St Thomas Blog
Keep up to date with news and views from St Thomas Church!
Lent, Holy Week & Easter 2021
Monday 15th February 2021
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday which is 17 February this year. We are marking this with a zoom service starting at 7pm, which will include optional ashing - that is the blessing of ashes and the marking of our foreheads with ash, as a sign of penitence, and as a recognition of our mortality: earth to earth, ashes to ashes etc We are using these worship resources for Lent including Ash Wednesday here. This is the link for Ash Wednesday and 10.30 on Sundays via Zoom. Please use this link also for all Zoom services in Holy Week, including Easter Day. Read Fr David's zoom talk for Ash Wednesday here Additonal resources will be included on this page including a help for prayer here. Especially…
2nd Sunday before Lent
Sunday 14th February 2021
Phil Baker
Read Phil's sermon for the 2nd Sunday before Lent here
Candlemas and Christingles on Sunday 31st January
Friday 29th January 2021
We'll be making Christingles together at our Zoom Service at 10.30 on Sunday 31st January. The service sheet is here. Readings and other prayers from the pewsheet. An outline picture to colour in can be downloaded here. Find more information about The Children's Society here. We will also bless candles on Sunday morning so have one to hand if you wish. Click here for a delightful contemporary Candlemas story by Karen Williams.
Prayers for the week beginning 25th January
Thursday 28th January 2021
A prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day Loving God, we come to you with heavy hearts, remembering the six million Jewish souls murdered during the Holocaust. In the horrors of that history, when so many groups were targeted because of their identity, and in genocides which followed, we recognise destructive prejudices that drive people apart. Forgive us when we give space to fear, negativity and hatred of others, simply because they are different from us. In the light of God, we see everyone as equally precious manifestations of the Divine, and can know the courage to face the darkness. Through our prayers and actions, help us to stand together with those who are suffering, so that light may banish all darkness, love will prevail over…
Talk for Epiphany 3 - Wedding at Cana
Monday 25th January 2021
You can read Ian's talk for Epiphany 3 here. You might like to consider these three questions as you read it: What do the seven miraculous signs (performed by Jesus and recorded in St John's Gospel) mean to you? What signs showed you the way to faith? What signs might you be able to show to a friend who does not know Jesus that might help them to come to faith in him?
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Monday 18th January 2021
There is an annual week from 18th to 25th January when there is an especial focus in our prayers on Christian Unity, often with events in local neighbourhoods to mark the importance of this. The Diocese of Exeter is twinned with the (catholic) Diocese of Bayeux-Lisieux in Normandy, France. There are regular exchange visits, and every other year an exchange of preachers during this Unity Week. Fr David has visited France on several occasions for this purpose, with Fr Laurent Berthout making the reverse journey. The videos below in French and English mark this occasion, when because of Covid, we cannot make the visits in person. The text of Fr David's sermon is here. Let us also not forget the St Thomas…
Talk for Epiphany 2
Monday 18th January 2021
Read here the talk given by Fr David on zoom on 17 January 2021.
Talk for the Baptism of Christ
Monday 11th January 2021
Rev. Sarah raises issues from the baptism of Christ and how this affects our understanding of baptisms in church. Read her zoom talk .
Feast of the Epiphany Zoom Talk & Prayers
Monday 4th January 2021
Phil Baker
Read Phil Baker's Epiphany zoom talk here and Fr Terry's Prayers.