PARISH OF ST. PETER IN THANET
28th June 2020 – Pew Sheet
The Collect for Peter tide
Almighty God, who inspired your apostle Saint Peter to confess Jesus as Christ and Son of the living God: build up your Church upon this rock, that in unity and peace it may proclaim one truth and follow one Lord, your Son our Saviour Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
In your prayers please remember
Prayers for healing – Johnathan Aitken, Anne Atkins, Gordon Burley, Andrew Cox, Eileen Frampton, Betty Lockwood, Alexander Tate, Rev Gordon Warren, Mandy Winters ….and those whose names have been entered in the book for prayers in St. James’ Chapel.
Those who have died recently including Brian Cocking, and all those relatives and friends who are mourning the loss of their loved ones.
Please do keep in touch with one another. There will be many who are feeling very isolated, afraid and vulnerable, so a friendly phone call will make all the difference.
Reflection written by The Rev Jan
This weekend we celebrate the festival of St Peter, the patronal festival of this Church – a celebration of the day this Church was dedicated and consecrated for worship. This weekend is always special in St Peters, it is the weekend when we would normally hold our Summer Fayre on the green and in the halls, with stalls, café, and dog show. In church there would have been a flower festival with an opportunity to have a go at bellringing, and a special evensong in the evening.
It is also the weekend when many should have begun their ordained ministry, as up and down the country, Bishops would normally have ordained Deacons and Priests to serve the Church of God. Alice Bates would have been one of them. She was due to be ordained yesterday (Saturday)as a Deacon, and then to begin her ministry here with us at St Peters for the next three years.
Although we cannot have the big celebration in church, we can still remember her in our prayers, as well as the Church of St Peter here in Broadstairs and our part in the group Ministry with Holy Trinity and St Andrews. We can give thanks for God’s worldwide Church, the ministry of the Church exercised by all God’s people amongst which we have our Orders of Bishop, Priest and Deacon, and of course St Peter himself. Petertide is chosen for ordinations for a very obvious reason, as it was Peter who Jesus chose to be the foundation upon which our church would be built; not this church but THE CHURCH.
More often than not St Paul is also honoured with St Peter, they do kind of go together; two of the founders of the Church, two martyrs, two apostles, two men used by God to change the world. And though Paul was very keen to stress that all God’s people are Saints, we call Peter and Paul ‘Saints’ in a special way as we recognise and give thanks for the contribution they have made to the life of the Church and the importance of that contribution even up to today.
Today though, I want to focus on St Peter, as we remember that Jesus told him that he was the Rock upon which the Church of Christ would be built. We remember too that he was told that he would carry the keys to the kingdom of God – hence the popular image of ‘St Peter at the Pearly gates’ so beloved of cartoonists and writers. And Peter is the one who, in our reading today, confesses Jesus as the Christ, what a startling revelation that was!
But if we know anything about Peter, it was that he was a deeply flawed human being, transformed by the power of God, and called into his grace in order that he might change the world.
We too are called to transformation – to leaving our past behind, to recognising that God wants to use us, and being open to that touch of Grace that can turn everything around! We may feel that we are not very good models of faith, but in the end, it is up to God to make us who are were meant to be, to make us more than the nothings we may convince ourselves we are.
God chooses the most unlikely people to work for him – just look at your clergy if you are in any doubt of that – and he calls us all to be open to his transformation, in order that through us, the world may be changed.
Through our prayers, our worship, through our action and through our own faithfulness, God can and will do great things.
I suspect that when Peter began his journey in faith, he had little idea of where God would lead him. As he grew in faith he grew also, it seems, in the knowledge that what God required of him was faithfulness and the willingness to go where he led, no matter what it cost. This Petertide, I pray that we may have that same faith, and be faithful to God; so that the examples of Peter and Paul and all the saints, serve not to create a sense of unworthiness, but a sense of partnership in the work and life of Christ which has stretched from the first followers of Jesus until now. Finally, I pray that we may allow God to reshape us; and through us, reshape the world. Amen!