The holy communion service held on Sunday, fourth Sunday of Lent and Mothering Sunday, was celebrated by the Rev Andrew Stevenson, who in his sermon said that the readings for this Sunday set us a real challenge.

The story of Jesus healing the blind man on the Sabbath and the parallel story of the anointing of David as King over Israel, ask us to consider that fact, that God works his purpose out in so many different ways and often what appears to be obvious to us is not actually what God intends. Jesus healed on the Sabbath because it was the right thing to do, even though some got hung up on the technicalities of the law.

The challenge remains for us today. As a church we should be focussed on communicating the restorative, redemptive power of God as made known in the person of Jesus, of the need to show the love of God, not just talk about it, because we are, as Paul writes to the Ephesians “Children of the Light” and the fruit of the light is about goodness, righteousness and truth. We can best do that by showing that we actually believe that and making our daily walk with God along the path that leads to righteousness.

The Old Testament lesson taken from 1 Samuel chapter 16 v 1–13 was read by Roger Hygate and the New Testament lesson, taken from Ephesians chapter 5 v. 8–14 was read by Leslie Hygate. The gospel reading read by Mr Stevenson was John, chapter 9 v 1–41. Intercessions were written and read by Roger and Jane Parrott and the organist and keyboard player was Joan Treloar accompanied on trumpet by Luke Stevenson. During the taking of communion, Mary and James Stevenson sang the anthem “We Come in Faith” and also led the singing.