Newsletter

Sunday 3rd March, 2013 Third Sunday in Lent WELCOME to Holy Innocents—we hope you enjoy this time of prayer as we reflect on Scripture together and celebrate the Eucharist. Breakfast is available in the Hall after the 8 am service and morning tea after the 10 am. All are welcome. Sunday School is well into action Collect for today Lord God our redeemer, Who heard the cry of Your people and sent Your servant Moses to lead them out of slavery; free us from the tyranny of sin and death, and, by the leading of Your Spirit, bring us to the promised land, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Today’s Readings Lent III read by John F Readings Isaiah 55: 1 – 9 and 1 Corinthians 10: 1 – 13 GOSPEL Luke 13: 31 – 35 PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Ben L We pray for those in need: Ron Teague, Peter Little, Dorothy Furnival, the Swaby family , Dianne Cordes. Tommy Ferguson, Bob Arnold, Ann Daughtry, Pat Pater, Janet Phillips, Jan and Mollie, Eddy Klose, Bonney Tomlinson, Allan Pressley (in Flinders.), Eva and Ben Forster HAPPY BIRTHDAY Stuart Vandepeer, Andrew Morecroft, Eddie Barber, Allan Jennings HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY - Mary and Graham Roberts YEAR’S MIND— Laurie Castanelli (2006), Basil Marston (2003) Bessie Barnett (2005) Marjorie Dickson (2003) PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY Lent IV Readings: Joshua 5: 1—12 and 2 Corinthians 5: 16 –21 GOSPEL Luke 15: 11—32 REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS - PRAYER CIRCLE meets noon on the 2nd Tuesday each month at 36 Penno Parade North BIBLE STUDY 10am Wednesdays at Pressley’s THURSDAY 9.30am Eucharist 5.30pm Evening Prayer with Wendy MOTHERS’ UNION - meets third Thursdays each month at 2.00pm WALKING CHURCH First Saturday of each month at 4.00pm at Belair National Park gates near railway Station Bridge. Friday Morning HI Tea and Coffee is on again from 8.30am. Don’t miss the chance for a yarn Lenten Studies are to be held on Luke’s Gospel. Meetings for this week are , Sunday 11.30am in Church ONLY Official lists are available in the foyer—changes will be notified each week in these pages. Pancake Night The donations from the Pancake evening amounted to $86 and with the promise of a further donation we should easily make $100. Thanks to the hard work from everyone involved, it was a wonderful evening. Traditionally the proceeds from this event have gone to the ABM Lenten Appeal. Yvonne Caddy The second of our READY, SET, GO Children's Ministry Events is set for 3.30pm on 17th March. More detail will be available soon, with advertising and invites going out. Watch out for a donkey or two, and other items as well. The Annual Vestry Meeting of the Parish will be held after Church on Palm Sunday 24th March. Reports need to be in hand for printing a fortnight before that date please. That means next Sunday!!!!!!!! On Mothering Sunday, 10th March (NEXT SUNDAY) we will have a BBQ to 'Refresh' us in body (even though it is a long weekend!!) after the 10 am service. If you come, please bring a salad or a sweet and we will see to it that there is meat for all!! Please come and join in the festivities! HELPLINE Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, and other types of assistance. Call Stephanie Lloyd 8278 4260 and Lucinda Hale 8278 8814 Ross Hill-Brown advises that the planned Commissioning of School Chaplains has been deferred to Sunday March 17th at 10.00am at All Hallows, Blackwood, and asks supporters to note the alteration. POWERPOINT ROSTER – Next Sunday Cynthia Macintosh or Don Caddy Following week Ron Keynes or Barb Capon READER AND INTERCESSOR ROSTER Next Sunday Reader Paul H Intercessor Vanessa D (Baptism – no Intercessions) Sunday after Reader Arndrae L Intercessor Wendy T SANCTUARY ROSTER Next Sunday Flowers No flowers Brass Joan Durdin Cleaning Group 3 Here are some various activities in Lent, 1. Making Palm Crosses. Palm crosses are distributed on Palm Sunday. Each year a group undertakes to make crosses from palm tree leaves. It is a tricky process, though quickly learnt, or re-learnt. 2. The Lenten Envelope Appeal In this annual appeal, all parishioners are invited to contribute weekly. Your contribution can be placed in a special envelope, which will be available on Sundays in Lent, and may be returned with your offering on Easter Day. Parish Directory We are looking for someone to spend the time collating the information we need to produce a revised parish directory. It is not difficult work, just some chasing up and encouraging people to get their details in. If you are interested please see Warren or Wendy. RONBLOG on today’s Readings or the general drift of them … May I offer a look at Scripture in a way that may open some doors for people? The Creation Stories are where the Bible story begins, but please realize that Israel’s experience of God preceded all that, for it started (historically) with Abraham. It was a long journey before people realized that JHWH was One God and not a pantheon. Catch sight, too, that the Hebrew Faith, was not really a religion but was designed to benefit the whole world of humans, being a response to everything in life that somehow manages to white-ant human relationships at every level. The story is not—REPEAT NOT—one of Divine punishment of human sin, but an appalling Divine struggle to get us mere mortals see both the mess that we make of each other, as well as providing an alternative mode of operation that points to resolution of all those issues. Failure to see this and respond – not the failure of the Faith (Hebrew and Christian) – resulted in the reductio ad absurdum of the faiths into increasingly dead religions If you find all this a bit too much in one paragraph, please feel free to get in touch and discuss it all. It has been an enormous disappointment when people seem to prefer NOT to look at the realities of the Biblical Faith, and remarkably few are prepared to think outside the enclosed box of conventional ‘religion.’ In fact, they will almost turn to force of arms to close their ears to anything other than the sadly narrow and very selfish ‘gospel’ they prefer. No wonder Jesus had problems in His own day and age. This faith, unlike most others, is offering an understanding of life, existence and purpose for all humanity right here and now, [perhaps even more than the life to come.] And when Jesus talks about His kingdom, that is no future event but rather that modus operandi (if you like to put it that way) for living right here and now. The reason that the Pharisees were after Jesus’ life was simply because His modus for life was seen as a potent – almost deadly – threat to their power and position. It remains such a threat to people in positions of power right up to the present and into the future. Far from irrelevant (as people used to think) - it is perhaps too close to the bone!