Start with prayer


Meal after the Liturgy

The Liturgy on Sundays is followed by a bring and share lunch: all are welcome—please stay and join us. Donations of food are not necessary.


Dear Friends

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

How often do we place prayer at the end of our actions? How often do we relegate prayer to something we do only when there is nothing else that can be done—”It is for the hopeless cases,” I delude myself, “when nothing else can be done we know we can still pray.”

The Apostle Peter did not think like this, as we hear in this Sunday’s Epistle reading. Before he came to help Tabitha, also called Dorcas, who had died he turned aside to pray.

Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them. But Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.”

Acts 9:39–40

His first instinct was not to examine the handiwork of Tabitha nor to comfort those mourning, he knelt down and prayed.

Prayer should be the beginning of our task and not its end because it takes events that are earthly and mundane and raises them to the heavenly and extraordinary. Prayer should be the beginning, the first we offer, much more than its end.

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:14–17

So also prayer should not be the end but setting off to serve others. It is not enough to pray for the hungry without offering food nor to pray for calm without ourselves becoming the balm.

My dear brothers and sisters, pray. Let the love of God fill all our actions so that we may be beacons of love in our society. And through prayer for, and service to, others we may become worthy to bear the name of Christ.


We now serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.


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Singers — we want you

We are now more free to increase the number of singers at Church: would you like to sing and join this important ministry. Then please speak to me or the singers at Church.

All are welcome!


Sermon

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.

Christ is risen!

Crucifixion is one of the most vile and repugnant methods of killing humanity has ever developed. It is not just execution, it is a statement of power, a statement of domination, a statement projecting a threat against any other potential insurgent—“when we catch you, we will make you suffer.”

Christ died, and none of the disciples remembered his words, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And after he is killed, he will rise the third day.” (Mark 9:31) In the pain and brutality of the crucifixion they all knew he was dead and thought that nothing else could come. And yet two men came, Joseph and Nicodemus; these were rich men, the former “a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God,” and the latter, “a man of the Pharisees … a ruler of the Jews.” (John 3:1) They did not come seeking teachings nor did they come seeking signs and miracles—they believed in Christ and wanted to do for him what was right. A rock had been hewn out and they wrapped the Lord in linen and placed him in the tomb. They risked religious ridicule, their wealth, their social standing, their places in the Synagogue and in the Temple itself for the chance to serve him one last time.

You and I, dear brothers and sisters, are to do the same. We have heard the teaching, we have seen miracles, now what are we to do? Will we put requirements and prerequisites on our Faith or will we receive the Lord unconditionally into our hearts. Will we risk all for the sake of being with him? Will we hew out our own hearts—wash, clean and purify them through prayer and confession—and make room for the Lord to be placed within?

Read last Sunday’s Sermon, Receive Christ.
Archive of Past Sermons.


Services this week

Friday 13th May
Discussion on the book of Exodus, 8 pm
Online only

Saturday 14th May
Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh

Sunday 15th May
Divine Liturgy, 9.30 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh

Online session is via Google Meet: please get in contact for the details.

Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.

Attending Church

We will be meeting at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. Come and See.


Can I help you?

I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.

Can you help the mission?

Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.

Your prayers!

With love in the risen Christ

Fr Alexander
[email protected]