Update on Sunday Worship

Sunday 15th March

Mothering Sunday

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Sunday 15th March
9:15 am  Family Communion at St Lawrence, Towcester
10:15 am  Benefice Sunday Worship via Zoom 
11:15 am Holy  Communion at St Bartholomew's, Greens Norton

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Our weekly news contains details of services for this and next weekend, as well as daily bible readings, prayer requests and notices for forthcoming events. 

Looking ahead to events and services that are happening please do look at the monthly calendar for March

Copies are available in churches for collecting especially for those who do not have emails. 

Dear all,

This weekend we look forward to celebrating Mothering Sunday, and in a fortnight, it will be Palm Sunday and therefore the beginning of Holy Week. This is a full and special week as we journey with Jesus. The services are like an unfolding drama. This newsletter is about some of what is happening and seeking people to take part.

On Palm Sunday, 29^th March at 10.15 am in St Michael’s Bradden, and on Good Friday, 3rd April,  noon at St Bartholomew’s Greens Norton, the services will include the reading of the Passion. It makes a significant impact if the story of Jesus’ final days can be told with a variety of voices taking part. Parts can be as small as one line, several lines, or many if one is the narrator.

If you would like to take part in reading The Passion then please let me know which service and what size part you would like to take. I will then send you a copy of the script.

On Tuesday of Holy Week there are services of Light, Hope and Healing. Tuesday 31^st March: 12:00 noon at St Bartholomew's; and 7.30 pm at St Lawrence. Jane Jakes writes ‘Healing takes many forms and is broader than a physical cure; it is a time to restore our wholeness and find peace. Then to spend time is quiet reflection bringing to God our prayers not only for physical ills, but our emotional and spiritual needs. This year, as well as words and music, the invitation to laying on of hands and anointing with oil, we will be surrounded by a beautiful candle display.  Do come and join us, and amidst the candles be led out of the darkness of suffering, into the glorious Light of Christ.’

On Thursday of Holy Week, 7.30 pm at the church of St Lawrence, we have our Maundy Thursday service. The word Maundy comes from the Latin 'mandatum' which means 'commandment'.  We commemorate the day when Jesus gives his followers the new commandment that we should love one another as he has loved us. This commandment is shown symbolically when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, and is shown supremely in the institution of the Eucharist, when Jesus symbolically foretells his death by breaking bread to represent his body which will be broken on the cross on Good Friday, and by pouring wine to represent his shed blood. 

In Thursday’s ancient Liturgy of the Church we are privileged both to receive the Sacrament of Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, and also to be reminded of his dramatic act of service by the re-enactment of the Washing of Feet by the presiding priest and twelve members of the congregation. At the end of the service the church is stripped bare of all ornaments, save for the beautiful Altar of Repose, on which is placed the Blessed Sacrament. A watch of prayer follows, as we take our turn watching and praying with Jesus in his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are invited to feel free to come and go and to stay in prayer as long as we would like.

Like the disciples we, in a sense, scatter to be reformed as we gather on Good Friday at the cross and hear the account of Jesus’ Passion.

With every Blessing
Greg

We have heard that the funeral service of Brian Manning will be at the Church of St. Lawrence, Towcester, on Wednesday 1st April 2026 at 11:30 am, followed by Burial at the Church of St Bartholomew Greens Norton.

Forthcoming Events