18th April 2021

St Michael & St Wulfad Church, Stone

and St Saviour Church, Aston

11 April 2021

Third Sunday of Easter

 

We offer services of Holy Communion on Thursday and Sunday mornings at St Michael & St Wulfad Church, Stone and St Saviour Church, Aston

 

Health and safety advice will be rigorously adhered to. If you come into church, please maintain a social distance from others, log in to “track and trace”, use hand sanitiser and wear a face covering, as well as avoiding conversation or gatherings inside the building.

 

Please do not feel under any pressure to attend church before you are ready to! Our prayers are with you all, and the ministry team will continue to film an act of worship for you to follow each week on our website, church Facebook pages and myYouTube channel.

Ian Cardinal

Notices

Weekly Services of Holy Communion

Thursday            10.30am St Michael & St Wulfad, Stone

Sunday               8am and St Michael & St Wulfad, Stone

                9.15am St Saviour, Aston

                10.45am St Michael & St Wulfad, Stone

Please do join us if you are able to.

 

APCM time:Our Churches both hold their annual meetings in the next week or two:

 at Aston the meeting in Monday 19^th April after a 7pm service of Holy Communion.

At Stone the meeting is April 25^th after our morning service at 10.45am.

 

Our times are still extraordinary and many normal regulations on Church government are still suspended, but we hope to plan for a brighter year ahead. Do join us if you can

 

Home Communion during Eastertide

If you do not yet feel able to come back into church, but would like to receive Holy Communion in your home, please contact Revd Ian,

John or Alison and one of us will be happy to come and visit you.

 

Virtual Sunday School

Our virtual Sunday School will now be taking a break, but please do continue to hold our leaders Jill and Laura, the children and the future of this valuable ministry in your prayers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stone with Aston Sunday afternoon prayers

This time of prayer continues each week. It is a short service (approximately 30 minutes) that we are able to share in together at 4pm each Sundayvia phone or internet.

For the next few weeks we will be using the Easter Prayer Sheet.

 

To join us:

• Phone this number 0131 460 1196or 0203 481 5237
• enter the meeting ID on your telephone keypad 897 6759 5340
• you will be asked for a participant number - just enter #
• enter the password which is 928354

or join online via ‘Zoom’

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89767595340?pwd=aWt0VjRQUlpGeHkvMHVLbHdla3dZdz09

Regular giving

Would you consider making regular donations to the church via standing order from your bank?

If you are able to do this, please contact John Baddeley on 01785 815397, or email johnandpat@allaboutimage.net

for St Michaels, or Paul Gerrard on 01785 818363 or email pagerrard@btinternet.comfor St Saviour’s. Thank you!  

 

St Michael & St Wulfad Spring Fair

Following the success of the event at Christmas we are going to hold a virtual Spring Fair. If you have any spare flowering plants, tomato plants etc. that you have grown from seed or cuttings, or if you would like to make a hanging basket, container or alternately bake a cake, scones, shortbread etc. or make a craft item we will put a list at the back of church for you to sign up to until 25^th April. We will then circulate a list of what is available and who to contact. All proceeds will go to much needed church funds. Philip Leason

 

 

Contact details

Please do contact any of the team should you need to:

 

Revd Preb Ian Cardinal 01785 812747   

Dennis Abbott 01785 814134

Revd Alison Hudson 07725 467246      

Fr John Cotterill 07734 815838

Lin Davies 01889 505094

 

Readings and Collect for Sunday 18 April

Acts 3: 12-19   1 John 3: 1-7 Luke 24: 36b-48

Almighty Father, who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples with the sight of the risen Lord: give us such knowledge of his presence with us,that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;  through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen

Reflection

Luke 24: 36 – 48

 

If we are honest with ourselves, many of us have doubts about our faith at some time or another. It may be that particular things that happen in our lives make us question whether there really is a God and why a loving God ‘allows’ these things to happen.

 

The other day I was reading a bible commentary relating to the passage in John 10, where Jesus says ‘I have come in order that you might have life – life in its fullness’. The commentary explored the meaning of ‘life in its fullness’ and whilst I had always considered this to mean ‘the good things of life’, it was clear that the phrase has a wider meaning. We know from experience that life in its fullness often includes pain, broken relationships, financial difficulty etc. I still have some thinking to do around this but it has changed my perception.

 

When Jesus appears to the disciples after his Resurrection, even with him standing before them, they are filled with doubts and fear. In response Jesus invites them to do two very human things, to touch him and to share a meal with him and he shows them his hands and his feet, no doubt still bearing the scars of the nails inflicted on him at the crucifixion. He goes on to open up the scriptures to them.

 

In many ways, the doubts experienced by the disciples are reassuring to those of us who sometimes (maybe even now) have doubts and are trying to make sense of the Easter story and what it means for us in our everyday life.

 

The disciples, as we know from the Book of Acts went on to face many dangers and sufferings in the name of Christ. We might say they lived life in its fullness. The famous prayer of Saint Richard of Chichester seems particularly apt for those experiencing doubts at this time:

 

Thanks be to thee,

my Lord Jesus Christ,

for all the benefits which

thou hast given me

for all the pains and insults

which thou hast borne for me.

O most merciful Redeemer,

Friend and Brother,

may I know thee more clearly,

love thee more dearly,

and follow thee more nearly.

Amen.

                                                                                            Easter Blessing    Fr John

 

 

 

Prayers of Intercession

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us a little child

one of us, flesh and blood to share in our humanity

For God so loved the world That all might have eternal life

 

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as carpenter

and yet in whose creative hands a world was fashioned

For God so loved the world That all might have eternal life

 

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as fisherman

and yet pointed to a harvest that was yet to come

For God so loved the world That all might have eternal life

 

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as teacher

and opened eyes to truths that only

the poor could understand

For God so loved the world That all might have eternal life

 

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as healer

and opened hearts to the reality of wholeness

For God so loved the world  That all might have eternal life

 

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as servant

and revealed to us the extent of his Father's love

for human kind

For God so loved the world That all might have eternal life

 

Blest are you, Lord Jesus, who rose

from the ignominy of a sinner's death

to the triumph of a Saviour's resurrection

For God so loved the world That all might have eternal life

 

Amen

Those we include inourprayers of intercession

 

Please pray for the sick in the benefice:

Elsie Richardson, Vera Tomkinson, Neil & Pat Wynne, Gary Kelsall, John Richardson, Peter Bowler, Catherine Ritchie, James Astle, Miles Brain, John & Ann Shuttleworth, Margaret Wright, Molly Wright, Norman Latham, Mary Leigh, Gillian Wright, John Hargreaves, Val Morris, June Stringer, Jim Hammersley, Duncan Leak, Margaret Tomlinson, Carl Hartley, Karen Hartley, Alison Holmes, Pam Miles,

Kath Franks, Margaret Moss

 

For the recently departed, remembering their families and friends:

Alan Holmes, Ruth Brock

 

For those whose year’s mind falls in this month from St Michael’s:

Benjamin Dunkey 1977, Reginald Rowley 1984, John Simpson Fox 1991, Jack Smith 1992, Emily Voyle 1992, Elsie Bowman 1977, George Wright 1963, Eileen Peel 1994, Arthur Warrilow 1976, Stan Barnes 1987, Lady Anna Shepard Johnson 1980, Daisy Gadsby 1999, Fred Brassington 2000, John Bailey 2001, Revd Laurence Waldren 2005, Arthur Porter 2004, Herbert Douse 2005, Alfred Grainger 1997, William Rushton 1993, Donald Noding 2014, Nancy Leason 2001, Florrie Metters 2001

 

and from St Saviour’s:

Justina Pinney 1986, William Pattyson 1986, Stanley Bradley 1988, Anne Davies 1991, Percy Woodman 1991, Olive Benbow 1998, Norman Gadsby 1999, Alice Hilling 2000, Ruby Forsbrooke 2001, Eileen Jones 2001, Evaline Buckle 2002, Joyce Collier 2002, Elizabeth Burton 2003, George Clayton Allen 2004, Jon Shaw 2004, Eileen Burgess 2005, Florence Burgoyne 2007, Francis Chell 2008, Stanley Pearson 2009, Ethel Talbot 2012, Edith Shirley 2012, Edith Barker 2012, Patricia Watkins 2015, Helen Reaney 2015, Frank Beech 2015, June Cornes 2016, Annie Sutton 2018, James Shardlow 2019, Patrick Collier 2019, Margaret Bott 2020

St Michael & St Wulfad and St Saviour Church

 

Cycle of Prayer for our benefice

 

Week 1

Church St, The Coppice Estate, George Rd, Hempbutts, High St, Mill St, Morrisons, Crown St, Joules Court, St Michaels Close, Lichfield St, businesses in High St and Mill St

 

Week 2

Priory Estate, Abbey St, Lichfield Rd, Grange Rd, Millwalk, Shepley Close, Redlands, Brookfield Court, Pingle Lane, Ridgeway, Flax Croft, Westover Drive, Parkhouse Drive, Old Rectory Road, Claremont Close, Cedar Park, Parkway, Aston Lodge Park, Aston

 

Week 3

Stone Golf Club, Stone Cricket Club, Community Fire Station, Trent Clinic, Doctors Surgeries, Dental Surgeries, Pharmacies and all the staff, St Michaels First School, Pirehill First School, Manor Rise, Walton Priory, The Moorings, Summerfield Court, Autumn House

 

Week 4

Walton Grange, Stafford Rd, Stafford Close, Stonehouse Hotel, Stone Business Park, Aldi, Farms within the parish, Eccleshall Rd, Cherryfields Estate, Walton Way, Walton Community Centre, Whitemill Lane and Air Ministry Estate

 

Week 5

Pirehill Lane, Beacon Rise and environs, Longhope Rd, Fillybrooks, Residents on A34, Udell Grange, Anwyl Homes, Sweepers Ave, Blundell Drive and environs, Common Lane, Crestwood Drive, Foxwood Close, Tilling Drive Estate