FORTHCOMING SERVICES AND EVENTS AT ST PETER’S

All Age Service – Sunday 10^th September

Our next All Age Service is our animal service.  Weather permitting, we’ll meet in the Forest – in the clearing just behind the church building.  The service starts at 10.00 am and we aim to keep it to an hour.  Animals of all shapes and sizes are welcome – as of course are people!

Parish Lunch @ Peterhouse Centre – 1^st October

Come and join us for our Parish Lunch; starting with a glass of sherry, followed by a hearty, hot, two course meal, finishing off with coffee and mints, all surrounded by good company.  Cost is £6.50 for adults and £3.00 for children under 10.  To book, please call 020 8509 1811 or email peterhousecentre@btconnect.com

Harvest concert by London Gallery Quire – 7^th October

See separate blog post for full details.

Harvest Festival – Sunday 8^th October

Harvest Festivals are a good opportunity to give thanks to God for all he has provided.  Our Harvest Festival Service will be one of celebration, suitable for all ages (although not strictly one of our All Age services).  Our Rainbows, Brownies and Guides will be present and taking part in the service.  You are invited to bring along non-perishable goods that will be donated to Christian Kitchen.  Or, if you have grown some vegetables or fruit, or are a baker (bread, cakes, pies), bring those along and we’ll auction them off at the end of the service.  That money will be donated to a charity to support their work.

All Saints All Age Service – 5^th November

Our All Age All Saints service is a lively affair!  Starting at 10.00 am and lasting an hour, come and learn about what it means to be a saint!  Following this service, starting at 12.00 noon, we have a short, quiet, reflective All Souls service, at which we remember those who we love but see no more.  There is an opportunity to have names of the departed read out and to light a candle in their memory.

Remembrance Sunday – 12^th November

At this solemn service, we remember and give thanks for all who have fought and lost their lives in past (and present) conflicts.

Advent Sunday 3^rd December

Our last All Age service of the year, we enter the season of Advent – preparing and waiting for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Other events that are going on:

Church service (Parish Eucharist) @ 10.00 am every Sunday

Wednesdays

Open Church

The church building will be open from 6.00 pm every Wednesday.  Please pop in and take a look around, feel free to spend time praying, lighting a candle or simply sheltering from the world outside.

Evening Prayer

At 7.00 pm every Wednesday there will be a short evening prayer lasting no more than 30 minutes.

Wednesday Study Group

St Peter’s have recently started a study group; we discuss the sermon preached on the previous Sunday morning to see how it relates to our lives.  So if you missed the service on Sunday, or you cannot make Sunday mornings and simply want to delve more deeply into the sermon then this is the ideal group for you.  The sessions starts at 7:30 pm in church; there is an option to meet outside the Peterhouse Community Centre at 7:15 pm and take the short walk to St Peter’s church building together.

😊😊😊 WHO LET THE DADS OUT? For Dads and their younger kids – a cost of £3. The next sessions are on the 23^rd September, 28^th October and 25^th November, from 9.30-11.30 am, at St Peter in-the-Forest church ⛪. Fun activities and refreshments for kids, bacon/sausage butties, coffee ☕, papers and mags for Dads (you must supervise your child(ran) at all times obvs!). A relaxed dad-friendly / child-friendly environment, come meet some other local dads! 🙋

Ascension Parish Mass - Thursday 25 May 2017, 8.00pm

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.

The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - also known as Ascension Thursday, Holy Thursday, or Ascension Day - commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. It is one of the ecumenical feasts (i.e. universally celebrated) of Christian churches, ranking with the feasts of the Passion, of Easter, and Pentecost. Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter (following the counts given in Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:2 ).

Do please join our worship in this parish, which commences at 8.00pm.

Lent Sermon (1) - Psalms overview and Psalm 32

During Lent 2017, we are hearing the Psalms in our Sunday worship. The preachers are focussing their attention on this oft-neglected part of our scriptural inheritance. This is the Vicar's 'opening gambit'...

Announcement of Easter and the Moveable Feasts (for the year 2017)

 

Dear brothers and sisters,
the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us,
until the day of his return.

Through the rhythms of times and seasons
let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.

Let us recall the year's culmination,
the Easter Triduum of the Lord:
his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial,
and his rising celebrated
between the evening of the Thirteenth day of April
and the night of the Fifteeth day of April,
Easter Sunday being on the Sixteenth day of April.

Each Easter - as on each Sunday -
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.
From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent,
will occur on the First day of March.

The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on
Thursday, the Twenty-fifth day of May.

Pentecost, joyful conclusion of the season of Easter,
will be celebrated on the Fourth day of June.

And, this year the First Sunday of Advent will be
on the Third day of December.

Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God,
in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints, including our own Patron, Peter,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.

To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come,
Lord of time and history,
be endless praise, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Sermon for St Peter's Day 2014 - USING THE KEYS!!

In two parts, here is the audio for Fr Paul's sermon on our Feast Day of St Peter, this 29 June 2014.

The printed text follows.

Sermon for First Sunday after Trinity

A sermon from The Revd Canon Mike Gibbs:

When Father Paul  preached last week for Trinity Sunday he expressed the thought that Trinity Sunday produced problems for preachers every year! The complexity, he told us, of the theology behind the concept of the Triune God is not easy to explain or understand.. I cannot disagree with that. 

Trinity Sunday & heresy...

 
Trinity Sunday (15 June, this year) is the Sunday of the Church Year where preachers fear to tread, knowing that they are in very great danger of committing heresy when trying to explore the Christian Doctrine of God as Holy Trinity - One God and Three Persons...

My own sermon for St Peter's follows this wonderful video about the dangers of heresy, with St Patrick picked out for particular castigation!... ;-)

Sermon for Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 7:55-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

THE CALL. Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life : Such a Way, as gives us breath : Such a Truth, as ends all strife : And such a Life, as killeth death.

Sermon for Fourth Sunday of Easter

A sermon preached by St Peter's Reader, Harry Goodwin, on Sunday 11 May 2014...

Sermon for Third Sunday of Easter

It was a great joy to receive Bishop Stephen into his parish chuch of St Peter's-in-the-Forest, on Sunday 4 May 2014.    He was with us as part of a 'Missionary Journey' around the Diocese: today, from Leyton to Chingford, via Walthamstow & Woodford.  A handful of us joined him for some of the walking!
Conveniently, his text was the story of the Risen Lord Jesus walking alongside Cleopas and his friend, on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, the evening of that first, Easter Day!...

Sermon for Second Sunday of Easter

A sermon from St Peter's Reader, Sue Diplock on Sunday 27 April 2014...

Homily for Good Friday 2014

Three short homilies were preached at our Liturgy of the Cross on Good Friday.

This is the Vicar's offering, reflecting on the two 'minor characters' who appear in the final verses of the Passion story, as told in the Gospel of John....

John 19:38-42

The readings for the liturgy of Good Friday conclude with tender and brave acts of love.

Sermon for Maundy Thursday

What does it mean, to "discern the Body"? With reference to scripture, St Augustine and the contemporary theologian Fr Richard Rohr, Fr Paul delivered this sermon on our night of recalling Jesus' last meal with his friends, ahead of his death...

Sermon for Palm Sunday

Here is the sermon preached on the Passion of Our Lord according to St Matthew, at the beginning of Holy Week 2014.
The preacher is the Vicar, Fr Paul Trathen.





The stage is set. The curtain rises. The last act of the drama begins. Here comes Jesus into the city of Jerusalem.

Sermon for Fifth Sunday of Lent 2014 (Year A)

This is a sermon preached at the beginning of Passiontide, by our visiting preacher, The Revd Canon Wendy Robins.  It takes inspiration from the prophet Ezekiel's vision of the 'Valley of Dry Bones' (Ezekiel 37) and the story of the death and raising of Lazarus, as told in John's Gospel...

Sermon for Third Sunday of Lent 2014 (Year A)

“Have you heard about Simon?” a friend asked on the ‘phone – “he’s become a Samaritan!”  I knew what the questioner was saying – I didn’t think for a moment that Simon might have gone off to the Middle east to join the tiny sect who live in Samaria – I knew that my friend was telling me that Simon had joined the charitable group who have become world-famous for their work in helping people in distress.

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent

This is a sermon preached by the Vicar, Fr Paul Trathen, on the Second Sunday of Lent. It draws on scriptures from Genesis 12 (the promise to Abraham and Sarah), Romans 4 (St Paul's reflection on Abraham's story as our model for trusting faith), and John 3 (amongst the most famous passages of all scripture, in which Our Lord Jesus talks about our need to be "born again")...

Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent

This is a sermon preached on the First Sunday of Lent, 9 March 2014, by the Vicar, Fr Paul Trathen.

It draws on the scripture written in Matthew's Gospel book, chapter 4, speaking of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness...

Sermon for the Second Sunday before Lent

This is an audio recording of a sermon preached by the Vicar, Fr Paul Trathen, reflecting on the theme of 'Perspective' and drawing inspiration from the scripture Romans 8:18-25

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday before Lent (Proper 1)

A sermon by St Peter's Reader, Sue Diplock...

9^th February 2014: Isaiah 58: 1-12; 1 Corinthians 2: 1–12; Matthew 5:13-20

May the words of my lips and the thoughts of our hearts be now and always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

We’re going on a journey this morning – back to Corinth in the first century AD.  Corinth, a prosperous go-getting city, interested in the arts, new ideas, and making money – a bit like London today.

Anyway - imagine – there you are, sitting in the synagogue on the Sabbath, just as you are sitting here today in church, and, instead of your usual preachers, this little man, gets up.  Not a very impressive little man, you think, very modestly dressed, looks a bit travel worn.  And he doesn’t read a verse from the scriptures, – but sits down in the preachers’ seat – as they did in those days in the synagogues – and starts to speak.