how this has been part of Christian life from the beginning.

There were the disputes about circumcision and whether it was necessary; there were arguments in the Corinthian between those who followed different leaders; there were problems between Jewish and Gentile Christians; between rich and poor; people fell out with one another, and truly struggled with unity.

And this has not changed through the ages - churches have split and divided; Christians have left one church and gone to another; or stopped going altogether for reasons such as “we didn’t like the vicar”. I find it comforting to know that Jesus recognised that unity was going to be hard.

And today we are facing a lack of unity, not only between people of different Churches, but also within our own Church, the Anglican Communion.

As I’m sure you are all aware, the key issues splitting the church at present are the role of women - whether they may be priests and bishops; and the debate about homosexuality and whether gay people can be accepted as part of the Church or not.

I’m not going to talk this morning specifically about those issues, but I hope that we can reflect together on what causes disunity and divisions, and what behaviour contributes to unity.

First, some of the causes of division. One major source of disagreement is how one should interpret the Bible.

Some believe that it must be taken literally at every turn, particularly the New Testament.

Others believe that interpretation is much more a question of looking at the context in which words were spoken and written originally and then addressing how those words might be applicable to us today in our very different society.

Others would say that what was relevant for the first century is not relevant for us today so we shouldn’t take too much notice of biblical injunctions.

And it is hard to see how people who interpret the Bible differently from each other will ever come to agree. But agreement with someone and living in community while accepting difference are two separate things.

Splits come when people decide that they can no longer live with those who disagree with them. The differences in ethics or doctrine mean that they think Christianity is being watered down by those with whom they can’t agree, so they leave to form their own community, where they can be sheltered from those whom they see as not real Christians.

But difference in belief is only one part of the problem. There are people in churches - many of them - who live happily side by side with people who have differing views on interpretation of the Bible, on doctrine, ethics and so on. So something else must also be causing disunity.

I had a think about this as I was writing this sermon, and some of things I came up with were: a fear of those who are different or believe different things; a sense of feeling threatened by those who believe different things; being hurt by the attitudes of others; impatience; closed minds; self-righteousness; pride; an avoidance of the other.

There may well be many more. But all these things pull people apart. Fear and feeling threatened by those with whom we disagree can lead us to want to have nothing to do with them.

Being hurt by others can lead to wanting to run away and avoid those who have hurt us. Impatience leads to an unwillingness to talk and listen to those who have something to say.

Closed minds means that we have trapped ourselves by an unwillingness to learn and change and grow in faith.
Self-righteousness is a fault of those who are very quick to judge others, but unable to take, as Jesus said, the log out of their own eyes.

Pride can lead to an ability to accept that we might be wrong. Avoiding those with whom we disagree means that all dialogue is halted.

Clearly Jesus though that unity was important. So, what can enhance our unity with others. The starting-place must surely be acknowledging what we have in common. That’s not sweeping under the carpet the fact that we might disagree with someone, but we may realise that we have more in common with each other than what separates us.

For Christians our unity is in Christ.

All Christians are part of Christ’s body - think about Paul’s words to the Corinthian Church - “The body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say ‘because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it less a part of the body. And if the ear would say ‘because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” And Paul goes on to stress that it is the weaker members of the body that should be treated with most honour. Usually when a church splits, it is those who see themselves as strong who take themselves off elsewhere.

Unity is enhanced too when we recognise that what we have in common is also the grace of God. And God shows no impartiality when it comes to grace.

As Paul reminds in the letter to Romans - “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” A counteraction to self-righteousness is the recognition that we too are in the wrong.

Something else that helps unity is when we come together with those from whom we hold different opinions. By coming together, we can learn from each other as we listen and come to a deeper understanding of the others’ point of view and why they think what they do.

When we understand more, it is usually easier to be more compassionate, and not just condemnatory. I’m always saddened that it isn’t only the conservatives who condemn the more liberal - often people at the more liberal end of the church can be just as vitriolic in their condemnation.

A humility and a willingness to learn from others is also important when we disagree with people. We may not change our views but we then again may. It is always worth holding in our minds the fact that we may be wrong.

But I think the three most important builders of unity are love, forgiveness and prayer. When we face those with whom we have difficulties with an attitude of love, the love for another becomes more important than the difference of opinion.

The New Testament contains injunction to encourage one another. Nowhere does it say knock down people not the same as you, tell them they’re useless, moan about them. Always it is about loving and encouraging others.

When we are willing to forgive those who are perhaps insensitive to us and what we think and feel, we can begin to build community again.

And prayer is the most important of all, for what sustains us in our faith is our relationship with God. What ensures that we can be held together by God’s grace and our trust in Christ is prayer. It is the starting-point of our relationship with God for it is how we sustain that relationship. And it is through sustaining that relationship and growing as a Christian that we will become more able to love those with whom we disagree, to care for those who are different from us, to encourage and not condemn.

Being at unity is about more than not falling apart. It is about creating a community where all are valued, where all are loved, where everyone is equal because they are children of God.

And as a unified community, we will be far better witnesses to the world of Christ’s love and Christ’s reconciling work than we ever will be falling out with each other.

Acts 2.42-47; 1 Peter 2.19-25; John 10.1-10

If we see pictures of Jesus depicted as a shepherd, they are usually quite namby-pamby, soft and gentle ones. He might have a lamb around his shoulders, but more often than not, he’s also dressed in a white nightie, perhaps with a crook, and usually with a gentle, loving expression on his face.

It’s very much an idealised picture, and quite far from the reality of what being a shepherd would have been like in his time.

A shepherd in those days lived a dangerous life. Shepherds needed to be men of courage. They were usually rough rather than refined; in coarse and dirty clothes, rather than diaphanous white, pure garments.

They lived on society’s margins, were not able to take part in Temple worship since they were considered ritually unclean, and were often considered to be dishonest men.

So, why did Jesus choose to liken himself to a shepherd?

It’s imagery that goes back a long way before Jesus himself. Today’s Psalm reminds us of that. Possibly written by King David, it certainly originated hundreds of years before Jesus. At its purest, shepherding is a good image for leading the people. A shepherd guides, cares for, defends and nurtures the sheep. That too could be seen as the role of a leader.

But the major problem was that the leaders of Israel often didn’t live up to the shepherd-ideal. Their sheep, the people, were often badly treated. If we look through some of the teachings of the prophets, we see their denunciations of these shepherd-leaders.

Zechariah has harsh words from God for the shepherd-leaders who detested the Lord, and talks of a shepherd “who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering, or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hooves”.

Ezekiel complains about the leaders of his time in these words: “Thus says the Lord God: Ah you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not the shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings: but you do not feed the sheep.

“You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them.”

But this passage, though, is not one without hope. Ezekiel continues his message from God. “Thus says the Lord God: I myself will search out the sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

“I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them in good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.”

So, when earthly leaders fail, God will be there.

This is what Jesus is fulfilling. Ezekiel’s prophecy is being worked out in the life of the Good Shepherd. The imagery of the passage we heard from John is not straightforward, since Jesus talks about being the gate, rather than the shepherd, though if we were to read on we would see how the imagery changes.  But though the pictures change, one thing is clear - Jesus is making out what makes a good shepherd.

Let us pick up on some of what he says.

First, a Good Shepherd is one who knows his own sheep. To most of us, one sheep looks pretty much like another. Though I’m sure farmers know the differences between their sheep, most people don’t spend enough time with them to know them properly.

I was watching sheep in Dorset last week, and, though I wasn’t taking much notice of individuals, the only differences I could really tell you about were between the lambs, which we small and frisky, and often wandered around in pairs, and the older sheep, who were less full of life and more often than not on their own, unless they had their lambs with them. The other major difference from field to field was the colour of the dye on their backs, marking to whom they belonged.

In the time of Jesus, they didn’t use dye to mark out their sheep. A genuine shepherd knew his sheep well enough to know their personalities, their idiosyncrasies, the qualities that mark one sheep out from the next. And likewise the sheep become able to recognise the voice of their own shepherd.

Second, a Good Shepherd leads their sheep devotedly. They seek out the best grazing land for their flock, they defend them from wild animals, they guide them away from dangerous precipices, and in Jesus’s time, they would lead their sheep from the front. As a shepherd would lead and the flock follow, so Jesus leads those who choose to follow, through narrow paths and safely guides them.

The imagery so far concentrates on what the shepherd does for the sheep. The shepherd provides and cares, and guides.

When Jesus speaks of himself as the gate, the imagery shifts to concentrate on the response of the sheep. The joys of the sheepfold are there for all who enter it by the gate. The fold is where the sheep will find protection and safety. As a sheep that walks through the gate finds itself in the security of the fold, so those who put their trust in God through faith in Jesus find a deep security, far greater than anything worldly could give.

We have hope in these words. But, there is also a warning contained within John’s passage. The warning is that there are others who try to gain our allegiance. The world is full of voices that shout out for us to follow them. I’m sure we can think of some, people or issues that demand our attention, and offer to fulfil us.

Each of us will have different tempting voices, calling us to put our trust in them - for some it’s the lure of celebrity and adulation; for others money; for some it’s power or injustice; laziness or apathy; selfishness or the cult of no-time.

We too are faced with other calls and it can be hard to keep listening for the voice of Jesus, which sometimes seems to be drowned in the noise of the world around. But what Jesus offers, for those who follow, for those who listen to his voice, is an abundance of life that nothing else can bring.

I come that they may have life, and have it abundantly. In this Easter season, we continue to reflect on what that abundant life means.

Irenaeus, who lived in the second century, said that “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” The resurrection brought Jesus back from the dead, and restored him to abundant life. The resurrection is also about our restoration to abundant life. We do not yet have this fully, but the promise of Christ is that that is what he has come to bring.

To ensure that we receive this abundant life, let us tune into the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow his pathway and leading. Let us be sheep who hear the voice of our shepherd, who do not become distracted with other noisier, demanding calls, and who put our trust fully in Christ, that we too may have life, and have it abundantly. Amen.
(with thanks to Derek Tidball’s Meeting the Saviour BRF 2007)

Sunday 27th April
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism opf Henry Hall, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 28th April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10 a.m. Discover Sunday planning group, The Rectory
2.30 p.m. Funeral of Edna Burr, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 29th April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
8.00 p.m Deanery Standing/Pastoral Committee, Therfield Rectory

Wednesday 30th April
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 1st May - Ascension Day
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway
3.30 p.m. Interment of Maisie Gilham’s ashes, Barkway churchyard
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion, St Mary’s, Reed

Friday 2nd May

Saturday 3rd May
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 4th May - Easter 7
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion (said), St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion baptism of Libby Hills + Junior Church, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
11.30 a.m. Blessing of John Pattison’s grave, Barley churchyard
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Wednesday 7th May
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley

Thursday 8th May
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Saturday 10th May
all day Barkway Street Market
evening Concert by Ros Holbrow, John Witchell and friends, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 11th May - Pentecost
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion, St Mary’s, Reed, with sermon by Christina Rees
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday - Happy Birthday, Church - St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 13th May
10.15 a.m. First Incumbents’ meeting, North Mymms
8.00 p.m. Barkway VA School governors meeting
8.00 p.m. Deanery Chapter, Great Hormead church

Thursday 15th May
7.45 p.m. Reed VCC

Sunday 18th May - Trinity Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
5.00 p.m. Spring Sing Service, with Royston Town Band, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 13th April - Easter 4
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion, St Mary’s, Reed, followed by Annual Parochial Church Meeting (Barkway/Reed) and bring-and-share lunch

Monday 14th April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 15th April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Cottered Vicarage

Wednesday 16th April
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
8 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, Aylwins, Roe Green

Thursday 17th April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
11.30 a.m. Women in Theology Group, The Board Room, Holywell Lodge

Friday 18th April

Saturday 19th April
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.00 a.m. - 12 noon Friends of Barkway Church Plant Sale, Barkway House
7.30 p.m. The Romance of Spring, Concert by Rebecca Starling, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 20th April - Easter 5
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley followed by Annual Parochial Church meeting and bring-and-share lunch
2.30 p.m. St George’s Day Parade service, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday all-age worship - Edible Eden (the story of creation) - St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Monday 21st April
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Tuesday 22nd April
12 noon North Buntingford Group Clergy meeting, Barkway Rectory

Wednesday 23rd April
8 p.m. Barkway VCC, The Manor

Sunday 27th April
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism opf Henry Hall, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

6th April - Easter 3
Barkway: Acts 2.14a, 36-41; Psalm 116.1-3,10-17; Luke 24.13-35
Barley: Acts 2.14a, 36-41; Psalm 116.1-3,10-17; 1 Peter 1.17-23; Luke 24.13-35

13th April - Easter 4
Reed: Acts 2.42-47; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2.19-25; John 10.1-10

20th April - Easter 5
Barkway: Acts 7.55-60; Psalm 31.1-5,15-16; 1 Peter 2.2-10; John 14.1-14
Barkway: Discover Sunday tba
Barley: Acts 7.55-60; Psalm 31.1-5,15-16; 1 Peter 2.2-10; John 14.1-14

27th April - Easter 6
Barkway: Acts 17.22-31; John 14.15-21
Barley: Acts 17.22-31; Psalm 66.7-18; 1 Peter 3.13-22; John 14.15-21
Reed: tba

1st May - Ascension Day
Reed: Acts 1.1-11; Psalm 93; Ephesians 1.15-23; Luke 24.44-53

4th May - Easter 7
Barkway: Acts 1.6-14; Psalm 68.1-10,33-36; John 17.1-11
Barley: Acts 1.6-14; Psalm 68.1-10,33-36; 1 Peter 4.12-14; 5.6-11; John 17.1-11
Reed: Acts 1.6-14; Psalm 68.1-10,33-36; 1 Peter 4.12-14; 5.6-11; John 17.1-11

11th May - Pentecost
Barkway: tba
Reed: Acts 2.1-21; Psalm 104.25-35,37; 1 Corinthians 12.3b-13; John 20.19-23

18th May - Trinity Sunday
Barkway: Isaiah 40.12-17,27-31; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13.11-13; Matthew 28.16-20
Barley: tba
Reed: Isaiah 40.12-17,27-31; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13.11-13; Matthew 28.16-20

25th May - 1 after Trinity
Barkway: Leviticus 19.1-2,9-18; Psalm 119.33-40; 1 Corinthians 3.1-11,16-23; Matthew 5.38-48
Barley: Leviticus 19.1-2,9-18; Psalm 119.33-40; 1 Corinthians 3.1-11,16-23; Matthew 5.38-48

1st June - 2 after Trinity
Barkway: Deut. 11.18-21,26-28; Psalm 31.1-5,19-24; Matthew 7.21-29
Barley: Deut. 11.18-21,26-28; Psalm 31.1-5,19-24; Romans 1.16-17;3.22b-28; Matthew 7.21-29
Reed: Deut. 11.18-21,26-28; Psalm 31.1-5,19-24; Romans 1.16-17;3.22b-28; Matthew 7.21-29

8th June - 3 after Trinity
Barkway: Hosea 5.15-6.6; Psalm 50.7-15; Romans 4.13-25; Matthew 9.9-13,18-26

15th June - 4 after Trinity
Reed: Exodus 19.2-8a; Psalm 100; Romans 5.1-8; Matthew 9.35-10.8

22nd June - 5 after Trinity
Barkway: Jeremiah 20.7-13; Psalm 69.8-20; Romans 6.1b-11; Matthew 10.24-39
Barley: Jeremiah 20.7-13; Psalm 69.8-20; Romans 6.1b-11; Matthew 10.24-39
Reed: tba

29th June - 6 after Trinity
Buckland: Acts 12.1-11; Psalm 125; 2 Timothy 4.6-8,17-18; Matthew 16.13-19

Grief and pain

The month of April this year falls entirely within the Church’s Easter season. This extended period helps to remind us that Christ’s resurrection is not just an event that happens one day, but that his life and power remain with us.

So it perhaps seems strange that the focus of my thoughts this month is death. It is little surprising that I have thought much about death in recently. Between January and Easter Day, I conducted more funerals in the benefice than in the whole of 2007; some of my closest friends have also been coping with bereavements following deaths of those whom they love. In the midst of life, there is always death and grief.

Some of the funerals I have taken have been almost straightforward, in the sense that the person who has died was seemingly at a natural end to their life - they had lived many years and died peacefully, ready for whatever comes next. There is sadness, but grieving family and friends are able to reconcile themselves to living with that.

But others have followed tragic events or led to young children losing parents. Some have been so sudden that relatives and friends have struggled to understand why or have faced relatives and friends with the suffering and pain of someone they love - something that is hard for anyone to experience.

Because Christians believe that death is not the end, there can sometimes be a tendency within the Church not to face grief properly. Yet, we only grieve because we have loved. Love is a great and wonderful thing, but it makes us vulnerable too. When we love, we open ourselves up to pain as well as joy, and the pain of death is often a very deep one arising from the separation from the one we love. That pain can be overwhelming.

Death raises all sorts of questions. It leads to agonising cries of Why? Sometimes it sparks anger and rage against God or the one who has died, feelings of abandonment and desolation, deep sadness and confusion. This is all natural, but often people are ashamed of sharing these thoughts with God in prayer. God can take it! God is bigger than our grief and more loving than we can imagine. And, though we may not be aware of it, God will be there alongside us, sharing in our suffering and pain. God knows what it is like to lose a beloved child. Let God share your pain, and hear your anger.

With best wishes, Sarah

FATHER, FORGIVE
Luke 23.32-43

I’m sure most of you will know that in the early 20th century the people of Armenia suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks. Estimates of how many Armenians were killed range from one to two million, but no one now denies that this was genocide, though it took many years for it to be recognised as so officially.

A story from the time tells of a Turkish officer who raided and looted an Armenian home. He killed the parents, and gave the daughters to his troops - it takes little imagination to know what happened to them. The eldest daughter he kept for his own pleasure.

Eventually she managed to escape, and trained to become a nurse. Sometime later she found herself working in a ward for Turkish officers. One night, by the light of a lantern, she saw the face of that Turkish officer who had treated her family so badly. He was terribly sick. Without exceptional nursing he would soon die.

That nurse was in a very difficult place. In such a situation, the desire for revenge would have been understandable. But she worked hard to restore him to health, and as a result of her ministrations, he began to recover eventually.

One day the doctor and nurse stood by the officer’s bed. The doctor remarked that without the nurse’s devotion the man would be dead.

The officer looked at the nurse and said, “We have met before, haven’t we?”

“Yes,” she said. “We have met before.”
There was silence. Then he asked, “Why didn’t you let me die?”

She replied, “I am a follower of him who said, ‘Love your enemies’.”

Jesus was a man who lived not only by his words, but also by his actions, and we are called to follow that example. Forgiveness is a living-out of love.

We see him now, hanging on the cross, in total agony, surrounded by his enemies, by those who want him dead. Crucifixion is a brutal and undignified method of execution.

The soldiers were carrying out just another day’s work; there had been other crucifixions in the past; there would be more in the future. They had no idea of what they were really doing, killing the Son of God. No doubt to them, Jesus was a trouble-maker and what they were doing would help to keep the peace - certainly that’s what their Roman master believed.

An ordinary day. But the ordinary becomes exceptional. Jesus, in the midst of the brutality and lack of dignity, responds with grace and goodness. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

These soldiers did not know their guilt. And, we too are not always aware of the sins that we commit. Sometimes we are all too aware of them. But Christ’s message of forgiveness crosses the centuries and is for us too. Christ is our King; Christ is also the example and pattern for our lives.

Forgiveness is not easy; receiving forgiveness is not easy; forgiving ourselves is not easy. But Christ’s message from the cross shows that he desires us to be liberated from our guilt. Guilt is a destructive emotion. It eats away at us and corrodes us. It grips us and torments us. Guilt can be a force for good, since it is what enables us to accept that we have sinned. It helps us to know, unlike the soldiers, that we are doing wrong.

But guilt that becomes too dominant denies what Christ has done for us. Christ’s suffering was to enable us to be freed from the effects of sin. Christ’s suffering brings forgiveness. When we are unable to receive forgiveness, from God, from others, from ourselves, we are rendering the sacrifice of the cross powerless.

It is not easy. It requires us to accept that we have failed and then to let go of that failure and the harm that it has done. We may need to make amends, to put our forgiveness into practice, to make efforts to restore broken relationships.

Jesus’s was innocent of his crimes; the criminal hanging with him recognised his guilt. Jesus’s response - today you will be with me in Paradise - should give us hope. Jesus’s forgiveness knows no bounds; it is there for us to receive.

As we watch him hanging on the cross, let us open our hearts to receive his forgiveness, and ask him for his love to flood us so that we might be helped towards forgiving those who have done us wrong and caused us pain.
 

BEHOLD YOUR SON
John 19.19-27

I wonder, if you could look forward to your dying moments and plan your final words, what they would be.

Of course, that’s a pretty impossible task, for none of us knows the circumstances in which the ending of our lives will come. We don’t know whether the end will be sudden or drawn out; we don’t know whether we will be prepared or not; we don’t know whether we will feel at ease with the thought our death; we don’t know whether we will be in pain or at peace; we don’t know whether we will be with those whom we love or whether there will be no one at all with us to hear those final words.

You will probably have worked out by now, if you have looked through the order of today’s service, that I have chosen to focus this year on Jesus’s final words.

There are seven sayings in the Gospels uttered by Jesus while he was hanging on the cross. The headings of the sections in this service derive from those sayings - the two not explicitly mentioned will pop up in my talks - one has already done so - so we will in some way reflect on all seven of Jesus’s last words.

Much of what happens while Jesus is on the cross is public, but this scene is a private moment, between Jesus, his mother, and the Beloved Disciple. It’s a moment in which Jesus’s compassion and care are seen, in contrast to the taunting and mocking crowds around him.

Jesus looks down from his lofty position and sees his mother and his friend and understands their pain. Death is always hard, but facing the death of one’s child must be one of the most profound sorrows that human beings ever face.

In the midst of the brutality of the situation, Mary’s presence and Jesus’s words add some humanity. In his dying moments, as he watches his mother’s pain, Jesus can do nothing more than to show his love for her. He cannot come down from the cross and take her home. He cannot reach out and put his arms around her in a deep embrace. All he can do as he hangs there is tell her that he loves her.

And he does this by creating a new family. In the moment of separation, Jesus creates community. Mary and the Beloved Disciple are the beginnings of the new Christian family. In effect, what he is saying to them, is “I love you, Mother”; “I love you, friend”; “Love one another.”

In our fractured and fragmented society, where communities are struggling to retain a sense of neighbourliness and friendship, where people live in suspicion of their next door neighbours, the church and its people can make such a difference by continuing to emulate the example of Jesus.

In this country, we have to accept that the reality of church life at present is that numbers are declining, commitment is diminishing and faith in God for most people is of little or no importance.

But, I wonder, how much we help ourselves. What an impact it would make if you said and acted as Jesus has done, if we said to those we meet - I love you. Now, clearly we’d have to be very careful about how we did this - in our sex-mad age, the word love sometimes loses its true meaning. But many, many people never hear the words of love. Many, many people never experience the actions of love. And, it doesn’t take much.
Jesus’s love for the world was the ultimate sacrifice. Sometimes that is what is asked of us, but mostly all we need to do is utter that loving word of care, or notice when someone is struggling with life - I’m always struck by the story of the stranger who uttered in the ear of the dying Stephen Lawrence - You are loved. You are loved.

That is what Jesus is doing from the cross. That is the message we are called to give to the world. And, even when we struggle to love people, we can still offer them the words of God’s love, of Christ’s love on the cross.
 
WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?
Psalm 22.1-8, 14-15; Matthew 27.45-47

Forsakenness, abandonment - it’s something that many people experience for a variety of reasons.

Perhaps they are grieving the death of someone they love. A very common part of the grieving process is a sense of abandonment by the one who has died. Sometimes this leads to anger at the deceased for leaving the living person alone.

Perhaps the sense of abandonment comes for a child whose parent has, for whatever reason, deserted them, whether physically or emotionally.

Perhaps it comes from the desertion by one lover of another.

The sense of abandonment can lead to very profound feelings - emotions that are almost too painful to put into words. Abandonment can leave one with a sense of deep, deep pain that nothing seems to be able to take away. It can lead to a sense of isolation, a deep hole within oneself that nothing can fill. The loss affects the whole of one’s being, it can be overwhelming. It can manifest itself in physical pain as one longs for the friend who has gone. It can bring a person to a point where utter desolation is all they feel, where life has lost its meaning, and their overriding wish is obliteration, for it is existence itself which causes the pain to go on.

The deep hurt experienced by those who are abandoned can be healed, but more often than not, it isn’t. Certainly it takes time - months and years - to get over an abandonment, and many people are left with deep wounds and scars that nothing can alleviate.

The more intimate the relationship between the abandoner and the abandoned, the deeper the pain.

Jesus has already faced a series of abandonments. One of his closest friends has betrayed him. Another has denied that he even knew Jesus. The crowds who hailed him as their king on Palm Sunday have since cried out for his death. As he hangs on the cross, his friends have fled, leaving only a very faithful few.

But that’s not the end of the forsakenness. Jesus utters a cry of such anguish that it pierces the heart - “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The relationship between Jesus and God was the most intimate relationship ever experienced. The sense of dereliction apparent in that cry from the cross is so great because of the closeness of the relationship.
In using the words of Psalm 22, he also brings to mind the silence of God, to whom he cries out. Psalm 22 expresses the feelings of one who has been forsaken. It communicates his feelings that he is no longer human, because of the way that others treat him.

And it is no surprise that that is how the Psalmist sees it. For one of the things that marks human beings out is their ability to give and receive love. Love, of course, is a risky business. Those who do not love will never experience the pain of love going wrong. Those who do make themselves vulnerable to the loss of love.

For any of us to be abandoned by those we love brings deep desolation. What it means for Jesus to be forsaken by God, his creator, his source of life, his Father, the object of his total love cannot be expressed in words, so deep is the dereliction. In that cry from the cross is Jesus’s own agony, which has been echoed by others through the years.

What stands out, and those who have experienced abandonment will probably recognise this, is that the one to whom Jesus cries out is the one by whom he has been forsaken. In the midst of his desolation, he calls out to the one by whom he has been deserted, longing to be heard, yearning for a restoration of the relationship.

At the heart of his sense of loss he is still crying out to God, still communicating, which implies that God is there to hear his cry, but at this point chooses not to act.

Since we believe in a loving God, we know that God’s own heart would have been breaking at this point too. For within the very heart of God, a deep separation is going on between Father and Son, a ripping apart of a unity, a whole. For Jesus is not only God’s Son, but God himself. The integrity of the godhead is being challenged through the crucifixion. The pain of separation is felt on both sides.

There is a trite saying - if God feels far away, guess who moved? The Bible teaches us through this story, through the words of Psalm 22, through the story of Job, how little truth there is in that saying. The horror of the crucifixion is that in some profound way God had abandoned Jesus. But Jesus was not a mere puppet in this sacrificial work; it was a path he chose to take.

It was an abandonment that needed to happen if the power of resurrection and life was to be complete. Only a total darkness and death could bring about completely new and restored life. For the whole of creation to be redeemed, the sacrifice needed to be complete.
 

I AM THIRSTY
Psalm 69.13-21; John 19.28-30

Without water, we shall all die. Dehydration is one of the fastest ways towards death.

Physically, Jesus will have been extremely thirsty by the time he utters these words. We are not told, but it is possible that he has had nothing at all to drink since the cup of wine which he took and blessed at the Last Supper. In chronological terms, that was not that long ago, but if we think about what he has undergone since then, the hours seem to grow longer.

There is a profound contradiction in all this. These three words, “I am thirsty,” show the extent of the sacrifice and separation from God that Jesus is undergoing.

John’s Gospel says a lot about water. Right at the start we see John baptising in water. Then at the wedding of Cana, Jesus uses the water, to bring new life to a jaded celebration by turning it into wine. He tells Nicodemus that new birth comes from water and Spirit.

His next encounter, in John chapter 4, is with the woman at the well. He offers her water that will put an end to thirst for ever - Jesus said: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

After the feeding of the five thousand in chapter 6, he reiterates what he has previously said; “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

And at the Festival of Tabernacles in chapter 7, he again returns to this theme: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.”

Water means life. Life in all its fullness. Water means physical life and spiritual life.

Back in Isaiah chapter 55, the call is issued - Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. Even further back, during the Exodus, water is brought forth from the rock.

Water is symbolic of the life that God gives.

And now, Jesus is thirsty. That life, physical and spiritual, is slipping away from him. The one who provided for the thirsty is in need of a drink. Yet again, Jesus’s abandonment is brought home. In John 7, Jesus follows his words by explaining that the living water comes in the form of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus uttered his words of abandonment, we became aware of a split in the very nature of God between Father and Son. His words of thirst reveal now another split, between Son and Spirit. Again we see the godhead ripped apart.

And why? Why does Jesus suffer this agony, this abandonment, this tearing up of the bonds, this rift at the very heart of his being?

He does it for us. It was for us he died on the tree. It was for us he suffered separation from God. It was for us that he thirsted.

It was his love that nailed him to the tree. It is his love that is offered to all of us, a love shown through the greatest gift and grace he offers - forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the heart of the Gospel. Forgiveness is not cheap. Forgiveness is something distinctive about the Christian way that we can offer to the world.

For forgiveness does not condemn, but recognises that we have all failed and fallen short of God’s glory, all of us, that is, except the one whose sacrifice was perfect, the one who deserved no punishment, for he had done no wrong.

Jesus’s thirst highlights the separation from God’s living waters that he experiences on the cross. For John, water is life. In order for us to flow with living water, with the life of God, Jesus undergoes a loss of life.

This was no false separation from God and God’s life, as some would have us believe. That would have been ineffective in conquering sin and death. Only a true separation could bring about our salvation; only a true death could bring about our life.

That is what Jesus is undergoing on the cross, a total separation, a true death.

Our sin no longer condemns us to a future without hope, but because of Jesus’s taking on himself a hope-less situation, our future remains strong. We do not need to take upon us the thirst of Jesus, for the living waters are there for us to tap into, flowing with life and God’s grace.

As Jesus thirsts, may we open ourselves to drinking from the water that enables us never to thirst again.
 

IT IS FINISHED
John 19.30; Luke 23.44-47

Two different endings to this story, depending on which Gospel one reads.

In general, Jesus’s cry from John’s Gospel is considered to be the penultimate thing he said, while the words in Luke are the very end of the story.

Most of us live lives full of unfinished business: the phone call not returned, the letter to which we haven’t responded, the book half read, the diet not kept. Right at this moment I can answer yes to all four  of those charges.

Some of these unfinished things may not seem large in themselves, but in a particular context they might take on serious consequences.

The unfinished diet for someone at risk of heart attack because of their weight is a serious proposition. The telephone call to which we haven’t responded may mean the ending of a relationship. The letter we didn’t reply to might have been the last one we ever received from someone who then died.

Much of our unfinished business affects not only us but others too. The marriage that is wrecked because the row was never mended, the evicted tenant now living on the street because the bills were never paid and help was not sought, the broken promise that smashed someone else’s trust in us and so on.

What unfinished business is lurking in our lives? We may never get a chance to complete it, if we don’t address it today.

So much guilt arises when someone dies and leaves unfinished business behind them - the words of love never spoken, the forgiveness never offered, the wounds not healed. Unfinished business that goes to the grave leaves a lasting impression on those who have been failed. The grave also may prevent us from finishing what we have to do with the one who has died. It is little wonder that Jesus warned people to sort things out with others before they approached the altar with their gift, leaving it there if necessary while they went away to make amends.

Our unfinished business so often leads us into sin - so much of it reveals a lack of love for another who has perhaps hurt us, so much of it depends on sins we have not forgiven, so much of it depends on our pride or sloth - those deadly sins.

Our unfinished business matters because it leaves things in a way that is less than loving to the one with whom the business is to be conducted or sells ourselves short.

By contrast, Jesus was able to go to his death uttering the words: “It is finished.” A cry of triumph and of victory, not of work left undone. Jesus’s work has been completed, accomplished, and is now finished.

To say that something is finished can mean one of two things - it can have a negative meaning - it’s all over, we’ve finished, can imply a relationship that is broken; a life that is over unfulfilled; a dream that has died.

But it can also mean that something has been accomplished - an artist putting the finishing touches to a painting, a poet writing the final word of a masterpiece, a Messiah who has fulfilled the work he was sent to do, to put an end to death by dying for us, to put an end to darkness by the conquering power of light, to put an end to despair by bringing hope, to put an end to hatred by never living in any way but the way of love.

That cry on the cross is a great cry of triumph - a cry of finished business. When Jesus speaks of his future a few days earlier, this is what he says: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

The death of the seed is necessary for life to continue. Jesus’s work has been completed, the seed is ready to die, so that greater life might ensue.

God’s work is nearly over. But there is one more sentence to be uttered: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” In that last utterance, Jesus makes clear that the property of death to induce fear has lost its power.

This is a death undertaken willingly. These are not words of resignation and powerlessness; these are words of power. These are words that express Jesus’s willingness to embrace his death for the sake of others.

These words sum up all his self-offering - in them is an act of will, an act of choice, an act of utter trust in God to make all things well.

Jeremiah 31.1-6; Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18

A rather grouchy husband made it into heaven along with his wife.

Strangely, though, he still seemed to be rather grumpy.

“What’s wrong now?” asked his wife. “Can’t you see, we’re in heaven? This is beautiful — the music’s great, the food is out of this world, the mansion has everything and more we’d ever dreamed of, the golf course is the best we’ve ever seen, there’s no fees, no taxes, our health is fantastic, why aren’t you happy? What’s wrong with you?”

The husband replied, “you we hadn’t made me eat that miserable oat bran, we could have been here ten years ago.”

What a sad view of one’s experience of heaven! The husband is so bound up with what he’s previously missed out on that he has lost all sense of celebration and thanksgiving for all the joys in his new existence.

The Christian Church too so often loses sight of the resurrection and the life and joy that it brings. We keep the 40 days of Lent, but it seems that once Easter Day itself is over, the 40 days of Easter pass us by. People go back to work after a long weekend off, the Easter eggs eaten, and life returns to normal.

Life never returned to normal for those first disciples who rushed to the tomb that first Easter Day. Mary Magdalene, according to John, was the first to arrive, early in the morning. She is panicked by the fact that the stone has been removed. We’re not told that she gets as far as looking inside, but she’s obviously made the assumption that the body is not longer there.

So, not sure what to do, she rushes off to find Peter and the other disciple. They dash to the tomb to see what has been going on. The other disciples, who is never named, peers into the tomb, notes that the linen shroud is still there, but then hangs back from going inside.

Peter, though, is never one to hang back. He goes straight inside the tomb, and spots not only the linen wrappings but also the cloth that had been around Jesus’s head. Then the other disciple follows Peter in and believes.

We’re not told exactly what it is that he believes. John wrote his Gospel in order that people might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing they may have life in his name. And that, for John, is what faith is about.

But what the disciple believes in this story is made somewhat ambiguous by the sentence that follows about them not understanding the scrupture that Jesus must rise from the dead. The two disciples go back home, believing that the body has gone, but as far as we know, not that Jesus is alive again.

But Mary is too upset to go anywhere. She stays where she is weeping. And now she too looks inside - something she hadn’t done earlier. She sees two angels there. They ask her why she is crying. She explains that Jesus has been taken away and she doesn’t know where he is.

And then she turns round and finds a man standing there, who also asks why she is crying. Her mind can only cope with rationality - her conclusion that this is a gardener makes absolute sense in some ways - who else would be in a garden?

And if anyone was going to have moved a body, then the most likely person would have been the gardener.

It takes only one word to transform her perspective from the normal sphere of human thinking to the joyful recognition of the resurrection. “Mary.” There must have been something in the way that he said it. I imagine it was a bit like the way in which a mother, in spite of a clamour of noise from other children, will always know the cry of her own child.

Mary, in spite of the clamour of voices going on in her head, knows immeditely who this gardener is once he has spoken her name.

And now he has returned she tries to cling on to him. She doesn’t want to experience the pain of separation from him again so tries to hold fast to him in the hope that he won’t disappear.

But he won’t let her, and gives her a message to take to the disciples and bids them hurry to pass it on. “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

The resurrection is important, it is a sign of God’s decisive action in our world, it makes a difference. However, we are not to spend ages staring at the marvel of the empty tomb, but to carry the message of the resurrection to others.

Mary does as she is asked, although the initial message she gives to the disciples is somewhat different from the one Jesus asked her to convey - I have seen the Lord, she tells them - though she then goes on to tell them what Jesus has said.

We come to this scripture so many years after the events it describes. But it has not lost any of its power. It has transformed lives, brought hope, joy and salvation to millions of people down through the ages from the time of those first disciples.

Our reading from Acts is a speech given by Peter in Cornelius’s house. We become aware of how he has been transformed by the power of the resurrection. Just a few days ago, we heard how he denied Jesus three times in the courts of the High Priest. All through the Gospels he has seemed an unlikely figure for Jesus to have chosen as the foundation stone for his church.

He’s the one who so often get sit wrong, or speaks out before he has really though about what he is saying.

Peter should give all of us hope, since God takes who he is and uses that - he doesn’t ask Peter to become something or someone else before he uses him to deliver the message of the resurrection. He uses Peter as he is. And God wants to use us as we are.

Of course, once God starts using us, transformation follows. After the resurrection Peter is radically transformed: he preaches Christ crucified and raised from the dead, so that those who hear him believe and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is no longer the simple fisherman with a gift for saying the wrong thing, he has insight and wisdom and he teaches with courage and conviction. But, at the same time, he is still Peter.

The message of Easter is in part about God’s mighty power: God’s power to raise Jesus from the dead, God’s power to save us from our sins and to bring us to eternal life. But it’s not just that.

It is also a message about a message: a story about the importance of passing on the story, of not delaying, of sharing the good news.

Jesus is risen, we do not need to be afraid. Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. So we are freed from our fears and our sins, freed to carry the message of the resurrection through our words, free to carry God’s love to others through our actions. God has shown that His truth and love are more powerful than sin and death, so we can have new confidence to live our lives so that they bear witness to that truth and they show that love in action.

On his return from 16 years spent in Africa, David Livingstone told the students of Glasgow University “What sustained me amidst the toil and hardship, and loneliness of my exiled life? It was the promise, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end.’”

That is the message that we too have to share with the world. Because of the resurrection, Christ is no longer confined to one place or a particular moment in time. Mary could not cling on to him and make him stay where she was, for he could not be confined. He is with us, right now, to the end.

He is with us in times of sorrow and in times of joy. He is with us when life is painful and when we are celebrating. If we believe in the power of the resurrection, our lives can never just go back to being normal, for once we have met the risen Christ, we too are transformed. It will affect everything we do - the way we live our lives, the way we react to other people, the way we conduct ourselves.

Christ’s life is our life. Christ’s life is blossoming all around us - we just have to look up and see it.

Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, says this: “Where God’s people celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection, they discover new possibilities opening up in front of them.”

May we, like Mary, open our eyes to new possibilities opening up in front of us, as we celebrate the resurrection.

Christ is risen, alleluia!

Sunday 30th March - Easter 2
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion, St Andrew’s, Buckland

Monday 31st March
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
11.30 a.m. Funeral of Peggy Downey, Cambridge Crematorium

Tuesday 1st April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Wednesday 2nd April
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley

Thursday 3rd April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway

Friday 4th April

Saturday 5th April
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
evening Friends of Reed Church Race Night, Reed Village Hall

Sunday 6th April - Easter 3
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Sung Eucharist, St Maragaret of Antioch, Barley, with the Revd Mervyn Terrett
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway, with Frances-Mary Blydenstein

Monday 7th April
No Morning Prayer

Tuesday 8th April
No Morning Prayer

Wednesday 9th April 
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 10th April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
4.30 p.m. Churchwardens’ Meeting, The Rectory
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Friday 11th April

Saturday 12th April
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 13th April - Easter 4
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion, St Mary’s, Reed, followed by Annual Parochial Church Meeting (Barkway/Reed) and bring-and-share lunch
 

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Monday 15th April
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Cottered Vicarage

Wednesday 17th April
8 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, Aylwins, Roe Green

Thursday 17th April
11.30 a.m. Women in Theology Group, The Board Room, Holywell Lodge

Saturday 19th April
a.m. Friends of Barkway Church Plant Sale
7.30 p.m. Concert by Rebecca Starling, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley