Readings, Prayers and Music
Second Sunday after Trinity 
13 June 2021

Revd Simon Winn is presiding and preaching at the 8am service. Revd Stephen Nshimye is presiding and Peter Kinnison, Reader, is preaching at  10am. 

The service will be broadcast via 'Zoom'. Please contact Wendy Foreman if you would like to receive the email newsletters with the links for the services: wendy.foreman@st-alfege.org.uk


'But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’ (Mark 4.29)


^{Labours of the Months, Glass Panel, 1450-1475,  (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London}

Hymn

Who would true valour see
 

Collect

O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth:
send thy Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts
that most excellent gift of charity,
the very bond of peace and of all virtues
without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee;
grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading

Ezekiel 17. 22-24  Israel exalted at last

Thus says the Lord God:

I myself will take a sprig
    from the lofty top of a cedar;
    I will set it out.
I will break off a tender one
    from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will plant it
    on a high and lofty mountain.
On the mountain height of Israel
    I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
    and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
    in the shade of its branches will nest
    winged creatures of every kind.
All the trees of the field shall know
    that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree,
    I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
    and make the dry tree flourish.
I the Lord have spoken;
    I will accomplish it.

Gospel

Mark 4. 26-34   Two Parables

‘He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Sermon

Peter Kinnison, Reader, is our preacher today. 

Prayers for the week

We ask God's blessing on Caroline and James and the family as Caroline begins her ministry as Vicar of St John's Eltham.

We pray for all who are ill or in need.  We remember by name  Phyllis Belton, Barbara Cann, Colin Carr, Sue Corneck, Tim Delap, Josephine Dew, Ariana Gabbitas,  Anne Howe John Kelly, Pamela MacLeod, Jack Packman, Nigel Perks, David Risdon,  Ocean Searle, Moira Skingley, Francis Smith, Jean Smith, and Francesca Toson Moore. Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit.  

Father, we pray for all those who have died recently. We  pray especially for Harry Webster, Michelle Nozarick and Mollie Davies. We ask God's comfort and blessing on all who are mourning the death of loved ones.

Anthem

Bring us, O Lord God -  Harris

Sanctus

From Mass in G minor - Vaughan Williams 

Communion Motets

Mother of God  - Tavener
Justorum animae - Stanford

Post-Communion Prayer

O loving Father, we thank thee for feeding us
at the supper of thy Son: sustain us with thy Spirit
that we, serving thee here on earth,
may come at last to the fullness of thy joy in heaven
and be partakers of thine eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hymn

Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven 
 

Acknowledgements

Liturgical texts taken from Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England, Church House Publishing