Hello everyone,
Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Our newsletter is sent out regularly to share reflections from services, Bible readings and church news to our church family. You can find previous issues on our church website here.
We would love to hear from you and are always looking for uplifting and encouraging content to share in future issues of this newsletter. If you have any ideas or content that we can share, please do email them to Louise (publicity@christchurchuxbridge.org.uk)
Please note that there will be no newsletter on 12 April due to the school holidays.
Opening Prayer
Generous God, who shares our life,
pouring out the Spirit of Jesus,
open our hearts and hands to reach out
to one another, and to those we live or work among
in caring and service, love and compassion.
Amen.
(Taken from Roots)
Reflection from 24 March
Reading – Mark 11: 1-11
Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, the event which we recall each year on Palm Sunday, is recorded in all four gospels. Here we have the familiar story of Jesus being welcomed as a king as he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. It’s a scene of excitement. You can picture the crowds cheering as they throw their cloaks or the palm branches on the ground, shouting “Hosanna!”. I wonder how many of them were people who had been following Jesus in the time leading up to this moment, and how many of them were just swept up in the excitement of the others around them.
Excitement and anticipation, I would imagine. What is Jesus going to do next? Well, what happens next in Mark’s version of the story is a bit of anti-climax to be honest. Jesus enters Jerusalem and goes into the temple court, but since it’s already late in the day, he then goes out to Bethany with the twelve disciples. Nothing else happens that day. Did the crowds go home disappointed, I wonder? Did they feel a bit let down by the lack of action following this triumphant entry? Were they expecting something amazing to happen? Maybe that’s part of the reason why some of them perhaps turned against him later on. That sense of expectation followed by disappointment.
Do we sometimes have high expectations for what God might do in our lives and then feel disappointed, and perhaps a little betrayed, when life doesn’t live up to those expectations? When we might build up this image of God as we want God to be – the God who meets our own needs, our own wants, and does what we want him to do – only to find that God doesn’t work in the way that we want him to.
We don’t like to think that we would be the kind of people who would be praising Jesus one minute, only to turn against him a short while later, but we all have times when we change our minds about things. Can you think of times in your life when you’ve met someone and formed an opinion about them – good or bad – only to then find that some time down the line, your opinion completely changed?
We assume of course, that it’s the same people who cheered Jesus on Palm Sunday who were then the ones who turned against him and pressurised Pilate into crucifying him, but who knows how much overlap there really was between the two different crowds. Maybe those people who were caught up in the excitement of others on Palm Sunday, got equally caught up in the anger and the condemnation of those crying out “Crucify him!” just a few days later.
We too can get caught up in the things that are going on around us. Things that can bring us closer to God, or take us further away. Meeting here together in church is one way of being part of a community which hopefully helps to strengthen our faith and helps us to grow. A place where we can hopefully also be open about the times when holding on to our faith is more challenging. But we can also get caught up and bogged down in the busyness of life, in the challenges of life, in all the things that feel like they pull us away from God. We can be overwhelmed by things that trouble us or make us anxious; all the demands on our time. There are moments when we might be struggling and it seems as if our prayers go unanswered. God isn’t being who we want him to be. God isn’t living up to our expectations. And perhaps we then get angry with God.
The trouble with putting our own expectations on to God though is that we often then try to remake God in our own image – our own vision of what God should be. A vision that is limited and flawed. The image of who God is in my head will be different from the image of God in yours – maybe not wildly different, but it will be different. But God is not confined to our individual expectations. God is so much bigger than all of those and we are reminded in Isaiah 55: 8 that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and God’s ways are not our ways.
Jesus didn’t live up to the expectations of the crowd. His entry as a king was on a donkey. Nothing amazing happened that day according to Mark’s telling of this story, and a short time later it seemed as if it was game over. All that hope it seemed ended up coming to nothing. But of course we know that the cross wasn’t the end and the really amazing thing was yet to come. But it didn’t come in a way that would have been expected. And the same can be true for God working in our own lives. When we look back on some situations where we might be able to see that even though God might have seemed far away and definitely not living up to our expectations, God was still at work in our lives. Moving in unexpected ways. Taking us in directions that we didn’t expect.
I wonder how many of the crowd that day went full cycle: cheering Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, becoming disillusioned and calling for his crucifixion days later, and then came back to Jesus as followers of the early church? Sometimes we too go through similar journeys – moments of feeling excited about our faith, periods of disillusionment and then coming back once more with our faith strengthened. God working within us in mysterious ways, taking us in unexpected directions. In those moments when God feels far away and our expectations feel unmet, may we hold on to the hope that there is a bigger picture that we cannot see and that God’s love and power is at work around us, whether we are aware of it or not.
Louise George
Reflection from 31 March
Readings – Mark 16: 1-8 and John 21: 9-18
The second time Jesus said to Peter “Simon, son of John. Do you love me?” He said to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” These words from the gospel are very plain and apparently very simple. But to carry them out as a church is very difficult.
“Death, where is thy sting?” The last lines of the greatest English Good Friday hymn (you can contest this opinion!) “Then am I dead to all the globe. And all the globe is dead to me.” The Christian identifies with seemingly God-planned finality to all the hope for what the hymn calls the globe, the Earth, the universe; to individual life. Humanity descended into hell with the beloved body of Jesus, the rescuer of that humanity. And as we listen and watch the constant record of dismay in our news, we must think of these words of the gospel, the sign of the globe.
The sign is John’s gospel’s favourite word. Not saying miracle all the time, but sign. The Greek word for sign is one that you may very well know from computer language. It’s semeia and you get ‘semiology’ from this word, the study of sign language. The Romans made the terrible experiment with a sign. It’s very difficult to assess, the Roman Empire, because obviously we owe a great deal to it intellectually, but in terms of killing it was supreme, and the sign of the killing, at least in some of the provinces, was the wooden cross with a naked human being alive and then dead hanging to it. The endless crosses and the three crosses of the Gospel and the semeia is a triptych; the three crosses.
On the cross of Jesus, it says Pontius Pilate, the stooge of empire, had written a message in three languages. Firstly, Hebrew the tongue of God’s unchangeable law, the language of what Christians call the Old Testament, the First Testament and the second language was Greek. Hebrew, Greek and then Latin – the Empire language, speaking of absolute rule unique in the world at the time. The cross inscription sneered at the humanity of the human race which the Romans in their legal system were saying that they upheld.
Our second reading has Jesus and Peter and some of the other disciples on the beach as they’d often been. Peter always stands for impetuosity, often not understanding something that everybody else seemed to understand. Peter had the knack and Peter was declared later on by the Roman Church to be the supreme head of the church. So, I hope that some of the popes listen to Peter in his impetuosity, in his good, impetuous and out in the open approach. The conversation comes between Jesus and Peter, and it is about the most important thing for the globe: human love. Conversion to love from some of the weaker parts of our personality. And the simple offer to our dead and mutating globe is spoken in Jesus’s own dialect, Aramaic. When Jesus spoke to Peter he was speaking in ordinary daily speech, and speaking to him in the open air of the beach, which transforms all religious construction into real human affection. For the globe, if we seek a contemporary term to the contrast Jesus brings to the cults of secrecy, cheating, physical abuse; if there is one word that so craves transparency, it’s Jesus saying to Peter: “Feed my sheep”. “Peter, feed my sheep.” And Jesus said, Peter show the church how to follow one into the open air like we’re sharing on the beach of the resurrection. The body of Christ. This is our three in one: God Creator, Son, Holy Spirit. The three in one who speaks every language on Earth and every feeling of our emotion, and we are the beloved flock of Jesus Christ. Christ is risen from the dead. By death he has conquered death and opened for us the gates of eternal life. Hallelujah. Amen.
Revd Jon Dean
Readings for 7 April
John 20: 19-31
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of John’s Gospel
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- Acts 4: 32-35
- Psalm 133
- 1 John 1: 1 – 2: 2
Readings for 14 April
Luke 24: 36b-48
36Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- Acts 3: 12-19
- Psalm 4
- 1 John 3: 1-7
Our worship
We meet at 11am for our Sunday services, which are also live-streamed on our YouTube channel. If you wish to view our services online, you can find them at https://www.youtube.com/@christchurchuxbridge
You can also view a recent service on our church website. Our service this week will be led by Methodist local preacher, Genevieve Musey. You can find the order of service here.
If you are unable to join us in person or online for our Sunday services, but would like to receive a recording of them on a memory stick to watch at home, please let us know.
Forthcoming services
7 April – Genevieve Musey (Methodist local preacher)
14 April – Christ Church worship group
21 April – Neil Mackin (Christ Church member and trainee URC lay preacher)
28 April – Preach with a view joint service at Ickenham URC
Church charity news
Church charity coffee mornings
The next coffee morning in aid of Communicare Counselling Service will be on Saturday 13 April.
You can find more details about Communicare Counselling Service, our church charity for 2023 at:
https://christchurchuxbridge.org.uk/activities/churchcharity2023
Small world!
For many years I used to go to the URC at Richings Park, Iver once a month to play the organ for their Sunday Service. Over twenty years ago a quiet demure lady became a member of the small congregation. After a while she began to occasionally lead a service, and then I learned that she had left to train for the URC ministry. That lady was Sue McCoan, our interim moderator.
Ken Pearce
Dates for your diary
| 17 April | Welcome Wednesdays |
| 24 April | CTU Bible study starts |
| 27 April | Preach with a view social event |
| 28 April | Preach with a view joint service at Ickenham |
| Farewell service for Revd Dong Hwan Kim at Ruislip Manor Methodist Church | |
| 19 May | Congregational Meeting |
| 8 September | Congregational Meeting |
| 24 November | Congregational Meeting |
Children’s Corner
Praying for other churches
w/c 7 April
This week we hold the following churches in our prayers:
- Wealdstone Methodist Church
- Wembley Park URC
- St Margaret’s, Uxbridge
w/c 14 April
This week we hold the following churches in our prayers:
- Northwood Methodist Church
- St John’s Northwood URC
- St Andrew’s, Uxbridge
Closing prayer
Lord, your generous love was showered upon us in Jesus.
Help us to be generous to those among whom we live or meet.
Guide us in building and becoming a generous community,
as we seek to put our faith into action.
We ask this in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.
(Taken from Roots)
Reflection from 3 March
Readings – Exodus 20: 1-17 and John 2: 13-22
I don’t know about you, but often when I think about Jesus, I think of a softly spoken man whose peaceful, loving and gentle. He’s always smiling, always patient, always kind. And as believers in Christ, we know all these things to be true. But in our gospel passage this morning, Jesus is far from this traditional picture that we paint. Perhaps as we, as believers in a modern world, when there is this increasing focus on secularism and worldly material things, need to challenge ourselves to that stereotypical image of the lamb-like, meek Jesus.
Instead, Jesus was confrontational to the people. He challenged their thoughts and beliefs. He was not a timid little mouse. He came not only to upset the tables in the temple, but he came to upset the world’s way of thinking. He confronted people every day of his life on Earth. But he confronted them without anger or judgement. Instead, the ones he was challenging were the ones filled with a vengeful kind of anger and judgement within themselves. Christ went out every day knowing that he was going to disagree with someone he encountered that day. And the Scripture passage this morning is showing this kind of righteous anger, where you’re justified in being upset with the circumstance, action, situation, or person.
Righteous anger is a little step higher because it’s devoid of any kind of evil or vengeance or wrongdoing. It’s got no motives. It’s got no way of forcing your will on anyone. It’s got no personal reaction within it. It lacks any selfishness of ‘my way or no way’ sentiments. And there’s none of the hurt that’s involved when we feel unrighteous anger, perhaps. I’m sure we all have moments when we’ve been angry with something and the anger that we feel in those situations usually has some kind of hurt attached to it. Someone says something unkind or does something unjustified, and we get angry and hurt in response. But just before the anger hits, if we’re honest, there’s a wound that’s been inflicted by that action or that word that has led to the anger arriving.
Some practical examples of this. Perhaps we’ve been treated unfairly at work and we react by suppressing that anger immediately. Why? Because our feelings have been hurt by the injustice we’re perceiving in a supervisor or co-worker’s actions. Perhaps we get angry at a parent or a spouse or a sibling because they stop you from doing something. That, if we’re honest, isn’t the real reason for the anger. The fact that we feel that they don’t trust us to make our own decisions. Someone says something that makes us feel inferior or threatened in our judgement, and so our anger is the result of hurts inflicted by others in the past and perhaps their judgement of us when we were younger. All these human anger moments really start out on the spiritual journey to our innermost beings because there is a hurt that’s touched us to the core; a word or action that dredges up old memories. And our emotions are so quick, so conditioned, that almost all of the time when we react in anger, we do so without even realising it; without even thinking about the core hurt and pain.
And this anger, this unrighteous anger, is what is prevalent and destructive in our world today. There have been thousands of case studies done on escalating anger in our world. Experts and their studies on those who have become involved in gangs have all concluded one thing. That those who are a walking time bomb of anger are those who feel that personal power is the only way they can get any feeling of worth in their life. They have grown up in surroundings of poverty, stress, lack of education and, most of all, the lack of a loving environment, leading them to seek out validation of their own worth in seeking a kind of fearful respect that they impose on others, to equate their own self worth.
Those same experts interviewed people living in the same homes in the same streets, but in a different environment who did not resort to joining gangs or resorting to violence. The difference for them was they had someone early on in their lives, a parent, a grandparent, a teacher or a coach: someone who took the time to tell them they had worth, they were good at something; someone who believed in them and their abilities. And most often, that someone not only spoke the words, but lived it out in their own meaning in their own life. That someone put aside their own needs, their own time, and realised the importance of simply saying to someone, “Good job. Well done. I’m proud of you.”
And then we compare these human experiences that we have to Christ. Because unlike us, Christ did not need a word of affirmation in his life. First of all, he was perfect and perhaps more importantly, his Father in heaven had the divine ability to place an abundance of love within his Son’s heart. Christ knew where his affirmation came from. He knew his Father’s love was unconditional, supportive, and present within him. Christ was humility walking, but not necessarily because he was God in flesh. Instead, it was because he knew that God, carried his Father’s love within him every moment of every day.
And so when we read this gospel passage for a first time, we risk becoming like the Pharisees. We get caught up in the details of the story. Yes, Christ was angry because there were unjust activities going on in God’s house. But many assumed that the reason for the anger was the idea of vendors being in there and selling things. But when you look at the wider context of the time that would have been a necessary thing in those days when sacrifices needed to be purchased so that they could be offered in the temple. What Jesus got angry about was not the fact that they were selling these things, but because they were taking advantage of the poor; exchanging the currency for temple coins to be of a higher value, trying to make a profit out of something that was necessary for their worship rituals at the time.
Focusing on things being sold in the church is not the point of this message. And the point is the same point that Christ encountered every day in his ministry. People doing wrong by preying on the innocent and that is the reasoning for Christ’s righteous anger. This scene could have easily taken place in the streets or at a fair, or a bazaar, or any other kind of context. But it added insult to injury, because not only were they taking advantage of people, but they were doing so in God’s house. The righteous anger poured out of Christ because his lambs were being used to feed the pockets of greedy men.
The Bible has a couple of instances where Jesus displays this righteous anger. In Matthew 18, verse 6, Jesus uses very strong language to describe the punishment of anyone who causes a child to stumble. In Mark 10, verse 14. Jesus was angry when the disciples hindered the little children from coming to him. And in Mark 3, verse 5, Jesus looks on with anger at the Pharisees who are eager to prosecute him for healing on the Sabbath. But the common and overriding factor in all of these instances of Jesus’s anger is directed towards others who put up barriers to stop people coming towards him.
Righteous anger, the type of anger that Jesus had, is never about selfish human motives. Righteous anger only happens when God and his teachings are being threatened. When God’s children are being threatened. When God’s word is being misconstrued and being used as a tool for bad purposes. Righteous anger doesn’t have threats. There’s no thought of vengeance. There are no lies involved, and there’s no selfish purpose in its expression.
And so we as Christians in a modern world need to embody this kind of righteous anger. When we come faced with things that are a barrier to us from experiencing and enjoying the presence of God. Sometimes it might be directed towards ourselves, when perhaps we let life become so busy that we put off prayer and meditation. When we put up barriers to our own relationship with Christ or the relationship of others with Christ, that gives God cause for righteous anger. And when we deliberately put things in our lives or in the lives of others that hinder that relationship, Christ gets angry. And what justifies Christ to bear such anger? The stripes on his back that he took for us. He did all of that so that we could have a relationship between us and God.
So in this week ahead, I urge us all to take time to reflect, challenge and confront ourselves. What are the barriers that we put in our own lives that stop us from having a relationship with Christ? Is it our own human anger, the consequence of human wounds? Is it our preoccupation with searching for something more?
How can we challenge others to break down their barriers which are preventing them from having a relationship with Christ? Do our own actions inadvertently put up barriers that stop people coming to Christ?
In this season of Lent, let’s all take the time to break down these barriers to our own and to others relationship with Christ. So that Christ can truly live and grow in the hearts and lives of us and everyone we meet.
Amen.
Joanne Davies
Readings for 10 March
John 3: 14-21
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- Numbers 21: 4-9
- Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22
- John 3: 14-21
Our worship
We meet at 11am for our Sunday services, which are also live-streamed. Please note that we have now changed our online streaming platform to YouTube. If you wish to view our services online, you can find them at https://www.youtube.com/@christchurchuxbridge.
You can also view a recent service on our church website. Our service this week will be a parade service led by Christ Church member, Louise George. You can find the order of service here.
If you are unable to join us in person or online for our Sunday services, but would like to receive a recording of them on a memory stick to watch at home, please let us know.
Forthcoming services
3 March – Joanne Davies (Methodist local preacher)
10 March – Christ Church worship group – parade service (Mothering Sunday)
17 March – Revd Margaret Dudley (Methodist minister)
24 March – Christ Church worship group
31 March – Revd Jon Dean (URC minister) – Holy Communion (Easter Sunday)
Church charity news
Church charity coffee mornings
There will be coffee mornings to raise money for Communicare Counselling Service on the following dates:
Saturday 9 March
Saturday 30 March
Saturday 13 April
You can find more details about Communicare Counselling Service, our church charity for 2023 at:
https://christchurchuxbridge.org.uk/activities/churchcharity2023
World Day of Prayer service 1st March
For many years there has been a service in Uxbridge on the World Day of Prayer (which originated as the ‘Women’s World Day of Prayer’) on the first Friday in March. This is organised by a group from several of the Uxbridge churches, including Christ Church, and this year the service was held at St. Margaret’s Church. There was a good attendance and it was good to meet and share with those in other churches in Uxbridge for this act of worship.
This year the service, with the theme ‘I beg you, bear with one another in love’, has been planned by Christian women in Palestine, and this has a particular relevance this year. The service included stories from three Palestinian women which gave personal slants on the history and situation in this troubled area, although I was impressed that very little bitterness was expressed in these. It helped to remind us that there is a considerable Christian community in Palestine, and this has a long history. The stories can be seen on the World Day of Prayer England, Wales and Northern Ireland website at www.wwdp.org.uk and they are well worth reading.
A considerable spread of food was provided after the service by a local group of women with middle eastern backgrounds who have set themselves up to draw attention in a small way to the hardships being experienced in Palestine. They have varied national and religious backgrounds, but one who I talked with is certainly of Palestinian origin and had settled in this country as a young teenager when she and her mother were eventually allowed to join her father, who had fled Palestine where his safety was threatened about 30 years ago.
Whatever the politics, it was good to be reminded that it is ordinary people like you and I who suffer in such situations as those in Palestine at present, and we need to continue to pray for all affected by the continuing conflict in that region.
Peter King
Good Friday Walk of Witness
Friday 29 March, 11am
This year’s Good Friday Walk of Witness will take place on Friday 29 March. The walk will start from St Andrew’s Church at 11am and will process down the High Street with stops at the Civic Centre and Uxbridge Underground station and will finish with a short passion play outside St Margaret’s Church. There will be refreshments available in St Margaret’s Church following the passion play. All are welcome.
From the Circuit
Revd Dong Hwan Kim farewell service
Revd Dong will be leaving the Circuit this year, so to celebrate his time with us, the Circuit is holding a Farewell Service at Ruislip Manor Methodist Church on Sunday 28th April at 4pm, which will be followed by refreshments.
Circuit Life
The latest issue of Circuit Life is now available and can be accessed online at https://tinyurl.com/circuitlife-mar23
Hillingdon u3a Singers concert
Welcome Spring
Sunday 24 March, 5pm at Christ Church
Hillingdon u3a Singers present ‘Welcome Spring’ – a concert with songs by Hillingdon u3a Singers featuring additional items by Hillingdon u3a Guitar Group and Hillingdon u3a Ukelele Group. Tickets cost £10 for adults (£3 children) and are available from members of the groups or on the door before the performance.
Dates for your diary
| 20 March | Welcome Wednesdays |
| 24 March | Welcome Spring concert |
| 29 March | Good Friday Walk of Witness |
| 31 March | Extraordinary Congregational Meeting |
| 3 April | Welcome Wednesdays |
| 17 April | Welcome Wednesdays |
| 27 April | Preach with a view social event |
| 28 April | Preach with a view joint service at Ickenham |
| Farewell service for Revd Dong Hwan Kim | |
| 19 May | Congregational Meeting |
| 8 September | Congregational Meeting |
| 24 November | Congregational Meeting |
Children’s Corner
Praying for other churches
This week we hold the following churches in our prayers:
- Hayes Methodist
- Ealing Green (URC/Methodist)
- Uxbridge Salvation Army
Closing prayer
Thank you Lord, for you are a God of abundant blessings. Thank you for all you have given to me.
I pause for a moment to return something of those blessings to you and to your service.
Lord, put my life to use in building a world of justice, joy and peace, in Jesus’ name,
Amen.
(Taken from The Vine)
