ST. PHILIP’S E-NEWSLETTER
4 JUNE 2010
COMMENTS FROM THE EDITOR
Your weekly (well, most weeks) newsletter (well, more than news and far less than gossip) zooming (at least arriving) into your intray (metaphorically, of course) for information and fun and enjoyment (or at least one out of three).
THOUGHT
Charles Taylor is a Canadian philosopher whose thinking on the conception of the self in the modern world and on secularity is both insightful and challenging. He is a practising Catholic who is at home in the post-modern world, searching for ways of thinking through the depths of our faith and cultural heritages. Here he has been talking about links across boundaries based ‘not on kinship but on the kind of love which God has for us, which we call agape’. He continues….
‘The corruption of this new network comes when it falls back into something more ‘normal’ in worldly terms. Sometimes a church community becomes a tribe and treats outsiders as Jews treated Samaritans. But the really terrible corruption is a kind of falling forward, in which the church develops into something unprecedented. The network of agape involves a kind of fidelity to the new relations…and we are led to shore up these relations; we institutionalise them, introduce rules, divide responsibilities. In this way, we keep the hungry fed, the homeless housed, the naked clothed; but we are now living caricatures of the network life. We have lost some of the communion…which is at the heart of the Eucharist. The spirit is strangled.’
(Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, p. 739)
Your minister read these words with great interest. It’s not just a matter of welcoming those outside the church, overcoming that which is ‘natural’; it’s also a matter of genuine relationships within the many programmes; and most of all it is true communion with each other and God. Perhaps it’s the latter that is the most difficult to attain and the one that is most intangible. But that’s for another day….
WORSHIP
The order follows. The question for this Sunday:
How far should science interfere with the created world?
Another one. Thanks guys. You keep the minister’s life easy.
But questions arise: What is science? What is the created world? Created by whom? If science should in some cases interfere and in others shouldn’t, who decides and based on what principles?
Help.
Walk joyfully on the earth and respond to that of God in every human being. George Fox
Welcome, announcements and silence
Opening Collect (said together)
Almighty and merciful God, you have assured the human family of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Deliver us from the shadow of sin and raise us up to new life in him, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Hymn 125 Lord of all being
Talking Together
Hymn 245 It’s a world of sunshine
Readings The creator God Psalm 33:1-9
The sun stands still Joshua 10:6-14
Offering
Prayers and Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 238 Lord, bring the day to pass
Reading
Jesus raises Lazarus John 11:28-44
Reflection How far should science interfere with the created world?
Prayer
Hymn 119 O God, thou art the Father
Blessing
EVENTS
Announcements for Sunday, 6th June 2010
Sunday 6 June
- Tea and Coffee will be served in the main hall after the 11am service. There will also be home baking and Fair Trade goods for sale.
- Choir Practice: There will be no choir practice today.
- Talents: Offered and Wanted: If you are able to offer a service that someone else may need, or are looking for someone to do a job for you – a sheet is available in the vestibule. For those who have goods they wish to sell for the fundraiser, there will be a Talents Bring and Buy Stall on the first Sunday of each month at coffee. Any queries, speak to Angela Stewart or Helen McIntyre.
- Shopping for the Homeless: The Grassmarket Community, who help the homeless in Edinburgh, have asked if people would be willing to add a bit extra to their shopping basket. Stock cubes, sugar, lentils, salt and pepper are always needed.
- Fundraising Penny Tubes are available today for your small change. Please take one. Full tubes can be returned to the basket in the vestibule and a new one taken to start filling again! The total has now crept up to £433 – really great!
Monday, 7th June 2010
- The Prayer Group The Prayer Groups meets at 9.45 in the Baird Hall. Prayer Request Boxes have been placed on both sides of the vestibule. All are welcome to join us.
- The Coffee Club meets at 10am in the Session Room. All are welcome to join us. For more information please contact Pat Knox on 669 3765.
Saturday, 19th June 2010
- The Walking Group meets at 10.30am in Brunstane Road North to travel by car to Eddleston for an eight mile walk west of Eddleston. All are welcome to join us. For more information please contact Gill or George Anderson.
Sunday, 20th June 2010
- ‘Fire Under the Stars’ – Storyteller at St James’ on the evening of Sunday, 20th June. Arranged through PEDAL, Eric Maddern, will be at St James’ giving a performance which would suit older children. For more information please see Stewart.
Sunday, 27th June 2010
- Communion will be celebrated at 9.30am and 11am. There will also be an innovative communion service at 7.30pm.
Tuesday, 29th June 2010
- The Film Club presents ‘The Princess Bride’ at 7.30pm in the Sanctuary. Please join us for discussion, fellowship, snacks and of course…a great movie!
JOKE
With the question asked for this week, a joke about one of our more famous scientists seemed appropriate…..
Richard Dawkins was having an argument with God, and said: “With the state of knowledge today, I can make man from dust too.”
“OK,” said God, “go ahead.”
So Dawkins starts.
God then says: “No, no, you don’t understand. Go get your own dust.”
But I think, in true humility, we should also balance things off with a joke about the Church of Scotland…
During a Church of Scotland worship service a man began to be moved by the Spirit.
Out loud he said “Amen!” People around him were a little disturbed.
Then louder he said, “Hallelujah!” A few more people were becoming disturbed.
Louder still he shouted “Praise Jesus!”
An usher moved quickly down the aisle. He bent over and whispered to the man, “Sir!. Control yourself!”
The man exclaimed, “I can’t help it. I got religion!!!”
To which the usher responded, “Well you didn’t get it here!”
Have a good weekend!!
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