Welcome to Weobley & Staunton Joint Benefice

Friday 29th is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.  Many people associate angels with Gabriel, who brought God’s invitation to Mary to become the mother of the Christ child.  Or they think of the wondrous beings, who lit up the skies above Bethlehem, bringing the good news to the shepherds tending their sheep. There is too the vision of the powerful angels in the book of Revelation. But there are a whole variety of Angels or heavenly beings described in the scriptures. They are called to be the servants of God, just as we are.

Perhaps my favourite angel is from the book of Genesis.  He appears to an            insignificant person, a slave girl named Hagar, who has been used by Abraham to produce a son. Hagar had annoyed Sarah, Abraham’s wife and is banished into the desert of Beersheba, with her son Ishmael, and a small quantity of food and water. Slaves have no rights. Hagar was at the mercy of those who owned her.  Ishmael is at the point of death, and Hagar unable to watch him die, puts him down under a bush.  But the angel of God calls to her, reassures her of God’s love and care and opens her eyes to find a well of water.

In these times of climate change bringing famine and drought to great swathes of East Africa, we are all too aware of parents having to sit by, powerless to prevent their children from suffering. The same is true where war has affected various countries.  Like the angels, we share in the task of taking God’s love and care to where it is needed. There are many ways of doing it, but we are challenged to do what we can. We are coming to the end of the Church of England’s Generosity Week, so maybe this is a time to make a special effort, especially for those who have no power themselves.

Rev Susan Verwey

This Sunday we enter the Season of Creation, in which take time to thank God for the blessings and beauty of creation and pray for its protection, renewal and restoration. The following prayer was prepared by an international ecumenical group and will be used in churches across the world. I hope you find it both helpful and challenging.

Rev'd Philip

Creator of All,

From your communion of love life sprung forth                                                                                          like a mighty river and the whole cosmos came into being.

On this Earth of overflowing love, the Word was made                                                                          flesh and went forth with the life-giving waters proclaiming                                                                 peace and justice for all creation.

You called human beings to till and keep your garden.                                                                           You placed us into right relationship with each creature,                                                                      but we failed to listen to the cries of the Earth and the cries of the most vulnerable.             We broke with the flowing communion of love and sinned against                                                   you by not safeguarding the conditions for life.

We lament the loss of our fellow species and their habitats, we grieve the loss of human cultures, along with the lives and livelihoods that have been displaced or perished,          and we ache at the sight of an economy of death, war and violence that                                        we have inflicted on ourselves and on the Earth.

Open our ears to your creative, reconciling and sustaining Word that calls to                                us through the book of Scripture and the book ofcreation.                                                                    Bless us once again with your life-giving waters so that the Creator Spirit                                      may let justice and peace flow in our hearts and overflow into all creation.

Open our hearts to receive the living waters of God’s justice and peace,                                           and to share it with our suffering brothers and sisters, all creatures around us,                            and all creation.

Bless us to walk together with all people of good will so that the many                                      streams of the living waters of God’s justice and peace may become                                                a mighty river all over the Earth.

In the name of the One who came to proclaim good news to all creation, Jesus Christ. 

Amen