Worship
March 2021 Services
Services will continue via Zoom at 10.30am each Sunday for the time being. However, we intend to RESTART in person worship on 28th March when we will meet in Sotterley Park to celebrate Palm Sunday.
Do please contact the Rector if you have particular pastoral needs
Reference:- 854 4574 3292
Password:- HR&W
Join Zoom Worship
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85445743292?pwd=ajlFcy9idi8xL1poNjRxWnNkamVlUT09
You will find Orders of Service in the Downloads section below
Some churches will be open for private prayer only on the days shown below:-
Sotterley - daily during daylight hours
Weston - daily from 9.00am until dusk
Ilketshall St Andrew - Wednesdays (10.00am - Noon)
Shadingfield - daily during daylight hours.
Redisham - daily from 9.00am until dusk
Ringsfield - daily from 9.00am until dusk
Westhall - closed for roof repairs
The Benefice YouTube Channel continues and you will find worship, songs and readings there together with other items of general interest. Please go to:-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZRnb801h63ezGW0vXu8VXQ
The weekly Pew Sheet is available for download below.
Rector's Reflection & News
REFLECTION FOR LENT 3
When we were children, our parents gave us rules, sets of boundaries, expected us to help around the house.
My regular task was laying the table for supper each day, ready for when Dad arrived home from work at 6:00pm. I also helped Dad in the garden, after Mum had been through it like a whirlwind, dead-heading or pruning the roses. I remember a couple of summers spent digging out the plantains and weeds from the lawn.
The only family ‘rule’ that I consciously broke was that of facial hair. Mum always threatened my brother and I with living in the shed if we were to grow a beard or moustache. I stopped shaving at the age of 17 and, bar being clean shaven for the odd Spotlight production, have worn a beard ever since.
When God saw His people struggling with life, He gave them a set of rules, boundaries, to help them. The key rules we know as the Ten Commandments: four rules about our relationship with God and six rules for our relationship with each other.
The Psalmist tells us that:
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul … The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever. Psalm 19: 7, 9
The trouble is that perfection is hard to attain, it only takes a speck to cause impurity. God’s people struggled, and we struggle; something about our humanity is naturally rebellious.
This natural rebelliousness, in the Bible, is called ‘sin’. It draws us away from living in relationship with God. Paul tells us in Romans:
‘… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God …’Romans 3:23 (ANIV)
Out of His great love for us, God sent His Son, Jesus, to suffer for us, to be The Way, The Truth, The Life, to bring us back to God. And the way back to God starts at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus stretched out His arms to say, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.
’ There’s a way back to God from the dark paths of sin;
there’s a door that is open and you may go in:
At Calvary’s Cross is where you begin,
when you come as a sinner to Jesus.
Rev Phil
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The Blyth Valley Team Ministry
We are pleased to report that the Revd Dominic Doble has been appointed as Rector of the Blyth Valley Team Ministry and Priest in Charge of Heveningham with Ubbeston, Cookley and Huntingfield. Dominic is currently Rector of the Watercombe Benefice in The Diocese of Salisbury, and will join our Deanery at the end of July.
Kagera Lent Challenge 2021
We will be celebrating and enriching our link with the Diocese of Kagera in Tanzania through the Bishops' Lent Appeal. Please see the downloads section for more detail.
Benefice Notice Board
Roving Coffee Morning
Roving Coffee Morning
Roving Coffee Morning
The monthly coffee mornings are suspended until we can safely meet again
Safeguarding
Roving Coffee Morning
Roving Coffee Morning
The Parishes within the Benefice have adopted the House of Bishops' "Promoting a Safer Church" document, and have signed onto a Safeguarding Policy Statement.
Should you have any concerns regarding Safeguarding issues, please refer to:-
The Reverend Philip Miller on 01502 714786, or
Mrs Ann Hastings-Payne on 01502 711621 or Mr George Fisher on
01502 714534
You may also refer to the Diocesan web link shown below:-
www.cofesuffolk.org/concerns-and-contacts
Waveney and Blyth Deanery Synod
Waveney and Blyth Deanery Synod
Waveney and Blyth Deanery Synod
The next Deanery Synod will be on Wednesday 3rd March 2021 at 7.30pm.
The venue or Zoom joining details will be published nearer the time.
Benefice Council
Waveney and Blyth Deanery Synod
Waveney and Blyth Deanery Synod
Date of next meeting to be advised
2021 Census
Households across our Benefice will soon be asked to take part in Census 2021.
The census is a once-in-a-decade survey that gives us the most accurate estimate of all the people and households in England and Wales. It has been carried out every decade since 1801, with the exception of 1941.
It will be the first run predominantly online, with households receiving a letter with a unique access code, allowing them to complete the questionnaire on their computers, phones or tablets.
“A successful census will ensure everyone from local government to charities can put services and funding in the places where they are most needed,” Iain Bell, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics, said.
“This could mean things like doctors’ surgeries, schools and new transport routes. That’s why it is so important everyone takes part and we have made it easier for people to do so online on any device, with help and paper questionnaires for those that need them.”
Census day will be on March 21, but households across the country will receive letters with online codes allowing them to take part from early March.
The census will include questions about your sex, age, work, health, education, household size and ethnicity. And, for the first time, there will be a question asking people whether they have served in the armed forces, as well as voluntary questions for those aged 16 and over on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Results will be available within 12 months, although personal records will be locked away for 100 years, kept safe for future generations.
For more information, visit census.gov.uk. or see the Community Handbook in the “Downloads Section”
