This Sunday 25th October 2020 Online: YouTube (from 6am Sunday) Please register to attend In-Person using this link: Sunday 9:30am and 11:00am On Zoom : Sunday 11:30am until 13:00pm Remember that the clocks go back this weekend on Saturday night! If you are coming to in-person church on Sunday mornings, please register now for Sundays in November : Register As next week is half-term this mailing will take a week's break and be back on November 5th - if I remember! Also, there will not be a reminder email on Sunday morning, but you can access everything to do with our service from the front page of our website: www.stlukesramsgate.org "Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ." (Matthew 22:37) What is the greatest commandment? What is the most important rule we should follow? The rule of six? Social distancing? Respect others? Do no harm? Don't murder? There are lots of different answers that people might give. Jesus, however, goes straight to the heart, soul and mind of the matter. We need to love God totally. In a world where God is often written out of the story, where politicians 'don't do God' and the worldview underlying most of the dramas we watch are focussed on human rights - this is a radical claim. Yet, although Jesus does go on to give a second commandment that is about human relationships ("Love your neighbour as yourself") he still says the greatest commandment is to love God totally. Why is this the most important command? Firstly, we owe our existence, our skills, abilities and talents and everything we have to God. It is an act of deep ingratitude to not love him. Secondly human beings we are created in the Image of God. If we do not love God, then we are not loving the one in whose image we are created and so we devalue ourselves and others around us. You can't truly love your neighbour or yourself if you do not love the God in whose image they are made. Flipping all this around, the more we learn to love God, then the more we find true meaning and purpose in life and the more we come to respect and care for others around us. What our world is missing and what we need to share with them in word and deed is an understanding of God's love for us in Jesus Christ that will inspire them to love God in return. Please read on... Prayer: Contributions for this Sunday's service. Care: Can you improve on the images for Prayer, Care and Share? Share: Reviving your prayer life, help for parents thinking about Halloween and for men to persevere in faith. Video Clips for Sunday's Service: It was great to receive more clips last week for the Sunday opener. I hope we can have some more this evening too! It's simple and easy to do. Just record yourself saying this short line from Matthew 22:37: ...with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. I need to have the videos by the morning of Friday 23rd October (tomorrow). Please send them either by Whatsapp: 07769 871520 or WeTransfer 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: All staff and pupils having a half-term break that they will be refreshed. Those staff and pupils who are having to self-isolate because someone in their class has tested positive for coronavirus. Thanet Winter Shelter. Please pray for those planning how this can be run this winter with all the present restrictions. Give thanks that Jean Simmons is now out of hospital and give wisdom to those deciding the best care home for her to go to. Barb - Gloria's daughter's friend as she continues chemotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer Evelyn (Audrey's sister), who has now moved into a care home that she will settle there happily and be well looked after. Those struggling with deteriorating joints, especially those who are having to wait longer than normal because of the present crisis. Julia Arnheim has asked for prayer for healing from long term health conditions, especially as she approaches her 50th birthday this Sunday. At our PCC on Monday evening one of the items we discussed was changing our logo. Over the last few weeks we have been using the new circular logos to represent Prayer, Care and Share. We would like to incorporate these into an overall logo, but it was felt we could try and improve on them first. So, this is an invitation to the creative ones amongst you to see if you can come up with some better logos for Prayer, Care and Share. The logos need to be simple and bold and express clearly the ideas behind Prayer, Care and Share. Please send me any ideas or designs by November 5th! Last Week's Talk: How long? - A community cry How long will this pandemic last? Why is God letting this happen to us? These are natural questions to ask of God. Psalm 80 asks these questions on behalf of the people of Israel who are going through much greater suffering. Find out what the Psalmist thinks the answer is. This week three different links to share: The first is a blog that seeks to offer help in reviving a struggling prayer life: The next is a podcast for parents to help them think through how to respond to Halloween: Finally, a webinar for men on how to persevere in the Christian life. James Patterson recommended this and says he has signed up! You can join the hour long webinar at 7:30pm on either 10th, 11th or 12th November. Remember to love the Lord your God with all your, heart, mind and soul. Yours in Christ, Paul Worledge Vicar, St. Luke's Ramsgate www.stlukesramsgate.org
