May 2010

Services

Sunday Services	Friday Services
8.00 am Holy Communion (Prayer book)	10.30 am Holy Communion
11.00 am Sunday at Eleven	5.30 pm Meditation
5.00 pm Meditative Eucharist

Sunday at Eleven May 2nd: Odyssey: all the men in grey mitres Preacher Very Revd Colin Slee Colin Slee, Dean of Southwark, is one of the most effective and radical advocates in the Church of England today of a forward-looking, progressive, inclusive church. May 9th: Eastertide Baptism Preacher Canon Fraser Watts Easter is the traditional season for baptisms, and for good reason. Baptism helps us to understand the meaning of Easter, and Easter helps us to understand baptism. It will be a pleasure to welcome Leo Hunter, son of Megan and Tim, to St Edward's for his baptism. May 16th: Ascensiontide Eucharist Preacher Revd Dr Malcolm Guite This Eucharist falls in Ascensiontide, when we celebrate the lifting up of Christ in glory. Every Eucharist includes the words 'lift up your hearts', and Malcolm will reflect on how the Ascension helps us to lift up our hearts. Mar 23rd: Pentecost Celebration Preacher Revd Malcolm Guite Pentecost is a major occasion in the church year, and a day to celebrate the Holy Spirit. Malcolm will preach on the distinction between 'gifts' and 'fruit' in the spiritual life, and the importance of making room for both. The service will also incorporate reflections from the holistic spirituality sessions on gifts of the spirit. Mar 30th: Trinity Sunday Service Preacher Canon Fraser Watts Trinity Sunday is a day to reflect on that deepest of all realities that we call 'God', and on the inner relations between the three 'persons' of God. This year, Fraser will approach that from the vantage point of Jesus, and use the gospels to try to underestand more deeply Jesus' relationship to His 'Father' and to the 'Spirit'.

Meditative Eucharist - Sunday at Five May 2nd: Waiting for the Spirit (i) Preacher Phil Greig In these Sundays before Pentecost, three different people will reflect on what waiting for the spirit means to them, starting with Phil Greig, training for ordination at Ridley Hall. May 9th: Waiting for the Spirit (ii) Preacher Christina Johnson Christina will talk about waiting for the spirit as the divine image within, and what that has been like in her personal spiritual journey. This will also be a healing service. May 16th: Waiting for the Spirit (iii) Preacher Fraser Watts Fraser will try to understand how expectation of the Spirit arose in Jesus' original disciples, and how their grief over Jesus' crucifixion came together with their faith in waiting for the Spirit. May 23rd: Pentecost Preacher Fraser Watts The Pentecost story is about the spirit-breathed life into the 'dry bones' of Jesus' disciples, reinvigorating them for Christian life, and how the Spirit can reinvigorate church life today. May 30th: Trinity Sunday Preacher Fraser Watts Trinity Sunday is an opportunity to reflect on how we encounter the deepest reality of all in three ways: above us, beside us, and within us.

Ascension Day: Thursday 13th May is Ascension Day, one of the major Christian festivals, and there will be a special Eucharist at 7.30pm at which Fraser will preside and preach.

Holistic Spirituality Group: 'gifts of the Spirit': The group will meet at 5.30pm on 21st April and 5th and 19th May, to reflect together on the experience of spiritual gifts such as vision, prophecy, and ecstatic utterance in Christianity and also in other faiths. This will be part of our preparation for the feast of Pentecost and some of the group's reflections will be incorporated into the Pentecost service. All are welcome.

Healing: There will be laying on of hands for healing at the 5.00pm Eucharist on May 9th, Rogation Sunday.

Gothic Eucharist: Alternate Tuesdays at 8.30pm. On May 4th Fraser will preach on 'Integrity: relating to ourselves', and on May 18th, on 'Interdependence: relating to others'.

Congratulations: to Edith Rignell on her 100th birthday on 14th April, and to Chris Warner and Becky Applin on their wedding on 17th April.

Meditation: The meditation group meets on Friday at 5.30pm, led by Fraser Watts.

Annual Parochial Church Meeting: The meeting will be held in church at 2.30pm on Saturday 24th April. Ten ordinary members of Chapter will be elected, and may be nominated either in advnce or at the meeting.

Chapter: The newly elected Chapter will meet at 6.30pm on Tuesday 12th May in the Divinity Faculty.

Sunday 8.00am Communion: May 2: Easter 4; May 9: Easter 5; May 16: Ascension 1; May 23: Whit Sunday; May 30: Trinity Sunday

Chaplain's Letter: An Oasis (Malcolm Guite)

This is a time for taking stock and making new beginnings. It's not simply that we are doing so as a Nation with a spring election, but also that all the firms, societies, companies, and indeed churches, that make up our wider 'society' are all, in this season, having their AGMs, reviewing their aims, renewing their commitments. In this season St Edwards too has its APCM and its Patronal Festival, and Fraser will be reflecting with us on his vision for the church. As part of that stock-taking and re-orientation, I want to reflect on a word people often use to describe St Edwards; and that word is 'Oasis'.

Time and again people who step through the door of St Edwards breathe a deep sigh and say 'oh, it's like coming into an oasis!' I think this word shows us two very specific ways in which we can serve our community, corresponding to two roles played by an oasis in the desert. First it is a place of peace, beauty and refreshment. People find it in the midst of the wilderness and they rest, they drink deep from longed-for waters, and, like the plants around the oasis itself, they unfold their leaves and blossom.

But the oasis in the desert is also a place of community - a meeting place and staging post for travellers. On their journey through the wilderness, folk come to the oasis and find not only refreshment, but also company, wise advice, the stories and experience of others, a chance to re-orient, to find fellow travellers for the next stage of a journey. The oasis is a place from which to set off with renewed hope and vision.

I believe it is St Edwards' vocation to be an oasis in both these ways. I am very grateful to Geoff and the others who keep the church open and welcoming on weekdays so that weary folk can escape the bustle and noise of touristy Cambridge and step in the deep refreshing wells of prayer and silence that soak through the walls of St Edwards. If you haven't stepped into church amidst the bustle of the week, then do so and do let others know about it too.

Likewise, if you are someone who has found in the community of St Edwards the stories, the experience, the new orientation that helps you on your own journey, you might like to think whether there are any people you know who might benefit from finding such a staging post in their journey too, and bring them along to whichever service or event might help them most so that they too might find here an oasis where they can link with fellow travellers, take bearings, and be encouraged on their journey.

Clergy: Revd Dr Fraser Watts (19, Grantchester Road, CB3 9ED; 359223); Revd Dr Malcolm Guite (694249); Canon Alan Cole (892286). Lay Chaplain: Mrs Christina Johnson (572669) Churchwardens: Mr Steven Mastin (361041); Mrs Judith Tonry (892160). Deputy wardens: Mr Geoffrey Barnes (also Treasurer)(362004); Chris Boden (07896 463212) Chapter Clerk: Mr Stephen Davies (242636). Student Pastor: Matt Owen (07791 647927). Church phone: 362004