May 2008
SERVICES
| 4th Ascension Sunday | 18th Trinity Sunday |
|---|---|
| 8.00 am Holy Communion | 8.00 am Holy Communion |
| 11.00 am Odyssey | 11.00 am Matins |
| Preacher: Dame Mary Tanner | Preacher: Revd Dr Malcolm Guite |
| 5.00 pm Meditative Eucharist | 5.00 pm Meditative Eucharist |
| Preacher: Canon Fraser Watts | Preacher: Canon Fraser Watts |
| 11th Pentecost Sunday | 25th Trinity 1/ Corpus Christi |
| 8.00 am Holy Communion | 8.00 am Holy Communion |
| 11.00 am Pentecost Eucharist | 11.00 am Mattins & Sermon |
| Preacher: Revd Dr Malcolm Guite | Preacher: Mr Charlie Moloney |
| 5.00 pm Meditative Eucharist | 5.00 pm Meditative Eucharist |
| Preacher: Canon Fraser Watts | Preacher: Canon Fraser Watts |
| Fridays: 10.30 am Holy Communion 5.30 pm Meditation | |
11.00 am READINGS
| Theme | Old Testament/Epistle | New Testament/Gospel |
| 4 | A Stacey Ephesians 4. 1-6 | Ordinand John 10. 1-4 & 14-16 |
| 11 | R Adams Acts 2. 1-11 | Chaplain John 14. 15-31a |
| 18 | G Barnes 1 Chron. 16. 23-36 | Chaplain John 16. 5-15 |
| 25 | M Lee Deuteron. 8. 11-end | C Walker James 5. 7-end |
Readers for June
1: Ordinands;
8 C Walker & Chaplain;
15: D Lynden-Bell & A Finn;
29: D Redhead & M Morris
Ascension Day (Thursday May 1st): One of the principal days of celebration in the Christian year. There will be a special Eucharist at 7.30 pm at which Fraser will preside and preach.
Sunday at Eleven
May 4th: Odyssey. The preacher at Odyssey will be Dame Mary
Tanner, who has long been a prominent
figure in work for Christian Unity, and is currently European President of
the World Council of Churches.
Her subject is ‘Unity – But What Sort?’
May 11th: Pentecost Eucharist: The once-a-month 11.00 am
Communion service will be on this Pentecost
(Whit) Sunday, in the same style as our Easter Eucharist. The preacher will
be Malcolm Guite.
May 18th: Prayer Book Sermon. Each year we have a special
sermon to express our affection and commitment to the Book of Common Prayer,
and this year it will be given by Malcolm, in the context of Prayer Book Mattins.
He will focus particularly on the approach to the Book of Common Prayer of
F. D. Maurice, who was Chaplain of St Edward’s in the 1870s.
May 25th: Mattins & Sermon. The preacher will be Charlie
Maloney, who is training for ministry at Ridley Hall. The theme will be the
life of a Christian community, taking as its starting point the life of early
Christians described in the Acts of the Apostles. We will use the canticles
set for Evening Prayer.
Common Prayer - Uncommon Pearls
Wednesdays at 5.30 pm
The Book of Common Prayer is a treasure house of beautiful language and searching
wisdom, but often its treasures, its pearls of great price lie neglected in
passages seldom used, or services seldom attended. This course will take some
of the finest prayerbook treasures out of the glass case and help us to see
how they can
inform and guide us now. The new Sunday services proposed for St. Edwards
will encorporate prayer book elements familiar to some and new to others,
here is a chance to look together at the canticles and collects, versicles
and responses which we will be part of our new liturgies at St. Edwards.
Wed. 30th April A Full-hearted Evensong: Appreciating the
Magnificat and the Nunc Dimitis
Wed. 7th May All Sorts and Conditions: Apreciating the BCP
set prayers
Wed. 14th May A Collection of Collects: Five esential little
prayers everyone should know by heart.
Sunday at Five
Fraser will preach at the Evening Eucharist throughout May, following through
the themes of the church year.
May 4th: Ascension Sunday. The sermon will focus on Jesus’
farewll commission to his disciples.
May 11th: Pentecost Sunday. The focus will be on the gift
of the Holy Spirit to be within and amongst humanity. This will also be a
healing service at which there will be laying on of hands.
May 18th: Trinity Sunday. The sermon will ask how far we
can and in speak about, or describe God.
May 25th: Corpus Christi: An occasions to reflect on how
the ‘body of Christ’ is present in the Eucharist.
Churchwardens and Chapter
Mr Steven Mastin & Mrs Judith Tonry were elected as Churchwardens for
the coming year, and were
admitted to office at the Patronal Festival. At the Annual Parochial Church
Meeting the following were
elected to the Deanery Synod for the coming three years, and will also be
ex-officio members of Chapter: Mr
Geoff Barnes and Dr Elizabeth Edwards. The following were elected to Chapter
for the coming year: Dr Ray
Adams, Prof. Woody Caan, Ms Liz Gulliford, Mr Michael Lee, Prof Ruth Lynden-Bell,
Ms Megan Morris,
Mrs Christina Johnson, Dr Chris Walker, Ms Ann Walton & Ms. Jeannet Weurman.
The following have been
co-opted on to Chapter: Mr Stephen Davies & Ms Jess Monaghan. Mr Oliver
Shone has been appointed
Chapter Clerk.
Holistic Spirituality: There will be meetings on May 11th & 18th at 3.30 pm, led by Malcolm.
Beta Course: The Beta Course will meet at 3.00 pm May 4th (loss & change) & 18th (stress & coping) in the Solarium of Queens’ College, led by Fraser.
Gothic Eucharist: 8.30 pm on Tuesday May 6th. Fraser will speak about Self Esteem.
From the Vicar-Chaplain - The Way of Common Prayer
Common Prayer is not just a book, it is a spiritual path.
The Book of Common Prayer is one of the most beautiful and important maps
and guides along that way, but the way itself is more than any of even its
most famous monuments. Common Prayer, a spiritual act in which we all participate
simultaneously is, when you think of it, an extraordinary thing. It would
be so easy for spirituality to become entirely privatised, interior and individual,
and in some forms of religion there is a pull in that direction. But common
prayer witnesses to something else. It witnesses to the reality of community
as well as individual, to our mutual support and indwelling, to truths we
can only glimpse in each other’s company. The key word in the BCP communion
service is ‘partake’, we partake together, each taking our part. We are not
just private individuals shopping around for a customised spiritual experience,
but ‘very members, incorporate in the mystical body…which is the blessed company
of all faithful people’.
Common prayer is a spiritual path with its own special disciplines and rewards.
For prayer to be done in common it must be commonly acceptable, it must be
something everyone can say, something which will bear repetition and has wisdom
to give to each person who ‘partakes’. Because it is common prayer, it calls
us to sink differences and agree. This is both the challenge it issues and
the good it gives. But because it is common, and open to all, it is also open
to all criticism and never without controversy. The Book of Common Prayer
so treasured now, caused riots when it was first introduced as many people
thought it lacked the dignity and mystery of the Latin rite, it was too ‘common’
in another sense of that term. For some people now it is not ‘common’ enough,
not close enough to people’s everyday language and concerns.
At St. Edwards we are about to embark together on new adventures in common
prayer. We will be guided by the treasured maps in the Book of Common Prayer,
and we will carry many of its familiar phrases with us on our new journey.
But the map is not the reality, and just as Cranmer pioneered new paths in
common prayer by pushing past the beaten track of Latin, so here, in the Odyssey
and Sunday Specials, in the Meditative, Contemplative and Goth Eucharists,
we are pioneering together some new paths which we hope will become enriching
‘common prayer’ for us, and perhaps also for the wider church.
Malcolm Guite
Clergy: Revd. Dr. Fraser Watts (19, Grantchester Road, CB3 9ED; 359223, fnw1001@cam.ac.uk); Revd Dr Malcolm Guite (694249, mg320@cam.ac.uk); Canon Alan Cole (892286, alan73@waitrose.com). Churchwardens: Dr. Elizabeth Edwards (313570, elizedwards@waitrose.com); Mr Steven Mastin (361041, stevenjamesmastin@yahoo.co.uk).Treasurer: Mr Geoffrey Barnes; (717757, Geoff.Barnes@cambridgeshire.gov.uk). Reader: Mr. Peter Marshall (564471). Church phone: 362004.
Find us at www.st-edwards-cam.org.uk