As well as our usual services at 8am and 10am we will have a special Passion Sunday service of Music and Readings at 5.30pm in St Mary’s Kidlington
This is a Passiontide service of worship and contemplation, led by the choir and choristers. It will include the choir’s first performance of the double choir festival anthem “Lo, the full, final sacrifice” by Gerald Finzi, along with “Thou knowest, Lord” – Purcell, “Crucifixus” – Lotti, “Ave verum corpus” – Elgar, and congregational singing.
A candle burns on the high altar in St Mary’s Kidlington for the people of Ukraine and for justice and peace in our world. There is a prayer station with space to light your own candle, write your own prayer and take away a small cross. Please join the nation in prayer in whichever way is right for you.
God of peace and justice, we pray for the people of Ukraine today. We pray for peace and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war or peace, for wisdom, discernment and compassion to guide their decisions. Above all, we pray for all your precious children, at-risk and in fear, that you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen.
Whilst we will continue to offer our support in prayer, we are also now looking at practical ways of offering help. Further information can be found in our special section Support for Ukraine.
The Diocesan website has further thoughts on a Christian response to the war, see https://oxford.anglican.org/make-a-difference-in-ukraine.php
On Wednesday 2nd March there will be said services of Holy Communion with ashing at 11am at St Mary’s Kidlington and St John’s. At 8pm in St Mary’s Kidlington we will have a sung service with ashing, short sermon, and the full choir and choristers singing Allegri’s Miserere and Byrd’s 4-part mass. This service will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person.
Thanks to everyone who supported our February Tea Talk – it felt so good to be gathered together for a social event again. David Meara gave a fascinating talk and we enjoyed that and the following tea and cake.
We will be holding another Tea Talk on Sunday 13th March, when Joanna Foster, CBE, will talk on “Work-Life Balance; myth or reality?” Do join us
As always, we will be marking the World Day of Prayer on the first Friday of March. This year our service will be in-person at St Thomas More Church at 7.30pm on 4th March, when we join the ring of Christians around the world praying as the day progresses. The theme is “I know the plans I have for you” and the service has been drawn up by women in the churches of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This used to be called “Women’s World Day of World” and is still prepared and led by women but we always do welcome participation by men, boys, girls and everyone in between.
During Lent we will be running the national course, ‘Living in Love and Faith’. We will use resources prepared for all sectors of the Church of England addressing questions of identity, relationships, sexuality, gender, and marriage.
This is an important national conversation and we hope that as many people as possible would get involved in these groups and so be able to feed back your views to General Synod before the national deadline (30th April).
For further details see information on our Lent and Easter page.
We are pleased to announce that our February Tea Talk will be going ahead on Sunday 13th February, at 3pm in St Mary’s Kidlington. We really do plan to serve tea after the talk, COVID permitting. We will be taking suitable precautions so the building might not be as warm as you would like, so do come well wrapped. Our own David Meara will be talking on “A Passion for Places – England through the eyes of John Betjeman”
CTK is again holding mid-day prayers during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This runs from Tuesday 18th January to Tuesday 25th January inclusive. The time of prayer will be on Zoom every weekday (but not Saturday and Sunday). For details of the link needed to access the prayer time please contact webmaster.
Because of COVID constraints it has been decided not to hold a united service in-person this year. And we plan to reschedule our traditional Fellowship Meal to a more appropriate time.
5.30pm, St Mary’s Kidlington, Sunday 16th January (and every third Sunday)
Join us for this contemplative and worshipful service led by the choir and choristers. Music to include: reading responses, Wood in D canticles, Joubert “O Lorde, the maker of all thing”, Bach “St Anne” Prelude in E flat major BWV 552. There will also be two congregational hymns.
We regret to announce that we have cancelled the Tea Talk due to be held this Sunday, 9th January. We are very grateful to Sir Peter Ratcliffe for offering and preparing this talk but together have come to this decision given the current COVID situation as he thinks it would not be possible to communicate as effectively as he would like. We hope to rearrange for a future date when circumstances permit.
