The fourth Sunday in Lent is sometimes referred to as Refreshment Sunday – a day when the strictures of Lent are relaxed a bit. (It is also Mothering Sunday for those who keep that festival).
At St Mary’s tomorrow, our refreshment is coming in the form of some of the most lovely choral must that we sing here. Fr Vice Provost will be preaching on the Prodigal Child. And we’re adding one or two guest choristers into the mix.
Expect something special.
It’s hard to imagine that only a few hours ago I was in your beautiful church in that wonderful city that sometimes I think of as mine. My heart and my prayers go out to all the families of the bereaved and injured tonight.
“Rest eternal Lord, grant unto them and may light perpetual shine upon them”
Amen. And yet again the people of Glasgow showed themsleves at their warm-hearted best, with unsolicited offers of practical help.
Thank you for this prayer Kelvin.
Here in Australia the week before last, a guy dressed as a Muslim (and was in fact one) held a lot of people hostage in a very posh but well-patronised cafe in the business/law precinct the city of Sydney. He had a lot of irrational demands. It was a very well-planned and he held up the people and the city in terror for 12+ hours. He was actually a bully and unhinged mentally. In the end the police broke in and in the ensuing gun battle 2 people were killed by the gunmman then the gunman himself.
We lie quietly here in Australia with relatively little racial violence (but lots of domestic violence -the gunman had heaps of charges)
We understand this incident does not equate with what happened in your city
or to the schhool-children in Pakistan but it stunned us.
So I thank you for your skill to put this simple prayer together.
Tom
Thanks Tom – we were all watching and praying along with those in Sydney last week. These events are world events. Paradoxically they bring us together.
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One of the relief agencies trying to help following the hurricane in the southern United States is Episcopal Relief and Development.More information and details of how to donate to their work here: http://www.er-d.org
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