Weekly letter from St Luke's - 9 April 2021

Dear Parish Friends

Our services at St Luke’s are as usual this Sunday at 7am and 9am, with the 9am service also streamed over Zoom. Because of the ongoing health restrictions, masks need to be worn in church (apart from those reading/leading prayers etc. at the lectern). We will be making some adjustments to the service to reduce the amount of speaking/singing to make it easier to cope. The order of service for the 9am service and the week’s notice paper are attached.

Our gospel passage this week continues from the Easter reading from St John, with Jesus appearing to the disciples – well all of them apart from Thomas, who is reluctant to later believe what the others tell him they have seen. Thomas has always, unfairly I believe, had a bad reputation from this, with ‘doubting Thomas’ becoming a colloquial expression for a sceptic. In reality though all the disciples doubted the truth of Jesus’ resurrection before they saw the evidence for themselves; but the gospel writer puts the words into Thomas’ mouth. In Jesus’ response we are assured that it is okay to have questions, and these do not diminish our worth in God’s eye. We are also assured that we will indeed see Jesus for who he is, but maybe not in the way in which the early disciples did.

Yours in Christ

Rev’d Timothy