Join us Online: YouTube (from 6am Sunday)

The church is open at 11:00am on Sunday for a family service.

Last Sunday 27 people attended.

If you plan to come to in-person church please register!

(You can now book for services through to July 18th, you can either book one week at a time or all the services in one go. We'll take your most recent booking when drawing up the register. So you can always rebook to change what you have said you are doing.)

Register to attend

Also, join us for a chat at 11:30am on Sunday: 

Click this link to join the Zoom meeting.​

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16)

It has been great to be able to continue to share God's word through preaching online despite the Pandemic and lockdown restrictions. You may also have benefited from watching other sermons from other churches through this time. However, we must remember that church is not just one person teaching and lots of other people listening. 

There are a number of occasions in the New Testament, where the phrase, 'one another' appears. The verse above is a good example. Sharing God's word with others is the responsibility of all Christians. Bible teaching is not limited to preachers and Bible Study group leaders, rather we are all to teach one another as we work out how to apply the Bible to our daily lives.

Of course this needs wisdom. If you just go up to someone and tell them they are not following the Bible's teaching in some way, you are more likely to upset them than bring about godly change in their lives. However, if in the context of a loving and caring relationship you can find ways to gently show them the truth of God's word, then God may use you to bring about a wonderful transformation in someone's life. Either by bringing them to live more as Christ wants them to live or helping them find strength and comfort in the midst of difficult circumstances.

So, as we rebuild coming out of the Pandemic, how can we find ways to encourage others with God's word? Certainly, through informal conversations and meetings, but also in organised study groups and for some taking on responsibility of leading or teaching in small groups for children or others. 

As we seek to rebuild, lets find how best to set up structures that encourage us to share God's word with one another so that we may be a church where the word of Christ does indeed dwell richly.

Join us this Sunday. We will be looking at Nehemiah 8:1-12. Rebuild: Rejoicing in God's Word.​

Please read on...

• Prayer: Urgent: Last chance to send in an opener. The latest prayer requests.
• Care: The Adjusted Roadmap.
• Share: Last Sunday. St. Luke's Life Stories. Ministry in Dangerous places.

Contributions to this week's Opener

URGENT:

As this is the last week before we move over to Livestreaming, it is the last time we will be asking people to send in a short video opener. It would be nice to have a good number this week.

For this Sunday:  We need people responding to:

"Let the Word of Christ...."

with:

"....dwell in you richly!"

Please send video contributions in as soon as possible (by 10am on Friday). You can send them by Whatsapp (07769 871520) or by WeTransfer.com to: [email protected].

Prayer Requests:

​​Be assured I will do my best to check that people are happy for the requests to be shared before including them. Please pray for...

• Our music and livestreaming teams as we prepare for the switch to Livestreaming from 27th June.

• Alison's granddaughter, Lexi. Give thanks that the growth on her knee is only cartilage/bone. It likely to be removed at the end of August.
  

• Friends of Pam Morecroft who sadly passed away peacefully last Sunday evening, aged 91.
  

• Barb (Gloria's daughter's friend).

• Flo Baldock - now on tablets to treat an ulcer in her stomach. Pray for healing.

• Katrina (Norah's daughter) has cancer in the lung, but the good news is it can be easily removed with just surgery. Give thanks that this is treatable and pray that the operation would be successful.

• Rita who is not feeling well, because of a thyroid issue.

• Jean Simmons. Please pray that she can be kept comfortable at this time. She is now in a nursing home.

• Pauline Emptage waiting to hear from King's College Hospital about next steps for treating her back.

• Nathan Court for his continuing treatment.

Please also continue to pray for: Jean Mayton, Jeannette (Claudia's sister), Shirley Crabb, Collette Judge and Joy Smithers.

The Adapted Roadmap

In light of the government’s announcement on Monday, we clearly need to adjust the roadmap that we had planned. We still need to sort our a number of details, but below gives a rough outline of how I think things will develop – assuming lockdown restrictions are fully lifted on 19^th July.

The idea now will be to have a staged approach, with different aspects of ‘normal services’ re-introduced at different stages:

Stage 1: Sunday 27^th June

Switch to Livestreaming rather than pre-recorded services. Music group / singers to perform live in church.

Sunday 4^th July – Claire Coleman joins us as curate

Stage 2: Sunday 25^th July

Re-introduce refreshments and host teams for services.

We are hoping that at this stage, social distancing restrictions are lifted, masks no longer need to be worn and we can sing in church. We will need to see who is willing to be a part of a team to help offer hospitality to our services.

Stage 3: Sunday 5^th September

Re-introduce children’s groups. We had been planning for 4 weeks of sessions for Sunday Club from June 27th. We will now run these from 5th September. This also gives us more time to sort out how best to support our children and young people at Secondary School and find leaders for Sparklers. Please keep praying for these issues.

If you would like to chat about your involvement as we prepare for these different stages, then please do be in touch. You can arrange a meeting with me (on the phone / by Zoom, with me visiting or visiting the vicarage) using the button below.

Last Week's Talk:

Rebuild: To Lead is to Care - Available Online

Leadership is one of the gifts given to some people for the sake of the church (Romans 12:4-8), but how are we to lead well? What does it mean to govern diligently? What kind of leadership is caring? What kind of leadership should we give? What kind of leadership should we look for and encourage? How do we support caring leadership? Nehemiah gives us a great example of leadership.

St. Luke's Stories

Remember you can use this form to send in your personal reflections on your pandemic experience, which we can then publish. We also welcome mini-autobiographies and poems! Please just email them. In the meantime check out the poems and stories already there...

Ministering in Dangerous Settings

This week we have a couple of blogs on how people are seeking to grow the church in contexts where it is dangerous to be known as a Christian.

Bible Mission in Communist Laos

Vatsana Mahaphone, 71, is at the forefront of Bible work in Laos. Here she tells her story and thanks you for your crucial support for her challenging ministry in a communist country that is one of the poorest in East Asia.

Casting a Network for Spiritual Seekers in the Middle East

Medhat is a local partner working across the Middle East. Here he tells how people have come to hear the good news of Jesus both in person and online, even during lockdowns.

Finally, let's keep on sharing God's word with one another.

Yours in Christ,

Paul Worledge 

Vicar, St. Luke's Ramsgate

www.stlukesramsgate.org​