Weekly letter from St Luke's - 10 February 2023

Dear Parish Friends In our gospel passage this week, continuing reading the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reflects on hot topics of his day including divorce and adultery. On the face of it, he seems to be changing the rules; "you have heard that it was said...but I say to you" (Matthew 5:22,27,31-32,33-34). But this is not arbitrary, or promulgating the idea that the God of the Old Testament is in some way different from the God of the New Testament, rather Jesus is entering into theological reflection, taking the issues and applying reason, experience and scripture to see the way forward - in this case to promote trust and compassion within the community. We will be looking at theology and applying theological reflection in the FAITH360 workshop, 'Faith Seeking Understanding' 9.30am-1pm Saturdays 11th and 18th February. All welcome. This Sunday our services are as usual: APBA Holy Communion Order Two at 7am and then Family Service with communion and Children's Ministry at 9am (also streamed on Zoom). The week's notice paper and 9am service sheet are linked below. Our Annual Meeting will be held at 10.30am on Sunday 19th February. The report book will be available in hard copy after the services this weekend, and emailed as a PDF on Sunday afternoon. It is not too late to submit a nomination form for the Parish Council. Yours in Christ Rev'd Timothy