Mr Paul Savill led our worship last Sunday and he was welcomed by Keith Harrison. “Here we meet in the presence of God” was his call to worship.. To the accompaniment of Rod Smith on our new organ we sang a great hymn of praise “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee”, written by Reginald Heber (1783-1826) English Anglican Bishop, man of letters and hymn-writer, who served as Rector of Hodnet (1807 – 1823) before he became Bishop of Calcutta for three years before he died.
Our opening hymn was followed by a prayer of praise and thanksgiving led by Paul, and the Lord’s Prayer. After a short reflection Paul then led us in a prayer for our troubled world, for others and for ourselves as we seek to bring comfort to others. Jill Harrison read our morning’s lesson from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter two, headed from Death to Life in which St Paul writes about our being spiritually dead in our disobedience but God brought us to life with Christ by God’s grace.
The Blessing which closes most services was recited by Paul as he drew our thoughts to a form of liturgy used extensively but perhaps given little thought, as the words are said.. “The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit”. In a sense these words were inspired by the writings of St Paul in Ephesians, chapter two, read to us earlier. “The Grace says something about Jesus, it is saying something about God, and it is saying something about the Holy Spirit “ said Paul. It is a statement of intent. “Grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense, Love that creates showing that God wants to be connected to our lives, and Spirit which embraces all aspects of fellowship”.
After a further short prayer we concluded our service as we sang the great hymn by Charles Wesley “Love Divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven to earth come down”, and we recited The Blessing together with fresh insight to its meaning.