Throughout Lent we will be providing you with appropriate hymns, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today is Ash Wednesday, and we begin with the hymn “Forty Days and Forty Nights”, and the Handel’s anthem “Wash Me Throughly” … More Forty Days and Forty Nights
In last month’s article for the magazine, I wrote about preparing for Lent. A slightly different way of preparing for Lent is to reflect on the journey of our own life and what our priorities are. The story below illustrates this. … More Rev Deborah’s March Letter to the Parish
Today’s gospel reading, at first glance, is a curious little story. Jesus had performed many healings, including restoring the sight of blind people, so why did he take this man out of the village, put saliva on his eyes and lay hands on him twice? Presumably Jesus could have healed him instantly. As with many of Jesus miracles, the answer lies in its symbolic significance … More I See Men as Trees Walking
One way to get to grips with the stories from the gospels is to imagine ourselves in them. With his painting “Storm on the sea of Galilee”, Rembrandt did just that. He was just twenty-seven when he painted this picture, his only seascape. It is difficult to imagine its impact as it is over five feet high, and more than four feet wide. Sadly, you cannot go to see it for yourselves. No one knows where it is – it was stolen from a museum in 1990. … More Trusting in Jesus
This well known prayer has been set to music by many, many composers through the centuries. This arrangement is less well known as it was written in the last 10 years specifically for a small group of musicians known as “Madrigirls” based at the University of Glasgow … More Ave Maria – K L Cooper (b.1979)
In 2018 the world woke up to the dangers of plastic waste when Sir David Attenborough’s series Blue Planet 2 showed the shocking scenes of birds and sea mammals dying because of plastic pollution … More Plastic Free Prestwich
Good morning and welcome to our service of Holy Communion for Sunday 13 February, the third before Lent. Rev Sue presides, and our ALM Carol will offer a reflection.
We begin with the hymn “All my hope on God is founded” … More Seeing the World Through Jesus’ Eyes
C. Escher is an artist whose drawings challenge the mind just by looking at them. I have one here of architectural impossibilities so you can see what I mean. One thing that stands out is the water which just keeps going round and round without ever getting higher or lower it seems on the same level. Stairs that go every which way but at the same time, go nowhere. Escher’s drawings always evoke a double-take. You look at them, and they seem okay, but then it begins to dawn on you that something is not right with the picture. Things are not as they seem. Our world appears like this, we think it is normal; but it is not normal; it is not right. It is not the way God intended. Everything is upside-down and backwards. … More Do We Live in the World of M. C. Escher?
Today we hear how Isiah and Simon are called to serve God, both in very different ways, but both confessing that they are or have been sinful people. Their sins are forgiven and they are chosen to answer God’s call.
There is very little hesitation in their response and with Simon there are quite a few witnesses to his particular calling … More Answering God’s Call
In 1965, only 3 years after his first album, Bob Dylan was already an extremely popular singer songwriter. Yet when he played at Newport Folk festival that year, was booed off the stage after only 3 songs … More Being who we are meant to be
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 