The holy communion service held on Sunday, fourth Sunday before Lent and also known as Proper 1, was celebrated by the Rev Andrew Stevenson and Angela Brown, who is preparing for the priesthood.

In his sermon, Mr Stevenson said that we left Epiphany behind with the revelation of God in the person of Jesus and the story of how a network was established that would become, in time, the Church.

On this rarely celebrated Sunday, we are asked to consider the need for the church to be salt and light, neither of which is much use if kept too isolated.

What is true of salt and light is true also of faith and that is something we should take seriously. The Isaiah reading warns of the danger of going through the motions, of keeping our salt and light caulked up within the walls of our churches.

If we have taken anything from the season of Epiphany, it is that Jesus was involved, a man of action. For us to be truly the salt and light of the earth, then we need to let our faith get mixed up in the whole of our lives, taking it out with us into the world, not attempting to keep it pure and untainted in the salt cellar of the church. That is not what Jesus did and it is not what we are called to, for we need to dare, dare to get involved and in doing so, draw on the enabling, sustaining Spirit of God to ensure that we neither loose our saltiness nor hide under a bushel.

The Old Testament reading taken from Isaiah chapter 58 v 1–9a, was read by Rob Grave and the New Testament reading, taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 2 v 1–16, was read by Mary Grave. The organist was Joan Treloar.