Weekly News

Benefice Office Opening Hours
Monday to Friday -  9:30 am to 1.00 pm

4th October 2026

The Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity

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The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us your gift of faith that, forsaking what lies behind and reaching out to that which is before, we may run the way of your commandments and win the crown of everlasting joy; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Post Communion
We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast: for here we receive you, here the memory of your passion is renewed, here our minds are filled with grace, and here a pledge of future glory is given, when we shall feast at that table where you reign with all your saints for ever. Amen.

Lectionary Readings for Sunday:

Old Testament Reading:  Isaiah 5: 1 – 7
I will sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield rotten grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a wasteland; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished garden; he expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry!

New Testament Reading:  Philippians 3: 4b – 14
even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Gospel:  Matthew 21: 33 – end
“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Please click here (or on the image) for This Weeks Daily Readings
 

Benefice Prayers

We pray for those who are sick at this time and remember those who have recently died and pray for their families:

Continuing Prayers for
Sophie Laffey
Rachel Batchelor

Sick
Caroline Hunt
Mary Minnie
Carol McCormick
Dawn McCormick
Janet Gross
Abbie Mardell & Hollie
Rob Ramos
Jane Small

Rest In Peace
Cathy Miles
David Bell
Avis Sheppard

Wedding
Ella Yeung & Ricardo Da Conceicao
Tracy Loasby & Adam Cameron-Clarke

Welcome
Ottilie Slater-Eyles 
Ruebun Crowther

Benefice Notices

St Bartholomew's Harvest Supper in Greens Norton will be held on Friday October 2nd from 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm in the Community Centre. As always there will be a choice of hot meals and variety of puddings. The community choir will lead singing and all are encouraged to join in. Tickets will be available from the Chantry House and at St Bart's church from Teresa or call her on 01327 352727

Wednesday Holy Communion 
7th October at St Lawrence will be held in the Chantry House

Harvest Donations
As we celebrate Harvest Festival in our churches and schools, we are once again collecting for our local food bank. If you would like to make a donation, please refer to this week's mailing for a list of the items most needed right now.

Macmillan Coffee Morning
Wednesday 28th October, from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm at Bradden Village Hall.
Please join us at the Village Hall for coffee, tea, and cakes in support of Macmillan Cancer Support.
All are warmly welcome to drop in for a catch-up and help raise funds for this worthwhile cause.

Communion
Please can we ask and remind people to refrain from dipping (intinction) their wafer into the wine when receiving communion. Those administering the chalice do not wish to cause upset at the communion rail. The reason for non-dipping policy is on the bishop’s advice and twofold: firstly one of hygiene and secondly because we have members who are gluten intolerant. If you feel unable to receive the wine from the chalice then receiving in one kind means you are making a valid communion. Thank you for your understanding.

Easton Neston Church and Churchyard Visitors
If you have previously registered your number plate for access to visit St Mary's Easton Neston Church and Churchyard and it is not working the gate, please would you let Bev know on 01327 354385.

Please click here, or on the image, for This Months Services