Sunday Worship podcast links and other news May 30

 

May 30  Trinity Sunday Online Morning Worship podcast   Morning service sheet       Hymn words (both services) Evensong podcast  Evensong service sheet Don't forget that you can also listen to a shortened version of the podcast by phoning 01732 928061 -  if you know someone who doesn't "do" the internet, please pass on the number to them. It costs the same as any phone call to a Sevenoaks number. In Church 10 am Holy Communion with a hymn outside the church after the service. 6.30pm Breathing Space Holy Communion    Numbers limited to 35 people. Facemasks required unless medically exempt. Services are said, with recorded music – there is no singing in church, but we do now have permission to sing outside, so there will be a congregational hymn at the end of the 10 am service outside.   On Zoom this week  email sealpandp@gmail.com for links NO ZOFFEE chat today, as we are holding our ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING instead. Anyone is welcome to attend the meeting, but only those on the Electoral Roll are able to vote. May 30, 2021 11:15 AM  Please email sealpandp@gmail.com for the link. THE ANNUAL REPORTS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS can be found here (there is also a link on the church website) . There is a limited number of printed copies on the red table at the back of church.  Click here for the agenda for this year and minutes of last year's APCM. As it is half term, our Zoom activities are taking a break this week There will be NO Wednesday Zoom Church this week   No Zoom Children's Choir. On June 9 we will resume our Children's Choir meetings in person, singing in the garden outside the church hall at 5pm on Wednesdays. All children are welcome. We will be careful to make this activity Covid safe. NO Zoom Adult choir  this week. Trinity Sunday Isaiah 6.1-8, John 3.1-17   Today’s readings feature two frightened men. As I explore in today’s sermon, fear often gets a bad press, but can be an important emotion, and one which we should face and explore rather than trying to avoid.   In particular, the sermon explores what it might mean to “fear God”, not in the sense that one might fear a capricious ruler or a brutal dictator, but recognising that we are in the presence of the one who created us, and who takes us seriously, as people who are loved and called, people who matter, with lives that matter.   ALL AGE IDEAS Together at home sheet for Trinity Sunday   Would you like us to pray for you? Email your prayer requests to: sealchurchprayer@gmail.com Your email will be read by Anne Le Bas and Kevin Bright, the Vicar and Reader of Seal Church who will hold you in their prayers.  CHURCH AND COMMUNITY NEWS Our ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING will be held today via Zoom at 11.15 am. It will be possible to join in by phone if you have no computer. The joining details for this are above.   Only those who are on the church Electoral Roll are allowed to vote at this meeting, but everyone is welcome to ‘attend’. If anyone is interested in coming onto the Parochial Church Council, which is responsible for making decisions about Seal Church, please let me know. THE ANNUAL REPORTS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS can be found here (there is also a link on the church website) . There is a limited number of printed copies on the red table at the back of church.  Click here for the agenda for this year and minutes of last year's APCM.   FRIDAY GROUP This group is now back to meeting weekly on Fridays at 10.30am in the Church hall garden. When the weather is really bad (this is a very tenacious group) you can obtain a zoom invitation by contacting Marion on this email address. marionjgilchrist@gmail.com. Help Rochester Diocese find a new bishop! The current Bishop of Rochester James Langstaff, will be retiring soon. The Diocese of Rochester, which serves communities across Medway, north and west Kent and the London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley will need a new Bishop. What matters to you, your church, and your local area? Help identify the qualities needed in the next Bishop of Rochester and the issues and concerns that should be their top priority. Share your views. Take a survey. Visit: http://ow.ly/1rOR50EXOup And in other news... The Archdeacon of Tonbridge, Julie Conalty, is to be made Bishop of Birkenhead, and the Area Dean of Sevenoaks is moving to become an Associate Priest at Chelsfield, so it's all change in Rochester Diocese at the moment. Please pray for those who are moving and for all who are involved in filling these posts! Know Your Neighbours information from Marion Gilchrist This month, things have started to return to some sort of normality around the village, so we will take this opportunity to let you know what we do. I feel sure there is more going on, that we have not been made aware of, so please let me know if your organisation is returning or starting new activities locally in Seal.   The KYN 100 Club draw has continued throughout the year, so we have continually raised funds for the community coffers, to pay for such things as Christmas lights, parties and other community projects.If you would like to take part in this monthly draw, which raises funds for village projects and organisations, please respond to this email for joining instructions. The cost is £5 each calendar month, preferably paid by standing order, with currently, a 1 in 64 chance of winning.  We are still taking donations of second hand laptops, which Derek, our local IT hero, is cleansing and preparing for use of Seal School pupils to use . If you have such a device, please contact marionjgilchrist@gmail.com and she will collect. Many thanks to those of you who have already donated. HYMN OF THE WEEK  St Patrick’s Breastplate This week’s hymn of the week is one which is much associated with Trinity Sunday. It is attributed to St Patrick (372 -466), and is called his ‘breastplate’ or ‘lorica’, a traditional prayer of protection. According to legend Patrick composed it shortly after landing in Ireland in 432, and sang it as he journeyed to Tara to confront the pagan High King of Ireland. Whether any of that is true, it is a fine hymn which invokes all of creation, earthly and heavenly, in praise of the Trinity, a favourite theme of Patrick’s. The translation that we are most familiar with is by Mrs C.F. Alexander (Once in Royal, There is a Green Hill, All things Bright and Beautiful) She was the wife of the Archbishop of Armagh. It is normally sung to an arrangement by Charles Villiers Stanford of a traditional Irish tune called St Patrick and is often abbreviated, with some verses being left out. The fifth verse in the version below, sometimes veers off into the tune Deirdre, which causes endless confusion to the unwary in the congregation.   It is a ‘big sing’, the kind of hymn which people embark on with gusto, but then begin to flag in singing as they go along, which makes it a difficult choice for a congregation. Sung as it should be, with conviction and energy, it is splendid.     I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.   2 I bind this day to me forever, by power of faith, Christ’s incarnation, his baptism in the Jordan river, his death on cross for my salvation, his bursting from the spiced tomb, his riding up the heavenly way, his coming at the day of doom, I bind unto myself today.   3 I bind unto myself today the virtues of the starlit heaven, the glorious sun’s life-giving ray, the whiteness of the moon at even, the flashing of the lightning free, the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks, the stable earth, the deep salt sea around the old eternal rocks.   4 I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead, God’s eye to watch, God’s might to stay, God’s ear to hearken to my need, the wisdom of my God to teach, God’s hand to guide, God’s shield to ward, the word of God to give me speech, God’s heavenly host to be my guard.   5 Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.   6 I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three, of whom all nature has creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word. Praise to the Lord of my salvation; salvation is of Christ the Lord!

A traditional version of St Patrick's Breastplate A modern version of the hymn. PRAYER OF THE WEEK   Te Deum   Those familiar with the service of Matins from the Book of Common Prayer will recognise this week’s prayer of the week, known as the Te Deum, the first two words of the prayer in its original Latin form.   It is one of the most ancient prayers – often sung – in the Christian world, dating back at least to the end of the 4th Century AD, but possibly long before that. It is a hymn of praise, which invites us to imagine ourselves joining in with the heavenly courts. It is echoed in the eucharistic prayer for Trinity Sunday, which focuses our attention on the majesty and mystery of God.   We praise thee, O God : we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship thee : the Father everlasting. To thee all Angels cry aloud : the Heavens, and all the Powers therein. To thee Cherubin and Seraphin : continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Holy : Lord God of Sabaoth; Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty : of thy glory. The glorious company of the Apostles : praise thee. The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise thee. The noble army of Martyrs : praise thee. The holy Church throughout all the world : doth acknowledge thee; The Father : of an infinite Majesty; Thine honourable, true : and only Son; Also the Holy Ghost : the Comforter. Thou art the King of Glory : O Christ. Thou art the everlasting Son : of the Father. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man : thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death :     thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Thou sittest at the right hand of God : in the glory of the Father. We believe that thou shalt come : to be our Judge. We therefore pray thee, help thy servants :     whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. Make them to be numbered with thy Saints : in glory everlasting.    The Te Deum had accumulated an assortment of colourful, but possibly not all accurate stories and legends to itself over the centuries. Legend has it that it was composed on the hoof by St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan and St Augstine of Hippo, as the former baptised the latter during the Easter Vigil in 387. Ambrose struck up with the first line, ‘Te Deum laudamus’ and Augustine responded with ‘ Te Dominum confitemur’ and they carried on, alternating their praises until the prayer was finished. It is also said to have been the final song which the Orthodox priests and monks sang in the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as the Muslim Ottoman army invaded it. According to the story, the choir withdrew behind a wall and are still there somewhere, singing away, waiting for the moment when the church is returned to their care… Many composers have set it to music, including Handel, Haydn, Mozart , Kodaly, Britten and Arvo Part. One of the most famous settings is by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) whose prelude has often accompanied wedding couples down the aisle, and which is also the Eurovision theme tune, heard at the beginning of the famous Eurovision Song Contest - perhaps not a happy association after ‘our’ entry achieved the dubious distinction of getting ‘nul points’ this year. The unluckiest composer to have set the Te Deum is undoubtedly Jean Baptiste Lully,(1632-1687) however, who injured his foot while conducting his own setting of it for the court of  King Louis XIV, striking it with his conductor’s staff – a full length stick rather than the small baton. Gangrene set in, but Lully, who loved to dance, refused to have his foot amputated and eventually died of the wound.   Charpentier's Te Deum AND FINALLY... I don't  know what sort of bird life you have in your garden, but I know the birds in the vicarage garden have been busy over the last few weeks. There's not just a boom in blue tits, however. Apparently it's been a bumper year on Skomer island for puffins. So, on the grounds that people can never have too many puffins in their lives, here's a story all about it. https://www.itv.com/news/2021-05-28/puffin-population-soars-to-highest-level-on-welsh-island-since-wwii-skomer   "It is only three of four years ago that we were reporting the decline in the UK's puffin population. Climate change and warmer sea waters were thought to be among the causes. But the latest puffin count on the Island of Skomer, off the coast of south west wales, shows that numbers there are booming. They are a third up on two years ago and at their highest level since the Second World War."