Cockshutt Eucharist Service, Sunday 12th March, 2023
After the grimness of a very cold March snap with, it has to be said a fair amount of snow and ice, today was a very pleasant surprise; mild and sunny! What a relief as we arrived at Ss Simon & Jude Church this morning, the third Sunday of Lent, feeling, for a change, that we had over-dressed and might need to remove one or two of the surplus hats and scarves! With the sun higher in the sky and streaming through the South windows, the temperature inside the Church was in fact quite tolerable!
The turnout of churchgoers was better than anticipated; what a joy it was to be joined once again by a young family and their 8 month old son (where has the time gone?) who have now moved out of area. Nothing sounds better than the sounds of a young child in God’s House!
The service was led by Rev. John, one of the retired Priests who is looking after our Sunday worship during the interregnum; his sermon was based on today’s Gospel reading, John 4: 5-42, where Jesus meets the Samarian woman at Jacob’s well in a town called Sychar, near Samaria. Rev. John gave us much insight into Jesus’ mission on that occasion and the implications for our own mission as we journey through our Christian life.
We joyfully sang the old, familiar hymns; the singing of “To God Be the Glory” was uplifting and one that Doug our organist clearly enjoyed playing too; the organ pipes definitely had a good blow out!
As always, we enjoyed a time of fellowship after the service with hot drinks and delicious cake and biscuits and, for the first time in what seems like a very long time, we weren’t all freezing cold!
VJC