Ways to worship from home
While our church buildings are closed we hope that this will be a time for creativity and innovation in how we can worship and learn together as a Christian community.
The nine-day period between Ascension and Pentecost is a special time of
prayer and reflection. Across the world Christians from all
denominations are following a growing prayer initiative called Thy Kingdom Come.
I encourage everyone to take part and take a look at the resources that
they are providing. This year there is a series of podcasts by Tom Wright.
Quintetchurches Live Streaming and Interactive Services
Join us to celebrate Pentecost on YouTube here
or
Register for our weekly email and join us on Zoom at 11am
I'm also planning a SPECIAL BENEFICE FILM to celebrate PENTECOST.
If you'd like to be part of that film, send me a short video clip, and audio recording or an email of a prayer or testimony and I'll try to incorporate your contribution into the film. which I will upload on YouTube.
Be part of the CHURCH ALIVE video project for Pentecost.
Click here to find out how you could contribute.
YOUTUBE:
Log in to Revd James Sawyer's new YouTube Channel to find live streamed and recorded prayers and worship.
Alternatively, we have these interactive services for registered email recipients:
If you are not already registered, click on the image to request the link
ZOOM:
Church members who have registered to our regular email will receive a link to Zoom 'Meetings' where we can see one another online and gather for interactive worship. We are using the upgraded security version of Zoom and meetings are also password protected.
We've set up links to various apps and service providers on our Digital Connections page.
RESOURCES FOR THE EASTER-TRINITY SEASON :
Find the readings for each Sunday on our Bulletin and Newsletter page
Order of Service PDF for the Church seasons of Easter through to Trinity:
Download a PDF copy of our Evening Worship Liturgy here
Browser links (click on image) to a selection of Sunday's recorded broadcasts here:
Watch the service on YouTube here
Link to our special Ascenstion Day service video on YouTube. Live from 7.30pm on 21st May.
Click on the image to go direct to the video
Videos and recordings of other recent services we have already issued:
The 8am service is an MP3 audio file of the BCP Lord's Supper for Easter Day.
This Easter Day Holy Communion is available to view on YouTube.
Am interactive service with contributions from across the benefice.
The recording of this service has not been uploaded.
Recorded and uploaded for Sunday afternoon.
This Service was not recorded: a short reflection and Compline (Night Prayer) at sundown.
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR EASTER DAY, icluding readings, PDF HERE
AUDIO: Hymns for Eadter Day
Discover: How to improvise a palm cross and How to make an Easter Garden.
GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE
Our one hour Devotions Service recorded live from the Vicarage.
PALM SUNDAY SERVICES
9.30 am Holy Communion - Recording of Live Stream YouTube
11.00 Recording of the Family Service via ZOOM - interactive first
Palm Sunday Service booklet HEREMaking a Palm Cross for Palm Sunday
Download a PDF worksheet click on the image.
Here are some videos we released earlier:
Live stream from our Evening Worship 29th March
6.00pm Sunday 29th March - This one worked!
Download a copy of the Lent Communion Liturgy here
Preparing to join in with an Agape (love) meal or a Communion
Jesus asked his closest friends and followers to gather with him in an upstairs room in Jerusalem the evening before his arrest. At that meal he asked everyone assembled to remember him in the breaking of bread and drinking of wine.
As we think about the events of passiontide - Jesus final journey to Jerusalem, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday , Good Friday and Easter Day - we connect them with the festival of Passover and the special meal that sits at the heart of Jewish identity. But what Jesus chose to communicate his message to his friends were equally every-day food and drink. So although Christians have turned this remembering into a sophisticated ceremony, what Jesus was doing was using things that would enable those people to remember him daily. "Give us today our Daily Bread" Jesus teaches them to pray. On the road to Emmaus, the disciples who'd left Jerusalem after the horrors of Good Friday, sat down for an ordinary evening meal with a stranger, and recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
The point of the communion service is that, together, the act of breaking bread and eating and drinking, we remember Jesus. And in remembering him in that moment, he is with us; within us.
So in these strange and desperate time we can all remember him daily, every time we eat and drink our rations. And when we meet 'virtually' in communion from our homes, I believe we can find something to eat and drink and remember Jesus in the moment. And by the grace of the Holy Spirit, he will be with us.
So before joining an online communion or Agape, find something to drink, preferably a glass of wine, port or sherry, and find some bread or a cracker, and join the community online.
Sing with us
COME HOLY GHOST - MP3
Rosie and I decided to sing this for you at Morning Prayer on Mothering Sunday. We hope you like it. PRESS TO PLAY1 Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire
and lighten with celestial fire;
thou the anointing Spirit art,
who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.
2 Thy blessed unction from above
is comfort, life, and fire of love;
enable with perpetual light
the dullness of our mortal sight.
3 Teach us to know the Father, Son,
and thee, of both, to be but one;
that through the ages all along
this may be our endless song:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Daily Prayer Recordings
See our prayer resources for more information
Other Online Services you might like
REGULAR LIVE STREAMED SERVICES ~FROM St Albans Cathedral
If the YouTube links on this site don't work, please log-in to YouTube and search for St Albans Cathedral.
Contact
The Vicarage
Great Hormead
Buntingford
Hertfordshire
SG9 0NT
01763 289258