Our prayers in church It is always a joy to have our intercessions prepared by different church members. They are then different and heartfelt and God is able to use all of us more fully. Might you be willing to prepare our intercessions every few months? If so please talk to Ben or Wendy. We are holding an intercessions training evening on Monday 23rd February at 7.30pm. Please let Ben know if you can or might come. Thank you.
Piano Recital, “Peaceful Dreaming”, at St Mary’s Our first St Mary's Concert of the year is on Sunday February 22nd at 4pm. We are very pleased to welcome back the very talented virtuoso pianist Rachel Neiger who was kind enough to step in at a fortnight's notice last July and enjoyed it so much she is returning for another recital.
Join in Morning Prayer together. Please do. We offer ourselves in worship, listen to the Bible and pray for our world and church members in turn. Monday: 8.30am Goring, Tuesday and Thursday: 8.30am Streatley. Friday: 9am Goring.
Prayers for the week Thank you to Ann for this week’s prayers. Dear Lord, may your Church be a place of God’s mercy and hope, where all feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged. May your blessing be on all that minister, and may everyone who enters through the inviting doors find peace. May your love flow outwards through the doors, to bless the bustling communities in the villages around us, and continue outwards to the whole world. Lord God, thank you for the warmth and light of the candles, as the Church celebrates Candlemas – the coming of the Christ Light into the temple with the Holy Family. Thank you for blessing the churchyard with the light of the snowdrops, ‘Our Lady’s Tapers’ or ‘God’s lanterns’. Dear Lord, it is still dark in the early mornings, yet the air is filled with the songs of the birds. Help us to join our prayers with their joyful hymns. Dear Lord, soon it will be St. Valentine’s Day. Thank you that all love comes from you, and it is for everyone. Dear Lord, it has been said that ‘Christians should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty, and to invite others to a delicious banquet’ (Pope Francis). May we fill your Church with your love. Dear Lord, there is so much strife in this world, so much fear and great suffering, thank you for doctors, nurses, priests and journalists; whose courage in conflict brings healing and hope to those in need. Dear Lord, ‘upon our hope depends the liberty of the whole universe, because our hope is your pledge of a new heaven and a new earth, in which all things will be what they are meant to be. They will rise together with us in Christ. The beasts and trees will one day share with us a new Creation, and we will see them as God sees them, and know that they are very good’ (Thomas Merton). Dear Lord thank you for giving every child a guardian angel. May all children know your presence and find your Love and protection in those around them. Thank you for the Poulson family and for your blessings upon them and the young people in their care. We bring to you for your blessing, dear Lord, all those who are sick. Dear Lord, we remember with love all those who have gone before us into Heaven. May Christ, whose love unites Heaven and Earth, unite us with those we love, now and for evermore. Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen