Welcome to Saint Ternan’s Scottish Episcopal Church
15 March 2020: Lent 3.
Collect
Merciful Father, we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: when we are discouraged by our weakness, give us strength to follow Christ, our pattern and our hope; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.
Amen.
A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And weboast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Reader: For the Word of the Lord
All: Thanks be to God.
The Gospel
When the Gospel is read in a communion service, in response to the reader’s introduction, the People say:
(8am) Glory be to thee, O Lord. Or
(11am) Glory to Christ our Saviour.
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.”
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”
When the Gospel is read in a communion service, in response to the reader’s concluding lines, the People say:
(8am) Thanks be to thee, O Lord, for this thy Glorious Gospel
or (11am) Praise to Christ our Lord.
Source of the readings:
Romans 5: 1-11, Matthew 18: 21-35
Prayers for This Week
In the Anglican Cycle of prayer: We pray for The Most Revd and Right Hon Justin Welby – Archbishop of Canterbury.
In the Porvoo Communion Prayer Diary: We pray for Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia: Archbishop Jānis Vanags, Bishop Einārs Alpe, Bishop Hanss Martins Jensons Church of England: Diocese of Lichfield, Bishop Michael Ipgrave, Bishop Sarah Bullock, Bishop Geoff Annas, Bishop Clive Gregory Church in Wales: Diocese of St David’s, Bishop Joanna Penberthy.
In the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: we pray for the congregation of St Congon’s Church, Turriff and for the Lay Reader in Charge Mr Gordon Brown.
In our own parish prayers, we remember: the work of Father Christopher and the Nadaikavoo School in South India; we pray for Tom and his family, Tim, Ron, Hilda, Barbara, Kate, Oliver and his parents, Julie and Graham, Tish and Jim; Helen, Sue, Sheila, Rachel, Peter, Mac and Linda, Don, and for all those we hold quietly in our hearts and all who need our prayers.
| THIS WEEK 15 March Lent 3 8 am Holy Eucharist 11 am Matins / All Age | NEXT WEEK 22 March Lent 4 8 am Holy Eucharist 11 am Sung Eucharist | |
| Welcomers | Rosalind Eames Michael Price | Neil and Fay Booth |
| Readers | Dorothy Howe Pauline Potts | Michael Price Lesley Young |
| Celebrant/Leader | Lynsay Downs | Lynsay Downs |
| Deacon | —— | Andy Bond |
| Preacher | Lynsay Downs | Lynsay Downs |
| Intercessions | —— | Fay Booth |
| Chalice Bearers | —— | Peter Young Andy Bond |
| Organist/Musician | Mary Walkden | Simon Glenarthur |
| Sunday School | Neil and Kathryn | |
| Coffees | Maddie Thurlow | Ryan and Andy Bond |
| Prayers after the Service | ——- | Fay Booth |
Pattern of Worship at St Ternan’s
WEEKDAYS
Tuesdays 9.00 am – Eucharist with Discussion in the Church Vestry
Thursdays 10.15am – Prayer Book Communion in the Choir Stalls
SUNDAYS
8.00 am Eucharist (1970)
11.00 am
1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays – Eucharist with Choir
3rd Sundays – two options:
11.00 am Choral Matins in the Church
11.00 am All Age Contemporary Eucharist in the Church Hall
6.30 pm – First Sundays- Traditional Evensong
All ages are welcome to participate in our worship.
The 1st Sunday of the month is ALL SORTS SUNDAY
when, during the service we offer:
pre-school children Diddy-Disciples,
primary aged children Godly Play
and our young people meet in Tease for discussion.
On the 3rd Sunday of the month we have a service of All Age Worship, which takes place in the Church Hall.
On the other Sundays we offer Sunday School during the service as well as having toys and activities available in Church.
All are welcome at this communion table.
Gluten-free wafers available; please tell one of the Welcomers if you prefer
that form of the consecrated bread, and they will alert the leader / priest.
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Saint Ternan’s Church is open every day for quiet reflection.
Contact Information for Saint Ternan’s
Scottish Charity No. 008533
High Street, Banchory AB 31 5TB
http://www.stternansbanchory.org
Rector: The Reverend Canon Lynsay M Downs
Phone: 01330 824458
Church Wardens:
Lizzie Finlayson (01330 822885).
Maddie Thurlow (01330 822942)
St Ternans Banchory 