Littlebourne Benefice

Download the Eucharist for Sunday 11th July,  the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

JULY CHURCH SERVICES AT:

St John the Evangelist, Ickham

St Vincent Church, Littlebourne

St Mary, Stodmarsh

St Andrew, Wickhambreaux,

St Mary the Virgin, Wingham

Sunday  11th July, 6th Sunday after Trinity

9.30 am        Wickhambreaux, Holy Communion

11.00 am      Wingham, Holy Communion for   

                     Healing & Wholeness

11.00 am      Littlebourne, Family Praise

Sunday  18th July, 7th Sunday after Trinity

9.30 am        Ickham, Sung Matins

11.00 am      Littlebourne,  Parish Communion

6.00 pm        Stodmarsh,  Evening Prayer

Sunday 25th July, St James the Apostle

9.30 am       Wickhambreaux,  Holy Communion

11.00 am     Wingham, Holy Communion

11.00 am     Littlebourne, Parish Communion

• Covid rules will continue to apply.  Please be prepared to wear a face mask. 

Wickhambreaux: St Andrew’s Roof Restoration Appeal Click here for further details.

Stodmarsh: Jazz Picnic, Saturday 1st August, 2.30pm to 5.30pm More information here.

July Message from Prebendary Gillean Craig

‘Stone Wall do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage’. Lovelace’s famous words were quoted in the book of reminiscences published after the last war by my dear father’s colleagues who like him had been incarcerated in a German Prisoner of War camp – with the heartfelt addition: ‘but they make a damn fine imitation’.   

Concerns about exactly what constitutes liberty, and what unnatural constraint, are central to our lives today – although in a very different context. As I write we don’t know whether the planned lifting of all restrictions on 19th July will take place, or whether new variants and significant rises in infections will postpone or modify the easing. ‘Freedom’ means very different things to different people. To my father – much in my mind, on this my birthday – it meant release from imprisonment and return home. To most of us today it means being at last able to mingle with as many people as we want, as closely as we want, to satisfy that basic human need for encounter and company. But philosophy and religion teach a different level of freedom, an interior or existential liberty which, paradoxically, is jeopardised by too many possessions and too material a life. 

I salute those heroes and saints who in the most appalling situations demonstrate a wholehearted lightness of spirit, who instead of being locked in misery and self-pity are only concerned for others. It’s a good thing to aim for – but like lots of religious encouragement, is far easier to recommend if your life is already comfortable and secure. Mine certainly is – perhaps yours too – and for me lockdown’s deprivations still allowed me freedom to enjoy my house and garden, surrounded by more books than I’ll ever read, more music than I’ll ever listen to. But for single parents, stuck with children high in a tower block, made redundant, relying on food banks – I’m not going to preach existential liberty to them.   For them, I’m not hoping that life will quickly ‘get back to normal’:  I’m praying that it will be far, far better than before!

Gillean

Canterbury Cathedral

Daily worship
The following services are broadcast on the Cathedral's Home Page and YouTube channel.

Morning Prayer: by 10.30am each day

Evening Reflection: paused until 12th April

Choral Evensong: Live stream at 5.30pm each day

Sunday Eucharist: Live stream at 10.30am

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Cathedral website:  https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/

Church of England website:  https://www.churchofengland.org/