Sunday, July 16, 2023 The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

 

Hymn      Let Us with a Gladsome Mind #234

Scripture Lessons: Romans 8:1-11

                               Psalm 119:105-112 p. 841 part 5

                               Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Reflection

Prayer:  Lord, as your spirit falls on us, let it be as the first drops of rain on a parched and barren land: awakening us like seeds in the desert to flower and show your glory. 

Let it be like the ripples in the lake reaching out through minds, bodies and souls. 

Each one of us like a stone thrown into the lake:  

Our every word and action causes ripples that affect the lives of others. 

Help us to think before we speak or act, 

To listen

To your words to us, 

So that our ripples may stir the calm of complacency, 

Splash on the face of oppression and surge through barriers and divisions, 

That all the world may come to know your living water which satisfies our souls

And refreshes our inner beings. Amen ( a prayer by Moira Rose printed in Seeing Christ in Others, an anthology edited by Geoffrey Duncan.)

Hymn     I Sing the Mighty Power of God #231

This Sunday’s services are 9:30 in Howick and 11:00 in Ormstown. 

Best wishes to Adam Reynolds and Anick Thibault who were married in Howick United Church yesterday. 

We continue to hold the family of Donald Gruer in our thoughts and prayers following his memorial service yesterday morning at St Paul’s. 

We have heard of the death this past week of Frances Clement of Ormstown. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this time. 

I have also heard through the Regional Council newsletter that the Rev. George Lavery, a former minister of the Howick Pastoral Charge in the early 1960s has died in Kingston. 

St Paul’s Stewards will be meeting Wednesday, July 19th in the hall in Ormstown at 7:30pm. Members of the Howick Stewards are also invited to hear more about the United Church’s Faithful Footsteps program, from Randy Rennie of Huntingdon United Church who has already used the program.