Thursday 12th March 13.25pm 

  w/c Sunday 15^th March 2026

Dear Friends,

We continue to hold the Middle East situation in our thoughts and prayers – as we hold Ukraine and all other parts of our troubled world where conflict and unrest are present.
It makes me reflect on how blessed I am to live in a place that for all its issues, I can feel safe and secure.
Please continue to pray for these situations, and particularly the people of the Dioceses of Cyprus and the Gulf; Jerusalem; and Iran.
A prayer you may want to use is at the bottom of the Newsletter.

Thought for the week:  

When I was looking at Mothering Sunday cards (or they mostly say Mother’s Day these days), I noticed how saccharine a lot of the cards were, with very sentimental images and messages of love.
Of course, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that – love should always be celebrated.
But I was contrasting that with the way in which our bible readings talk about love.
The love we see talked about in these readings can be challenging or, as Luke talks about, even painful at times.

Our reading from Colossians 3.12-17 is all about how we should live together as a family.
And just as mothers are generally aware of how difficult it can be for people to live together in a family without any conflict, so too is Paul aware of how difficult it can be for Christians to live together in a church family without conflict.
And that is why he is writing to the Colossians – to teach them how to behave in this family.
For Paul, love seems to be less about emotions and sentiment than it is about attitudes and behaviours.
It’s the same thing we see in 1Corinthians 13 for example, that

classic description of love so popular with wedding couples, where love is patient and kind…

All of the behaviours he talks about us clothing ourselves with in that first part of our Colossians reading are relational: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other.
None of these qualities would be needed if we lived in splendid isolation, and none of them are easy to be or do all of the time.
We are all human after all.
But they are needed for living in a community, in a family.
Paul is telling us that this is how we are to live with one another and all of these things are a part of showing how we love each other.
All of these behaviours and attitudes are a part of love – the love ‘which binds everything together in perfect harmony’.

Since arriving here, I’ve been impressed with how well the individual congregations and mission community as a whole model this sort of love.
But there’s always room for improvement as we are all gradually being transformed as individual Christians, and collectively, to be ever more Christ-

like. So, as we celebrate the love of mothers today let us also think of how this love, often modelled by mothers, can help us all live together in love as one church family.
Rev Alex Holmes

Notices and Diary

• Lent Course: St Luke’s on Tuesdays at 10am; and at South Brent Methodist hall on Wednesdays at 2pm.
• Tent for Lent Lunch on Wednesdays at 12.30 at South Brent Methodist church hall

Tues 17^th Mar                      St Luke’s Lent Course at 10am

Wed 18^th Mar                      St Petroc’s Morning Prayer at 8.30am

Thought for the week at 10am by zoom and telephone

South Brent Tent for Lent 12.30-1.30pm at Methodist church hall

South Brent Lent Course 2-3pm at Methodist church hall

Fri 20^th Mar                           Morning Prayer at 9am by zoom and telephone

Sat 21^st Mar                         Diocesan Synod from 10am in Exeter

Mission Community Services

Dear God, we pray for your protection over all people caught up in the troubles in the Middle East, particularly thinking at this time of the clergy and people of the Dioceses of Cyprus and the Gulf,  Jerusalem and Iran.  
We pray for the empowering of the Holy Spirit; for the grace to bear witness to the faith, hope and love of Christ in traumatic times; and for courage and creativity to meet the challenges they face.
From the wellspring of prayer flows vitality, resilience and yes, peace. 
Our Lord taught that despite the tribulations of the world we will find peace in him, for he has overcome the world.
(John 16.33) We pray that the deep peace of God which transcends all earthly understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus through this time, and overcome all our fears.  (Philippians 4.7)

Based on a prayer by Rt. Rev’d Sean Semple the Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf

 Know you are in my heart and in my prayers.
Rev Gina