BENEFICE
SERVICE INFORMATION:

** CHURCH SERVICES **
The services across the Benefice follow a four month cycle. 
Click on the relevant link below for a current PDF file of the services for:-  November

SERVICES IN THE BENEFICE THIS WEEK:
The services in the Benefice on 24th November, the Sunday next before Advent, celebrating "Christ the King":-
9.30am  Holy Communion at Stoke Hammond
11.00am  Mattins at Bow Brickhill

To download a PDF with full details for the current month's services and readings:-  Click Here

The readings for Sunday 24th November:-
Daniel 7: 9-10, 13-14;   Revelation 1: 4b-8;   John 18: 33-37

LATEST "PATHWAYS" EDITION:
To download the latest copy of Pathways, the magazine for the people of the Diocese of Oxford:-  Click Here

RECTOR'S
NEWSLETTER

All Saints - and all sinners

November 2024

Dear friends,

In the church’s year, November 1st is called ‘All Saints Day’, and each year at this time I remember meeting the minister of a church called the ‘House for all Sinners and Saints’. Their name was chosen to make a serious point. It is not that some people are sinners, and other people are saints, but we are all both sinners and saints.

‘Sinners’ is a religious term for those who do wrong, who do evil. And all of us are less than perfect, and so we all do what we know to be wrong, and cause harm to ourselves and others.

‘Saints’ are those who are holy, who are special. And we are all saints, because we have been made in God’s image, and we all reflect something of the wonder and glory of God, and have received God’s gift of life.

People often think that those who go to church are making some claim to be ‘good enough’, or better than others. But the opposite is true. I often tell people that I go to church because I know that I’m not good enough, and I need help – I need God’s forgiveness. 

So who is church for? It is for those who know themselves to be ‘sinners-and-saints’ –so it is for all of us.

Revd John Waller