Meeting on the road to Emmaus – Passion of Christ mosaics in Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo.
Readings for this week.
Acts 3: 13–15. Luke 24: 35–48
Lord Jesus, explain the scriptures to us. Make our hearts burn within us as you talk to us.
The gospel reading continues the Resurrection story as the risen Lord appears to his fearful friends. Jesus bolsters their faith by joining them for a meal. He invites them to touch his body, before finally breaking open the word of Scripture.
‘Why are these doubts rising in your hearts?’
For the Greeks, the heart is the seat of reason and of emotions. Jesus needs to persuade them intellectually and emotionally of his presence among them.
‘Look at my hands and feet … touch me and see for yourselves.’
It is important for Luke to show that Jesus is risen in body and soul. According to Greek philosophy (especially the philosopher Plato), the spirit of a person lived on once it had escaped from the dead body. Although it is often assumed that Jesus is showing the disciples the scars made by the nails on his hands and feet, some theologians think that Jesus was simply offering his hands and feet as parts of his body they could touch. In his account of Jesus’s crucifixion, Luke never mentions the use of nails on the cross.
‘Have you anything here to eat?’
This is the second proof Jesus is offering the disciples. Meals of fish and bread were very much part of the everyday life of the disciples during Jesus’s three years of public ministry.
Preaching to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Luke never shows Jesus at work among the Gentiles: he leaves this job to his disciples and the Early Church. They are to start locally and spread the good news outwards throughout the world. The core of the preaching of the disciples is that in the name of Jesus, they must encourage people to change their ways, to repent and so be forgiven.
The Annual General Meetings
The APCMs of all our churches take place after the Morning Services on Sunday April 21st. Please pray for those who will be standing for office and helping to lead the churches in the Cluster into a new chapter of its life.
Annual meetings…election of officers.
Forms are now up to receive nominations for both church wardens of Cluster churches and for members of church councils: PCCs. You may wish to offer to help serve the churches’ work and mission in this way. If you are nominating someone, please check that they are happy to stand. It is an important time in the life of our churches and Cluster.
FARE – WELL to David
This week we bid farewell to David Carpenter who is moving to a new home in the Home Counties. David has been an active member of Paul Church for around 30 years.
There is not enough space to list all the contributions David has made to the life of the local church and wider community but here are a few of them. He has served as Churchwarden, a member of the choir and a bellringer. Under his watch several of the stained glass windows have been restored and as organiser of the Pretty Committee his merry band has maintained the church grounds to a high standard. He and his wife Utee were both heavily involved in the Passion Plays performed at Paul in the early 2000s: David playing the part of Pontius Pilate – somehow highly appropriate as his career was a helicopter pilot! – and Utee using her photographic skills to record the production for posterity. David has been a great supporter of charities and was for many years coordinator and treasurer of both the local Christian Aid and Children’s Society. As the parish ‘arsonist’ his fires at the Easter Sunrise services in the Quiet Garden were always spectacular and his other claim to fame is he has probably eaten more chocolate cake at the coffee mornings than anyone else!
With immense gratitude for David’s Christian service and commitment we wish him well in his new home.
PAUL SUMMER TALKS
Boilerhouse
A musical journey, with music.
Tuesday May 7th
Anyone who has heard Boilerhouse sing will want to be at any future event where they’re appearing. We hope to hear something of their musical backgrounds, both individually and as a group, and they promise to share some music with us too.
£5 entry. Nibbles/wine @ 7pm, talk @ 7.30pm, followed by debate and more nibbles/wine.
AN INCLUSIVE VISION FOR ST JOHNS CHURCH Pz
Friday 19th April: 9.30am-11am
Join us at St John’s Church to consider the next stage of the amazing journey of St John’s Church serving their local community. We will be considering how to use the outside space to create a sensory well-being garden. Also to develop multi-sensory areas inside the church which can be used for multi-sensory worship and play, as well as proper facilities for people with disabilities.
Two people from the diocese of Truro church buildings group will be with us to help with this process.
“Growetry”
Our global village art/ prayer/ poetry project.
Have you now planted the sunflower seed that you were given at the Cluster service last week? Please try to get them to germinate as the plants will be needed in the months to come as we think and pray about being “inclusive village” churches that welcome all. You might want to write a poem or prayer to accompany your seed project. Our first request is that when you cook, you open your tin cans from the bottom, take the labels off, and save the cans for us! This project is for all ages but will also include school days. NightChurch Alice.
Christian Aid Week 12th-18th May
Christians across Britain and Ireland will unite for Christian Aid Week – seven days of action to fund lasting change. There are so many ways you can get involved as an individual or a community. Why not hold a cake sale or a coffee morning? Together we can beat extreme poverty.
Update on heating system at St Mary’s Pz
The faculty application to install a new heating system at St Mary’s has now been sent to the diocese and we hope that we will get permission to go ahead in the next few days. Half the money for this new green and efficient heating system has now been pledged and raised. We thank you for your generosity and kindness. Many people have contributed very sacrificially in so many ways.
So we can now press ahead with the Church of England demonstrator project. We hope that with their support and guidance not only can we install this new type of heating which will allow the community to use the church more effectively, but this will give Penlee Cluster the opportunity to showcase this and encourage others to become more environmentally aware.
Seed Box at Paul
There is a bring and share box for surplus seeds that you might have after your sowing for your 2024 crop. Please place any extra in the box in the church porch at Paul – and please feel free to take any seeds that have been donated to the box by your fellow horticulturalists.
Parenting Teens Course
BRF Ministries have recently launched their new resource Parenting Teens. This will run alongside their long established Parenting for Faith course.
Equipping the parents of the teens you work with will pay dividends in terms of your ministry, as you see your young people mature in faith more quickly and deepen their relationship with Jesus. This brand-new course from Parenting for Faith will be free to view, download and run in your churches. Find out more at: Parenting for Faith | Parenting teens course (brf.org.uk)
Exploring images of Francis.
Epiphany house on Friday 19th April.
A one day retreat learning more about Francis. You can find out more here.
Julian Meeting
The Julian Meeting will be held online this Sunday at 6pm.
Mel, Judith, Virginia and Diana
Opening Reflection
Come now, put aside your busyness for a while,
take refuge for a time from your troubled thoughts;
throw away your cares and let your burdensome worries wait.
Take some time for God; rest for a while in Him.
Enter the secret room of your mind; put out everything except God, and whatever helps you to find Him.
Close the door of your mind and seek God.
Say now to God with all your heart
‘I seek your face, Lord, your face I seek.’
(St Anselm 1104. 36th Archbishop of Canterbury)
A FAREWELL PARTY
The Barn Dance held as a farewell to Andrew and Sian was a wonderful coming together of a large crowd of people who all had an important connection with one or both of them. The sense of fun and the willingness to participate were soon evident and it was thrilling to see the breadth of connection represented by the motley crowd of well-wishers assembled. The bring-and-share refreshments were generous in both quantity and style and much appreciated by all present; no doubt they provided the fuel for the energetic and hilarious dancing which seemed to bring almost everyone on to the floor at some point. Thank you, Sian and Andrew, for giving us all so much to celebrate about your time among us. We wish you Godspeed as you begin a new chapter of the Yates family story.
End of an era
Sunday 7th April saw Sian’s and Andrew’s final public act of Sunday worship in the Cluster. Appropriately, it brought together all four churches, and St. Mary’s was full. Alex had put together a montage of moments from across Sian’s and Andrew’s eleven years of ministry, which played on the TV screen throughout the service. It was a tender tribute to our much-loved pair of priests. (Some of us – I name no names! – wished they hadn’t worn their mascara, as more than a few tears were shed). It was a bittersweet experience: we were, and are, sad to see Sian and Andrew go, but at the same time, the service was so loving and warm that it was hard not to feel joy just to be there, to participate in this outpouring of affection. Prayers were said by members of the community, reflecting their gratitude for Sian’s and Andrew’s care and prayers were likewise said by Sian and Andrew for us. Lesley gave a particularly moving address on the witness and ministry with which Sian and Andrew have gifted the Cluster. This was a family reflecting on its time together and preparing itself for the next stage in its life. The people of this Cluster will be holding Sian and Andrew in prayer as they begin their next adventure and they in turn will be holding us in prayer, as we move into this new phase of our community’s life. May our days be enriched and sustained by the friendships built up and nurtured in our churches.
The Yates Family
The Yates family would like to express our gratitude for the many ways that you showed your support and kindness to us all last weekend….indeed throughout our ministries here in West Penwith. We have all valued our time with you and gained so much from the experience. You have helped to shape who we are and deepened our walk with Christ. Thanks too for your most generous gifts to us. Most appreciated. It was a privilege for us to administer communion to you on our last Sunday together with our daughter and son-in-law, both of whom have worked in Penzance as medics…they were deeply moved by that privilege of worshiping with you.
Welcome to new head teacher, Helen Kershaw
Please pray for Helen as she joins us to start this new term in our church schools. We look forward to working with her as she takes over the running of our schools.
CELTIC MORNING PRAYER
Each week day morning on zoom at 8 am
Zoom link https://tinyurl.com/2byzouwk
Weekly Blog/ newsletter and website.
Please send all information for the newsletter and blog in by Wednesday evenings. Please do NOT send information to Sian at her Teamleader email as we are now in the process of completing the handover of the blog and newsletter.
Please send to josie.huntley@penleecluster.com and communications@penleecluster.org.uk Thank you.
