Weekly letter from St Luke's - 20 October 2023

Dear Parish Friends Our gospel reading this week (which we will heard at the 7am service only) returns to the interactions between Jesus and the Jewish authorities in the week leading up to his death and includes the well remembered response from Jesus to the question of paying taxes to Rome: "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” This highlights the tensions that we often feel with living in today's world as citizens or residents of Australia, and our calling to be members of the Kingdom of God. The ancient wisdom from the book of Genesis tells us that all things are God's, which means that civil and religious obligations should match, but this is often it is hard to see how this can be the case and we need to discern how to follow God's guiding presence. Then at 9am we welcome for baptism Ryan John Friend, along with his parents, Jaso and Eloise godparents, Kerrina, Paul and Adrian, and family and friends. Rev'd Denis will be preaching and officiating at the baptism. Our services this weekend are 7am (Holy Communion) and 9am (family service with communion - also streamed on Zoom). The weekly notice paper and 9am service sheet are available via the links below. Yours in Christ

Rev'd Timothy