President of the Fourth Sunday before Lent was Father Stephen Drakeley, priest-in-charge.

The service began with the processional hymn “The churches one foundation”. The Old Testament lesson taken from the book of Isaiah chapter 58 v 1-9 was read by Barbara Martin. The prophet is instructed “shout out, do not hold back, lift up your voice like a trumpet.” The message he gives to the people is that their behaviour towards the Lord is shallow and unacceptable to Him.

Linda Thomas then read the New Testament lesson, part of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 2 v 1-12. Here the apostle explains that when he first came to the people proclaiming the mystery of God in lofty words, he decided to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

The gospel proclaimed by Fr Stephen was the well known passage where Jesus describes His disciples as “the salt of the earth”, warning then of the worthlessness of salt when it has lost its taste. This is part of Matthew chapter 5 v 13-20, a part of what is commonly known as the “Sermon on the Mount.”

For his address he took the subject of salt and began by recalling two of his experiences. The first was when he was told to remove salt from his diet and the second when he ate a pasty that had too much salt, both were disastrous. He suggested what was required was balance. This he went on to suggest was how our Christian witness should be.

Prayers in this part of the service were led by Ann Hill and Frances Martin; celebrating at the eucharist he was assisted by Helen Bancroft and Jane MacLennon; Jane and Jacob Clarke were servers for the mass and sidespersons were Alan Bukac-Williams and Frances Martin; organist was Matthew Seaton and after the singing of the recessional hymn “Glorious things of Thee are spoken” concluded the mass by playing “Grand Choeur” by Handel.