St Mary's Church, Dymock

2012

Last
Year

Social Evening, Family Service for Lent

Sunday 10th February saw our latest Family Service, this time 'Thinking about Lent', which started on the following Wednesday. Traditionally in Lent we think about how, at the start of his ministry here on earth, Jesus first went off into the Judean wilderness where he was tempted to disobey God, we call that type of disobedience 'sin, but unlike us, Jesus resisted. In Lent we usually think about what we've done wrong and how we might need to change the way we live, in order to behave better in the year to come. (Return to Top)

In this Service, we thought about why Jesus went into the wilderness and so why was he tempted? Did he go there to listen to what God was asking him to do and to work out how he was going to do it? It was as he worked it all out over 40 days and nights that he was tempted to 'cut corners' and do it in bad or sinful ways that drew attention to himself rather than to God. As well as thinking about our own sin in Lent, therefore, perhaps we should also make time to listen for what God is asking us to do day. (Return to Top)

We divided the Bible reading about all this into three; three members of our Young Voices (Junior Choir) read each a part and between each reading we all sang an appropriate hymn as a thoughtful prayer to help us think about this idea. (Return to Top)

On Saturday 2nd February, we finally managed to hold the supper and illustrated talk about Israel that was postponed from last November. Our previous Rector, The Rev'd Pat Phillips, takes a group to Israel every other year and led this evening's social event. It started with a light-hearted explanation of the origins and evolution of the state of Israel - Israel ceased to exist for some 1800 years until it was resurrected again in 1947 under the British. Pat then showed some pictures of what Israel was like in Biblical times and compared that with pictures of Israel today. (Return to Top)

All then partook of a Jewish-style supper starting with home made bread and hummus, followed by chick-pea balls with a variety of salads. As the Jews don't really have deserts as we do, the final course was cake - a choice of lemon drizzle or honey cake - all washed down with wine.(Return to Top)

Pat finished the evening with pictures and chat about her most recent pilgrimage trip to Israel in 2012. (Return to Top)